Utah's commercial canning industry dates back to the late 1880s and peaked during the 1920s and 1930s, declining in the late 1950s. The canning industry in Utah was mainly centered in Weber, Davis, and Cache counties, and to a lesser degree in Box Elder, Utah, and Salt Lake counties. Although Utah's canneries produced many different kinds of canned vegetables and fruits, by far the most numerous and highly reputed were tomatoes and peas, grown mostly in Weber, Davis, and Cache counties. These three counties led the state in numbers of canneries, with well over two-thirds of the state's total.

The canning industry, along with the flour rolling mill, sugar beet, and dairy industries, formed the cornerstones of Utah's agricultural community. As happened with the sugar beet industry, the state's canning business had to struggle to get started because canning factories had to convince the local farmers that growing products for sale to the factories would be a money-making venture. The early canning companies also had some difficulty in selling their finished product--consumers had not fully accepted food preserved in cans rather than in bottles.