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What Happened The Mountain Meadows Massacre occurred in September 1857 in a highland valley roughly 35 miles southwest of Cedar City. The Baker-Fancher emigrant party, traveling through Utah on their way from Arkansas to California, was attacked by members of the local Iron County Militia and purportedly some local Paiute Indians. The emigrants fought back and a five day siege ensued. On the

In 1852 the Utah Territorial Legislature provided that the Probate Court should have jurisdiction not only in estate and guardianship matters, but original jurisdiction in civil, criminal, and chancery cases. The Probate Court could act as an appellant court to the Justice of the Peace Courts in the County, and decisions made in the Probate Court could be appealed to

The Utah State Digital Archives contains collections from records of enduring value online and is free to the public! It leverages mass digitization and partnerships to meet patron needs and maintain archival context and original order. With worldwide online access, you have the ability to do research from anywhere while the Utah State Archives efficiently fulfills its mission “to provide

While not as well known or celebrated as Route 66, Highway 89 is a defining artery of tourism and exploration in the western United States. Traveling from the high mountains of Montana to the low deserts of Arizona, Highway 89 passes through (or is adjacent to) seven national parks, including Saguaro, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City! As the repository for government records, the Utah State Archives has a wonderful collection of documents related to this historic event. Let’s take a look… Series 26017 – Governor Leavitt 2K2 Program Records 2K2 was created by Governor Michael Leavitt as a non-profit organization to

November 24, 2022 will mark the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Colorado River Compact. In the eleven months between January and November of 1922, multiple meetings were held between federal and western state representatives that resulted in the Colorado River Compact. Over the course of its history, the legal framework that has emerged to manage development of the

In Utah, nearly all marriage applications and licenses or similar records have remained in county clerk offices. The Utah State Archives has limited copies on microfilm (most before about 1900).  A few years ago we were excited to receive marriage license applications from Utah County that were more than one hundred years old. Our Local Government archivist Alan Barnett oversaw

A small digital collection that contained only the earliest Spring City Council minutes has now been expanded to include several maps from the same city. Records in this collection were created by various local government entities in Sanpete County and document the history of the county. Sanpete County, located in central Utah, is a largely agricultural county founded in 1850.

In 1894, Congress voted to invite Utah into the Union. President Grover Cleveland signed the Enabling Act, which allowed Utah to officially form a Constitutional Convention. Utahns moved with enthusiasm as they had been waiting for the opportunity to become a state for decades. They held an election to choose the delegates and convened the convention in March of 1895.

This blog post was written by Eric Schubert, a 2021 Intern at the Utah State Archives and Records Service. He is a junior at Elizabethtown College and working on his history and political science degree. In today’s day and age, various historical databases can tell us so much about the lives of those who lived before us. By picking a record