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History · Palmyra

Palmyra’s post office opened in 1852, and 19% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1948 on and the census since 1940.

1852first post office
0on the National Register
19%homes built before 1940
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Photo: An Errant Knight · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Palmyra began

When was Palmyra founded?

1852

The Palmyra post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 262 in 19402020 census: 443174 years
Founding year: the first Palmyra post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Palmyra’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Palmyra are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Palmyra’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Palmyra’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Palmyra came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Palmyra.

Read it all →

Palmyra, located seven miles south of Provo, was founded on the Spanish Fork River in 1852. The settlement was incorporated as a city by the Utah territorial legislature the following January. In March 1853, Stephen Markham was ordained a bishop and set apart to preside over the Palmyra LDS Ward. The town was eventually abandoned sometime in 1856, under the advice of Brigham Young. Most of the settlers located farther up the river, where the site of present-day Spanish Fork had been chosen and where a survey of a city had already been made. At the turn of the century, the area was resettled.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Palmyra in 1890

Passages that mention Palmyra, cut from the printed page as they were published.

The reader will remember that the Smith family resided, from 1825 to 1830, during the incubation period of the fraud, at the village of Palmyra, New York , and at Manchester , near by . The Booh of Mormon was printed in 1829-30, at Palmyra, and published to the world in the last named year. About t…
The prophet of Palmyra1890 · page 419Read the page →
Read the text

The reader will remember that the Smith family resided, from 1825 to 1830, during the incubation period of the fraud, at the village of Palmyra, New York , and at Manchester , near by . The Booh of Mormon was printed in 1829-30, at Palmyra, and published to the world in the last named year. About the time of its publication a church was foimed, and^ soon afterwards it was decided to emigrate to, and

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
any one that a new dispensation was coming. That young Joseph had had a dream that was more wonderful than anything he had ever read in the book of Daniel, and that if the village of Palmyra did not repent it would meet the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The prophet of Palmyra1890 · page 48Read the page →
Read the text

any one that a new dispensation was coming. That young Joseph had had a dream that was more wonderful than anything he had ever read in the book of Daniel, and that if the village of Palmyra did not repent it would meet the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Timeline

Palmyra, 1852 to 1948

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1852Post officeThe Palmyra post office opens
  3. 1856Post officeThe Palmyra post office closes
  4. 20th century
  5. 1948On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Palmyra, decade by decade

Today12 recent
East across southern Utah Valley at Wasatch Range, Jun 172017East across southern Utah Valley at Wasatch Range, Ju…West along SR-77 at about 650 West in Palmyra, Utah, May 162016West along SR-77 at about 650 West in Palmyra, Utah, …Welcome to Palmyra sign, Palmyra, Utah, Jun 162016Welcome to Palmyra sign, Palmyra, Utah, Jun 16Spanish Fork River at SR-77, May 162016Spanish Fork River at SR-77, May 16Southwest at West Mountain from SR-77 in Palmyra, Utah, May 162016Southwest at West Mountain from SR-77 in Palmyra, Uta…South at Palmyra Dr & W 4400 S intersection Palmyra, Utah, May 162016South at Palmyra Dr & W 4400 S intersection Palmyra, …South at I-15 from SR-147 overpass, Utah County, Utah, Jun 162016South at I-15 from SR-147 overpass, Utah County, Utah…Plaque on Welcome to Palmyra sign, Palmyra, Utah, Jun 162016Plaque on Welcome to Palmyra sign, Palmyra, Utah, Jun…North-northwest on Swede Lane from SR-77, Palmyra, Utah, May 162016North-northwest on Swede Lane from SR-77, Palmyra, Ut…East at SR-147 overpass over I-15, Apr 162016East at SR-147 overpass over I-15, Apr 16East at Palmyra Dr & W 4400 S intersection Palmyra, Utah, May 162016East at Palmyra Dr & W 4400 S intersection Palmyra, U…UTMap-doton-Palmyra2004UTMap-doton-Palmyra
On the map

Palmyra on the map, 1948 to 1993

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Palmyra. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Palmyra on the 1948 USGS mapPalmyra on the 1950 USGS mapPalmyra on the 1969 USGS mapPalmyra on the 1975 USGS mapPalmyra on the 1993 USGS map1948Provo sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Palmyra.

People over time

Palmyra, census by census

010020030040050019401960198020002020Peak: 491

Between 236 and 491 people in every census since 1940.

5 censuses, 1940–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Palmyra’s Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Palmyra had its own post office from 1852 to 1856.

Palmyra
1852–1856
18501940today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Lake ShoreIts storyC−BenjaminIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townSpanish Fork4 historic placesC+

Questions about Palmyra’s history

What year was Palmyra founded?

The Palmyra post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (12), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.