The first permanent settlers (about 30 families) moved into the area in 1864 at the direction of leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

They returned to Salina in 1871, organized a militia, and constructed a fort and buildings for a school and a church.

A creek north of the settlement was tapped to provide water for irrigation, domestic purposes, and to power various enterprises such as sawmills, grist mills, salt refineries and generation of electricity.

In June 1891, the settlement was connected to the state's railroad system, and that year the central area was incorporated as a town.

[6] During World War II, Salina contained a POW camp, housing 250 German prisoners, most of them members of Erwin Rommel's Afrikakorps.

[7] On the night of July 8, 1945, Private Clarence Bertucci climbed one of the guard towers and took aim at the tents where the prisoners were sleeping.

He fired 250 rounds from a light machine gun and managed to hit some thirty tents in his fifteen-second rampage.

[9] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 6.2 square miles (15.9 km2), all land.

Salina's annual precipitation averages around 7.82 inches (20 cm), which causes the area to be classified as desert.

By the end of the nineteenth century the town had a newspaper (the Central Utah Press), a city hall and library, and an eight-room elementary schoolhouse, along with a plethora of saloons, boarding houses and dancehalls.

[12] During the Great Depression a Civilian Conservation Corps camp was established in the area east of Salina, and its attendees worked on dams, roads and recreation sites.

The Richfield Airport, 22 miles (35 km) south of Salina, has a paved runway of 6,645 ft (2,025 m).