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Utah

or

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a state of the Mormones

1. History:
Utah, the state in the western United States, partly in the Rocky Mountains. Its great varieety of landscape includes high wooden mountains, lakes, valley oases, barren salt flats, desert, and a wild plateau country with strange rock formations and rainbow-colored canyons. Habitation by nomadic desert peoples of the area that was to become Utah began several thousand years ago. The Anasazi Culture, which established intricately built settlements, reached their peak at about AD 1300. Native American tribes were present when Spanish explorers made their earliest visits to the region. The members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, as a refuge from persecution chose this area, which was claimed by Mexico, in 1847. During the 1820s fur trappers entered the region from three different directions: from New Mexico, from Canada and west from St. Louis, Missouri. In 1846 the Mormons, who had been persecuted in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois for their religious!
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 beliefs, decided to move west into what was then Mexico. In 1847 an advance party of Mormons, under the leadership of Brigham Young, crossed the Wasatch Range. The Mormons were seeking an isolated place to settle away from gentiles, or non-Mormons. Brigham Young had read many reports on possible sites, including Frémont's report on the Great Basin. Young apparently decided to settle somewhere in the eastern part of the Great Basin, but precisely where is unknown. On July 24, 1847, Young and his party emerged from the Wasatch Range at Emigration Canyon. At the sight of the desolate plains before him, Young announced: "It is enough. This is the right place, drive on." The Mormons established the first permanent white settlement in Utah at that site, between the Great Salt Lake and the Wasatch Range.

2. Economy:
When the first Mormon pioneers arrived at the site of Salt Lake City in 1847, they began work on an irrigation system that would enable them to produce enough crops to survive the following winter. This pattern of self-sufficient agriculture dominated the economy until the beginning of the 20th century. At that time mining, particularly of copper, increased in scale, and with the construction of larger irrigation projects, more commercial crops were raised. Since World War II (1939-1945), when several defense industries were established, manufacturing has grown rapidly in importance. Today, Utah has one of the most diversified economies of the Mountain states. Services, trade, manufacturing, financial enterprises, and governmental activities each supply about an equal share of the state's gross product.
 

3. Geographic:
Utah ranks 13th in size among the states and has an area of 219,900 sq. km (84,904 sq. mi.), including 7086 sq. km (2736 sq. mi.) of inland water. The state has an overall distance from north to south of 555 km (345 mi.) and a maximum extent from east to west of 446 km (277 mi.). The approximate mean elevation is 1900 m (6100 ft). Utah includes portions of three major natural regions, or physiographic provinces, of the western United States: the Middle Rocky Mountains, the Basin and Range province, and the Colorado Plateau. All three form part of larger physiographic divisions. The Middle Rocky Mountains form part of the Rocky Mountain system, and the Basin and Range province and the Colorado Plateau form part of the Intermontane Plateaus.

4.  Lakes & Rivers:
Most of eastern and southern Utah drains into Colorado River system. The Colorado River flows across southeastern Utah, receiving a major tributary, the Green River, when it is nearly midway in its course across the state. The largest of Utah's lakes is the famous Great Salt Lake. Other large lakes are the Lake Bonneville, the Utah Lake and Lake Powell.
5. Climate:
In the valleys and plateaus of Utah the summers are very dry and the winters, also dry; range from mild in the south to cold in the north. In the mountains of northeastern Utah the temperatures throughout the year are lower than elsewhere in the state and precipitation is more abundant.
6. Inhabitants:
According to the 1990 national census, Utah ranked 35th among the states, with a total population of 1,722,850. This figure represents an increase of 17.9 percent over the 1980 census figure of 1,461,037. Rapid growth has characterized Utah in the mid-1990s, where the population was estimated to be 2,000,494 in 1996. In 1990 some 87 percent of the total population lived in urban areas. Utah is the sixth most urbanized state in the Union. Yet vast areas of the state are almost uninhabited. Population density is highest along the foot of the Wasatch Range. The main city is Salt Lake City.
diversified economies of the Mountain states. Services, trade, manufacturing, financial enterprises, and governmental activities each supply about an equal share of the state's gross product. The rapid growth in railroading, mining, and smelting brought non-Mormon immigrants to the state, including people from Italy, Greece, the Balkans, Japan, and Spanish-speaking countries. Mining was especially dangerous in Utah, as in other states, and immigrants did much of the labor. Poor working conditions were common.
7. Today:
In the year 2002 the Olympics Winter games will be in Salt Lake City.

Christoph Heuser