Wanship ( ) is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

in Summit County,

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 population was 423 at the 2020 census.

History

Wanship was founded in 1859 by Stephen Nixon and Henry Roper, who were joined by other

settler A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...

s over the next two years. In 1861, 300 Native Americans settled in the area. The sudden population increase made attempting to gather food in the area difficult. A friendly

Ute Ute or UTE may refer to: * Ute people, a Native American people of the Great Basin * Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Utah * Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah * Southern Ute Indian Tribe of the Southern ...

, Chief Wanship, helped the non-native settlers to find

game A game is a structured type of play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or video games) or art ...

, locate edible plants, and trade with the Indians. In return, the town was named for him.

Farming Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

in the area included

rye Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is grown principally in an area from Eastern and Northern Europe into Russia. It is much more tolerant of cold weather and poor soil than o ...

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

, and

alfalfa Alfalfa () (''Medicago sativa''), also called lucerne, is a perennial plant, perennial flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. It is cultivated as an important forage crop in many countries around the world. It is used for grazing, hay, ...

. The town also served as a local commodity hub, as

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

from Coalville,

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

from Park City, and

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

from

Kamas Kamas may mean * Kamas, Utah * Kamas (raga), a ragam in Carnatic music * KAMAS (program), an acronym for ''Knowledge and Mind Amplification System'', an outline processor * Kamasins, a Samoyedic people * Kamassian language, an extinct Samoyedic lan ...

passed through. In 1862 an overland stage stop, called the Kimballs Stage Station, opened in Wanship. Due to its central location, Wanship became the first

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 ...

of Summit County, from the formation of the county government in 1866 until

Coalville Coalville is a town in the district of North West Leicestershire in Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. In 2011, it had a population of 34,575. It lies on the A511 road, A511 between Leicester and Burton upon Trent, close to junct ...

became county seat in 1872. The first two-story home built by Thomas Albert Smith, in Summit County was built in Wanship, and has since been relocated to Pioneer Village in

Lagoon Amusement Park Lagoon is a family owned amusement park in Farmington, Utah, located about 18 miles north of Salt Lake City. Lagoon is divided into five main areas: The Midway, containing the majority of the rides; Pioneer Village, which has several exhibits d ...

Wanship today

Today Wanship exists as a small, unincorporated community. There are a few businesses, including a

filling station A filling station (also known as a gas station [] or petrol station []) is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold are gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Fuel dispensers are used to ...

, and a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

in an old

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Allen G ...

that contains a collection of antique

carriage A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. In Europe they were a common mode of transport for the wealthy during the Roman Empire, and then again from around 1600 until they were replaced by the motor car around 1 ...

s and other western memorabilia. The Wanship Dam, creating the

Rockport Reservoir Rockport Reservoir, also called Wanship Reservoir, is a reservoir along the Weber River within the Rockport State Park in southwestern Summit County, Utah, United States. __TOC__ Description Rockport Reservoir is located just south of the ...

, was built south of the town in the mid-1950s.

Geography

Wanship is located at the intersection of

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one of the ori ...

and

Utah State Route 32 State Route 32 (SR-32) is a state highway in Wasatch and Summit Counties in the U.S. state of Utah. Most of the highway is an old routing of U.S. Route 189 that became disconnected from the rest of US-189 during the construction of the Jorda ...

, at the junction of Silver Creek and 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 ...

. It is from

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 ...

, and from

Climate

Demographics

As of the census of 2010, there were 400 people living in the CDP. There were 164 housing units. The racial makeup of the town was 91.5% White, 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 6.0% from some other race, and 2.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.8% of the population.

Education

It is in the North Summit School District.

References

External links

{{authority control Census-designated places in Summit County, Utah Census-designated places in Utah Populated places established in 1859 1859 establishments in Utah Territory