A History of Box Elder County [Utah]

A History of Box Elder County [Utah] by Huchel, Frederick M.. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780913738160.

Box Elder County is Utahs fourth-largest county in area, and it occupies the northwestern corner of the state and includes at least half of Great Salt Lake. It is a land of contrasts, from the craggy, snow-covered peaks of the Wellsville Mountains and the Raft River Range to the playas around the lake, to deserts, marshes, and numerous valleys of rich soil covered with sagebrush, juniper, and pinyon.Box Elder County caves and burial sites give evidence of prehistoric peoples who lived along the streams and traveled the area long before Euro-Americans came on the scene. Though the length of the county ran the Salt Lake Cutoff to the gold fields of Califonia, heavily used even before the influx of European and American converts to the Mormon church dotted the future county with their settlements. The county was home to one of the most successful of the early Mormon religious cooperative endeavors.It is in Box Elder County that arguably the most noted historical event ever in the state took the driving of the spike marking the completion of the nations first transcontinental railroad. The countys industries and institutions have included mines, railroad enterprises, and a rocket-engine manufacturing facility. This volume chronicles Box Elder Countys land and its people.