Here Are The 12 Oldest Towns In Utah...And They’re Loaded With History

Here’s a fun fact that might be a surprise to many Utahns. Ogden was the first white settlement in Utah - NOT Salt Lake City. Miles Goodyear built a tiny cabin and a trading fort (Fort Buenaventura) in 1845. Brigham Young and the pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley two years later - in 1847.

Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 22nd, 1847. They set up camp in the valley and immediately began planting potatoes and turnip. Brigham Young, who was following in a sick wagon, arrived two days later. He proclaimed, "The is the right place." The rest is Utah history.

On July 29, 1847, pioneer John Holladay and some of his Mississippi Company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. A few weeks after his arrival, he found a spring near where Kentucky Avenue is located today. He and several others camped next to the spring, and when winter came, stayed in dugouts. The settlement was called Holladay’s Burgh, and eventually shortened to Holladay.

Perrigrine Sessions arrived in Salt Lake City with the original pioneers in July of 1847. On September 27th, he moved his family and livestock nine miles north, built a dugout and wintered in fairly harsh conditions. Mr. Sessions was the first white settler in the area, which was named Sessions Settlement after him. The name was changed to Bountiful in 1855.

It didn’t take long for Mormon pioneer Hector C. Haight to settle his family into a little cabin in Farmington (which was originally named North Cottonwood). He arrived in the Salt Lake Valley with Brigham Young in 1847, and built his cabin just a few months later. Farmington incorporated in 1892.

Hector C. Haight is also credited as being the first settler of Kaysville - his grazing area encompassed portions of what later became two different towns. The second settler, Samuel Oliver Holmes, arrived in 1849. Samuel’s friend, William Kay, moved in with his family soon after. Kay was named as the first LDS Bishop in the area in 1852, and the settlement became known as Kay’s Ward.

Pioneer Thomas Grover took his herd of cattle north of Salt Lake to the area that is now Centerville in the fall of 1847. The following spring, Osmyn and William Deuel brought their families, and the settlement was called the Deuel Settlement. Then the name changed to Cherry Creek. In 1850, a survey report showed that the town was located exactly between the towns of Bountiful and Farmington, so the name was changed to Centerville.

Pioneers Joseph and Susanna Harker crossed the Jordan River in 1848. They settled in the area and called it "Over Jordan." The Taylor family (related to John Taylor, the third president of the LDS church), settled in the area soon after, and it was renamed Taylorsville. Other settlers joined the Harkers, spreading out into areas that would later become West Jordan and West Valley.

In 1849, Brigham Young sent eight families to settle in the area that is now Cottonwood Heights. Mormon pioneer Jehu Cox donated 10 acres of his land a few years later so that a fort could be built there. The town was originally called Union.

Thomas Butterfield settled in the area now known as Herriman in 1849. In 1854, several men, including Henry Harriman and Charles Crump helped Butterfield construct a fort. The settlement was named Herriman (a slightly different spelling than that of Henry Harriman) in 1858.

Ebenezer Brown began grazing his cattle in the Draper area (then called South Willow Creek) in 1849. Brown’s brother-in-law, William Draper III and his family moved in the following year. When the post office opened in 1854, the town was named Draperville after him.

When Ute Chief Walker invited Mormons to build a colony in the Manti area, Brigham Young agreed. On October 28,1849, 224 men, women and children left the Salt Lake Valley and settled in Manti by November. Brigham Young gave the town its name in 1850. It was incorporated in 1851.