Utah
State in western USA; nicknamed Beehive State/Mormon State
Area:
219,900 sq km/84,881 sq mi
Capital:
Salt Lake City
Towns and Cities:
Provo, Ogden
Physical:
Colorado Plateau to the E, mountains in centre, Great Basin to the
W, Great Salt Lake; Great American Desert; Colorado river system; five
national parks: the Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef,
and Zion ; the Uinta Mountains, Utah's tallest mountains (highest peak
4,123 m/13,528 ft); the Wasatch Mountains (over 3,300 m/11,000 ft);
Great Salt Lake; Dinosaur national monument, with Dinosaur Quarry; Rainbow
Bridge national monument; Natural Bridges national monument; Great Basin
desert region; Green River
Features:
Nine Mile Canyon, with rock carvings by the Fremont American Indians;
Hovenweep national monument, with tower structures that may have been
used by the Anasazi American Indians for making astronomical observations;
Golden Spike national historic site, where the Union Pacific and Central
Pacific railroads met 1869, completing the first transcontinental route;
Bingham Canyon Copper Mine; Salt Lake City, based on Brigham Young's
grid plan, with Temole Square, the Tabernacle (home of the Mormon Tabernacle
Choir), the Family History Library (the largest collection of genealogical
data in the world), the Beehive House (1854, Brigham Young's home),
the Union Pacific Railroad Depot (1909), and the Utah state capitol
(1915, a fine example of Renaissance Revival architecture, with murals
depicting Utah's history added during the Depression); Brigham Young
University; Monument Valley Tribal Park, a Navajo centre; Anasazi Indian
village state park; Fremont Indian state park ; Utah Shakespearean Festival,
in an open-air replica of the Globe Theatre, at Cedar City; Intermountain
Power Project, the world's largest coal-fired generating station; auto
racing at Bonneville Salt Flats; Utah has the highest proportion of
high-chool graduates of any state
Industries:
Wool, gold, silver, copper, coal, salt, steel
Population:
(1995) 1,951,400
Famous People:
Brigham Young
History:
Explored first by Franciscan friars for Spain 1776; Great Salt Lake
discovered by US frontier scout Jim Bridger 1824; part of the
area ceded by Mexico 1848; developed by Mormons, still by far
the largest religious group in the state (70% 1996); territory
1850, but not admitted to statehood until 1896 because of Mormon
reluctance to relinquish plural marriage. The world's largest
open-pit copper mine began 1906 at Bingham Canyon.
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