The Utah Society SAR is combined with Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming to form the Intermountain District of the National SAR. The Intermountain District leadership consists of a Vice President General (VPG) and each of the four State Society Presidents.
Districts provide the structure which gives each State Society President a direct link to a General Officer of the National SAR. VPG’s are just below the President General (Article IV, NSSAR Constitution).
The purposes and objectives of each VPG are declared to be patriotic, historical, and educational, and shall include those intended or designed to perpetuate the memory of the men who, by their services or sacrifices during the war of the American Revolution, achieved the independence of the American people. As the VPG he helps each State Society:
- to unite and promote fellowship among their descendants;
- to inspire them and the community at large with a more profound reverence for the
- principles of the Government founded by our forefathers;
- to encourage historical research in relation to the American Revolution; to acquire and preserve the records of the individual services of the patriots of the war, as well as documents, relics, and landmarks [or monuments];
- to mark the scenes [or acknowledge with ceremony monuments dedicated to the Revolution by appropriate pomp and circumstance]; to celebrate the anniversaries of the prominent events of the war and of the Revolutionary period; to foster true patriotism;
- to maintain and extend the institutions of American freedom, and to carry out the purposes expressed in the preamble to the Constitution of our country and the injunctions of Washington in his farewell address to the American people; and,
- to visit each of the State Societies in his District at least once annually and provide a report on the activities of his District at the Spring and Fall meetings of the National Trustees as well as to the delegates at-large at the Annual Congress of the National SAR.
There are 15 Districts within the National SAR:
- Central District (Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia)
- Great Lakes District (Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin)
- Intermountain District (Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming)
- Mid-Atlantic District (Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia)
- New England District (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont)
- North Atlantic District (New Jersey and New York)
- North Central District (Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota)
- Pacific District (Alaska, Oregon, and Washington)
- Rocky Mountain District (Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico)
- South Atlantic District (Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina)
- South Central District (Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas)
- Southern District (Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee)
- Western District (California, Hawaii, and Nevada)
- European District (France, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the remainder of the European Continent)
- International District (All territory outside of the other districts)
This year the Utah SAR has the honor of having Ellis C. Rail serve as their 2022-23 VPG.
Ellis was sworn in as the Intermountain District VPG at the July 2022 National SAR Congress held in Savanah, Georgia.
Ellis Rail, VPG Intermountain District