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Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City is a city in Utah, state capital, and seat of Salt Lake County. Located in the north central part of the state, it is 24 km (15 mi) east of its namesake, the Great Salt Lake, and lies along the western slope of the Wasatch Range. The entire Salt Lake Valley was once part of the basin of ancient Lake Bonneville. Now, the Jordan River passes through the city. Salt Lake City is the international headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church (see Mormonism). It is the largest and most important city in a large region of the interior West and serves as the industrial, financial, religious, and commercial center of Utah. The city hosted the Winter Olympic Games in the year 2002.
Native Americans lived in the Great Salt Lake Valley for thousands of years before white settlement. The Shoshone, Ute, and Paiute peoples were among those Native Americans living in the area when the Mormons entered the area in July 1847. Since the founding of their church in New York in 1830, the Mormons had been moving west because of persecution. Finally they moved to the Far West to find an isolated land. Upon arrival in the Great Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young declared, "This is the right place." Young laid out the community in 4-hectare (10-acre) plots around Temple Square, which became the center of the Mormon faith.
In 1849 the Mormons organized a new state, which they named Deseret. The Congress of the United States, however, did not grant statehood, and instead created Utah Territory in 1850 with its capital at Great Salt Lake City (the name was shortened to Salt Lake City in 1868). The population soared with a steady influx of Mormon converts. Salt Lake City incorporated in 1851 and was designated the capital when Utah became a state in 1896.
The Mormons' practice of polygamy (having multiple wives) and their alleged disregard of federal authority led to conflicts with the federal government. In 1858 a dispute called the Utah War began because the U.S. government believed that the Mormons were undermining federal laws. Federal troops marched through the city but found that it had been evacuated. There was no fighting, and they moved on to set up a post, Camp Floyd, about 65 km (about 40 mi) to the southwest. Fort Douglas was built on the eastern edge of the city in 1862.
The city's economy was strengthened with the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869 and a railroad connection from Salt Lake City to the transcontinental railroad in 1870. Mining increased with the arrival of the railroad, and the city's population more than doubled in the 1880s. After the nationwide depression of 1893, the population resumed its rapid growth, passing 50,000 by 1900 and 140,000 by 1930.
Increased demand for metals during World War II (1939-1945) created a new mining boom, and a period of industrial expansion followed the war. In the mid-20th century the population of the city remained stable while the metropolitan population soared. The completion of several downtown projects since the 1970s, including the two-story Latter-day Saints Church Office Building, ZCMI and Crossroads malls, Triad Center, Maurice Abravanel Hall, Delta Center, and the Salt Palace, has helped to maintain a viable city center.
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