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1885 Map of Salt Lake

Name: 1885 Topographic Map of Salt Lake
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1906
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1906

About this map

The Wasatch Mountains dominate this late nineteenth-century reconnaissance, framing the growing corridor of settlement between the Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake. The map reveals an early industrial landscape where mining and agriculture met, centered on the newly established city grid of Salt Lake City and the military outpost at Fort Douglass. Mountain peaks like Timpanogos Peak and Lone Peak rise above the canyons that provided water and transit routes for the era's emerging towns.

Transportation networks define the valley's development, with the Rio Grande Western R.R. and the U. P. R. R. cutting through the terrain to connect remote mining camps like Park City and Silver City to the primary agricultural hubs of Provo, Heber, and Payson. This survey captures the transition from isolated territorial outposts to a connected regional economy, showing the layout of early Mormon settlements such as Centreville, Taylorsville, and Pleasant Grove before twentieth-century suburban expansion.