Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Mantua, UT

Mantua is a town on the eastern edge of Box Elder County, Utah, at the head of Box Elder Canyon on the northern, western, and southern sides of the Mantua Reservoir.

The 2020 census counted 1,090 residents in the town, up from 687 in 2010, living in 335 households.

The first settlers arrived in 1863, when members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints led by Danish emigre Hans Jens Jensen were sent by Lorenzo Snow to grow flax in the valley, although the town's entry sign says "Founded 1864".

The town was named for Mantua, Ohio, the birthplace of Lorenzo Snow, and Danish pronunciation turned its name into "man-away" rather than Ohio's "man-too-way".

Before receiving its current name, the community was called Box Elder Valley, Copenhagen, Flaxville, Geneva, Hunsaker Valley, Little Copenhagen, and Little Valley.

Mantua was incorporated as a town in 1911.

The town covers about 5.7 square miles, of which about 0.8 square miles is water, and sits at an elevation of 5,164 feet.

Brigham City built an earthen dam on Big Creek in 1959-60 to create the Mantua Reservoir, also known as the Brigham City Reservoir, which Brigham City still owns and operates and which is open to the public, including for ice fishing.

Mantua has a reputation as a speed trap: in 1997 its two police officers issued more than 1,300 speeding tickets worth about $60,000, more than half of the town's yearly revenue.

In 2014 the town issued more than 2,100 traffic tickets worth about $220,000, more than one-third of its yearly revenue, mostly along its stretch of combined US Highway 89/91.