Changing of the Guard

The United States built Fort Douglas on the bench above Salt Lake City in 1862 to defend the western frontier—and keep an eye on Utah’s settlers. In June, 164 years later, the last U.S. Army Reserve units moved out, relocating 30 miles southwest to a $127 million, 227,000-square-foot headquarters in Bluffdale.

The move, completed June 19, caps a process decades in the making—one that required action from the Utah State Legislature, the governor’s office, and Congress—and completes the transfer of the fort’s final 50 acres of active military land to the University of Utah.

“As we accept stewardship of this historic place, we do so with a commitment to honor its past while creating new opportunities for future generations,” says U President Taylor Randall HBA’90.

At its height, Fort Douglas sprawled across 10,500 acres of the east bench, and over 126 years, 1,534 of them passed to the U—land that now holds Research Park, Red Butte Garden, the Natural History Museum of Utah, hospitals, and student housing. Since the last major transfer, in 1991, campus has surrounded the remaining 50-acre reserve center, where some buildings still in use were more than a century old.

Along the way, the post mobilized troops for World War I, routed communications across the Pacific Theater during World War II, and, in the 1890s, was home to the Buffalo Soldiers of the 24th Infantry Regiment.

The Army isn’t leaving entirely: the Utah National Guard will keep operating the Fort Douglas museum, and the federal government will manage the fort’s military cemetery. The rest falls to the U, with conditions. All of Fort Douglas sits on the National Register of Historic Places, and federal preservation law, with oversight from the Utah Office of Historic Preservation, will guide plans for student housing, offices, and services in a planned neighborhood that will be part of the U’s College Town Magic™.

“The best use of historic buildings is to use them,” says Chris Merritt, Utah’s state historic preservation officer.