Draper (Salt Lake) is in the southeast corner of the Great Salt Lake Valley, four miles southwest of the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. The town was first known as Willow Creek for the creek the settlers used. They also used the region as a grazing area for their cattle. The town name was then changed to Brownsville for Ebenezer Brown and family who arrived in 1849. Later, the name was again changed to honor William Draper, the town's first Mormon bishop. The Draper family settled in the area in 1850.

John W. Van Cott