Nestled in the northern third of the state the Salt Lake Field Office has within its boundary four of the prehistoric cultural physiographic regions; Columbia Plateau, Great Basin, Plains and Colorado Plateau.  Over 12,000 years of prehistory has been recorded from prehistoric sites within the district, best exemplified by Danger Cave near Wendover.  Lake Bonneville covered most of the area between 24,000-12,800 years ago. A smaller recession stand of the Lake Bonneville occurred between 10,000-9,000 years ago, known as the Gilbert shoreline.  This lake stand covered a large portion of the west desert particularly the Newfoundland Basin and is associated with numerous late Paleo-Indian habitation sites. 

With the coming of Euro American settlement, predominately in the northern portions of the state, several unique historic period sites are located and managed by the Salt Lake Field Office. These include the Central Pacific Railroad, the Pony Express and the historic raceway at the Bonneville Salt Flats.  Other interesting historic cultural sites outside the urban areas include the network of historic trails, such as the Butterfield Stage, the Hasting Cuttoff (Donner-Reed party) and the California Trail.

Additionally, most of the Civil War to turn of the century historic mining took place within the Salt Lake Field Office boundaries.  Important historic mining districts, such as the Tintic, Gold Hill and Ophir Districts are largely managed by the Salt Lake Field Office. WWII and early cold-war era military use left a significant imprint on the west desert. Historic sites such as the impact craters from the Enola Gay's test drops, the Gapa site (US army jet rocket tests similar to the German V1 rocket bomb) and numerous target and bombing ranges are located on BLM lands in the west Desert.