Layton, Davis County's largest city, is located eleven miles south of Ogden and twenty-three miles north of Salt Lake City. It is bordered by the Wasatch Mountains on the east and the Great Salt Lake to the west in an area noted for occasionally strong east winds.

Mormon pioneers first settled the Kaysville-Layton area. Edward Phillips, John H. Green, and William Kay came with their families in the spring of 1850 and were followed by other families the same year. It is easily seen on a contemporary map that Layton, an outgrowth of Kaysville, was not a planned settlement as were many Mormon communities.

An 1854 survey outlined Kaysville's town plat where the business center was located. By 1882 two businesses, the Farmers Union and Barton and Sons, were operative several miles to the north in the area first called Kays Creek. By 1886 that area was known as Layton, named after Christopher Layton, a prominent early settler of the area, and a separate precinct and post office were established there.