Abbreviated as UT on abbreviationfinder.org, Utah is one of the 48 states of the North American Confederation, part of the “Mountain” group, bordering north with Idaho, northeast with Wyoming, in east with Colorado, in south with Arizona and in the west with Nevada; its borders, like those of many other states of the Union, are marked by meridians and parallels.
Utah, which measures an area of 212,912 sq. Km., Extends in latitude from the 37th to the 42nd parallel, and in longitude from the 109th to the 114th meridian. It is a typical highland region crossed mainly by the northeast direction. to southwest from the Wasatch Mountains that reach their maximum altitude, in the northern section on the border with Wyoming, in the Uinta Mountains, whose highest peaks exceed 4000 m. (Gilbert P., d.4092). From this powerful ridge, Utah is divided into two areas: the western, semi-desert, which forms the eastern edge of the Great Basin, and the eastern, richer in water, furrowed by deep canyons, included in the Colorado basin.
The climate of Utah has a very accentuated continentality, characterized by very cold winters and very hot summers: rainfall, excluding the higher altitude regions, is scarce, especially in the western section; the months of minimum rainfall are the summer ones; the peaks occur in spring; long is the duration of frost and abundant snow. The station of the City of the Salt Lake presents the following data: average January temperature -1 °, 4; of July 24th, 2; average annual temperature, 10 °, 9; annual rainfall, mm. 410.
The western section of Utah is almost completely devoid of watercourses, and has, as we have mentioned, marked desert features; the eastern one is crossed by Colorado and its most important tributary, the Green, which collects the waters descending from the eastern slopes of the Wasatch Mountains (St Raphael River, Fremont R.). In the northeastern section of the state is the Great Salt Lake; followed in importance the Utah Sevier and lakes.
The population of Utah was 87,000 in 1870; in 1910, 373,000; in 1930, it rose to 507,847 residents, with an average density of 2.3 per sq. km. The inhabitants of Anglo-Saxon origin prevail; among the minor groups we remember the Negroes (1080); the Mexicans (4012), the Indians (2869), the Asians and Hawaiians (4000); there are 2,800 Italians; they are also found in Utah by the English, the Swedes, the Danes and the Germans. Religiously, most of the inhabitants are Mormons (90%); Catholics amount to 15,000.
Salt Lake City, the state capital, is home to a university founded by Mormons in 1850, and has 140,267 inhabitants. The other most important centers are Ogden with 40,000 inhabitants, Provo with 15,000 and Logan with 10,000 inhabitants. Utah is divided into 29 counties.
According to countryaah.com, the Mormons are unquestionably responsible for the economic progress of Utah, in fact they plowed and irrigated the most favorable areas, introducing a thriving agriculture, whose main products are made up of wheat, barley, sugar beet, potatoes and fruit. City of the Salt Lake is an important center of the sugar industry. With regard to breeding, due to the aforementioned soil and climate conditions, sheep prevail, which add up to the figure of 2,360,000 heads; the cattle follow at a distance, with over half a million heads, of which about 150,000 are dairy cows; finally horses and mules (88,500) and pigs (87,000).
Forests, scarce in the western section of the state, cover the northeastern slopes of the Wasatch range. Utah has abundant mineral reserves, particularly hard coal, copper, iron, gold, silver, gypsum, salt, sulfur and asphalt.
The development of the railways has contributed powerfully to the economic growth of the state, which is crossed by the Central Pacific Railway: from Ogden, an important railway center, to the City of Salt Lake, a trunk branches off with a prevalent northeast -SO direction. joins CPR with Los Angeles.
History
The territory that today forms the state of Utah was visited by two Franciscan friars, Francisco Dominguez and Silvestre Velez de Escalante, in 1776. In 1813 seven men, under the command of Mauricio Arze and Lagos Garcia, visited the Timpanogos. Finally, in 1829-30, 60 Mexicans, led by Antonio Armijo, cleared a road from Nuevo Mexico to California, passing through N. del Gran Cañón, and an American, Ewing Young, went from Taos to Monterey, via Utah. Perhaps the first White to visit the Great Salt Lake was James Bridger in 1824-1825, but others came around the same time, the most famous of which was Gededia Smith, in 1826. The latter were invaders: the territory belonged to Spain. until the revolution of 1810-1821, and then to Mexico until 1848. In 1847, with the Mormons); and when the United States took possession of these lands on February 2, 1848, with the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo, there were already 5,000 Mormons in the Salt Lake Valley. The state of Deseret was established, without federal approval, to replace the unsatisfactory “theodemocracy” on March 10, 1849, with the territory not only of present-day Utah, but of all of Arizona, southern California, almost all of Nevada, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, and Idaho. Only later was federal approval sought. In fact, on 9 September 1850 with the famous “Compromise”, Congress formed a “territory” of Utah, but greatly reducing its borders, which even later were repeatedly reduced, in 1861, 1862, 1866 and 1868, to form the states of Nevada and Colorado. The case of a religious sect that becomes a state is almost unique in history; and the new territory actually aroused the hostility and suspicions of the Union, which only after many struggles wanted to accept it as a state on January 4, 1896. In 1857 there had been a real war between the federal government and that of the state: an army of more than 2000 men left Fort Leavencorth, but the poor organization and cunning defense of the “Saints” prevented him from reaching the Great Lake Valley. When the government sent reinforcements, the entire population fled their homes and migrated, in the cold of winter, in another area, forcing the government to enter into peace negotiations in June 1858.
With the exception of several rebellions of the Red Indians (in 1857, 1862, 1863, but especially in 1865-1867, called the “Indian War”) the rest of Utah history has been peaceful. Wise division of land among all citizens, proportioning the plots to the size of the families, skilled irrigation projects and the astute exploitation of the “gold rush” in California in 1849, gave the state great wealth.
