Bountiful Historical Museum

Mission Statement:
The primary purposes of the Bountiful Historical Commission are to help in the gathering, recording, researching, preserving, archiving and disseminating the history of Bountiful.Our main goal is to provide a suitable museum for all historical information and artifacts of Bountiful, and make them readily available to the citizens of our community, so they may come to know and appreciate the sacrifices of our early pioneers in providing this wonderful community for us to live and raise our families in relative peace and tranquility.

History:
Bountiful has the distinction of being the second city established in the State of Utah. Three days after Perrigrine Sessions arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in September 1847, it was decided that he move some cattle north to find better grazing for the winter. Perrigrine and his family lived in a small dugout during that winter some ten miles north of Great Salt Lake City.

As the community continued to grow, many tradesmen and craftsmen began setting up shops, and a variety of goods were soon being manufactured locally andmade available to the new residents. Bountiful was well on its way to becoming a thriving community. It didn't take long for the "city" folk of Salt Lake to realize that Bountiful was a great place to enjoy the fresh country air of a farming community instead of the city life.

Yes, Bountiful soon became the bedroom community of bustling downtown Salt Lake City. As the city continued to grow, many residents became farmers of fresh vegetables, and fruit orchards began to blossom over-night. Bountiful was becoming the breadbasket to Salt Lake.

Farmers began taking their fresh fruit and produce to a market in Salt Lake and earning a nice income to help them through some tough winters that have become a tradition of Bountiful and Davis County. After WW II, many of the farms and orchards were soon sold to provide for the growing economy of the veterans and their beginning families. Bountiful's orchards soon became the "City of Beautiful Homes & Gardens" and today is more than ever still the bedroom community of the downtown city life.