Tooele County Tooele
The Tooele County courthouse town, the valley next door to Salt Lake
Tooele, Utah, the town that turned a smelter and an Army depot into Salt Lake's next-door valley
Home of the Tooele County offices, about 42,300 people in a valley on the far side of the Oquirrh Mountains, roughly 40 minutes west of Salt Lake City. Locals say the name too-ILL-uh, a pioneer town that grew through a copper smelter and a wartime Army depot into the metro's next-door commuter valley. Eleven pages on the town itself, with the wider county written once and linked.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
Tooele is home to the Tooele County offices, a valley town of about 42,300 on the west side of the Oquirrh Mountains, roughly 40 minutes from Salt Lake City over one low pass. It runs like a full small city rather than a bedroom suburb, with four full supermarkets, its own community hospital, a university campus, two canyons at the edge of town, and a working past you can still read on the ground, from a copper smelter to a wartime Army depot. The signature places and the everyday texture both live on the eleven pages below, and this hub is the map to all of them. The wider county, from the salt flats to the Pony Express Trail, is written once and linked.
The shape of it
A valley between two ranges, and a working past you can still read on the ground
Tooele sits in a broad valley with two mountain ranges for walls. The Oquirrh Mountains rise on the east, between the town and Salt Lake City, and the Stansbury Mountains stand on the west, with 11,031-foot Deseret Peak at their high point. Main Street runs north as State Route 36, out through Lake Point to the Interstate 80 interchange and then east over one low saddle into the Salt Lake Valley. That single mountain, and the roughly 40 minutes it takes to cross it, is the whole shape of daily life here.
You can still read four chapters of the town on the ground. Three pioneer families settled the stream south of the present center in 1849, and Tooele became the center of county government and incorporated in 1853. The mainline railroad arrived in 1904, and in 1910 the International Smelter fired up in Pine Canyon, moving ore over the Oquirrhs on an aerial tramway roughly 20,000 feet long until the last furnace went cold in 1972. Then in 1942 the Army bought some 25,000 acres south of town for what became the Tooele Army Depot, the ammunition-logistics post that outlasted the mines and became the economic spine. What makes Tooele different walks all four chapters in full.
The town those chapters built is now the Salt Lake metro's next-door valley, a place where about 39 percent of county workers have jobs outside the county and the rest of a normal week happens at home. Its newest landmark, the Deseret Peak Utah Temple, was dedicated in November 2024 as the Church's 200th operating temple. And the name outsiders stumble over is said too-ILL-uh, softened by locals to tuh-WILL-uh, never TOO-lee. This hub keeps to the map and sends the detail down to the pages below, starting with that four-chapter story and the last steam engine in Utah at the Tooele Valley Railroad Museum. The practical side of a move, the prices, the schools, and the live listings, sits on the Tooele city guide.
Two ranges, one low pass, and four chapters of rail, copper, and khaki still legible on the streets. That is Tooele in one line.
The wider county
The salt flats, Wendover, and the Pony Express Trail are written once, for the whole county
Tooele County is one of the largest and emptiest counties in the country, and its marquee places belong to no single town. Those subjects sit at the county level rather than getting retold on each town page. This hub names six and links out, and keeps its own pages close to home.
Far west, near Wendover
Bonneville Salt Flats
The white racing flats where land-speed records fall, drivable only when the salt is dry.
Read
The Utah-Nevada line
Wendover
A border town of WWII airfield history, a guided-tour cave, and a scuba spring to the south.
Read
South across the desert
The Pony Express Trail
The drivable 1860 mail route past Simpson Springs, graded gravel and no services.
Read
Out on the trail
The Onaqui Wild Horses
A free-roaming herd of around 450 horses on the Pony Express corridor near Simpson Springs.
Read
The old silver canyons
Ghost Towns and Mining Camps
Mercur, Ophir, and the Rush Valley camps, some visitable and some gated, with honest access truth.
Read
North toward the lake
Stansbury Park
The planned lake community minutes north, with a public golf course and an observatory's free star parties.
ReadAll ten county pages sit under the Tooele County region hub, the front door to every town in the county.
The Tooele companion
Eleven pages on the town itself, from the canyons to the county fair
Eleven pages sit under this hub, one for each thread of the town. A few open the canyons and the rail yard, a couple dig into the smelter-and-depot history, others walk you through a normal week of groceries and schools, weigh the commute trade, or gather the summer concerts and the county fair. Pick the card that matches your question.
Things to do
Top 12 things to do
The honest ranked list, the in-town picks and the short drives marked as drives.
Read
Rail, smelter, depot
What makes Tooele different
The four-chapter arc from pioneer town to the commuter valley of today.
Read
The last steam freight
Tooele Valley Railroad Museum
Locomotive No. 11, the last steam engine to pull freight in Utah, on a free downtown yard.
Read
The signature drive
Middle Canyon
The climb east to an overlook that stares down into the Bingham Canyon copper mine.
Read
The in-town canyon
Settlement Canyon
A stocked reservoir and a campground two miles south of Main Street, bank fishing only.
Read
Summer in the park
Fridays on Vine
The free Friday concert series that anchors the city's own event year.
Read
The fairgrounds
The Peak and the county fair
The county venue on SR-112 behind Tooele County Heritage Days in late July, the July rodeo, and events all year.
Read
The institutions
Where Tooele eats
A Main Street brewpub, a home-style diner, a Greek-run burger counter, and the new Smith's.
Read
Everyday life
Living in Tooele
Four full supermarkets, a community hospital, a university campus, and how a week runs.
Read
The relocation reality
Moving to Tooele
The commute trade, two roads to I-80, winter and wind, and where the jobs are.
Read
Close to far
Day trips from Tooele
A mine overlook, a ghost town at Ophir, the salt flats, and Salt Lake, each an easy drive.
ReadWeighing a move, not a visit?
If you are shopping rather than sightseeing, head over to the city guide instead. That is where the buyer questions get answered, from what homes cost on the east bench to which schools serve which streets, next to the current listings.
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
Quick answers
Tooele, answered
Locals say too-ILL-uh, with the stress on the middle, and many soften it in everyday speech to tuh-WILL-uh. The one to avoid is TOO-lee, which is the version that marks a newcomer. The name reaches back to the valley's earliest history, and the fuller story of where it came from lives on the Tooele County guide.
Tooele is home to the Tooele County offices, a valley town about 40 minutes west of Salt Lake City. It is known for a layered working past, a pioneer town, a mainline railroad stop, a copper smelter, and a large Army depot, and for being the metro's next-door commuter valley today. The Deseret Peak Utah Temple, dedicated in 2024, is its newest landmark, and two canyons open right at the edge of town.
About 35 miles and roughly 40 minutes, east over one low mountain pass on Interstate 80. Salt Lake City International Airport sits on the near side of the valley, about 35 to 40 minutes away. Two roads now carry the valley out to I-80, Main Street through Lake Point and the Midvalley Highway, which opened in 2021.
The honest short list is two canyons and a rail yard. Middle Canyon climbs east to an overlook above the Bingham Canyon copper mine, Settlement Canyon holds a stocked reservoir a couple of miles south of Main Street, and the free Tooele Valley Railroad Museum keeps Locomotive No. 11 on its original yard. Add the summer Fridays on Vine concerts, an indoor pool, and a municipal golf course. The ranked list on this companion sorts a dozen of them.
A temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the northwest side of Tooele, dedicated on November 10, 2024. It was the Church's 200th operating temple, a milestone that put a national spotlight on the town, and it stands on a rise with the Oquirrh Mountains behind it.
The International Smelter, built in Pine Canyon east of town, which smelted copper, lead, and zinc from 1910 until the last furnace closed in 1972. Its most striking feature was an aerial tramway roughly 20,000 feet long that carried ore in buckets over the top of the Oquirrh Mountains from the Bingham side. The site was later cleaned up and reclaimed into a wildlife area.
That depends on one trade. You get a full small city with four full supermarkets, a community hospital, a university campus, canyons at the edge of town, and more room than the metro, in exchange for one mountain between you and Salt Lake and a single main corridor carrying the morning commute. The Midvalley Highway added a second route to Interstate 80 in 2021, which softened the pinch.
Yes to both. Mountain West Medical Center on North Main is a community hospital affiliated with University of Utah Health, and both large systems also run outpatient clinics in town. Since a Smith's Marketplace opened in December 2025, Tooele has four full supermarkets: Smith's, Macey's, Lucky and Walmart. The widest specialty care is still about 40 minutes over the hill.
It is a hub and eleven pages. This page is the overview and the map to the rest: the ranked things to do, the identity and history, the railroad museum, Middle Canyon, Settlement Canyon, Fridays on Vine, The Peak and the county fair, where Tooele eats, everyday life, the relocation reality, and the day trips within a drive. The wider county, from the salt flats to the Pony Express Trail, is written once at the Tooele County level and linked from here.
A courthouse town worth getting right
Tooele asks a household its own questions: the valley floor or the east bench, whether one mountain between you and Salt Lake fits your week, how the Main Street corridor drives in a January storm, and what a full small city with its own hospital and payroll is worth to you. Tell me what you are weighing and I will introduce you to a Tooele County partner agent who knows these streets, and stay on the file for the research and the financing side.
Or call Scott: (435) 357-4345or send Scott a message
Keep going
Continue your Tooele research
Eight more doors into Tooele, chosen for what this page covers.
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