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Begin your virtual tour of Box Elder County by clicking on any of the above entry points,
and follow roads or trails through a network of linked images.
Box Elder County covers 5,614 square miles, a large area, in the northwest corner of Utah. Great Salt Lake and its mud and salt flats form most of it's southern boundary; the peaks of the Wasatch Mountains form its eastern boundary. Deserts cover much of the county, but the Wasatch Mountains and the Raft River Mountains which lie on the north, are beautiful forested alpine areas. The Bear River, the longest inland river in the world, flows through the Wasatch Mountains and empties into Great Salt Lake. It, along with other mountain-fed streams provide irrigation water for wide expanses of farmland, especially in the Bear River Valley. Brigham City, the county seat, Bear River City, Tremonton, Garland and other farming towns lie in the Bear River Valley, and along the route of I-15. Snowville and Park Valley are the only towns further west.
The famous completion of the transcontinental railroad took place in Box Elder County at Promontory in 1869. This site, called Golden Spike National Historical Site, is now preserved by the National Park Service. Box Elder County is also home to Thiokol, the company that produces rockets for NASA, including the solid fuel rockets for the space shuttle at an extensive plant near Golden Spike.
Box Elder County's population, as of the year 2000, was 42,745. Interstate 15 passes north-south along the eastern edge of the county, and Interstate 84 breaks off at Tremonton, heading northwest into Idaho. Utah highway 30 crosses from Nevada on the west into Cache Valley on the east, and several other state highways connect the wide areas of the Bear River Valley.
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