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Utah Important Dates


Important Dates in Utah History

  • 1847 Brigham Young led the first wagon train of Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley.

  • 1848 At the end of the Mexican War the region that included present-day Utah and parts of several surrounding states became part of the United States.

  • 1849 The Mormons organized the Provisional State of Deseret which provided the Mormons with a constitution and a system of government until Utah became a territory in 1850. The State of Deseret included parts of present-day California, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

  • 1847 - 1857 Mormon settlers founded approximately 100 towns in present-day Utah, Nevada, Idaho, California, and Wyoming.

  • 1850 - 1896 The Utah Territory was organized to include parts of what is now Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. The area was reduced by the creation of the territories of Nevada and Colorado in 1861 and Wyoming in 1868.

  • 1856 - 1860 Approximately 8,000 immigrants came to Utah with the handcart compaines.

  • 1857 - 1858 President James Buchanan ordered United States Troops to the Utah Territory to challenge an alleged Mormon rebellion. Brigham Young recalled settlers from outlying communities. The crisis was settled peacefully and, in June 1858, federal troops established Camp Floyd 40 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

  • 1858 - 1868 Another wave of Mormon settlement saw communities established in Utah and what is now southern Idaho, southeastern Nevada, and northern Arizona.

  • 1862 - 1865 750 volunteer soldiers came from California during the Civil War. Fort Douglas was established in 1862.

  • 1863 Mining began in earnest. Recurrent mineral discoveries brought prospectors to Utah throughout the latter part of the 1800s and into the twentieth century.

  • 1865 - 1868 Approximately 100 settlers and an unknown number of Native Americans were killed during the Black Hawk Indian War. Attacks were primarily centered in the Sanpete and Sevier valleys, causing the temporary abandonment of a number of settlements.

  • 1869 The first transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Point near Brigham City, bringing an influx of settlers to Utah.

  • 1862 - 1887 A series of federal laws were passed to discourage the practice of polygamy. These had a tremendous impact on the people of Utah and their record-keeping practices. They included the Morrill Act of 1862, the Poland Act of 1874, the Edmunds Act of 1882, and the most far-reaching act, the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887. This act -
    • Abolished woman's suffrage.
    • Authorized the administering of an oath of obedience to anti-polygamy laws for all prospective voters, jury members, and office holders.
    • Disbanded the Perpetual Emigration fund Company.
    • Eliminated some civil rights to more harshly prosecute polygamy laws through the court systems.
    • Gave the federal government control over territorial schools, probate courts, and the Utah Militia.
    • Required that all marriages be publicly recorded.
    • Disincorporated The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

  • 1870's Mormon settlers established additional communities in the adjacent states of Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona. The coal mining industry that began in the 1870s and steadily increased until the 1920s attracted thousands of new immigrants to eastern Utah.

  • 1880's - 1890'sMormons primarily from Utah, Idaho and Arizona established communities in Sonora and Chihuahua, Mexico and Alberta, Canada.

  • 1890 Wilford Woodruff, President of the LDS Church, made a proclamation that became known as the Manifesto. This advised Latter-day Saints "to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the laws of the land."

  • 1896 Utah was admitted on 4 January as the forty-fifth state. At this time the probate courts were abolished and the responsibilities of the federal district courts were transferred to state district courts..

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