Box Elder County, Utah, A History

Box Elder County, Utah, occupying the north-west corner of the state, is the fourth largest of Utah’s twenty-nine counties. It contains the largest portion of Great Salt Lake of any of Utah’s counties, including both the north-west and north-east arms of the lake, and the Promontory, which separates them. Bear River, the largest tributary of Great Salt Lake, runs through Box Elder County. The Great Salt Lake Cutoff of the California Trail passed through Box Elder County, from South to North, and from East to West, carrying fully half of those bound for the California Gold Fields. The driving of ceremonial spikes of precious metals completed the Transcontinental Railroad, which runs through Box Elder County, took place at Promontory Summit. From its highest peak in the Raft River Mountains, to the bed of Great Salt Lake, it is a land of contrasts. Its prehistoric peoples left their marks in caves and pit houses scattered around Great Salt Lake. Beginning with the fur trappers, followed by the Mormon pioneers, and then later immigrants, Box Elder County is a land of contrast in its inhabitants as well. Industrial development from the Brigham City United Order to Cutler hydroelectric Dam, and the sugar and canning industries, to the Thiokol-Northrop Grumman aerospace plant, and other modern developments, Box Elder County is a thriving community of towns, cities, and farms, forming a vibrant Northwestern hub for the great state of Utah. In preparation for the centennial of Utah statehood in 1996, the state commissioned a book-length history of each of Utah’s twenty-nine counties. The Box Elder County Commission selected Frederick M. Huchel to write the volume on Utah’s most northwestern county. With the able assistance of residents of the county’s towns and cities, the volume reflects the history, geology, and inhabitants of Utah’s fourth largest county. There was a 450-page limit on length of the county history series volumes. A couple of chapters were added by the editors to cover issues which were not within the purview of the original manuscript. Thus, the volume is an edited and significantly truncated version of the author’s submitted manuscript. That volume is now out of print, and it was thought appropriate to issue the “author’s original text edition” a fuller and more complete text, which comprises this book.