Although the
move was controversial, in 1946 Riverton incorporated, operating under
a town board form of government. The most pressing problems which city
officials have dealt with in the latter part of the twentieth century
have been those associated with the rapid increase in the city's population.
To illustrate, in 1970 the city had a population of 2,820, a figure
which expanded to 11,700 in 1992. This has made a tremendous difference
in land use as farmland has been converted to residential use. This
change is great in view of the fact that approximately 94 percent of
Riverton's land was agricultural in 1960. Riverton has increasingly
become a popular country-style suburb, an inevitable development as
a consequence of the Salt Lake Valley's expanding population.
Melvin L. Bashore