Overview | Prehistory | American Indians | Explorers and Trappers | Mormon Settlement
Territorial Days | Crossroads of the West | Mines and Minorities | Transition| Statehood
Adjustment | War and Depression | Utah Today | Bibliography | Glossary

In the thirty years from 1860 to 1890, Utah's population jumped from some 40,000 to more than 200,000. Most cities were along the 75 miles of the Wasatch Front area. Brigham Young and others continued to direct the settlement of remote areas of Cache, Sevier, and Sanpete valleys as well as the back valleys of the Wasatch Mountains and southern Utah. This expansion was at the expense of the American Indians. It led to the Black Hawk War (1865-68), the most serious of the Utah Indian wars. After defeat in that war the federal government removed the Indians to the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, in eastern Utah.

As many as 90 percent of the total Utah population were Mormon in the late 1800s, and their way of life dominated politics, economics, and social life. Brigham Young was an important figure in the territory's life until his death in 1877. Several significant economic developments marked the 1860s to the 1890s. One was the Mormon cooperative store with the founding of Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI). Founded in 1868, it was one of American's oldest department stores (1868-2001). Another economic development was the mastery of irrigation agriculture and the development of mills, mines, and other industry. Then came the building of more schools, churches, tabernacles, theaters, and business offices. In addition there was the growth of dance, music, and drama. All these developments marked Utah's move toward statehood.