Farm ground remade into a mall, and what happened there
The village that became a shopping center
Where a farming settlement once stood, a stabbing outside a mall kiosk in 2026 marked the ground's latest turn.
Last reviewed 18 September 2026 · A two-minute read · 1000 BC–2022
The short answer
West Valley City, Utah, sits on ground that was farmland for a century before Valley Fair Mall opened there in 1970 on the site of the former village of Granger, founded in 1849. In July 2026, a kiosk worker was stabbed at the mall in an attack police called anti-Muslim; the victim survived.
This is the MAX , the Utah Transit Authority 's bus rapid transit route. So far, there is only one MAX route—the 35M—that travels from Magna to the Millcreek TRAX station. This is the bus at the West Valley Central Green Line station. — 2011 · Martijn van Exel · CC BY-SA 2.0
July 2026
A kiosk worker was stabbed in an anti-Muslim attack
A man walked up to a kiosk near the All Star Bowling & Entertainment store and stabbed the worker running it. The victim was Muslim. Police said the attack was driven by hatred of Muslims. He survived, critically injured, and was rushed into surgery. The man accused of the stabbing, Peter Michael Larsen, was taken into custody soon after and charged with attempted murder.
The kiosk sat within Valley Fair Mall (Utah). The shopping center opened in 1970. It sat on the southwest corner of the Interstate 215 belt route and 3500 South. It replaced open farmland in what was then the unincorporated area of Granger, a farming village founded here in 1849. The mall grew into 120 shops and a 15-screen theater. Over the decades, big stores came and went: ZCMI, Macy's, Old Navy, Bed Bath & Beyond. Each closing made room for something else. Hobby Lobby and a bowling alley took over the old Macy's space in 2019. A discount clothing store took the vacant Bed Bath & Beyond spot years later.
The 2026 stabbing was not the mall's first act of violence. In 2023, a shooting broke out in front of a store near the theater entrance, wounding a 25-year-old man in the hip. Three adults fled and were caught at a nearby train station. Three teenagers were arrested soon after, and police recovered a gun. Both incidents happened on ground that was farmland for a century. Then it became a place where strangers come to shop, eat, and watch movies together.
A kiosk worker was stabbed a few blocks from where families still walk in for movies and bowling.
2016
An officer died laying a spike strip on the road
A West Valley City police officer named Cody Brotherson pulled over to lay down a spike strip during a car chase. The fleeing driver hit him. He died there, on a public roadway meant to carry ordinary traffic. It was the first time in the department's 36-year history that an officer had been killed on duty. The road he died protecting still carries commuters past the mall every day.
1964 to 2020
An earthquake condemned the junior high school building
West Lake STEM Junior High opened in 1964 to serve the growing families of Granger, a few blocks from the mall's future footprint. Generations of students passed through its 64 classrooms. Then the Magna earthquake tore through the region and left the building too damaged to hold class. The school was demolished. Its students moved into a borrowed campus, waiting for a new building to open.
The ground under the mall's parking lot has its own older story.
1000 BC to 500 AD
Hunters camped on the valley floor for centuries
Long before Granger had a name, people camped on this stretch of valley floor. Archaeologists have found evidence of temporary Archaic-period camps scattered across what is now West Valley City, ground people crossed and used but never permanently settled. No village stood here yet. No road, no mall, no rail line. Just people passing through the same flat land, over and over, for fifteen hundred years.
2009 to 2022
A transit hub grew, then lost its park-and-ride
A bus depot opened nearby in 2009, built to move commuters through the valley. Two years later it grew into a light rail stop when the Green Line's tracks reached it, and the depot became a full intermodal hub. Buses, trains and an 80-space park-and-ride lot all met at the same corner. The park-and-ride itself was later removed, gone by 2022, even while the trains kept running through the same spot.
Trains still stop where the depot stood, and shoppers still walk past the kiosk where a man was stabbed for being Muslim.
Open this place in Strata
Every person, building and event in this story opens into its own dig in the app — and it will dig the ground you are standing on instead, wherever that is.
West Valley Central station, an intermodal hub for TRAX light rail and buses, opened a short walk from here and later saw its park-and-ride facility close in 2022.
Franklin S. Richards, born in Salt Lake City in 1849 and a prominent Mormon lawyer and church leader, was among many notable figures Wikidata ties to birth in this valley.
Records place the founding years of several nearby congregations, including a Pentecostal Church of God and Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church, to 1896 as this valley filled in with settlers.
A man walked up to a kiosk near the All Star Bowling & Entertainment store and stabbed the worker running it. Police said the attack was driven by hatred of Muslims, and the victim, critically injured, was rushed into surgery. Peter Michael Larsen was arrested and charged with attempted murder.
What was here before Valley Fair Mall was built?
The mall's site was open farmland in the unincorporated village of Granger, a Mormon pioneer settlement founded in 1849. Valley Fair Mall opened there in 1970.
Has there been other violence at Valley Fair Mall?
Yes. In 2023 a shooting broke out in front of a store near the theater entrance, wounding a 25-year-old man in the hip; three teenagers were arrested and a gun was recovered.
When did West Valley City become its own city?
West Valley City was incorporated in 1980, formed from older communities including Granger and Redwood.
How did a West Valley City police officer die on duty in 2016?
Officer Cody Brotherson was struck and killed while laying down a spike strip during a car chase, the first on-duty death in the department's 36-year history.
What is the earliest recorded human activity on this ground?
Archaeologists have found evidence of temporary Archaic-period camps in this stretch of the valley, used by people passing through between roughly 1000 BC and 500 AD, long before any permanent settlement.
