R E P O R T OF A N E X P E D I T I O N T O L O C A T E U T A H ' S FIRST C A P I T O L BY EVERETT L. COOLEY*
INTRODUCTION
T
he Organic Act of September 9, 1850, which created the Territory of Utah, reduced considerably the size of the area which the Mormon colonists had included in their Provisional State of Deseret. Under the act, Utah was bounded on the east by the Rocky Mountains, on the west by the Sierra Nevada, on the north by the forty-second parallel of north latitude, and on the south by the thirty-seventh parallel. In this vast area, settlement had, by 1851, been pretty much confined to the valleys along the western slopes of the Wasatch Mountains. However, the leaders of the Mormon Church had grandiose plans for the settlement of the entire territory, especially along the strategic approaches to the heartland of Mormonism. By 1852, the entire territory had been divided into counties by the legislative assembly of Utah to provide for local civil government. 1 With the plan for completely colonizing the territory in mind, the leaders preferred a geographically centralized location for their capital. Consequently, on October 4, 1851, a joint resolution of the legislative assembly designated Pauvan Valley as the seat of government for the Territory of Utah. 2 On the same
*Dr. Cooley is director of the State Archives, a division of the Utah State Historical Society. tjames B. Allen, "Evolution of County Boundaries in Utah," Utah Historical Quarterly, XXIII (July, 1955), 261 ff. While the assembly created counties, the counties were not always organized due to the lack of settlers within the proposed counties. 2 Acts, Resolutions, and Memorials, Passed by the First Annual, and Special Sessions, of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah (Great Salt Lake City, 1852), 206-07. Pauvan Valley is located in eastern Millard County. Although Fillmore was named the capital city in 1851, 1955 marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the completion of the only wing of Utah's first capital. This wing is now restored and serves as a museum of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers under the administration of the Utah State Historical Society.
