Utah Centennial County History Series - Salt Lake County 1996

T h e 1980s in Salt Lake County carried all the earmarks of a hard and heady adolescence. In a decade of complex decisions and striking contrasts, valley leaders eagerly welcomed exotic investment yet shut out the largest military project ever. Near the decade's start and near its end, scientific discoveries beckoned worldwide media to the University of Utah campus where a plastic heart beat in a human chest and fusion experiments promised the energy source of the future; neither event, however, met the financial or practical expectations of discoverers. Meanwhile various areas of the county sought incorporation, most of them unsuccessfully. While Draper and Bluffdale accomplished their goal in 1978, Granger, Hunter, and Chesterfield battled to become the new and struggling West Valley City.

Overall, Salt Lake County entered the 1980s snugly aligned with national politics and trends and strongly supported Ronald Reagan's eight years in the White House. Former Salt Lake City mayor Jake Garn led the United States Senate's banking committee when it scotched his proposed amendment and loosened regulations over