Salt Lake City, Utah

Salt Lake City is the capital, the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah, and the county seat of Salt Lake County. Salt Lake City has a population of 181,743. The Salt Lake City metropolitan area spans Salt Lake, Summit and Tooele counties, and has a total estimated population of 1,018,826. Salt Lake City is further situated in a larger urban area known as the Wasatch Front, home to over 2,000,000 people (80% of the state population.)

The area was first settled by the Shoshone, Ute and Paiute Native Americans. It was first explored by the Spanish in the 18th century and by Americans in 1825. John Fremont surveyed the Salt Lake Valley in 1843 and 1845. The first permanent Euro-American settlement was by the Latter-Day Saints, who came to the area in 1847 under Brigham Young, who announced it was the divinely sanctioned place for Mormon settlement. The settlement, originally named Great Salt Lake City after the nearby lake, became the capital of the extra-legal territory of Desert, a Mormon-led theocratic colony. In 1850 the US Congress abolished Desert and formed the Territory of Utah, moving the capital to Fillmore from Salt Lake City.

In 1857 the US Army occupied the city during the Utah War, a period of conflict between the federal government and the LDS Church. In 1858 it became the territorial capital, and throughout the next several decades the city grew to one of the largest in the western US. The Transcontinental Railroad was finished nearby in 1869, at Promontory Summit. The city was the site of an early Chinatown built by Chinese immigrants who had come to construct the railroad. In 1896 the city became state capital upon Utah's statehood. In the 20th century the city's population declined, and sizable gay and Hispanic communities developed here. In 2002 the city hosted the Winter Olympics.