History of Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, where it has stayed ever since. The city's name was officially changed to "Salt Lake City" at the same time. In 1857, when the Mormon practice of polygamy came to national awareness, President James Buchanan responded to public outcry by sending an army of 2500 soldiers, called the Utah Expedition, to investigate the LDS Church and install a non-LDS governor to replace Brigham Young. In response, Brigham Young imposed martial law, sending the Utah militia to harass the soldiers, a conflict called the Utah War. Young eventually surrendered to federal control when the new territorial governor, Alfred
Salt Lake Cutoff he returned to Salt Lake City and discovered a route, north of the Great Salt Lake. His newly blazed trail (cutoff) went from Salt Lake City back to the Oregon Trail and/or California Trail and joined the California-Oregon near the City of Rocks, Idaho-- about north of today's Utah-Idaho border. This became known as the Salt Lake Cutoff and was about the same distance as the Fort Hall, Snake River, Raft River, City of Rocks route which it bypassed. On the Humboldt River portion of the California Trail route, Hensley met and talked with a party of former Mormon Battalion