Camp Floyd

Camp Floyd Site
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Nearest city:	Fairfield, Utah
Coordinates:	40°15′26″N 112°6′14″W
Area:	40 acres (16 ha)
Governing body:	State
NRHP Reference#:	74001939
Added to NRHP:	November 11, 1974

Camp Floyd was a short-lived U.S. Army post near Fairfield, Utah, United States. The site is now a Utah state park known as Camp Floyd / Stagecoach Inn State Park and Museum.

Camp Floyd

Stage Coach Inn, Camp Floyd State Park in Fairfield, Utah.

Established in July 1858 by a US Army detachment under the command of Bvt. Brig. Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, Camp Floyd was named for then Secretary of War John B. Floyd. The army consisted of more than 3,500 military and civilian employees, including cavalry, artillery, infantry, and support units. This army, the largest single troop concentration then in the United States, was sent by President James Buchanan to stop a perceived Mormon rebellion, which came to be known as the Utah War.

From Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the army marched to Fort Bridger, Wyoming where it spent the winter of 1857. Troops arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah in June 1858. Soon after their arrival, troops settled in the Cedar Valley area and eventually Fairfield, where 400 buildings were constructed by November 1858. A series of photographs of Camp Floyd, taken by Samuel C. Mills in January 1859, show the post as a cluster of adobe buildings including barracks, officers quarters, warehouses and other sundry structures. Enough civilians soon followed to increase the town size to 7000, almost half that of Salt Lake City. The rebellion never took place, leaving the army with routine garrison duty that included protecting the stagecoach and Pony Express routes, preventing Indian marauding, and mapping and surveying responsibilities.

Supplying the large garrison, 1100 miles from Fort Leavenworth, was costly. It was rumored to be an attempt by Secretary of War Floyd (a known southern sympathizer) to drain the federal treasury. A contract with the firm of Russell, Majors and Waddell for delivery of 16 million pounds of freight required 3500 wagons, 40,000 oxen, 1000 mules and more than 4000 men. This same company formed the Pony Express, which had a station in Fairfield.

After Secretary of War Floyd resigned on December 29, 1860, Camp Floyd was renamed Fort Crittenden. It was abandoned in July 1861 with the military being called east for the American Civil War. Equipment and buildings were sold, destroyed or transported. All that remain today are the military cemetery and one commissary building. Two months after the army's departure, only 18 families remained in Fairfield.

State Park

Camp Floyd/Stagecoach Inn State Park Museum is located 25 miles southwest of Lehi, Utah on State Route 73. The park is open Mon-Sat from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

This heritage park reflects the settlement of Utah and its resolution of ongoing conflicts with the federal government.

See also

• Cedar Fort, Utah
• Fairfield, Utah
• Fort Douglas, Utah
• List of Utah state parks
• Utah State Parks

• John Buford
• James H. Simpson

External links

• Official Camp Floyd website by Utah State Parks
• Camp Floyd by Utah.com (a commercial joint venture of the Utah Office of Tourism)