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Utah state symbols

Utah has 40 official state symbols, almost all listed in a single section of the Utah Code. The oldest is the sego lily, the state flower since 1911; the newest is the demonym "Utahn," written into law in 2025. Schoolchildren proposed many of the others, and two replaced earlier choices: the Bonneville cutthroat trout as state fish in 1997 and the quaking aspen as state tree in 2014.

40 official designations · every law checked October 23, 2026

The pioneer symbols

Utah’s oldest symbols reach back to its pioneer era. The sego lily became the state flower in 1911, after a poll of schoolchildren; pioneers remembered digging its bulbs for food during the famine years. The California gull became the state bird in 1955, honoring the 1848 “Miracle of the Gulls,” when gulls ate swarms of crickets attacking the settlers’ crops. In 1959 the Legislature made the beehive the state emblem and “Industry” the state motto.

Animals

Fourth graders in Sevier County suggested the elk, the state animal since 1971; some lawmakers had worried the title would end elk hunting, which it did not. The Bonneville cutthroat trout, which fed both Native peoples and pioneers, replaced the rainbow trout as state fish in 1997. Schoolchildren proposed the honeybee in 1983, the Gila monster of southwestern Utah in 2019 and the brine shrimp of the Great Salt Lake in 2023. The golden eagle became the state bird of prey in 2022.

Dinosaurs and stones

Utah has two prehistoric symbols. Allosaurus, a large predator of the Late Jurassic, became the state fossil in 1988, and in 2018 Utahraptor became the state dinosaur, after ten-year-old Kenyon Roberts persuaded Senator Curtis Bramble to carry the bill, arguing that the dinosaur carries the state’s name and is known only from Utah. Topaz, from the Thomas Range in Juab County, is the state gem, copper, mined at Bingham Canyon, one of the world’s largest copper mines, the state mineral, and coal the state rock, after a debate over whether coal is a rock at all. Honeycomb calcite, known only from Duchesne County, became the state stone in 2021.

Food and plants

The cherry beat the apple and the peach in a statewide school poll and became the state fruit in 1997. The Spanish sweet onion became the state vegetable in 2002, in a compromise that also made the sugar beet the historic state vegetable. Indian ricegrass, whose seeds were a staple for Native peoples, is the state grass, and the porcini the state mushroom. In 2014, at the suggestion of fourth graders at Monroe Elementary, the quaking aspen, which grows in colonies sharing one root system, replaced the Colorado blue spruce as state tree.

Stars, art and words

For the 1996 statehood centennial, Utah named a state astronomical symbol, the Beehive Cluster, and a centennial star, Dubhe, chosen because its light was believed to take about 100 years to reach Earth. Native American rock art and Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, a 1,500-foot coil of basalt on the Great Salt Lake built in 1970, became official works of art in 2017. The Dutch oven is the state cooking pot, the square dance the state folk dance and skiing and snowboarding the state winter sports. In 2011 Utah became the first state with an official firearm, the M1911 pistol designed by the Ogden-born John M. Browning, and in 2025, after a New York Times crossword clue caught a senator’s eye, it made “Utahn” the official demonym.

1 1890s 1 1910s 1930s 3 1950s 1 1 1970s 3 10 1990s 5 8 2010s 7 2020s
Official symbols adopted per decade. The busiest decade was the 1990s, with ten.

Flag, seal, song, motto and nickname

Animals

Plants and fungi

Earth and sky

Food and drink

Songs, words and language

Culture and history

Government emblems

Places and institutions

Questions about Utah's symbols

What is the Utah state bird?
The California gull, which the law calls the "sea gull," adopted in 1955.
What is the Utah state tree?
The quaking aspen, since 2014. It replaced the Colorado blue spruce, the state tree since 1933.
What is the Utah state dinosaur?
Utahraptor, named in 2018 after a ten-year-old persuaded a senator to carry the bill. Allosaurus is the state fossil.
Was Utah the first state with an official gun?
Yes. In 2011 Utah named the M1911 pistol, designed by the Ogden-born John M. Browning, the state firearm, the first state to adopt one.
What is Utah's state cooking pot?
The Dutch oven, adopted in 1997, recalling pioneer and sheepherder cooking.
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