Utah

Named for the Utes

Utah takes its name from the Ute people, by way of the Spanish form Yuta, or Yutas, used for them in colonial New Mexico. The Utes do not use the word themselves; their own name is Núuchi-u, “the people.” What Yuta originally meant is disputed. Proposals include “people of the mountains,” “upper people” and “meat eaters,” and the popular reading “top of the mountains” may owe more to Latter-day Saint scripture than to any Native language.

Pioneers and the beehive

The beehive has been Utah’s emblem since its pioneer years. Settlers arrived in 1847, the year marked on the state seal and in the beehive on the flag, and in 1848 they set up a provisional State of Deseret, whose emblem was the hive; “Deseret” is a Book of Mormon word for honeybee. The beehive appeared on the territorial seal by 1851 and on the state seal in 1896, and in 1959 the Legislature made it the official state emblem, along with the motto “Industry.”

The 45th state

Congress passed the Utah Enabling Act on July 16, 1894, and President Grover Cleveland proclaimed Utah the 45th state on January 4, 1896.

Salt Lake City

Utah’s first territorial legislature met in Salt Lake City, but in 1851 it chose the Pauvan Valley in central Utah, at what became Fillmore, as the capital because of its central location. Only one wing of the Fillmore statehouse was finished, and after a single complete session there, in 1855 and 1856, lawmakers moved back to Salt Lake City, which became the capital that December. The present Capitol, of gray granite from Little Cottonwood Canyon, opened in 1916. The capital page tells the story.

A new flag

For more than a century Utah’s flag was the state seal on a blue field, one of many similar state flags. After a public campaign that drew more than 5,700 designs, the Legislature adopted a new state flag that took effect on March 9, 2024, exactly 113 years after the first: bands of blue, white and red for sky, snowy mountains and red rock, with a gold beehive in a blue hexagon. The old flag is kept as the historic state flag.

Gulls, sego lilies and aspens

Utah has 40 official state symbols. The California gull, which the law calls the “sea gull,” honors the gulls that ate swarms of crickets attacking pioneer crops in 1848. The sego lily, whose bulbs pioneers ate in hard times, is the state flower, and the quaking aspen replaced the blue spruce as state tree in 2014 at the suggestion of fourth graders. The list also includes the Utahraptor and Allosaurus, the Dutch oven, the cherry, Spiral Jetty and, since 2025, the word “Utahn” as the official demonym. See them all on the Utah symbols page.

Land and people

Utah covers 84,897 square miles, 13th among the states, and had about 3.54 million residents in 2025, 30th in the country and up more than 8 percent from 2020, one of the fastest growth rates of any state. It borders Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada. Salt Lake City, with about 218,000 people, is the largest city, followed by West Valley City, West Jordan, Provo and St. George.