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Salt Lake City

Capital city of Utah Territory.

Settled by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on July 24, 1847 when it was still within Mexican territory, naming it Great Salt Lake City. Incorporated as the City of the Great Salt Lake on January 6, 1851.The name was abbreviated to Salt Lake City at the time it replaced Fillmore as the territorial capital on December 18, 1856. Named for the Great Salt Lake, on the shores of which the city is situated.[1]

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ABOVE: Salt Lake City, c1870. View from the Bonneville Bench.[2]

War of the Silver Kings: In 1870, Richard Bixby traveled to the territorial seat[3] in Salt Lake City[4] to appeal the case of The Silver Lady Mine vs. the New Hope Mining Company to Utah Territory’s probate court.[4]

The Thirty-Ninth Star: On July 4, 1876, Bart Maverick traveled to[5] Saltb Lake City[4] — what his stagecoach driver referred to as "Capital City" — from Grantsville, Utah Territory, while he was en route to Denver for an important poker game. While there, he became involved in a dangerous plot of the Stuart Machine to recover incriminating papers from Judge Somervell's misplaced suitcase. It took him two days to find the missing documents and was forced to shoot and kill four members of the Stuart Machine in self-defense.[5]

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