Millard County is located in western Utah. The county seat is Fillmore. The 2010 census counted 12,420 residents.
It is believed that both PaleoIndian and Archaic peoples inhabited what is today Millard County, thus taking human habitation in the area back at least 10,000 years to the end of the last Ice Age. In about 500 A.D., evidence of the Fremont Culture began to appear. Most of the Fremont sites in Millard County are characterized by pit houses, but in Pahvant Valley they lived in adobe structures. These people were hunters/gathers that also grew corn and squash. As was the case throughout the rest of Utah, the Fremont Culture mysteriously disappeared in about 1300 A.D.
When Anglo-Europeans first passed through Millard County, they found Ute, Paiute and Goshute Indians living there. Important obsidian quarries in and around Black Rock formed the basis for trade between these people and others throughout the region. Anglo-European fur traders wandered through the area in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Early Spanish and Mexican slave traders preyed on the local Indians and sold some of them into slavery in New Mexico, Mexico and California. The opening of the Old Spanish Trail through the county in 1830 facilitated this slave trade and provided an avenue of immigration into southern California.
The first Morman settlers arrived in Millard County in 1851 and, that same year, Fillmore was selected as the capital seat of Millard County and as the capital of the Utah Territory. Millard Fillmore was president of the United States at the time and the county, it's county seat and the capital of the new territory were all named in his honor in the hope that it might result in some sort of political favor. (That location did not work out as territorial capital, however, and the capital was moved to Salt Lake City in 1856.) In 1853, there was a significant uptick in trouble with various Indian tribes. In October of that year, Lieutenant John W, Gunnison and seven of his men were killed by Ute Indians that were seeking revenge for the killing of their leader's father. Cove Fort was built in 1867 by order of Brigham Young to protect communications and residents from Indian depredation.
Today, the coal fired Intermountain Power Project provides major input for the regional power grid. Power production, mining and agriculture are the mainstays of the local economy.
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