Editing Utah Territory

{{Short description|Territory of the U.S. between 1850-1896}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2013}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox Former Subdivision
| native_name            = 
| conventional_long_name = Territory of Utah
| common_name            = Utah Territory
| nation                 = the United States
| subdivision            = [[Organized incorporated territories of the United States|Organized incorporated territory]]
| event_pre              = [[State of Deseret]]
| date_pre               = 1849
| event_start            = Utah [[Organic Act]]
| date_start             = September 9
| year_start             = 1850
| event1                 = [[Colorado Territory]] formed
| date_event1            = February 28, 1861
| event2                 = [[Nevada Territory]] formed
| date_event2            = March 2, 1861
| event3                 = [[Wyoming Territory]] formed
| date_event3            = July 25, 1868
| event_end              = [[Utah|Statehood]]
| date_end               = January 4
| year_end               = 1896
| image_flag             = Flag_of_the_Utah_Territory.svg
| flag_caption           = [[Flag of Utah|Flag]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=FlagTerritorial.jpg|url=https://pioneer.utah.gov/research/utah_symbols/images/FlagTerritorial.jpg|website=pioneer.utah.gov|access-date=May 6, 2021|archive-date=June 23, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120623061648/http://pioneer.utah.gov/research/utah_symbols/images/FlagTerritorial.jpg|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| image_coat             = Utah territory coat of arms (illustrated, 1876).jpg
| symbol                 = 
| symbol_type            = Territorial [[Historical coats of arms of the U.S. states|coat of arms]] (1876)
| image_map              = Utah Territory, vector image - 2011.svg
| image_map_caption      = The Utah Territory upon its creation, with modern state boundaries shown for reference
| capital                = {{plainlist|
*[[Fillmore, Utah|Fillmore]] (1851–1856)
*[[Salt Lake City]]}}
| government_type        = [[Organized incorporated territory]]
| title_leader           = [[List of Governors of Utah#Governors|Governor]]
| leader1                = [[Brigham Young]]
| year_leader1           = 1851–58
| leader2                = [[Alfred Cumming (governor)|Alfred Cumming]]
| year_leader2           = 1858–61
| leader3                = [[George W. Emery]]
| year_leader3           = 1875–80
| leader4                = [[Eli Houston Murray]]
| year_leader4           = 1880–86
| leader5                = [[Caleb Walton West]]
| year_leader5           = 1886–89
| leader6                = [[Arthur Lloyd Thomas]]
| year_leader6           = 1889-1893
| leader7                = Caleb Walton West
| year_leader7           = 1893–96
| legislature            = [[Utah State Legislature#Utah Territorial Assembly|Utah Territorial Assembly]]
| p1                     = Alta California
| flag_p1                = Bandera_de_la_República_Central_Mexicana.svg
| p2                     = Santa Fe de Nuevo México
| flag_p2                = Bandera_de_la_República_Central_Mexicana.svg
| s1                     = Utah
| flag_s1                = Flag of Utah.svg
| s2                     = Nevada Territory
| flag_s2                = US flag 33 stars.svg
| s3                     = Wyoming Territory
| flag_s3                = Wyoming_territory_coat_of_arms_(illustrated%2C_1876).jpg
| s4                     = Nevada
| flag_s4                = Flag of Nevada (1905-1915).svg
| s5                     = Colorado Territory
| flag_s5                = Colorado_state_coat_of_arms_(illustrated,_1876).jpg
}}

The '''Territory of Utah''' was an [[organized incorporated territory of the United States]] that existed from September 9, 1850,<ref name=":0">{{USStat|9|453}}</ref> until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the [[United States|Union]] as the [[Utah|State of Utah]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldstatesmen.org/US_states_S-U.html#Utah|title=Utah|publisher=World Statesmen|language=en|access-date=20 July 2015}}</ref> the 45th state.  At its creation, the Territory of Utah included all of the present-day State of Utah, most of the current state of [[Nevada]] save for a portion of [[Southern Nevada]] (including the metro area of the city of [[Las Vegas]]), much of modern [[Colorado Western Slope|western Colorado]], and the extreme southwest corner of present-day [[Wyoming]].

==History==

When the [[Mormon pioneers]] moving westward across the [[Great Plains]] began settling the [[Salt Lake Valley]] around the [[Great Salt Lake]] in [[1847]] and for many years afterward, they relied on existing institutions within [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (LDS Church) or the secular civil governments.<ref>{{Citation | last = Stewart | first = D. Michael | title = Utah History Encyclopedia | publisher = University of Utah Press | year = 1994 | chapter = The Legal History of Utah | chapter-url = https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/l/LEGAL_HISTORY.shtml | url = https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/ | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221103115840/https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/l/LEGAL_HISTORY.shtml | archive-date = November 3, 2022 | isbn =9780874804256 | access-date = June 20, 2024}}</ref>

The Utah Territory was organized by an [[Organic Act]] of the [[United States Congress]], approved by the newly succeeded  13th  [[President of the United States|President]]  [[Millard Fillmore]] (1800–1874, served 1850–1853),  only two months after the former [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] acceded to the higher office upon the sudden death in July 1850 of his military general predecessor [[Zachary Taylor]]. The Utah Territory bill was approved by him in September [[1850]],  on the same day that the [[State of California]] was admitted to the Union as the 31st state (and the first time the American Union jumping across the [[North America]]n continent to the opposite [[Pacific Ocean]] west coast). Plus the original larger [[New Mexico Territory]] in the [[Southwestern United States|Great Southwest]] was added and erected from the southern portion of the huge [[Mexican Cession]] in [[1849]]  of former [[Centralist Republic of Mexico]] lands,  (which amounted to the northwestern one-third of their country) following their defeat in the [[Mexican–American War]].of [[1846]]-[[1848]]. The creation of the new Territory of Utah around the Great Basin and the Great Salt Lake was part of the  elements of agreements in the political [[Compromise of 1850]] made in the national capital of [[Washington, D.C.]] that sought to preserve the balance of power between Southern [[Slavery in the United States|slave]] states and free states in the North.<!-- must check this: California was admitted as free state, and the Utah Territory was organized as a slave territory. --> With the exception of a small area around the headwaters of the upper [[Colorado River]] in present-day [[Colorado]], the United States had acquired all the [[Southwestern United States|northwestern lands of the territory and former provinces]] from southern neighbor [[Mexico]] after the negotiations and ratification of  the  [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]] of 1848, following several additional battles  along the [[Gulf of Mexico]] coast and central heartland, resulting in the occupation of the Mexican capital of [[Mexico City]] by Invading American military forces and their surrender with the end of the brief war. The peace treaty later passing in Congress in the upper chamber of the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]], (which approves all foreign treaties according to the [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]]) and the lower chamber of the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] voted in the subsequent supplemental legislation in favor of organizing the  federal Territory of Utah, 97–85.<ref>"[https://www.newspapers.com/image/339115632/ Friday, September 6, 1850]". ''The National Era'' (Washington, D.C.). Newspapers.com. September 12, 1850. p. 3.</ref>

The creation of the Territory<!--, albeit not as a slave territory,--> with no mention at all of the divisive issue of slavery in the documents, was partially the result of a petition sent by the Mormon pioneers under the leadership of [[Brigham Young]] (1801–1877, served 1847–1877), the second church president. The petition had asked Congress to allow them to enter the Union as the [[State of Deseret]], (which they had already organized the year before) with its capital as [[Salt Lake City]] and with proposed borders that encompassed the entire [[Great Basin]] and the watershed of the [[Colorado River (U.S.)|Colorado River]], including all or part of nine current U.S. states in the southwest. The Mormon settlers had drafted a state constitution in 1849 and Deseret had become the ''de facto'' government in the Great Basin by the time of the creation of the subsequent Federal Utah Territory.<ref name=Alford>{{cite book|author=Alford, Kenneth L. |title=Utah and the American Civil War: The Written Record|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1_stDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA801 |year=2017 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=978-0-8061-5916-4 |page=801}}</ref>

Following the organization of the Territory, second church president Young was inaugurated as its first territorial [[List of governors of Utah|Governor of Utah]]. The first [[List of state and territorial capitols in the United States|Territorial Capital City and Capitol building]] was located  1850 to 1856 in the small town of  [[Fillmore, Utah]],  named for the new 13th President [[Millard Fillmore]], who approved and signed the Congressional organic act and territorial erection bill of September 1850, and the small local government was set up here including the meetings of the Territorial Assembly, although first governor and second LDS Church president Brigham Young remained mostly in his [[Beehive House]] (current historic site) residence in Salt Lake City, but traveling to Fillmore 1850 to 1856, until his death in [[1877]]. The capital of the Utah Territory  was relocated that year of 1856 to the major and largest town of  [[Salt Lake City]], which built a new territorial capitol building for the government and its assembly and governor's offices for the next four decades and which also continued as the new [[List of capitals in the United States|state capital]] after statehood in 1896. A massive monumental [[Utah State Capitol]] building with landmark dome was later constructed there on the scenic ridge overlooking from the slopes of the surrounding [[Wasatch Range]] mountains to the present.

During Brigham Young's governorship, he exerted considerable power over the territory. An example being that in 1873, the territory legislature gave to Governor / President Young the exclusive right to manufacture and distil [[Whisky|whiskey]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vance |first1=Del |title=Beer in the Beehive |date=2008 |publisher=Dream Garden Press |location=Salt Lake City |page=32 |edition=2}}</ref>

Mormon governance in the territory was regarded as controversial by much of the rest of the nation, partly fed by continuing lurid newspaper depictions of the [[polygamy]] marriage practiced by the settlers, which itself had been part of the cause of their flight from their previous homes and center back East in [[Nauvoo, Illinois]], in the United States, trekking westward  across the continent to the [[Great Salt Lake]] basin after being persecuted and forcibly removed from their settlements in several Eastern states.

Although the Mormons were now the majority in the Great Salt Lake basin, the western area of the new territory soon began to attract many non-Mormon settlers, especially after the discovery of [[silver]] at the famous [[Comstock Lode]] ore deposits in the  [[Virginia City, Nevada|Virginia City]] area, east of the [[Sierra Nevada]] mountain ranges and [[Lake Tahoe]]  (of present-day western [[Nevada]]) in [[1858]]. Only three years later on the eve of the outbreak of the [[American Civil War]] in [[1861]], and partly as a result of this, with its importance of the recovered silver bullion for Federal Treasury coffers plus huge growth in population with the influx of prospecting miners (and assorted supporting commercial business interests) and with the subsequent intensive deep shaft industrial mining and drilling, the new [[Nevada Territory]] was then created out of the western part of the previous Utah Territory of a decade before.  Non-Mormons also entered the opposite side in the easternmost part of the territory during the [[Pikes Peak Gold Rush]], resulting in the discovery of [[gold]] at [[Breckenridge, Colorado|Breckenridge]] in the Utah Territory in [[1859]] (ten years after the first mineral  findings along the [[American River]] in [[California]], resulting in the phenomenal [[California gold rush]] of 1849-1855 there).  So also in that same year of 1861,  additional legislative action was taken by the Congress and the new 16th President [[Abraham Lincoln]] (1809–1865, served 1861–1865), to take a large portion of the eastern area of the Utah Territory  to be separated and added to as part of the newly created adjacent [[Colorado Territory]] further east.<ref name=Alford/>

In [[1869]], the territory's legislature (the Territorial Assembly) approved and ratified [[Women's suffrage in the United States|women's suffrage]].<ref name="Lemay">{{cite book |last1=Lemay |first1=Kate Clarke |last2=Goodier |first2=Susan |last3=Tetrault |first3=Lisa |last4=Jones |first4=Martha |title=Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence |date=2019 |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=270 |isbn=9780691191171}}</ref> This allowed women to vote in all future territorial elections continuing to [[1896]] with statehood (although both male and female residents in American territories had no voice or vote in Federal elections back East).

A total of 46 years elapsed between the organization of the territory and its admission to the Union in 1896 as the 45th [[Utah|State of Utah]], long after the admission of other federal territories created after it. In contrast, the Nevada Territory to the west, although more sparsely populated, was admitted to the Union in [[1864]] in the midst of the ongoing [[American Civil War]] only three years after its territorial formation, and Colorado was admitted in [[1876]] during the [[Centennial Exposition|American Centennial celebration year]], fifteen years after first becoming a territory.{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}}
[[Image:Utah Territory evolution animation - August 2011.gif|thumb|upright=1.3|The evolution of the shrinking boundaries of the federal Utah Territory from its creation by Congress in 1850 to 1896, when 45th statehood was granted]]

==Coat of arms==
The Utah state coat of arms appears on the state seal and state flag. The [[beehive]] was chosen as the emblem for the provisional [[State of Deseret]] in 1848 and represents the state's industrious and hard-working inhabitants, and the virtues of thrift and perseverance. The [[Calochortus nuttallii|sego lilies]] on either side symbolize peace.<ref>[https://statesymbolsusa.org/symbol-official-item/utah/state-coat-arms/coat-arms-utah Utah State Coat of Arms] State Symbols USA.</ref><ref>[https://www.ereferencedesk.com/resources/state-symbols/utah/emblem.html Utah State Emblem: Beehive] eReferenceDesk.</ref>

== Territory Flag ==
The first flag to represent the Territory flew in 1851 and consist of 13 red and white stripes, a blue canton with 13 stars and [[Bald eagle|eagle]] that was positioned above a large 5 pointed star.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Deseret News {{!}} 1976-07-01 {{!}} Page 64 |url=https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=26352123&q=Territory+Flag&sort=rel |access-date=2024-10-14 |website=newspapers.lib.utah.edu |language=en}}</ref> The flag was preserved in the Smithsonian Institution for a bit, but its location now is unknown. The second flag was raised in 1854 and it similarly contained "...stars, stripes, eagle, and beehive."  The flag was raised up a flag pole on temple block to celebrated [[Pioneer Day|Pioneer day]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Deseret News {{!}} 1854-07-27 {{!}} Page 3 {{!}} The Twenty Fourth |url=https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2580580&q=banner+flag&sort=date_tdt+asc,parent_i+asc,page_i+asc |access-date=2024-10-13 |website=newspapers.lib.utah.edu |language=en}}</ref> The following year at the Governor's mansion on July 4th they "...unfurled the territorial flag."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Deseret News {{!}} 1855-07-18 {{!}} Page 2 {{!}} Fourth of July, 1855 |url=https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2570607&q=Territory+Flag&rows=100&sort=date_tdt+asc,parent_i+asc,page_i+asc |access-date=2024-10-14 |website=newspapers.lib.utah.edu |language=en}}</ref> The third flag was depicted on a cigarette trading card in the 1880s. The flag was in a squared ratio with blue background and the Utah state coat of arms in the center. There is no evidence that the flag was ever made or flown.<gallery>
File:Utah Territory Flag.png|Territory flag from 1851
File:Territory of Utah flag 1854.png|Reconstruction of the Territory flag that flew on temple block in 1854
File:Flag of the Utah Territory.svg|Territory flag depicted on Allen & Ginter Cigarette trading cards in 1888
File:Flag of Utah Territory art.jpg|Flag of Utah Territory on Ginter Cigarette card
</gallery>

==Population==
{{Historical populations
|type= USA
|1850|11380
|1860|40273
|1870|86336
|1880|146608
|1890|210779
|footnote=Source: 1850–1890<ref name="Forstall pp. 162–163">{{cite report|editor-last=Forstall|editor-first=Richard L.|title=Population of the States and Counties of the United States: 1790–1990|pages=162–163|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|url=https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1990/population-of-states-and-counties-us-1790-1990/population-of-states-and-counties-of-the-united-states-1790-1990.pdf|access-date=May 18, 2020}}</ref>
}}

In 1850, nine churches with [[Church service|regular services]] in the Utah Territory were unclassified by historian [[Edwin Gaustad]] in his ''Historical Atlas of Religion in America'' (1962), but were probably [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|LDS]] churches.<ref>{{cite book|last=Selcer|first=Richard F.|editor-last=Balkin|editor-first=Richard|title=Civil War America: 1850 to 1875|year=2006|place=New York|publisher=[[Infobase Publishing|Facts on File]]|page=143|isbn=978-0816038671}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Gaustad|first=Edwin|year=1962|title=Historical Atlas of Religion in America|place=New York|publisher=Harper & Row}}</ref> In the [[1890 United States census]], [[List of counties in Utah|25 counties in the Utah Territory]] reported the following population counts (after seven reported the following counts in the [[1850 United States census]]):<ref name="Forstall pp. 162–163" />
{| class=wikitable
! 1890<br>Rank
! County
! 1850<br>Population
! 1890<br>Population
|-
|1
|[[Salt Lake County, Utah|Salt Lake]]
|6,157
|58,457
|-
|2
|[[Utah County, Utah|Utah]]
|2,026
|23,768
|-
|3
|[[Weber County, Utah|Weber]]
|1,186
|22,723
|-
|4
|[[Cache County, Utah|Cache]]
|–
|15,509
|-
|5
|[[Sanpete County, Utah|Sanpete]]
|365
|13,146
|-
|6
|[[Summit County, Utah|Summit]]
|–
|7,733
|-
|7
|[[Box Elder County, Utah|Box Elder]]
|–
|7,642
|-
|8
|[[Davis County, Utah|Davis]]
|1,134
|6,751
|-
|9
|[[Sevier County, Utah|Sevier]]
|–
|6,199
|-
|10
|[[Juab County, Utah|Juab]]
|–
|5,582
|-
|11
|[[Emery County, Utah|Emery]]
|–
|5,076
|-
|12
|[[Millard County, Utah|Millard]]
|–
|4,033
|-
|13
|[[Washington County, Utah|Washington]]
|–
|4,009
|-
|14
|[[Tooele County, Utah|Tooele]]
|152
|3,700
|-
|15
|[[Wasatch County, Utah|Wasatch]]
|–
|3,595
|-
|16
|[[Beaver County, Utah|Beaver]]
|–
|3,340
|-
|17
|[[Piute County, Utah|Piute]]
|–
|2,842
|-
|18
|[[Uintah County, Utah|Uintah]]
|–
|2,762
|-
|19
|[[Iron County, Utah|Iron]]
|360
|2,683
|-
|20
|[[Garfield County, Utah|Garfield]]
|–
|2,457
|-
|21
|[[Morgan County, Utah|Morgan]]
|–
|1,780
|-
|22
|[[Kane County, Utah|Kane]]
|–
|1,685
|-
|23
|[[Rich County, Utah|Rich]]
|–
|1,527
|-
|24
|[[Grand County, Utah|Grand]]
|–
|541
|-
|25
|[[San Juan County, Utah|San Juan]]
|–
|365
|-
|
|[[Indian reservation]]s
|4,645
|–
|-
|
|Utah Territory
|11,380
|210,779
|-
|}

==See also==
{{Portal|Utah|Colorado|United States|History}}
*[[Historic regions of the United States]]
*[[History of Utah]]
*[[Territorial evolution of the United States]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* (1994) [https://web.archive.org/web/20240321165241/https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/c/COINS_AND_CURRENCY.shtml "Coins and Currency"] article in the [https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/ ''Utah History Encyclopedia''.] The article was written by Leonard J. Arrington and the Encyclopedia was published by the University of Utah Press. ISBN 9780874804256. Archived from [https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/c/COINS_AND_CURRENCY.shtml the original] on March 21, 2024, and retrieved on April 12, 2024.
* (2017) ''Unpopular Sovereignty: Mormons and the Federal Management of Early Utah Territory'' by Brent M. Rogers, University of Nebraska Press.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Utah Territory}}
* [http://CPRR.org/Museum/Utah_1851.html Utah in 1851, with the text of the 1850 Act of Congress to Establish the Territory of Utah], [[Central Pacific Railroad]] Photographic History Museum
* [http://CPRR.org/Museum/Stewart-Iron_Trail.html Utah's Role in the Transcontinental Railroad], Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
* [https://www.visitutah.com/things-to-do/history-culture Utah State History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420153055/https://www.visitutah.com/things-to-do/history-culture |date=April 20, 2021 }} Utah Office of Tourism Official Website
* [[hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.sommer|Henry Sommer, Watercolors and Pencil Drawings Related to the Utah Expedition]]. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

{{Territories of the United States}}
{{Utah}}
{{coord|39|50|N|113|30|W|region:US-UT_type:adm1st|display=title}}

[[Category:Utah Territory| ]]
[[Category:Former organized territories of the United States]]
[[Category:History of the American West]]
[[Category:History of the Great Basin]]
[[Category:19th century in Utah]]
[[Category:Pre-statehood history of Colorado]]
[[Category:Pre-statehood history of Nevada]]
[[Category:Pre-statehood history of Utah|*Territory]]
[[Category:Pre-statehood history of Wyoming]]
[[Category:Utah War]]
[[Category:States and territories established in 1850]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in 1896]]
[[Category:1850 establishments in Utah Territory]]
[[Category:1896 disestablishments in Utah]]