From the Salt Lake Tribune:

In the face of the negative news, locals in 1979 proposed to build the white statue on a ledge blasted out of the Continental Divide, 8,510 feet above sea level. The statue, with upturned hands, overlooks the junction of Interstates 90 and 15, and was dedicated to all women, especially mothers.
Volunteers carved a road six miles to the top of East Ridge, sometimes making only 10 feet of progress a day. Many reveled in the tough job.
“It was an expression of everything they had done in their lives,” Mihelich said. “Working on the Lady was like going down to work in the mines.”