Riverton

Settlers of European background first came in the mid-1850s. They spread out along the river bottom and lived in rough dugout homes. Archibald Gardner may have been the first to settle on Riverton land, and the town was first called Gardnerville before it became Riverton.

Growth was slow because there was too little water for crops. When more water arrived, the town grew. Eventually three canals carried water from the nearby Jordan River up to the benchland, which made farming possible across a wider area. By the start of World War I in 1914, Riverton was a well-off farming town with a busy business district.

Early businesses included the Page-Pixon store, a large shop built around the start of the 20th century that sold everything from coal and building materials to groceries and grain. The Jordan Valley Bank opened in 1905. In the years around World War I the town also had a meat market, a blacksmith shop, a canning factory and an alfalfa mill.

Near the end of the 1800s Riverton's farmers moved from growing most of what they ate to growing crops to sell. They focused on alfalfa, wheat, sugar beets, tomatoes, poultry, sheep or dairy cows. In 1886 the Latter-day Saint church began storing tithed produce and livestock on a hill at 1150 West 12400 South. The hill became known as Tithing Yard Hill, and it is now a housing development with the same name.

Electricity came to Riverton in 1912. In 1913 work began on the Salt Lake and Utah Railroad, which ran west of Redwood Road and carried both commuters and freight between Salt Lake City and Payson. Trains ran on it from 1914 to 1945, and then the rails were removed. Riverton's own depot was torn down.

The first school had one room, in the old adobe meetinghouse on 1300 West. In 1892 a two-story brick schoolhouse was begun on Redwood Road, and it opened in January 1893. A fire destroyed one of the school buildings on July 30, 1926, and a new elementary school was built on the site.

Riverton had grown enough to become a city by 1948. In the 1960s and 1970s land prices soared and subdivisions spread. The number of farms in Salt Lake County fell from 2,595 in 1950 to 798 in 1969. Riverton's population went from 2,820 in 1970 to around 10,000 in the mid-1980s.

The city's borders moved many times. Bluffdale became its own town in 1970 and took in land to the south. A large annexation in 1996 nearly doubled the size of Riverton. Once Herriman became its own town, Riverton could not grow farther west.

In 1996 the city bought the old Riverton Elementary School and 9 acres around it from the Jordan School District for $225,000. By the middle of the 2000s the building had been renovated into the Riverton Community Center and City Hall, and some of the land was sold to the county library system for a new library.

The Jordan School District runs Riverton's public schools. Riverton has six elementary schools, two middle schools, Oquirrh Hills and South Hills, and one high school. Saint Andrew Catholic School, the Kauri Sue Hamilton School and the south campus of the Jordan Academy for Technology and Careers are also in the community. School borders do not match city borders, so many Riverton students attend schools in Bluffdale, Herriman and South Jordan.

Riverton High School sits on a 52 acre campus. Its first school year was 1999 to 2000, and by 2009 it was the largest high school in Utah. As of 2024 it had about 2,326 students.

The school is also known for Silver Rush, a charity drive that student leaders began in the school's first year. They pick a new charity each year and raise money through odd jobs, a date auction and concerts. By December 2016 the drive had raised over a million dollars in total.

Intermountain Riverton Hospital opened in November 2009. It serves Riverton, Herriman, Bluffdale and South Jordan, and also some towns in northern Utah County. It has a 24-hour emergency department, a surgical center and a helicopter pad. A children's outpatient center there is run by Primary Children's Medical Center.

Bangerter Highway, the Mountain View Corridor and Redwood Road all pass through the city. Riverton is also easy to reach from Interstate 15 by the 12300 South exit or the Bangerter Highway exit.