The area of future Juab County was inhabited by nomadic indigenous peoples before the Mormon settlement of Utah beginning in 1847.

Soon after, Mormons and others traveling through the area had established a road to California, leading SSW from Great Salt Lake City.

It passed Salt Creek,[4] flowing westward through a slough in the Wasatch Mountains.

The new county's description included considerable territory falling in present-day Nevada.

Mining towns, including Diamond, Silver City, and Eureka, appeared.

Mining continued as the dominant economic driver through the mid-twentieth century, then subsided.

[6] Salt Creek grew apace, although in 1882 the town name (and US Post Office designation) was changed to "Nephi".

Its planar areas consist of rugged, arid semi-arable fine-grain soil, with hills and low mountains.

[13] The terrain generally slopes to the north, with its highest point on Mount Ibapah,[14] a crest of the East Central Great Basin Range in northwest Juab County.