My Favorite Places…Utah’s First Capital Was Not In Salt Lake City

The city of Fillmore is a favorite place to rest on the drive from St. George to Northern Utah.  Until 1851 Mormon settlement in Utah was confined mostly to the western slopes of the Wasatch Mountains.  When Utah became a territory through the Organic Act of 1850 settlement patterns began to change.  Since the new boundaries of the territory enclosed a smaller land area than expansive Mormon hopes had included in the proposed state of Deseret,LDS leaders anticipated settlement of the entire territory.

Planning for the eventual settlement of Utah,the Legislative Assembly decided to locate the territorial capital at the geographic center of Utah.  On October 4,1851,the remote Fillmore was designated as the site of the territorial seat of government.  On the same day,the Assembly named the surrounding area Millard County and planned to create a capital city called Fillmore.  A committee of four men was appointed to survey and determine the exact location of the city and capital building site.  Orson Pratt was in charge of this survey group.

Anson Call and a company of several families arrived in Fillmore.  The group had been asked by the Mormon Church leaders to settle the area.  During the next year the Fillmore settlers worked to create a city out of a wasteland.  In 1854,three years after the selection of the site,the walls of the capital were finally completed (only one wing).

But construction was further delayed because of a shortage of funds.  Though Congress had awarded the territory $20,000 to begin the project,no further funds were given to continue construction.  After months of hard work and limited supplies,local workmen finally completed the roof on the east wing of the capital in the summer of 1855.  The interior was rushed to completion in preparation for the Utah Territorial Legislature to convene in Fillmore.  On December 10 the fifth annual legislature session was held in the new territorial capital.

This session would be the one-and-only complete session held there.

The legislature convened in Fillmore in December 1856,after organizing,the assembly returned to Salt Lake City to complete its session.  Legislators complained about the lack of housing and adequate facilities in Fillmore.  Realizing that Utah’s population had not centralized as anticipated,the territorial leaders quickly lost interest in Fillmore.  In December 1865 Salt Lake City was officially designated as the capital of the territory of Utah.  Until the completion of the State Capital in 1916,the legislature met in five different buildings in the city.

Meanwhile,the completed the east wing of the Fillmore building took on many different functions.  In 1872 title to the building was passed to Fillmore City.  It was used on different occasions as a jail,school,church meeting house,and office building by local residents of Fillmore.  Today,the site has been converted into a state park and museum of pioneer relics.

Although Fillmore never became the state capital city envisioned by early Mormon leaders;the uncompleted capital is a reminder of an era in which the settlement of Utah was new and its patterns undetermined.

These facts come from the Utah state Historical Society,and this building is a real must,to see,on your next trip north.