American Fork, Utah - Information

American Fork is a pleasant mix of small-town goodness  and modern development. Just minutes away from its quaint Main Street sits the new Utah Valley Business Park, the home of high-profile companies like Dentrix Dental Systems and Nature's Herbs/Twinlabs.

Zip Code - 84003 American Fork saw a slow, steady increase in population from 1990-2000, averaging an increase of 3.4% a year.
Its residents are young (only 35% of American Fork residents are 35 years or older), and its average household size, 3.71, is slightly over the average for Utah County.

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This city was named after the American Fork River. It has also been called McArthursville and Lake City.
Date of Incorporation: June 4, 1853

Did You Know?

American Fork was the first Utah town to have a tax-maintained free school.

American Fork is a city in Utah County

American Fork is locted at the foot of Mount Timpanogos in the Wasatch Range, north of Utah Lake. It is part of the Provo-Orem, Utah Metropollitan Statistical Area.  The population was 26,263 at the 2010 census, nearly a 20% growth since the 2000 census. It has been rapidly growing since the 1970s.  Real Estate in American Fork has felt a tremendous boom over the past decade.

History of American Fork

The area around Utah Lake was used as a seasonal hunting and fishing ground by the Ute Indians. American Fork was settled in 1850 by Mormon pioneers, and incorporated as Lake City in 1852. The first settlers had been Stephen Chipman (grandfather of Stphen L. Chipman, who was a prominent citizen around the start of the 20th Century), Arza Adams, Ira Eldredge, John Eldredge and their families.

The first settlers of American Fork had lived in scattered conditions along the American Fork River. However, by the 1850s, tensions between the settlers and Native Americans was increasing. In 1853, Daniel H. Wells, the head of the Nauvoo Legion (the Utah Territorial Militia at the time), instructed settlers to move into specific forts. At a meeting on July 23, 1853 at the schoolhouse in American Fork, Lorenzo Snow (Mormon Prophet) and Parley P. Pratt convinced the settlers to follow Wells' directions and all move together into a central fort. A fort was built of 37 acres (150,000 m²) to which the settlers located, although only parts of the wall were built to eight feet high, and none were built to the original plan of twelve feet high.

Settlers changed the name from Lake City to American Fork in 1860. It was renamed American Fork after the American Fork River which runs through it. They also did this to avoid confusion with Salt lake City.  Most residents were farmers and merchants during its early history. By the 1860s, American Fork had established a public school, making them the first community in the territory of Utah to offer public education to its citizens. In the 1870s, American Fork served as a rail access point for mining activities in American Fork Canyon. American Fork had "a literal social feud" with the town of Lehi  due to the Utah Sugar Company choosing Lehi as the factory building site in 1890, instead of American Fork. There were also several mercantile businesses in American Fork, such as the American Fork Co-operative Association and Chipman Mercantile. For several decades in the 1900s, raising chickens (and eggs) was an important industry in the city.

During World War II the town population expanded when the Columbia Steel plant was built. An annual summer celebration in the city is still called "Steel Days" in honor of the economic importance of the mill, which closed in November 2001. The steel mill was located approximately six miles (10 km) southeast from town, on land on the east shore of Utah Lake.