Chief Walkara (or Walker), a Ute Tribe leader, invited Brigham Young to send pioneers to the area to teach his people the techniques of successful farming.

In 1849, Brigham Young dispatched a company of about 225 settlers, consisting of several families, to the Sanpitch (now Sanpete) Valley.

[5] Under the direction of Isaac Morley and George Washington Bradley (1813-1891), the settlers arrived at the present location of Manti in November.

They endured a severe winter by living in temporary shelters dug into the south side of the hill on which the Manti Temple now stands.

Brigham Young named the new community Manti, after a city mentioned in the Book of Mormon.

The war consisted primarily of various raids conducted by the Native Americans against Mormon outposts in Central and Southern Utah.

[6] In 1865 Utah's Black Hawk War erupted when an incident between a Manti resident and a young chieftain exploded into open warfare between the Mormon settlers and the local Native Americans.

In the fall of 1867, Chief Black Hawk made peace with the settlers, but sporadic violence occurred until 1872, when federal troops intervened.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.0 square miles (5.1 km2), all land.

Manti has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) with warm summers and cold winters, receiving on average barely enough rainfall to avoid a semi-arid classification (BSk).

However, summer, which is the driest season, primarily relies on precipitation from scattered diurnal thunderstorm activity and the Gulf of California monsoon.