Salt Lake County, Utah Utah Territory after traveling what settlers later called Emigration Canyon. Brigham Young, their leader, declared "This is the place" after seeing the valley. Compared to eastern regions, it seemed arid and unpromising to some of the migrants. Settlers used extensive irrigation to develop agriculture and the flourishing, self-sufficient city, known then as Great Salt Lake City. Thousands of Mormons joined them in the next several decades. The county was officially organized on January 31, 1850, with slightly more than 11,000 residents recorded. Mormon settlements were scattered across the valley and beyond. They relocated the territorial capital to Great Salt Lake
Salt Lake City Council Hall was originally Salt Lake City Hall, built to replace an older, smaller city hall completed just six years earlier on the eve of the Utah War, a standoff between Latter-day Saints ("Mormons") and federal troops. This small city hall was almost immediately inadequate for the growing city, so planning work on a new City Hall began by 1863. Ground for the new hall was broken on February 8, 1864 under the direction of the prolific Salt Lake City architect William H. Folsom who was then the official architect for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Built