Utah History

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In 1776, Spanish missionaries became the first Europeans to explore Utah. They were followed by French fur trappers almost 40 years later, and legendary mountain man and scout Jim Bridger -- probably the first non-native person to see the Great Salt Lake -- who spent the winter of 1824-25 in the area. Soon Utah was crossed frequently by pioneers traveling to California.

Settlement of the state took a dramatic leap forward with the arrival of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints -- the Mormons -- who were searching for a new land to call home. From its founding in 1830, members of the LDS Church had been persecuted. In 1847, Brigham Young, who had become leader of the church three years earlier, led a band of Mormon pioneers westward. When they reached the Great Salt Lake Valley, Young is said to have proclaimed, "This is the place."

Church members and other pioneers continued migrating from Illinois and Missouri to Utah over the Mormon Trail. Many more passed through this region following the discovery of gold in California in 1849. That same year, the Mormons established a government they called the State of Deseret, a name taken from the Book of Mormon that means "honeybee." In 1850, the Territory of Utah, named after the Ute Indians, was established with Brigham Young as governor.

With the arrival of the Mormons, most of whom settled in the valleys of Northcentral Utah, this high-desert country was transformed as they introduced irrigation and developed highly productive farms. When swarms of grasshoppers threatened their crops, sea gulls from the Great Salt Lake ate the insects. A monument honoring the sea gull was built in Salt Lake City and it later became the state bird. Construction of the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City was begun in 1853 and completed in 1893.

Three historic milestones in communications and transportation etched Utah in the imaginations of Americans in the 1860s. Pony Express riders began carrying mail across the territory in 1860 on their journeys between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California. On October 24, 1861, the nation's first transcontinental telegraph line -- linking Washington, D.C. and San Francisco -- met in Salt Lake City. Two days later, the Pony Express stopped its daring rides. Then on May 10, 1869, officials of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific drove a gold spike where the two lines met at Promontory, Utah, heralding completion of the nation's first transcontinental railroad.

During the 1860s, Utah's boundaries were changed several times. Its present boundaries were established in 1868. In 1895, following several decades of tension between the federal government and Mormon authorities, Utah submitted to Congress a constitution that prevented control of the state by any church. It was admitted to the Union as the 45th state on January 4, 1896.

Railroad expansion fueled population and industrial growth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Surface mines were developed in Bingham Canyon in 1906 and soon the state's copper production was booming. Increased rail transportation also resulted in an increase in beef cattle and sheep operations. Agricultural farmland increased dramatically with completion of a mammoth federal irrigation project on the Strawberry River in 1913.

World War II brought a new manufacturing and mining boom to Utah. In 1952, a rich uranium deposit was discovered near Moab, and oil and gas fields were developed in southeastern Utah. Manufacturing surpassed agriculture as the state's major industry when steel production increased and missile plants were built in northeastern Utah in the 1950s and 1960s. Completion of the Flaming Gorge and Glen Canyon dams provided water for additional industrial and agricultural growth.

Protection, as well as development, of natural resources highlights the state's history. Zion National Park was created in 1913, followed by Bryce Canyon National Park in 1923. Canyonlands National Park, Arches National Park and Capitol Reef National Park were all created by the late 1960s, and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area was established in connection with the creation of Lake Powell starting in 1958.

Related Resources:

• Utah BioHistory