Tooele County, Utah Dugway Proving Ground in Tooele County. The county's western portion is home to the Bonneville Salt Flats, traversed by Interstate 80 and the Wendover Cut-off, the former routing of the Victory Highway. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (4.7%) is water. Covering vast amounts of the Great Salt Lake desert west of Salt Lake Valley, Tooele County is the second largest county in Utah and among the driest. As of the census of 2000, there were 40,735 people, 12,677 households, and 10,128 families residing in the county.
Utah State Fair through the Salt Lake Valley of what is today Utah. With the high rugged Rocky Mountains on the east and miles of unfriendly, hot, dry desert and salt flats on the west, most of these early explorers and settlers found the climate and land an inhospitable environment in which to settle. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) had been established in 1830 by Joseph Smith in New York. Due to religious persecution, the group moved further and further west, yearning for a land to settle in which they could practice their religion. Following the murder of