Utah History for Kids

Area: 1,849 square miles
Population (2000): 29,736
County Seat: Coalville
Origin of County Name: the county includes high mountain summits that form the divides of the Weber, Bear, Provo, and Green River drainages. It contains 39 of Utah’s highest peaks.
Principal Cities/Towns: Park City (7,371), Kamas (1,274), Coalville (1,382)
Economy: skiing, recreation, lumbering, livestock
Points of Interest: Park City area ski resorts, Utah Olympic Park, Park City Historic District, Rockport State Park, Echo Reservoir, High Uintas Wilderness Area, Echo Canyon

What is the land like?
The Uinta Mountains dominate the east part of the county. These mountains are the source of the Weber, Provo, and Bear Rivers as well as many tributaries of the Green River. The “back” slope of the Wasatch Mountains forms the west boundary of the county. High mountain valleys lie between the Uintas and the Wasatch.

Early history
The land of Summit County, rich with wildlife, was a hunting and fishing area for Northern Shoshone and Ute Indians for hundreds of years.

The first Anglo-Americans to visit the area were the fur trappers and traders of the 1820s. Jedediah Smith, Jim Bridger, and Kit Carson all camped at the numerous springs near Peoa. In 1825 William Ashley's party of trappers rode across the Kamas Valley to the Weber River, and on to Echo Canyon and Wyoming.

The trail through Echo Canyon was an important corridor of travel. Bison, American Indians, and explorers used this natural pathway between the lush grasslands of Wyoming and the salt deserts to the west. They were later followed by wagon trains, 80,000 Mormon pioneers traveling by wagon or foot, the Overland Stage, the Pony Express, gold prospectors and silver miners, the Union Pacific railroad, the first transcontinental telegraph line, the Lincoln Highway, and Interstate 80.

In 1858 the U.S. Army was sent to Utah to quell the “Mormon Rebellion.” and enforce laws prohibiting polygamy. A Mormon militia dammed the creek with a rock wall at the Narrows, and built other fortifications to deter the soldiers.

Kimball stage stop handled mail and passengers before 1869.

Mormon pioneers Parley Pratt and Samuel Snyder explored the Snyderville Basin in 1848 and grazed cattle in the basin’s grassy meadow. Snyder settled his family there. Other settlers established several towns in Summit County during the 1850s.

Summit County was created in 1854 from the existing Green River and Great Salt Lake counties.

That same year, James Bromley built the Weber Stage Station at Echo. Fourteen years later, tents, saloons, and brothels sprang up and Echo became a rowdy railroad town for workers building the transcontinental railroad. Later, seven human skeletons were discovered under one saloon.

Emigrants camped at Chalk Creek in 1858 saw mature wheat growing where a grain bag had spilled the year before. They changed the name of their town to Coalville when coal was discovered in a nearby canyon.

Wagons hauled tons of coal from Coalville to the Salt Lake Valley settlements before a rail line was built in 1873.

In 1862 William Kimball built the Kimball Hotel in the Snyderville Basin. Travelers, including Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, and Horace Greeley, stayed at his hotel.

During the 1860s, Ute Indians clashed with settlers in what was called the Black Hawk war. Some settlers built forts.

In the 1870s, Park City became a booming mining town as prospectors discovered rich veins of silver, lead, and zinc in the Wasatch Mountains. The town swelled with tents and quickly built houses, saloons, brothels, and cemeteries.

People came from all over the world to find economic opportunity in Park City. Some people made fortunes from the mines. You can see evidence of their wealth in the elegant mansions they built on South Temple in Salt Lake City. But most of the miners just worked hard and died young.

In 1898, a huge fire destroyed most of Park City’s Main Street. Residents soon rebuilt their town.

Mining remained important until the 1950s, but at that time most mine companies could not make enough money to stay open. So many people left Park City that some people called it a ghost town.

But the mountains around the town held other opportunities. One mine company opened a major ski resort, golf course, and condominiums in the 1960s. Since then, skiing and recreation have become the basis for the economy of western Summit County. Many people have moved to Summit County, drawn by its beauty and recreation, and the meadows of the Snyderville Basin are now filled with homes and condos. Farming and ranching are still important in the rest of the county.

Miners' union parade on Park City's Main Street, late 19th century.

During the 1930s, Ecker Hill was renowned for its ski jump competitions. Ski jumping returned to Summit County during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, when it hosted the nordic jumping and other events, including the bobsled, luge, skeleton, nordic jumping, aerials, and snowboarding.

Each January the streets of Park City are filled with movie stars, directors, producers and more during the annual Sundance Film Festival.