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The Uinta County Courthouse is actually the result of three stages of development. The first is the 1873 jail, a two-story brick structure built in the center of the town square. It was not intended to be freestanding for any length of time and was a simple structure devoid of ornamentation. The second part of the courthouse was built onto the jail in 1874. In 1910, a two-story brick addition was constructed at the front, or west end, of the courthouse. It changed the scale and character of the courthouse from that of a relatively simple, territorial building to a more pretentious, more national building. The addition is essentially Georgian Revival style.

The significance of the Uinta County Courthouse is based not only upon its architecture, but also upon its age and its place in the history of Uinta County. Uinta County is one of the oldest counties in Wyoming. It was the first new county created by Wyoming laws, established by the First Wyoming Territorial Legislature on December 1, 1869, and organized on April 7, 1870. In 1873, Governor John A. Campbell, Wyoming's first Territorial Governor, approved an act of the legislature authorizing the commissioners of Uinta County to erect a jail and courthouse to cost not more than $25,000. The jail portion of the courthouse was to be built first while the courthouse proper was to be completed by the following year. In 1887 a new jail was built and the jail portion of the courthouse was converted into office space and a storage area. The Uinta County Courthouse is the oldest courthouse building in the state of Wyoming.