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Area: 6,818 square
miles; population: 11,333 (in 1990); county seat:
Fillmore; origin of county name: after President Millard Fillmore; principal cities/towns:
Delta (2,998), Fillmore (1,956); economy: alfalfa seed, cattle, electric
power generation; points of interest: territorial statehouse in
Fillmore, Cove Fort, Old Fort Deseret, Topaz Relocation Camp,
Gunnison massacre site,
Clear Lake Waterfowl Management Area, Intermountain Power Project.
Millard County
is bordered on the east by the Pahvant Range, while west to the Nevada
border lie the broad valleys and desert mountain ranges typical of the
Great Basin. The Sevier River, which begins in mountains east of
Cedar City, drains into the sometimes dry Sevier Lake
in central Millard County. A huge granitic upthrust in the House Range, as well as volcanic cones
and numerous fossil beds, provide clues to past geologic activity and
prehistoric animal and plant life of the area.
The county's prehistoric residents, part of the Sevier Culture which disappeared
ca. A.D. 1300, lived in small villages with semi-subterranean dwellings.
Historic Indian groups of the area include Southern Paiutes, Pahvant
Utes, and Goshutes. A small Indian reservation is located at Kanosh.
In October 1851 two groups left Salt Lake City for eastern Millard County.
Some thirty families led by Anson Call made the first permanent white settlement,
while territorial officials, including Governor Brigham Young and
surveyor Jesse W. Fox, selected a site for the capital, Fillmore being near the
geographical center of Utah Territory. The legislature met in Fillmore
a few times, but in December 1856 it voted to move the capital to Salt
Lake City because Fillmore was too far from major cities.
On 26 October 1853 seven members of a transcontinental railroad
survey team led by Lieutenant John W. Gunnison
of the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers were killed by Indians southwest of Delta, a tragic incident
in the Walker War (1853-54) that was apparently triggered by the actions of
a group of emigrants against the Indians.
Ranching and farming developed slowly. In the early twentieth century Millard County
was second to Tooele in the number of sheep on its ranges, but later
cattle became the major livestock interest. The establishment of the
Union Pacific line through west Millard County and the founding of Delta
in 1907 led to the most important agricultural development--large-scale
alfalfa seed production amounting eventually to three-fourths of the
state's total crop. The Yuba
Dam and other water projects made this venture possible.
Mining and smelting
have contributed to the county's economic growth, with Millard producing
significant amounts of fluorspar, copper, manganese, sulphur, gypsum,
beryllium, and salt. The most important industrial development, however,
began in the 1970s when plans were made for the Intermountain Power
Project's huge coal-burning plant near Delta. Southern California buys
much of the electricity generated by the IPP.
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