Utah is located in the west of the United States. The Wasatch Range, part of the Rocky Mountains, runs southwards through the northern part of the state from the border with Idaho. The towering, snowcapped Uinta Mountains rise to the east. Water from streams in the Uintas is carried via tunnels, canals and aqueducts to the Wasatch Front, the western foothills of the Wasatch Range on the edge of the Salt Lake Valley. Around 75% of Utah’s population lives in the Wasatch Front region. In southeastern Utah lies the Colorado Plateau, dissected by the deep, winding canyons. Western Utah forms part of the Great Basin, a region that was once the bed of an ancient freshwater lake, Lake Bonneville. Now it is an arid desert containing the lake's last remnant: the Great Salt Lake.

Name

The name Utah is believed to come from the name of the Native American Ute people. It translates as "people of the mountains" in the Ute language. By another theory, Utah's name comes from the language of another Native American people, the Apache. Their word, yudah, means “tall". The Spanish pronounced the word as "Yuta", which was adapted by English-speakers to "Utah”.

Most of Utah has a desert climate, although its mountains and high valleys have their own microclimates. Temperatures are extreme, with cold winters and very hot summers, except in mountainous areas. Any precipitation comes from the Pacific Ocean to the west, especially during the storm season lasting from October to May. The state’s location in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada in California limits the amount of precipitation, although the Wasatch Front region receives heavy snowfall in winter from water evaporated from the Great Salt Lake. This is called the "lake effect".

Cultivated land is limited to a small portion of the state's total area, mainly in the Wasatch Front region, where there is irrigation. Major crops are alfalfa (for hay, feed for cattle), maize, barley, wheat and fruit. Sheep, cattle and poultry are also widely raised. Utah is rich in mineral resources: copper is the chief metal, followed by gold, molybdenum and magnesium. Petroleum production is a major industry in eastern Utah, while the presence of high-grade iron, coal and limestone in central Utah enabled the development of a steel industry in the past.
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Utah, especially around Salt Lake City, is now a centre for aerospace and electronic industries (including the production of memory chips). Other major manufactures are processed foods and machinery. Tourism has become increasingly important to the state's economy. Ski resorts, particularly in the Wasatch Range and the mountains of southwestern Utah, together with five national parks and seven national monuments across the state, are all popular destinations.

Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City was founded in 1847 by Brigham Young and followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). Seeking to escape religious persecution, the Mormons travelled west. On arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, an arid, inhospitable place empty of any human settlement, Young is recorded as declaring "This is the right place, drive on." Four days later Young chose the site for the Salt Lake Temple. Construction started in 1853 on the block later called Temple Square; it took 40 years to complete. The city that went up around it was originally named "Great Salt Lake City”. Meanwhile, the Mormon pioneer settlers irrigated and cultivated the surrounding land.

Great Salt Lake

The largest salt lake in the western hemisphere, the Great Salt Lake has already lost three-quarters of its water and has shrivelled by nearly two-thirds in area since the mid-19th century, when Salt Lake City was founded. It is feared that the lake will soon disappear altogether. Three main rivers, the Bear, Jordan and Weber, supply the lake's water. Around 75% of this inflow has been diverted, via a network of reservoirs and canals, to irrigate crops, mainly alfalfa. At the same time, rising average temperatures—a consequence of global warming—is both evaporating the water from the lake and reducing the amount of snow accumulating on the nearby mountains that feeds the rivers.
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Bryce Canyon

Wind and rain have sculpted the soft sandstone of southern Utah for millions of years. Canyons, arches, pinnacles, buttes, bluffs and mesas are the result. Bryce Canyon is a collection of giant natural amphitheatres along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. It features needle-like structures called hoodoos. Each consists of soft rock topped by harder stone, which protects the soft rock from erosion. In the mythology of the native Paiute, the hoodoos were the Legend People whom the trickster Coyote turned to stone.
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Facts about Utah

Area 84,899 sq miles (219,653 sq km)

Highest point Kings Peak 13,534 ft (4120.3 m)

Population 3,417,734

Capital Salt Lake City

Largest cities Salt Lake City, 194,188; West Valley City, 134,470; West Jordan, 114,908; Provo, 113,343; St. George 104,578; Orem, 95,519; Sandy, 91,943; Lehi, 90,227

Nicknames Sagebrush State, Silver State, Battle Born State

State bird California gull

State flower Sego lily

State tree Blue spruce