Street May Be Named for ‘Destroying Angel’

City officials are considering naming a future street Porter Rockwell Boulevard after a Mormon pioneer who was dubbed the “destroying angel.”

Orrin Porter Rockwell was purportedly associated with the Danites, an allegedly secret, violent group of Mormons organized about 1838 to defend fellow church members. He was believed to have once had a home in what is now Bluffdale, where he ran a stagecoach inn that sold whiskey.

“That’s a historical identity, good or evil,” Mayor Wayne Mortimer said. “He’s part of the past, and he played an important role, not only in Bluffdale but also in this part of the state.”

Rockwell served as a bodyguard for Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and for Mormon pioneer leader Brigham Young. He was accused of the 1842 attempted assassination of Missouri Gov. Lilburn W. Boggs but was not convicted.