The writing of county and local histories was taken up by a number of groups, especially the Daughters of Utah Pioneers. Centennials have called forth worthy efforts. Town and gown collaboration produced a history of Cache Valley in 1956. Pearl Jacobson and others produced volumes for Richfield's and Sevier Valley's in 1964. Dixie is perhaps best treated of Utah's regions, by the writings of Andrew Karl Larson and Juanita Brooks. Recently southeastern Utah has received exemplary treatment by David Miller, Charles S. Peterson, and Faun McConkie Tanner.

During the Great Depression the study of Utah history was advanced by activities sponsored by the WPA Historical Records Survey. Inventories of county records were made, scores of pioneer diaries, journals, and life sketches were copied and made available. Many pioneer records were brought to light and placed in permanent depositories. Dale L. Morgan and Juanita Brooks were important in this work, the former contributing significantly to Utah, A Guide to the State (1941), with its chapter essays on a wide range of subjects, the best information and writing up to that time.

During the 1930s came the promise of much better history in the efforts of Andrew Love Neff and Nels Anderson. Neff visioned a multi-volume history of Utah which would have been definitive and detailed, but his life was cut short in 1936. Leland H. Creer prepared his unfinished manuscript for publication: Neff's History of Utah, 1847 to 1869 (1940). The work made new contributions to the pre-1847 period, and defined the 1850s and much of the 1860s; it is a tribute to the man and his goal.