Salt Lake City in 1861 was at the end of the First Transcontinental Telegraph; Brigham Young was one of the first to send a message.

In 1869, John Wesley Powell headed up an expedition to float down the Green River through the Grand Canyon. In that same year at Promontory Point was the driving of the Golden Spike, signaling the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

The people of Utah waited many years to become part of the Union. They first drafted a constitution in 1856; it found no support in Congress. Another attempt in 1861 and 1862 had the same result. The same thing happened in 1872. Another constitutional convention gathered in 1895, approved a new constitution, and set it on to Congress. This time, the federal government was more amenable to the proposal.

Utah became a state on Jan. 4, 1896; Salt Lake City, which had replaced Fillmore as territorial capital in 1856, was the first state capital.