Proper noun

Singular Utah

Plural -

Utah

1. A state of the United States of America. Capital: Salt Lake City.

Derived terms

• UT
• Utahan
• Utahn

The State of Utah (pronounced /ˈjuːtɔː/ or /ˈjuːtɑː/ (help·info)) is a western state of the United States. It was the 45th state admitted to the Union on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80 percent of Utah's 2,736,424 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering around Salt Lake City. In contrast, vast expanses of the state are nearly uninhabited, making the population the sixth most urbanized in the U.S. The name "Utah" is derived from the Ute Indian language, meaning "people of the mountains."

Utah is known for being one of the most religiously homogeneous states in the Union. Between 58 percent and 72 percent of Utahns are reported to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church), which greatly influences Utah culture and daily life.

The state is a center of transportation, information technology and research, government services and mining as well as a major tourist destination for outdoor recreation. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's population estimates, Utah was the fastest growing state in the United States as of 2008. St. George, Utah was the fastest growing metropolitan area in the United States from 2000–2005.

History

Utah is a U.S. state located in the western United States. It was the 45th state admitted to the union, on January 4, 1896.

Sourced

• This was the country the Mormons settled, the country which, as Brigham Young with some reason hoped, no one else wanted. Its destiny was plain on its face, its contempt of man and his history and his theological immortality, his Millennium, his Heaven on Earth, was monumentally obvious. Its distances were terrifying, its cloudbursts catastrophic, its beauty flamboyant and bizarre and allied with death.
  • Wallace Stegner, Mormon Country (1982)

• The Utah deserts and plateaus and canyons are not a country of big returns, but a country of spiritual healing, incomparable for contemplation, meditation, solitude, quiet, awe, peace of mind and body. We were born of wilderness, and we respond to it more than we sometimes realize. We depend upon it increasingly for relief from the termite life we have created. Factories, power plants, resorts, we can make anywhere. Wilderness, once we have given it up, is beyond our reconstruction.
  • Wallace Stegner, Wilderness at the Edge (1990)

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Thu Jun 11 07:07:48 2009