Completion of the world's first transcontinental railroad was celebrated at Promontory where the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads met on May 10, 1869. It is now known as Golden Spike National Historic Site

Utah is the site of the nations first department store. Zions Co-operative Mercantile Institution was established in the late 1800's. It is still in operation today as ZCMI.

The Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City took 40 years to complete. The Mormon temples in St. George, Manti and Logan Utah were completed before the Salt Lake Temple.

Rainbow Bridge, Nature's abstract sculpture carved of solid sandstone, is the world's largest natural-rock span. It stands 278 feet wide and 309 feet high.

The Great Salt Lake covers 2,100 square miles, with an average depth of 13 feet. The deepest point is 34 feet.

The average snowfall in the mountains near Salt Lake City is 500 inches.

Because of the state's inland location Utah's snow is unusually dry. Earning it the reputation of having the world's greatest powder. 14 Alpine ski resorts operate in Utah.

Utah mountain peaks, on average, are the tallest in the country. The average elevation of the tallest peaks in each of Utah's counties is 11,222 ft.-higher than the same average in any other state.

Salt Lake City was originally named Great Salt Lake City. Great was dropped from the name in 1868.

The Uinta mountain range is named after the Ute Indians.

The Wasatch mountain range is named after a Ute Indian name meaning "mountain pass" or "low place in a high mountain"

Annual precipitation varies from less than five inches in Utah's arid Great Salt Lake Desert to more than 60 inches in the northern mountain ranges.

The Escalante River is generally considered to be the last major river to be "discovered" in the contiguous United States.

Capitol Reef National Park protects The Waterpocket Fold a 100-mile long wrinkle in the earth's crust known to geologists as a monocline. The Waterpocket Fold extends from Thousand Lakes Mountain to the Colorado River.

Cedar Hills is built upon an alluvial fan or bench, created thousands of years ago when it was a shoreline of Lake Bonneville.

Fillmore was Utah's first territorial capitol and was named for U.S. President Millard Fillmore. The statehouse was never completed, but the first wing remains Utah's oldest governmental building and now serves as a state museum.

The Heber Valley Railroad's magnificent steam engine and ten passenger railroad cars have been filmed in over 31 motion pictures over the past 20 years.

Kanab is known as Utah's Little Hollywood because of the large number of motion pictures that are filmed in the area.

La Verkin at the entrance to Zion National Park is a beautiful valley and is called the "Garden Spot of Dixie".

Utah is the only state whose capital's name is made of three words. All three words in Salt Lake City have four letters each.

Utah was acquired by the United States in 1848 in the treaty ending the Mexico War.

Utah has 11,000 miles of fishing streams and 147,000 acres of lakes and reservoirs.

Utah covers 84,900 square miles of land and is ranked 11th largest state in the United States.

The Great Salt Lake, which is about 75 miles long and 35 miles wide, covers more than a million acres.