Utah’s official name is “The State of Utah,” and it became the 45th state to join the United States on January 4, 1896.
Utah (U.S. State)
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Facts About Utah (U.S. State)
Utah’s capital city is Salt Lake City, which was founded in 1847 by pioneers looking for a place where they could practice their religion freely.
Utah has a population of over 3.3 million people, making it the 30th most populated state in America.
Utah is nicknamed “The Beehive State” because early settlers valued hard work and cooperation, just like bees in a beehive!
Utah’s state motto is “Industry,” which represents the hard-working spirit of the people who built the state.
Utah’s state bird is the California Gull, which became famous for saving early settlers’ crops from a cricket invasion in 1848.
Utah’s state flower is the Sego Lily, a beautiful white flower that early pioneers ate the bulbs of when food was scarce.
Utah ranks as the 13th largest state in the United States, covering about 84,897 square miles (219,882 square kilometers) — that’s more than twice the size of Jordan!
The name “Utah” comes from the Native American Ute tribe and means “people of the mountains.”
The Great Salt Lake in Utah is the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi River and is even saltier than the ocean!
Utah has five national parks called the “Mighty Five”: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, and Arches — more national parks than most other states!
Timpanogos Cave National Monument in Utah contains beautiful cave formations that took over 70,000 years to form!
Utah is home to Rainbow Bridge, one of the world’s largest natural bridges, which stands 290 feet (88 meters) tall — about as high as a 26-story building!
The Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah are so flat and smooth that they’re used to test how fast cars can go, with some reaching over 600 miles per hour (966 kilometers per hour)!
Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake, Utah, is home to free-roaming bison, antelope, and many bird species that kids can see up close.
Utah experiences “lake effect snow,” where the Great Salt Lake adds extra moisture to storms, sometimes creating massive snowfalls of over 500 inches (13 meters) in the mountains each year!
The highest point in Utah is Kings Peak, which reaches 13,528 feet (4 kilometers) above sea level—taller than 3,560 kids standing on each other’s shoulders!
Utah contains part of the “Grand Staircase,” a series of colorful cliffs and plateaus that look like giant steps across the landscape.
The Great Salt Lake is a remnant of ancient Lake Bonneville, which was once the size of Lake Michigan about 30,000 years ago.
Utah’s Wasatch Mountains receive some of the “greatest snow on Earth” because it’s unusually light and fluffy due to the dry climate.
Utah is the second-driest state in the nation after Nevada, receiving only about 13 inches (33 centimeters) of rain per year.
Pando, a colony of aspen trees in Utah, is actually a single organism with connected roots and is possibly the heaviest living thing on Earth, weighing nearly 13 million pounds!
The first people to live in Utah were Native Americans including the Ancestral Puebloans who built incredible cliff dwellings over 1,000 years ago.
In 1776, two Spanish priests, Fathers Dominguez and Escalante, were the first Europeans to explore Utah, long before it became part of the United States.
Mormon pioneers led by Brigham Young settled in Utah in 1847, and when he first saw the Salt Lake Valley, he famously declared, “This is the right place.”
Utah was originally called “Deseret,” a word from the Book of Mormon meaning “honeybee,” before the United States government changed it to Utah.
The Golden Spike National Historic Site marks where the First Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869, connecting America from east to west.
Utah women were granted the right to vote in 1870, 50 years before women across America could vote — making Utah one of the first places where women had voting rights!
The first KFC restaurant opened in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1952, before becoming a worldwide fast-food chain.
During World War II, a special military unit called the 10th Mountain Division trained in Utah’s mountains before fighting in snowy areas of Europe.
Utah hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, welcoming athletes from 77 countries to compete in winter sports.
When Mormon settlers first arrived in Utah, they created hundreds of small irrigation canals to turn the desert into farmland, changing the landscape forever.
Dinosaur National Monument in Utah contains one of the largest dinosaur fossil collections in the world, with over 1,500 dinosaur bones visible in one cliff wall!
Utah’s Promontory Summit is where workers from the east and west hammered in the Golden Spike on May 10, 1869, completing America’s first transcontinental railroad.
Before becoming a state, Utah applied for statehood six times between 1849 and 1887 before finally being admitted to the Union in 1896.
Utah’s state flag features the state seal on a blue background with an American eagle holding arrows as a symbol of protection.
The California Gull became Utah’s state bird after these gulls helped save crops from a cricket plague in 1848, which settlers called the “Miracle of the Gulls.”
Utah’s state insect is the honey bee, which connects to its nickname “The Beehive State” and symbolizes hard work and cooperation.
The state cooking pot of Utah is the Dutch oven, which pioneers used to cook meals as they traveled west.
Utah’s state fish is the Bonneville Cutthroat Trout, which has lived in Utah’s waters since prehistoric times when the Great Salt Lake was much larger.
The official state fossil of Utah is the Allosaurus, a fearsome dinosaur that hunted in Utah 150 million years ago.
Utah’s state gemstone is topaz, and kids can find these shiny, colorful crystals in the Thomas Mountain Range.
The state tree of Utah is the Quaking Aspen, whose leaves shake and “quake” in even the lightest breeze, creating a beautiful sound in Utah’s mountains.
Utah’s official state fruit is the cherry, which grows beautifully in Utah’s climate and celebrates the many orchards in cities like Payson and Santaquin.
The official state rock of Utah is coal, which reminds us of the important role mining played in its history and development.
Temple Square in Salt Lake City receives more visitors than the Grand Canyon, with about 5 million people visiting each year!
Park City, Utah, is home to the Sundance Film Festival, the largest independent film festival in the United States, where new movies premiere each year.
Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, isn’t actually a canyon, but a series of giant natural amphitheaters filled with colorful spire-shaped rock formations called “hoodoos.”
