Fillmore, Utah

Fillmore was Utah Territory's first capital, a fact that surprises most people who drive through today. In October of eighteen fifty-one, the territorial legislature chose this site in Millard County, a hundred and fifty miles south of Salt Lake City, as the seat of government for the entire territory. They named it after Millard Fillmore, the American president who had appointed Brigham Young as Utah's first territorial governor, a gesture of political gratitude.

Congress allocated twenty thousand dollars to build a statehouse, and the architect of the Salt Lake Temple, Truman O. Angell, drew up an elaborate design: four wings in the shape of a cross beneath a Moorish dome. Only the first wing was ever built.

The legislature held two sessions there, in eighteen fifty-five and fifty-six, then concluded the location was simply too remote and returned the capital to Salt Lake City. The lone surviving wing still stands today as Utah's Territorial Statehouse State Park, the oldest government building in the state.