Back to Art of the Old West   THE FIRST TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE: UTAH 23 foot long Acrylic/Canvas Painting. Original Utah Centennial Legacy Mural in Collection of Millard County Commission, Delta, Utah 84624 (Art Prints Not Available) Utah gained Territorial status with the Compromise of 1850. President Millard Fillmore appointed Brigham Young as the first governor. One of the first items of business for Governor Young was establishing a capitol and a capitol city. The settlement and fort on Chalk Creek, in the Pahvant Valley, 145 miles south of Salt lake City, was selected because it was in the center of the new Territory. In honor of the President the county was named Millard and the new capitol was designated Fillmore. All that needed to be done now was build a town And a capitol to follow the dreams and aspirations of joining the Federal Union with full statehood status. On December 10th, 1855, the First Territorial Legislature met in the early morning, for the first time, in their new south wing structure of the contemplated Territorial State House. It was a large two story stone building, erected outside the adobe walls of Fort Fillmore. The sky carried colorful evidence of more winter weather to come, as Lt. General Daniel Wells, commander of the Nauvoo Legion, and the other legislators greeted the arrival of Governor Brigham Young. The Governor himself dedicated the building and gave an eloquent speech for the vision of the future of Utah. Three years later the dream for Fillmore, as a new capitol city, was dead. Beginning with the next Residentially appointed eastern governor, the seat of government was returned, permanently, to Salt Lake City.