Morgan County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

in northern

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 12,295. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

and largest city is Morgan. Morgan County is part of the Ogden- Clearfield, UT Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

- Provo- Orem, UT Combined Statistical Area.

History

An early route of the Hastings Cutoff ran through the Morgan Valley and down through a narrow gorge in Weber Canyon. The

Donner Party The Donner Party, sometimes called the Donner–Reed Party, was a group of American pioneers who migrated to California interim government, 1846-1850, California in a wagon train from the Midwest. Delayed by a multitude of mishaps, they spent ...

avoided going through the Morgan Valley in order to speed up their journey. However, their alternate route proved more time-consuming. In 1855, Charles Sreeve Peterson and his family became the first white settlers to take up permanent residence in the Morgan Valley after cutting a road through Weber Canyon. After others began settling in the rather limited planar areas of the mountainous territory, the Utah Territory legislature acted on January 17, 1862, to form a separate county from sections partitioned off Davis,

Great Salt Lake The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, partic ...

Summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

, and Weber counties. The small settlement at Morgan was named the county seat. The town (and thus the new county) was named for the father ( Jedediah Morgan Grant) of Heber J. Grant, who would serve as president of LDS Church from 1918 until 1945.

Geography

The central core of Morgan County, the narrow East Canyon valley (now called Morgan Valley), is ringed by mountains. In its southern portion, Main Canyon Creek flows southward from Summit County to join East Canyon Creek, which flows northward from a different portion of Summit County. At their intersection, a dam has been installed to create East Canyon Reservoir and State Park. The combined discharge (now called East Canyon Creek) from the dam flows northwestward to Morgan, where it combines with Deep Creek to discharge into the

Weber River The Weber River ( ) (Shoshone: Ho-o-pah) is a long river of northern Utah, United States. It begins in the northwest of the Uinta Mountains and empties into the Great Salt Lake. The Weber River was named for American fur trapper John Henr ...

, which also flows into the county from Summit and follows Lost Canyon to the Morgan Valley. The now-augmented Weber flows northwestward to Mountain Green, then turns west to exit the county through Weber Canyon. The terrain generally slopes to the north and west, with its highest point, Thurston Peak, at ASL. The county has an area of , of which is land and is water. It is Utah's third-smallest county by land area and smallest by total area.

Major highways

Interstate 84 * Utah State Highway U-65 * Utah State Highway U-66 * Utah State Highway U-158 * Utah State Highway U-167 Some county roads accessing the canyons are closed during winters.

Adjacent counties

* Weber County - north * Summit County - east * Salt Lake County - southwest * Davis County - west * Rich County - northeast

Protected areas

* Cache National Forest (part) * East Canyon State Park * Lost Creek State Park * Round Valley Wildlife Management Area *

Wasatch National Forest Wasatch National Forest was established as the Wasatch Forest Reserve by the U.S. Forest Service in Utah on August 16, 1906 with to the east of Salt Lake City and Provo. It became a National Forest on March 4, 1907. On July 1, 1908 Grantsv ...

(part)

Demographics

2020 census

According to the 2020 United States census and 2020 American Community Survey, there were 12,295 people in Morgan County with a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

of 20.2 people per square mile (7.8/km²). Among non- Hispanic or Latino people, the racial makeup was 11,562 (94.0%)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 12 (0.1%)

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 31 (0.3%) Native American, 57 (0.5%) Asian, 0 (0.0%)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 9 (0.1%) from other races, and 286 (2.3%) from two or more races. 338 (2.7%) people were Hispanic or Latino. The most commonly picked ancestries were English (47.1%), German (11%), Irish (7.4%), Scottish (5.3%), Danish (4.6%), and Swedish (3%). There were 6,289 (51.15%) males and 6,006 (48.85%) females, and the population distribution by age was 4,299 (35.0%) under the age of 18, 6,441 (52.4%) from 18 to 64, and 1,555 (12.6%) who were at least 65 years old. The median age was 33.6 years. There were 3,574 households in Morgan County with an average size of 3.44 of which 3,084 (86.3%) were families and 490 (13.7%) were non-families. Among all families, 2,783 (77.9%) were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

, 91 (2.5%) were male householders with no spouse, and 210 (5.9%) were female householders with no spouse. Among all non-families, 428 (12.0%) were a single person living alone and 62 (1.7%) were two or more people living together. 1,670 (46.7%) of all households had children under the age of 18. 3,176 (88.9%) of households were owner-occupied while 398 (11.1%) were renter-occupied. The median income for a Morgan County household was $100,408 and the median family income was $101,572, with a per-capita income of $34,280. The median income for males that were full-time employees was $87,961 and for females $46,484. 1.7% of the population and 1.0% of families were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

. In terms of education attainment, out of the 6,695 people in Morgan County 25 years or older, 145 (2.2%) had not completed high school, 1,350 (20.2%) had a

high school diploma A high school diploma (sometimes referred to as a high school degree) is a diploma awarded upon graduation of high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary s ...

or equivalency, 2,630 (39.3%) had some college or

associate degree An associate degree or associate's degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of academic qualification above a high school diploma and below a bachelor's degree ...

, 1,548 (23.1%) had a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

, and 1,022 (15.3%) had a graduate or

professional degree A professional degree, formerly known in the US as a first professional degree, is a degree that prepares someone to work in a particular profession, practice, or industry sector often meeting the academic requirements for licensure or accreditatio ...

Politics and government

Morgan County traditionally votes Republican. In only one national election since 1948 has the county selected the Democratic Party candidate (as of 2024).

Communities

Cities

* Morgan (county seat)

Census-designated places

Enterprise Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to: Business and economics Brands and enterprises * Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company * Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company * Enterpris ...

* Mountain Green

Unincorporated places

Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...

* Littleton * Milton * Peterson * Porterville * Richville * Stoddard * Taggarts * Whites Crossing

Ghost towns

* Devils Slide

References

External links

*
UEN - Morgan County

The Morgan County News - The Newspaper of Morgan County
{{authority control 1862 establishments in Utah Territory Populated places established in 1862 Ogden–Clearfield metropolitan area