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Utah is a western state of the United States, in the Rocky Mountains region. The name Utah is from the language of the
Native American Utes. The
Paiute and Goshute nations also inhabit
portions of the state. Residents are called Utahns.
History
Native Americans have lived in parts of Utah for several
thousand years; they left petroglyphs and pictographs which exist throughout the state.
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado may
have crossed into what is now southern Utah in 1540, when he was seeking the legendary
Cibola.
A group led by two priests--sometimes called the Dominguez-Escalate Expedition--left Santa Fe in 1776, hoping to find a route to the California coast. The expedition travelled as far north as Utah Lake and encounterd the native residents.
Fur trappers including Jim Bidger explored some regions of Utah in the early
1800's. The city of Provo, Utah was named for one such man, Étienne
Provost, who visited the area in 1825.
Mormon settlers first came to the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. At the time, Utah was still Mexican territory. As a consequence of the Mexican-American War, the land became the territory of the United States upon the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2,
1848. The Treaty was ratified by the United States Senate on March 10.
Utah's bid for statehood was accepted January 4, 1896, after over forty years of initial request and struggles. The delay was largely due to disputes between the
Mormon inhabitants--who had settled in the area in 1847 and were pushing for the establishment of the state of Deseret--and
the US Government which was reluctant to admit a state the size of the proposed Deseret into the union, opposed the polygamous practices of the Mormons taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, and observed that the region lacked the necessary 60,000 voters required for statehood. One of the
conditions to granting Utah's statehood was that a ban on polygamy be written into the Utah Constitution. This was a condition
required of other western states that were also admitted later into the Union.
Law and government
See List of Utah Governors
The capital and largest city is Salt Lake City.
Geography
See List of Utah counties
Utah is one of the Four Corners
states bordered by Idaho and Wyoming in the
north, by Colorado in the east, by Arizona in the south, and by Nevada in the west.
One of Utah's defining characteristics is the variety of its terrain. The Wasatch Mountains run a center spine of the state, and the Uinta Mountain range in the north-east (the only east-west running mountain range in North America) includes the highest point in the state, Kings Peak at 13,528 feet. The Great Salt Lake lies to the immediate west of the Wasatch Mountains, beyond
which the Bonneville Salt Flats stretch to Nevada. All
land west of the Wasatch Mountains is within the Great Basin, while
everything to the East drains into the Colorado River
system.
Much of the scenic southern landscape is sandstone, more specifically Kayenta sandstone and Navajo sandstone, cut and shaped
by the Colorado River or its tributaries.
Western Utah is mostly arid desert with a basin and
range geology. Northeastern Utah (from the Wasatch Mountains
eastward and from the Uintah
Plateau northward) is largely mountainous with many wooded and alpine regions.
- Area: 219,900 square kilometers
- Physical features: Great Salt Lake, Utah Lake, Lake Powell, Flaming Gorge, Jordan River, Colorado River, Green River, Lake Bonneville, Wasatch Mountains, Uinta Mountains, Great Basin, National Parks, Four Corners and the
Colorado Plateau.
- Like most of the west and southwest states, the federal government owns much of the land in
Utah. In Utah over seventy percent of the land is either BLM land or national forest, park, monument, recreation or
wilderness area. Under Article IV, § 3, cl.
2 of the United States Constitution, the
federal government has plenary and supreme--although concurrent--civil and criminal jurisdiction over these federal lands within
the borders of each state.
Parks and monuments
The desert plateaus of Southern Utah contains five national parks:
- Bryce Canyon
- Zion National Park
- Canyonlands
- Arches
- Capitol Reef
National Monuments in Utah include:
- Dinosaur National Monument
- Grand
Staircase-Escalante National Monument
- Rainbow Bridge National
Monument
In addition, Utah contains several notable state parks and monuments:
- Dead Horse Point State Park
- Newspaper Rock State
Historic Monument
- This Is The Place State Park
Transportation
Utah's major highways are Interstate 15, which runs the length of
Utah; Interstate 70, which enters the state from Colorado and terminates
at I-15 in central Utah; Interstate 80, which crosses from West
Wendover, Nevada on the west through Salt Lake City and eastward
through Evanston, Wyoming; and Interstate 84, which runs southeast to northwest from I-80 to the Idaho border.
Demographics
The population of Utah as of 2000 is
2,233,169. Much of the population lives in cities and towns along the Wasatch
Front, a metropolitan region that runs north-south with the Wasatch Mountains rising on the eastern side. Most of the rest of the state is rural or wilderness.
Important cities and towns
Aside from the capital Salt Lake City, other major
cities outside of the Salt Lake City area are Orem-Provo, Ogden, Logan and St.
George.
Colleges and universities
Professional sports teams
Miscellaneous information
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