UTAH

The earliest automobile registration was administered by cities, Salt Lake City being the first to start in 1903.  After state registration began in 1909, cities passed new ordinances to register motorcycles instead.  This continued until a new state law in mid-1915 finally brought motorcycle registration under state control.

The first state law, 1909 Chapter 113, passed on March 22, 1909, and effective May 11, 1909, required automobile owners to register their vehicles with the Secretary of State and pay a one-time fee of $2.  The state issued a small disc, and required a rear owner-provided plate with the assigned disc number in 4-inch-tall numbers, followed by a 1-inch-tall "U" suffix.  No color combination was specified.  Motorcycles were specifically not included in the law, and non-residents were exempted.  Local registration and numbering were prohibited.  Dealers were allowed to apply for duplicate discs "to be designated by letters of the alphabet" for 50c each.

In 1909, the state made an effort "to give each applicant his old number used under the city ordinance."  If the owner was from Ogden, this might have saved him from having a new plate made, since he could merely add the letter "U" to the old one, the number height already matching.  Numbers issued by calendar year and the totals by year in () are listed in the table below.  The highest known pre-state plate is #6368.

      1909                                 1 -  816    (816)

      1910                               817 - 1347    (531)

      1911                              1348 - 1817    (470)

      1912                              1818 - 2587    (770)

      1913                              2588 - 4032  (1,445)

      1914                              4033 - 6284  (2,252)

      1915 (up to final date of May 6)  6285 - 7209    (925)

1911 Chapter 131, passed on March 20, 1911, amended the 1909 law by making changes to the highway rules, but no changes occurred to the registration or plate display sections of the law.  Salt Lake City passed a new ordinance in the spring of 1913, requiring city residents to display a front automobile plate with the same number as the state number on the rear.  Therefore, many mismatched pairs exist, which differ in details of design and/or construction, and it is nearly impossible to determine which is the state plate and which is the city one!

The pre-state era, both the state and city numbers and the city motorcycle plates, came to an end in mid-1915.  1915 Chapter 80, passed on March 17, 1915, required annual state-issued pairs of plates, including pairs for motorcycles, and repealed the 1909 and 1911 laws.  Registration started on May 11, 1915, exactly six years after the first registration law took effect.  Annual fees were now $5, $10 or $15 depending on horsepower, $10 for electric vehicles and trucks, $3 for motorcycles, $25 for dealers, and $2 for each additional pair of dealer plates.  The registration year was set at January 1 to December 31, and compliance was mandatory by July 1, 1915.  Half rates were in effect starting on July 1 of each year including 1915.  Non-residents were allowed 30 days before having to register.  Utah motorists who were previously registered had to surrender their old discs to the Secretary of State when re-registering for 1915, thus explaining the rarity of discs today.

The 1915 registration totals by type, and the highest known 1915 plates, are listed in the following table:

1915                 PASSENGER   MOTORCYCLE   DEALER

Registration totals:   7,974       1,183        78

Highest known plates:  #7580        #266      #D 29