Utah History Books

By Royce Allen and Gary Willden South Davis County is bounded by the majestic Wasatch Mountain Range to the east and the Great Salt Lake to the west. Bountiful, Centerville, Farmington, and Kaysville are the major population centers--all originating as early Mormon settlements. Concerned...

Gilsonite is a solid hydrocarbon mined in vertical veins in southern Uintah County, Utah. It is found in veins anywhere from a foot to twenty-two feet in width, and a depth of a few feet up to 2,000 feet. The black shiny mineral is...

On October 26, 1862, Col. Edward P. Connor and the 3rd California Volunteers set up Camp Douglas for the purpose of protecting the overland mail and telegraph routes between Nevada and Wyoming. This began a long history of a U.S. military presence in the...

By: John W. Van Cott Poverty Flat. Bearskin Gulch. Drunker Hollow. All Utah toponyms, or place names. Where are they? What is their history? Their importance? Do they exist today? John W. Van Cott has spent the better part of a lifetime searching out...

Born September  6, 1845, at the western edge of settlements in the United States, Jesse Knight joined his family and thousands of pioneers in a massive migration to settle lands in an expanding America. As a youth, Jesse experienced all the trials, hardships and...

By John Sillito and Sarah Langsdon In 1845, Miles Goodyear founded a settlement at Fort Buenaventura, located near the confluence of the Weber and Ogden Rivers. The area was renamed Ogden in 1851 by Mormon Church president Brigham Young after Peter Skene Ogden, a...

Perhaps no other area of Utah reflects the state's expansive diversity as clearly as the Wasatch Front. Utah Reflections: Stories from the Wasatch Front" captures the heritage and identity of this self-defining part of the state. These personal stories are grounded in the mountains,...

By Mr. Tim Dumas The history of Bingham Canyon begins in 1848. Lead Mine served as a precipitation plant where steel was turned into copper. Dry Fork Canyon branched off Bingham Canyon, known for placer gold mining, the Copperton test mill, and the train shop....

Shortly after the International Smelter offered economic salvation to Tooele's struggling desert community, the Tooele Valley Railroad became the town artery. Though originally built in 1908 to connect the smelter to the Union Pacific and Western Pacific lines west of town, the railroad became...

This is a detailed account of Lee's captivity among the Comanches in the 1850's and his escape through the mountains back to white civilization. The story is full of encounters with alligators, snakes, and panthers, as well as hostile Comanches. Lee saw his fellow...

The half century between statehood in 1896 and the end of World War II in 1945 was a period of transformation and transition for Utah. This book interprets those profound changes, revealing sweeping impacts on both institutions and ordinary people. Drawing upon expertise honed...

An Architectural Travel Guide to Utah invites visitors and other explorers of Utah to see the state’s history, material culture, settlement, and natural landscape through the lens of its buildings. With more than 600 buildings as examples, this guide takes readers through Utah’s cities and rural villages,...

The Transcontinental Railroad in Utah shows the impact of the large number of new arrivals on the population and economy of Utah, as well as the impact of the people of Utah on those newly arrived. This fascinating history includes descriptions and photos of...

In the tradition of Empire of the Summer Moon, a stunningly vivid historical account of the manhunt for Geronimo and the 25-year Apache struggle for their homeland. They called him Mickey Free. His kidnapping started the longest war in American history, and both sides--the Apaches and the...

In the Fall of 1857, some 120 California-bound emigrants were killed in lonely Mountain Meadows in southern Utah; only eighteen young children were spared. The men on the ground after the bloody deed took an oath that they would never mention the event again,...

A book of timeless importance about the American West and a modern classic by National Book Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning Wallace Stegner. “Stegner catches the paradoxical essence of American civilzation.” —ChoiceThe essays, memoirs, letters, and speeches collected in The Sound of Mountain Water encompass memoir, nature conservation,...

The definitive biography of Everett Ruess, the artist, writer, and eloquent celebrator of the wilderness whose bold solo explorations of the American West and mysterious disappearance in the Utah desert at age twenty have earned him a large and devoted cult following.“Easily one of...

By Uintah County Regional History Center As early as 1915, the Flaming Gorge Canyon, named by early explorer Wesley Powell, was considered for a reservoir and dam site. For years, the Upper Colorado River Storage Committee fought for a dam on several sites along...

By Lynn Arave and Ray Boren Blessed with a magnificent landscape, Utah also abounds with secrets and peculiarities. Most are unaware that the Beehive State has its own rocky Noah's Ark or a hidden hoodoo Chinatown. Many have never seen a peak reminiscent of...

Ordinary history books often fail to address the obscure or the unexplained, leaving questions buried in annals of yesteryear. Where were Utah's mythical monsters, including Bigfoot, spotted? How did 'Schoolmarm's Bloomers' become a state symbol? What created the Lagoon Amusement Park's 'dark side'? Why...