Iosepa (/joʊˈsɛpə/ or /joʊˈsiːpə/, with the I like an English Y) is a ghost town in the Skull Valley, located approximately 75 miles (120 km) southwest of Salt Lake City in Tooele County, Utah, United States.

Today, it is the site of an annual Memorial Day gathering that draws islanders and others from all over the Western United States.

Many of their converts wanted to emigrate or "gather" to Utah with the main body of the Church, but were restricted by law, particularly in Hawaii.

[4] The Polynesians were barred from staying in white-owned hotels and were refused service at restaurants in Salt Lake City.

Church leaders began searching for a location to set aside as a Hawaiian enclave, but four decades of settlement had occupied most of the desirable land in the Salt Lake area.

[9] They did their best to adapt or replace traditional foodstuffs not native to Utah, substituting on a mixture of flour and cornstarch for poi[5] and experimenting with growing their own seaweed and other island products.

Iosepa never managed to become self-sufficient; Latter-day Saint leaders had to allocate church funds to pay the town's expenses.

[4] Times became harder after several crop failures, and many of the men sought work as miners in the nearby gold and silver mines.

Although Mormon leaders did not advise the Iosepans to emigrate to Hawaii, the Church did offer to pay the passage of any who wished to move but could not afford it.

In 1980, a Memorial Day activity was organized at Iosepa, where a few Utah Polynesian families, some descended from Iosepans, repaired the fence and beautified the graveyard area.

[3][6][8] That year the Memorial Day celebration was transformed from a one-day work activity to an elaborate three-day weekend luau.