Tooele County, Utah

Tooele County is a county in Utah, United States, about 35 miles southwest of Salt Lake
City. It had a population of 72,698 at the 2020 census, an estimated 87,461 more recently,
and covers 6,941 square miles (17,980 km2) of land centred near 40°27′N 113°11′W.

Tooele is the county seat and the county’s largest city; its postal code is 84074.
The county holds 5 cities, 3 incorporated towns and about a dozen unincorporated
communities and census-designated places, and it runs on Mountain Time. Its FIPS code is
49045.

Towns & Villages in Tooele County

Tooele County has 18 named places on record: 8 incorporated cities and towns and 10
unincorporated communities and CDPs with no local government of their own. CDP stands for
census designated place; Unincorp. covers mining camps, military housing and other
communities with no formal boundary.

Three of these places are recent additions to the county’s incorporated map: Erda and
Lake Point both incorporated as cities in 2022, after decades as unincorporated growth areas
next to Tooele. Ophir runs the other way — once one of Utah’s smallest incorporated
towns, it disincorporated in 2016 when too few residents remained to staff a town
government, and it is listed here as an unincorporated community.

ZIP Codes

• 84074 — Tooele (also serves Erda, Lake Point and Stansbury Park)
• 84029 — Grantsville
• 84083 — Wendover
• 84071 — Stockton (also serves Ophir)
• 84069 — Rush Valley
• 84080 — Vernon
• 84022 — Dugway, an Army-run community inside Dugway Proving Ground
• 84034 — Ibapah, headquarters of the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation

Gold Hill, Terra, Clover, Knolls, Lofgreen and Faust have no ZIP code of their own; mail to
these desert communities is delivered on rural routes out of Tooele or Wendover.

Geography

Tooele County slopes northward off the Stansbury Mountains toward the Great Salt Lake
Desert. Deseret Peak, in the Stansburys, is the county’s high point at 11,031 feet
(3,362 metres). Of the county’s 7,286 square miles, 6,941 are land and 345 are water,
about 4.7 percent, most of it Great Salt Lake’s southwestern arm. The Bonneville Salt
Flats, a stretch of hard-packed salt crust used for land-speed record runs, cover much of
the county’s far western edge near Wendover.

Box Elder County borders
Tooele to the north, Salt Lake
County and Utah County to the
east, and Juab County to the south.
Nevada’s White Pine and Elko counties lie across the state line to the west and
southwest.

Demographics

Tooele County had a population of 72,698 at the 2020 census, and the latest Census
Bureau estimate puts the county near 87,461 residents. Tooele city and Grantsville are the
two largest communities, together holding well over half the county’s population, with
fast-growing Stansbury Park close behind. The county’s median household income runs
around $76,737, below Utah’s statewide 2023 ACS figure of $93,421. Population density
works out to roughly 10.3 people per square mile of land, low even by Utah standards,
reflecting the huge unincorporated desert stretch west of the Stansbury Mountains.

Economy & Local Life

Defense and industrial work anchor the county’s economy. Dugway Proving Ground, a
U.S. Army chemical and biological weapons test facility west of Tooele, is a closed
community reached only through military checkpoints. The Tooele Army Depot, established in
1942, once stored and disposed of chemical munitions and remains a major industrial
employer. Kennecott Utah Copper and US Magnesium run mining and processing operations in
the county, and EnergySolutions operates a low-level radioactive waste disposal site near
Clive on the county’s northern flat. Tooele city also hosts a Utah State University
regional campus. The county’s biggest annual event is the Tooele Arts Festival, held
the final weekend of June since 1985, drawing craft vendors, live music and family
activities to downtown Tooele.

History

Utah’s territorial legislature created Tooele County on 31 January 1850 and
organized it on 10 June 1851. The name’s origin is disputed — possibly from a
Goshute word for bear, or from the Spanish word for bulrush, “tule,” which once
grew thick around the lake’s marshy edges. Three families settled the site of Tooele
city in September 1849, and Tooele City organized formally in 1853.

The Donner-Reed Party crossed the county’s Great Salt Lake Desert in 1846, a
shortcut that cost the group critical time before the Sierra Nevada snows trapped them.
Mining transformed the county after 1863, when Col. Patrick E. Connor, commanding federal
troops at Camp Douglas, encouraged prospecting in the Oquirrh Mountains partly to draw
non-Mormon settlers to Utah Territory. The strategy opened Utah’s precious-metals
industry, and boomtowns like Stockton and Ophir grew around the resulting silver and gold
claims. The 20th century brought railroads in 1904 and smelting by 1909, both wound down
by the 1970s and 1980s, followed by the county’s current defense-industrial economy.

Getting There

Interstate 80 is the county’s principal highway, crossing its northern half through
Grantsville and past the Bonneville Salt Flats to Wendover. State Route 36 runs south from
Tooele through Stockton and Rush Valley.

• Salt Lake City — about 35 miles northeast
• Provo — about 55 miles southeast
• Wendover — about 120 miles west of Tooele via I-80
• Grantsville — about 8 miles west of Tooele

Salt Lake City International Airport, roughly 35 miles northeast of Tooele, is the
nearest major commercial airport. Tooele Valley Airport handles general aviation locally,
and Wendover Airport, built as a World War II bomber training base, now serves general
aviation and ongoing restoration projects. The nearest Amtrak service is the California
Zephyr’s Salt Lake City station.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Tooele County located?
It sits in northwestern Utah, about 35 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, bordered by Box
Elder, Salt Lake, Utah and Juab counties and the Nevada state line.

What is the population of Tooele County?
72,698 at the 2020 census, with a more recent Census Bureau estimate near 87,461.

How big is Tooele County?
7,286 square miles (18,870 km2) in total, of which 6,941 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of Tooele County?
Tooele city, the county’s largest community with a 2020 population of 35,742.

How many towns and cities are in Tooele County?
Five incorporated cities — Tooele, Grantsville, Erda, Lake Point and Wendover —
and three incorporated towns: Stockton, Rush Valley and Vernon.

What ZIP codes does Tooele County use?
84074 for Tooele, Erda, Lake Point and Stansbury Park; 84029 for Grantsville; 84083 for
Wendover; 84071 for Stockton; 84069 for Rush Valley; and 84080 for Vernon.

What is Tooele County known for?
The Bonneville Salt Flats land-speed course near Wendover and the Dugway Proving Ground
military testing range, both on the county’s western desert flats.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Utah.