With the Indians subdued for a time, Connor encouraged a peaceful solution to the Mormon problem by promoting the development of mining in Utah. He calculated that a huge Protestant and Catholic influx would eventually displace the Mormons.

After the Civil War, the federal government began to move Indians in Utah to reservations, and periodic outbreaks concerned Euro-Americans in the Western territories. Consequently, efforts to control Native Americans led to the establishment and operation of Fort Cameron near Beaver (l872-l880). Eventually, the LDS Church purchased the land and buildings, and converted Fort Cameron into an academy in 1898, known as the Murdock Academy.

As settlements advanced throughout eastern Utah and western Colorado, conflicts between the frontiersmen and Indians became more frequent. The War Department established two forts in the Uinta Basin (Fort Thornburgh l88l-l884) and Fort Duchesne (l886-1912) in an attempt to control the Utes. With the closing of Fort Duchesne, Fort Douglas again became the only permanent War Department installation in Utah and the principal army post in the Mountain West. By the fall of 1916, the first of 5,000 civilians were trained at Fort Douglas for various assignments during World War I. The post also housed several hundred German prisoners during the war.