This area contains the cities of Tooele, Grantsville, Erda, and Lake Point as well as the unincorporated community of Stansbury Park.

Additional small towns, Ophir and Mercur, are located in two canyons on the south western side of the Oquirrh Mountains.

Evidence of several indigenous Native American groups has been found in Tooele County, but only the western Shoshone-speaking Goshute tribe claim the desolate lands as their ancestral home.

The Great Salt Lake Desert, which comprises much of the northern portion of the county, provided a major stumbling block for the ill-fated Donner-Reed Party in 1846.

[7] Its government was not organized at that time, and the area was attached to Salt Lake County for judicial and administrative purposes.

In 1859 Robert B. Jarvis, a U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs representative, convinced some of the nomadic bands to congregate at a farm reservation called Deep Creek.

Twenty-two overland stagecoach outposts were built in Goshute territory, often on the sites of rare natural springs.

Goshute attacks on mail outposts escalated in 1860, resulting in dozens of deaths in alternating waves of raids.

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, federal troops left the area leaving defense in the hands of the Nauvoo Legion until General Patrick E. Connor arrived in Salt Lake City from California in 1862.

A peace treaty was signed in 1863 which included an annuity of goods and US$1000 in compensation of killed game in exchange for an end to the hostilities, and use of routes through the natives' territories.

The Rush Valley Mining District was established by soldiers in the western Oquirrh Mountains and more than 100 claims were staked in the first year.

Two new mining towns, Ophir and Lewiston ballooned to over 6000 people each in the 1870s, exceeding the population of Tooele and all the Mormon settlements in the area.

The non-Mormon appointed governor of Utah Territory, George L. Woods, campaigned for the Liberals in Tooele County.

The People's Party called attention to the 2,200 votes cast in the election although only 1,500 Tooele County property taxpayers were on record.

Third District Court Judge James B. McKean ruled that no evidence showing illegal activity had been presented.

Since no evidence was provided there were over 300 carpetbaggers or repeat votes in the election, McKean sustained the tally and authorized deputy U.S.

The recorder's office was seized when it was momentarily abandoned, but a contingent of People's Party supporters and incumbents held the county courthouse night and day.

Aware that a show of aggression could spark a battle, the parties were nonetheless unable to come to an agreement to hand over power.

Judge McKean issued an even more strongly worded injunction, and Brigham Young advised his followers that they had an obligation to obey the federal courts.

However, the Utah territorial legislature, which had the last say on the qualifications of its members, refused to seat the Liberal Party representative from Tooele County.

The Liberal Party, typically supported by male miners casually interested in politics, opposed both measures.

On September 8, 2004, the Genesis spacecraft crashed into the desert floor of the Dugway Proving Ground in Tooele County.

The county's western portion is home to the Bonneville Salt Flats, traversed by Interstate 80 and the Wendover Cut-off, the former routing of the Victory Highway.

Heavy industry and the resulting pollution of the air, soil, and groundwater has affected the region in several ways.

The US Environmental Protection Agency has reported that Tooele-based US Magnesium discharges dangerous toxins and cancerous byproducts.

A high level nuclear waste site proposed to be built at the Goshute Tribe Reservation in Skull Valley faced opposition until the plan slowly fizzled out.

From 1972 on, however, it has become powerfully Republican, voting Democratic only once in this period thus far, for Bill Clinton in 1996 (with a low plurality and by a narrow margin).