For its first 30 years, Fort Douglas represented federal authority in the largely Mormon Utah Territory.

And for almost 100 years more, it helped train and prepare soldiers to protect the nation's freedoms.

In a premature obituary for Fort Douglas that appeared in the Dec. 19, 1964, Deseret News, when the nation considered closing the post, staff reporter Del Van Orden wrote: "Historians claim that no army post established in the West during the 19th century had a more significant part in the development of the community surrounding it than Fort Douglas."

Soldiers from what was originally known as Camp Douglas were among the first to discover ore in Bingham Canyon, and camp leaders helped to establish the state's mining industry. The camp published Utah's first daily newspaper, was instrumental in bringing electricity into the valley and kept the mail routes open during the Indian Wars.

When the railroad came in 1869, Fort Douglas became the central location for Army activities in the Mountain West, providing a much-needed infusion of money for Salt Lake City.

In 1898, two years after Utah gained statehood, the fort served as a training ground for U.S. troops that would fight in the Spanish-American War, a role it continued to play in World Wars I and II.

During the 1930s, Civilian Conservation camps were directed by the fort.

Fort Douglas proved to be a survivor. The government considered closing the post in the 1860s and again just prior to World War I, just after World War II, in 1967 and again in 1978. It was finally closed as an official army facility in 1988, but its usefulness continues.

In 2002, it served as a temporary home for approximately 4,000 athletes, trainers and officials for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Those buildings are now used as student housing for the University of Utah.

The southern portion of Fort Douglas, including the 120-year-old houses fashioned in "quartermaster Victorian" architecture on Soldiers Circle, continues to be used as the headquarters of the 96th Army Reserve Command and as a base of operations for U.S. Navy and Marine Reserves, as well as home to the Fort Douglas Museum, which traces the military history of the state from the beginning.

A gallery featuring photos from the history of Fort Douglas, retrieved from the archives of the Deseret News by photo researcher Ron Fox, is available now at deseretnews.com.

Fort Douglas traces its beginnings to the Civil War in 1862, when Col. Patrick Edward Connor and the California-Nevada Volunteers were ordered to Utah Territory ostensibly to guard the Overland Mail Route from bands of marauding Indians.