Fillmore, Utah
The small farming community of Fillmore, Utah, is the geographical center of Utah. It is located 148 miles south of Salt Lake City and 162 miles north of Saint George. Utah’s territorial governor Brigham Young envisioned it as the territorial capital of Utah and named it Fillmore (in the county of Millard) as a nod to the United States president Millard Fillmore. Some say his intent was to cultivate the favor of the president as the territory sought statehood.
The town was surveyed on October 28, 1851, and Truman O. Angell designed a lovely statehouse, which began construction in 1852. Angell’s design was to feature a central dome surrounded by four wings.
However, the population never grew to the size needed for a capital city. Brigham Young continued to govern from Salt Lake City. “Ute resistance to Latter-day Saint intrusions into their traditional homeland suppressed the town’s expansion.”[1] The city was isolated in “the heart of indigenous territory.”[2]
“In December 1855, legislators met in the completed wing of the state house in Fillmore and decided to officially build a new capitol in Salt Lake City following the final legislative session in the statehouse in 1856. The town of Fillmore was left to maintain its welfare in arid southern Utah, and the statehouse forever remained incomplete.”[3]
The Utah War from 1856 to 1857 further exacerbated Fillmore’s remote conditions.
In 2020, Fillmore is the seat of Millard County and has a population of over 2,500. The only wing of the state building is maintained as a historic site and museum.
