Davis County Utah Records Catalog

About:

Davis County is Utah's smallest county in land area. It is a narrow strip of land only 223 square miles but is the third largest county in population. An estimated 248,000 residents live in the County's fifteen communities. Frequented by Shoshone Indians during historic times, the area was among the first settled by members of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847. The lush lake-bottom pastures, fertile soils of the bench lands, and streams flowing out of the high Wasatch Mountains on the east, attracted early settlers who established small farms and close-knit communities.

Named after the early pioneer leader Daniel C. Davis, the County was established as a territory in 1850. The territorial legislature created Davis County in 1852 and designated its County seat at Farmington, midway between boundaries at the Weber River on the north and the mouth of the Jordan River on the south. Westward, the County includes a portion of the Great Salt Lake and its largest island, on which Antelope Island State Park is located.

Davis County now enjoys a wide mix of people representing many ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds. The County has moved from its traditional agricultural dependency to an interlocking network of suburban communities around a core of original towns in close proximity to downtown Salt Lake City. The communications age has tied Davis County to the world. Its citizens are part of an economic and social pattern that reaches far beyond the County's tiny geographical limits.