Juab County, Utah

Juab County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Nephi
Year Organized: 1852
Square Miles: 3,392
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Named: the Ute word meaning flat or level plain

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History

Juab County is a part of the Basin and Range physiographic province. Most of the fertile farming land is located in the Juab Valley near Nephi at the base of Mount Nebo (11,877 feet). The western portion of the county consists of broad, semiarid valleys and low desert mountains. The Wasatch Mountains are located to the east, and moving west there are the East Tintic Range, West Tintic Range, Thomas Range (Topaz Mountain, 7,113 feet), Fish Springs Range, and the southern tip of the Deep Creek Range in the extreme northwest corner of the county.

Archaic Period and Fremont Culture sites have been found in Juab County. Nephi Mounds north of Nephi is one of the most important Fremont agricultural sites in the eastern Great Basin. A portion of the Goshute Indian Reservation is located in the northwest corner of the county.

In 1776 the Dominguez-Escalante expedition crossed the county at the eastern end, from north to south, passing near present Nephi. Jedediah S. Smith traversed the western end of the county in 1826 and via Fish Springs in 1827. In 1843-44 John C. Fremont journeyed through the county's eastern end on his way north. Government explorers John W. Gunnison and J. H. Simpson traveled in the area in 1853 and 1859 respectively. Gunnison visited the southeast portion of the county while Simpson located the route later used by the Pony Express and transcontinental telegraph.

During 1860-63 Goshutes attacked an overland mail station at Willow Creek. As a result, the US Army set up a camp at Cedar Summit and a cantonment at Fish Springs in 1863.

In 1852 the legislative assembly created Juab County, which extended as a narrow strip to what was then the western boundary of Utah Territory (now the western boundary of Nevada). The western portion was reduced in 1854 and 1856 to form counties in Nevada, and several other changes in Juab's borders have been made over the years.

The first settlement in Juab Valley occurred in 1851 when a group of Mormon settlers arrived near Salt Creek at present day Nephi. Their economy was based primarily on agriculture, In 1869 precious metals were discovered in the Tintic region, changing the economic and industrial destiny of Juab County. The towns of Diamond, Silver City, Mammoth, and especially Eureka became the main areas of the Tintic Mining District, which by 1899 was labeled one of the foremost mining districts in the country. From 1870 to 1899 Tintic produced approximately $35,000,000 in mineral wealth. The metals in Tintic consisted of silver, gold, copper, lead, zinc, and some uranium at Topaz Mountain. Mining continued through the 1950s, and even today some mining operations continue on a small scale. In recent years several small manufacturing firms have helped to diversify Juab's economy.

Recreation at the White Sand Dunes, Little Sahara Recreation Area, remains very popular, attracting tourists and visitors to western Juab.

*Source: Beehive History 14: Utah Counties. 1988. Utah State Historical Society, 300 Rio Grande, Salt Lake City, UT 84101-1182.

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Juab County, Utah

County Resource Guide

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

Penn Foster High School

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