Midvale, and what fits in 5.8 square miles

In the middle of the Salt Lake Valley, on the valley floor, with the Jordan River along its western edge and Interstate 15 running through the middle of it. Murray sits to the north, Sandy to the south, Cottonwood Heights to the east, and West Jordan across the river to the west. Midvale covers about 5.8 square miles and had 36,028 people at the 2020 census, which makes it one of the smallest cities on this stretch of the valley floor.

Three things from three different eras. A brick Main Street laid out for a smelter town that became a city in 1909, now an arts and culture district with more than fifty murals on it. Two old industrial sites on the west side that were cleaned up and rebuilt as named districts with offices, homes, parks, and a rail platform. And an unusual amount of transit for a city this size: three TRAX platforms on two lines inside a boundary you can cross in a few minutes.

Three, on two lines. Bingham Junction is on the Red Line at 7387 South Bingham Junction Boulevard. Midvale Fort Union and Midvale Center are both on the Blue Line, at 7250 South 180 West and 95 West 7720 South. For a city of about 5.8 square miles that is a lot of rail, and it is the most distinctive practical fact about a Midvale address.

Yes, and it is free. It sits on the north end of Midvale City Park at 425 West 6th Avenue, with nine baskets plus a practice one, and it is laid out for beginners and improving players. Start in the far northwest corner of the park and use the western parking lot to reach it. Each hole is signed with a map, so there is nothing to download first. It is a three-season course rather than a year-round one, so call the parks department before a shoulder-season visit.

The outdoor reservation season runs from June 1 to September 30, 8am to 10pm, and not on Sundays. You can reserve the Midvale City Park pavilion, amphitheater, and field, the Bingham Junction Park pavilion, and the Midvale Community Center, which is the exception and books year-round up to a year ahead. Outside the season the outdoor facilities are first come, first served, but the restrooms are closed and the power is off.

Both were cleaned up and both were taken off the Superfund National Priorities List, on separate records and separate dates. The Sharon Steel site, also called Midvale Tailings, covers about 470 acres of former ore-milling and smelting ground and came off the list in 2004. The Midvale Slag site covers 446 acres where smelters ran from the 1870s into the 1950s, and it came off in 2015. What stands on them now is Jordan Bluffs and Bingham Junction.

Harvest Days fills the last week of July. A typical year runs Monday through Saturday, with block parties, an awards evening, a park concert, and a Saturday that opens with a fun run, a pancake breakfast, and a parade. The dates and the exact lineup shift year to year, and summer heat can move the outdoor pieces, so take the current schedule from the city before you plan around it.

It draws the entire western edge of the city rather than running through the middle, and the paved regional trail follows it. Midvale connects to that trail at Jordan Bluffs Park, 7970 Bingham Junction Boulevard, which itself sits on reclaimed ground. The longer trail is a county system covered on the region page, so what belongs to Midvale is a short western edge where the newest buildings sit closest to the greenest ground in town.

Comfortably, because the city is small and everything worth seeing is a few minutes from everything else. A morning on the river edge, a round of disc golf and the museum at the city park, an afternoon walking the murals on Main Street, and an evening on the reclaimed ground fills a day with almost no driving. What one day cannot catch is Harvest Days at the end of July or the mural festival in June, both of which are fixed to their dates.