Lehi, the northernmost community in Utah Valley,
was first settled by a small group of Mormons in the fall of
1850. Known as Sulphur Springs that first year, the community
later was named Dry Creek and then Evansville. Early in 1852
local bishop David Evans presented a petition to the Utah
Territorial Legislature requesting that the community be
incorporated. This request was granted on 5 February 1852,
making the town Utah's sixth oldest. Also approved was Bishop
Evans's suggestion that the town be named Lehi. Like the Book
of Mormon patriarch of the same name, the colonizers of Lehi
had been uprooted on numerous occasions before finally
settling in their promised land.
Agriculture (producing wheat, oats, barley, and
alfalfa) and animal industries (cattle ranching, sheep
raising, dairying, poultry raising, fisheries, and mink
ranching) have made a profound impact on the economic history
of the community. With the establishment of the Utah Sugar
Company's first plant in Lehi in 1890, the sugar beet became
the town's most important cash crop and remained so until
after World War I.
Important early industries in Lehi included
Mulliner's Grist Mill (1856-90), the Lehi Banner newspaper
(1891-1914), Lehi Cereal Mill (1922-74), Lehi Stone, Marble,
and Granite Works (1897-1930), and the Standard Knitting
Factory Company (1904-09).
A wide range of companies continue to maintain
offices in Lehi in the 1990s.
Historical sites and points of interest in the
area include the best-preserved portion of the Pony Express
Trail in Utah (at the Point of the Mountain). Indian Ford at
the Jordan River and Dugout--a Pony Express and Overland
Trail station--are also located west of town. Seven People's
Co-op buildings, once part of the ZCMI chain, remain in Lehi.
The two most significant were recently recognized by ZCMI,
which installed two replicas of the 1869 ZCMI sign on the
building fronts.
Other important Lehi institutions include
Broadbent's (since 1882), Lehi Roller Mills (since 1905), the
Lehi Free Press (since 1932), Hutch's (since 1946), the Lehi
Cafe (since 1958), La Casa Supper Club (since 1964), Porter's
Place, named for the notorious Porter Rockwell (since 1971),
and the Colonial Manor (the 1913-built Smuin Dancing
Academy). The Colonial House, originally Racker Mercantile,
is now a beautifully restored reception and hosting
center.
The Lehi Memorial Building, the first municipal
structure in America specifically erected to honor the memory
of World War I veterans, is to be the home of the Hutchings
Museum, which has won state and national accolades for the
depth and variety of its collection.
Lehi City municipal offices are housed in new
facilities. The city also boasts a new public library and
senior citizens complex and a public safety building, both
built in 1989. In addition to one of the finest culinary
water systems in the state (a $3.74-million lead-free piping
system, installed in 1989), the entire town is serviced by a
pressurized irrigation system which was completed in 1990.
Lehi's power collection and distribution system, the city's
greatest single source of revenue, has been a boon to the
community since 1964. At that time, city officials signed a
long-term contract to purchase power from the Intermountain
Consumer Power Association.
"Lehi is a good place to live," has been the
community's official slogan since 1911. In addition to a
safe, quiet, family-oriented environment, the town offers
such recreational opportunities as Saratoga Resort to the
southwest, Wines Park, Willow Park, the local Olympic-size
swimming pool, Veteran's baseball park, Heritage Theatre, and
the world-famous Lehi Roundup rodeo, which for the past
half-century has continually drawn top cowboys from all over
America.
See: Richard S. Van Wagoner, Lehi: Portraits of a
Town (1990); Lehi Centennial Committee, Lehi Centennial
History 1850-1950 (1950) which includes the 1913 History of
Lehi written by Hamilton Gardner.