Page Toppers

• Busy as a Bee
• The Great Salt Lake
• The Greatest Show on Earth
• Utah, This is the Place
• Utah We Love Thee

Utah Symbols

• Nicknames: The Beehive State; The Salt Lake state
• Slogan: The Greatest Snow on Earth
• Motto: Commercial Products
• Emblem: Beehive (symbolizes thrift and industry)
• Song: Utah, This is the Place
• Hymn: Utah We Love thee (words and music by Evan Stephens)
• Folk Dance: Square Dance
• Animal: Rocky Mountain Elk
• Bird: Common American Gull
• Fish: Bonneville Cutthroat Trout (Rainbow Trout)
• Insect: Honeybee
• Tree: Blue Spruce
• Flower: Sego Lily
• Grass: Indian Ricegrass
• Fossil: Allosaurus
• Gemstone: Topaz
• Mineral: Copper
• Rock: Coal
• Centennial Star: Dubhe (in Ursa Major)
• Fruit: Cherry
• Vegetable: Spanish Sweet Onion
• Historic Vegetable: Sugar Beet
• Pro Sports Teams: UT Jazz (NBA), Salt Lake Buzz(Triple A baseball), UT Grizzlies(IHL), UT Starzz (WNBA)

Facts About Utah

• Capital: Salt Lake City
• Residents: Utahns (that really is the correct spelling!)
• State Name Origin (Theory 1): named after the Ute Indian tribe, it means "people of the mountains"
• State Name Origin (Theory 2): from the word "Yuttahih" (used by the Apache to refer to the Navajo) meaning "one that is higher up"
• Admitted to Statehood: 4 Jan 1896
• Order of Admission: 45th state
• Length: 350 miles
• Width: 270 miles
• Area: 84,899 sq miles
• Size Rank: 13
• Number of Counties: 29
• Lakes and Reservoirs: over 147,000 acres
• The Great Salt Lake covers 2,100 sq miles (average depth is 13', deepest point is 34')
• Streams and Rivers: 85,916 miles (over 11,000 miles are fishing streams)
• Geographic Center: in Sanpete (3 miles N of Manti in Sanpete Co.)
• Mean Elevation: 6,100'
• The Mean Elevation of the tallest mountain peaks in each Utah county is 11,222': higher than any other state.
• Highest Point: Kings Peak, 13,528'
• Lowest Point: Beaverdam Creek, 2,000'
• Agricultural Products: food products, cattle, corn, hay, wheat, barley
• Commercial Products: tourism, computer software (including Novell and Word Perfect), transportation equipment, medical instruments, electronic parts, steel, copper (largest employer is the state government)
• Average Annual Rainfall: less than 5" in the desert, over 60" in the northern mountains
• Average Annual Snowfall: 500" in the mountains near Salt Lake
• Utah's snow is unusually dry because it is so far inland. Some say it is the world's greatest powder.
• Average Winter High Temperature: 30 degrees
• Record Low Temperature: -69 degrees (1 Feb 1985 at Peter's Sink)
• Average Summer High Temperature: 79 degrees
• Record High Temperature: 117 degrees (5 Jul 1985 at Saint George)
• Official Language: English
• More information about Utah

Quotes

• Alaska is out biggest, buggiest, boggiest state. Texas remains our largest unfrozen state. But mountainous Utah, if ironed out flat, would take up more space on a map than either. (Edward Abbey)
• The homesickness was not merely for Salt Lake, a city in a valley under the lee of mountains, with the glint of the lake off westward, but for a whole region, a whole lifetime of acclimatization and expectation. (Wallace Stegner)
• To start a trip at Mexican Hat, Utah, is to start off into empty space from the end of the world. (Wallace Stegner)

Items of Interest

• The controversy surrounding the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell is believed by some to be the beginning of the environmental movement.
• The television series "Touched by an Angel" is filmed in Utah.
• Rainbow Bridge is the world's largest natural-rock span. It stands 278 feet wide and 309 feet high.
• The nations first department store, Zions Co-operative Mercantile Institution was established in Utah in the late 1800's. It is still in operation today as ZCMI.
• On May 10, 1869 the nation celebrated the completion of the world's first transcontinental railroad at Promontory, UT where the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads met. It is now known as Golden Spike National Historic Site
• Utah has the highest literacy rate in the nation.

Notable Natives

Some of these people were born here, others just lived a part of their life in the state.

• Maude Adams - actress (Salt Lake City)
• Danny Ainge (1959- ) - basketball player, coach
• Roseanne Barr - actress (Salt Lake City)
• Frank Borzage - film director, producer (Salt Lake City)
• Reva Beck Bosone (1895-1983) - member of congress, rights activist
• Wilford Brimley actor
• John Moses Browning (1855-1926) - gun maker (Ogden)
• Nolan Kay Bushnell (1915- ) - computer programmer, invented the first coin-operated video game (Ogden)
• Barney Clark - early heart transplant patient (Provo)
• Butch Cassidy (born Robert LeRoy Parker) (1887-ca1915) - western outlaw (Beaver)
• Laraine Day - actress (Roosevelt)
• Bernard DeVoto - author (Ogden)
• Marriner Eccles (1890-1977) - started First Security Corp., helped end the Great Depression
• Avard Fairbanks - sculptor (Provo)
• Philo Farnsworth (1906-1971) - inventor of television (Beaver)
• Harvey Fletcher - physicist
• Edwin Jacob "Jake" Garn (1932- ) - first U.S. senator in space in 1985 aboard the space shuttle Discovery (Richfield)
• Anthony Geary - actor (Coalville)
• John Gilbert - actor (Logan)
• Orrin Hatch (1934- ) - senator
• Black Hawk - native American leader
• William Dudley Haywood - labor leader
• John Held Jr. - author, illustrator
• Jon Huntsman, Sr. (1937- ) - philanthropist
• Howard A. Jarvis - social reformer (Magna)
• David Abbot "Ab" Jenkins (1883-1956) - race car driver, set many speed records
• David M. Kennedy - government official (Randolph)
• Karl Malone (1963- ) - basketball player
• J. Willard Marriott (1900-1985) - founded the Marriott hotel and restaurant chain and the A&W restaurant chain (Marriot)
• David McKay - religious leader (Huntsville)
• Dale Murphy (1956- ) - baseball player
• Peter Skene Ogden - fur trader, trapper
• Merlin Olsen - LA Rams football player, sports commentator (Logan)
• Osmond Family - singers, entertainers (Ogden)
• Robert Redford (1937- ) - actor, founder of the Sundance Institute
• Reed Smoot (1882-1941) - senator (Salt Lake City)
• Virginia Sorensen - author (Provo)
• Wallace Stegner (1909-1993) - author
• Mack Swain - actor (Salt Lake City)
• Everett Thorpe - painter
• Robert Walker - actor (Salt Lake City)
• Marie Windsor - actress (Marysville)
• James Woods - actor (Vernal)
• Brigham Young (1801-1877) - Mormon leader, founded Salt Lake City
• Loretta Young - actress (Salt Lake City)
• Steve Young (1961- ) - football quarterback (Salt Lake City)

You know you are from Utah if...

• Green jell-o with carrots mixed in doesn't seem strange.
• You can pronounce Tooele.
• The U is not just a letter - Neither is the Y.
• You are not surprised to hear words like "Darn, Fetch, Flip", "Oh, My Heck" and "Shoot".
• Your tulips get snowed on three times after they come up and twice more after they bloom.
• Hunting season is a school holiday.
• The largest liquor store is the state government.
• You can go skiing and play golf on the same day.
• 30% humidity is muggy and almost unbearable.
• You know the difference between a 'Steak House' and a 'Stake House'.
• You can see the stars at night
• You were an aunt or uncle before you were three.
• Your spouse's mother was pregnant at your wedding.
• You have more children than you can find biblical names for.
• Your family considers a trip to McDonald's a night out..
• Your first child was conceived on your honeymoon.
• You drink Coke from a brown paper bag.
• You consider a temple recommend a credit reference.
• You believe that you must be 18 or older to order coffee at a restaurant.
• You wonder why fire truck drivers honk when you drive 35 mph in the left lane on the freeway.
• You think Jack Daniels is a country western singer.
• You can make Jell-O salad without the recipe.
• You have two gallons of ice cream in your freezer at all times.
• Your father-in-law thinks Ronald Reagan was a liberal.
• Cars in the slow lane are traveling the fastest; cars in the fast lane are traveling the slowest; cars in the middle lanes are always trying to exit.
• You have to ask for the uncensored version of "Titanic."
• Hotel rooms all have the Book of Mormon.
• You buy your wardrobe at the local grocery superstore.
• You learn about the Mormon Church by taking history in elementary school.
• Schools stay open, even if two feet of snow falls overnight, but close for the opening of hunting season.
• People wear shorts and T-shirts if the temperature rises above 32 degrees.
• There is a church on every corner, but they all teach the same thing.
• The most popular public transportation system is a ski lift.
• People drive to Idaho (or Arizona) to pick up a gallon of milk so they can play the lottery.
• In-state college football rivalries are bigger than the Super Bowl.
• Every driveway has a minivan and a pickup truck.
• When you buy a new vehicle, cigarette lighters are optional equipment but gun and ski racks are standard.
• Every time a new family moves into your neighborhood, the local elementary school has to hire a new teacher.
• Your paycheck has an additional 10 percent deduction.
• "Temple recommends" is acceptable identification for cashing a check.
• More movies are filmed in your town than in Hollywood.
• You make a toast with red punch at your wedding reception.
• You have more raw wheat stored than some Third World countries.
• Your idea of a good time is playing Pictionary in the cultural hall.
• Your idea of a wild party is a six pack of Pepsi and a PG-13 movie.
• You measure Kool-Aid by parts per million.
• You think "You're a 10 cow wife" is a compliment.