SALT LAKE CITY, the capital city of Utah, U.S.A., and the county seat of Salt Lake county, on the Jordan river, 11 m. E. of Great Salt Lake, at the foot of the Wasatch mountains, about equally distant from Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Spokane. It is on Federal highways 3o (the Lincoln), 4o, and 91; has a modern municipal airport and is the concentration and dis tribution point for air-mail between the Pacific coast and the East ; and is served by the Denver and Rio Grande Western, the Union Pacific, the Western Pacific, and several electric railways, and by aeroplane lines to Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Great Falls. The population was 118,110 in 1920 (82% native white) and was 140,267 in 1930.
Salt Lake City is the largest city between the Rockies and the coast, and is the head quarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), by whom it was founded and who are still the largest single element in the population. It has an area of 52.3 sq.m. ; an altitude of 4,255 ft.; and is almost surrounded by mountain peaks, some of which reach a height of 12,000 feet. The site was chosen by Brigham Young (q.v.), and the basic plan of the city was de termined by the original survey under his direction, which laid it out in ten-acre blocks, separated by streets 132 ft. wide. In one of these blocks (Temple square, originally the centre of the corn munity) stand the great Mormon temple which no "gentile" may enter, built of grey granite (1853-93) with walls six feet thick and six spires, the highest (220 ft.) surmounted by a copper statue of the angel Moroni; the tabernacle (a low building seating ro,o0o, with a turtle-shaped roof unsupported by pillars or beams) where recitals are given daily on the magnificent organ (5,5oo pipes) ; the assembly hall, also of granite, seating 2,5o0; a Bureau of In formation and a Museum of Pioneer Relics; the first house built. in Utah (enclosed in a protecting shelter) ; monuments to Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum; and a monument to the sea-gulls which at a critical hour of the early colony's history saved the crops and all the vegetation from destruction by grasshoppers. In the adjoining block are the administration building of the Church; Eagle Gate, formerly the entrance to Brigham Young's estate; the Beehive house and the Lion house, two of his resi dences. The State capitol (a fine colonnaded building of marble and Utah granite, completed in 1916) stands half a mile N.E.
of Temple square, at the head of State street (a long, straight thoroughfare) on an eminence commanding the entire valley and backed by the mountains. Immediately east of it is Memory Grove, a park created in honour of the veterans of the World War, at the entrance to City Creek canyon. On the east edge of the city is the 92-ac. campus of the University of Utah (estab lished by the Provisional Government of the State of Deseret in 1850), which has an attendance of over 2,600. Beyond the univer sity is Ft. Douglas, a regimental garrison post, and in the moun tains near by is the army's transcontinental radio station. At the entrance to Emigration Canyon, east of the military reservation, is a point (marked by Pioneer monument) where Brigham Young looked down over the valley and said he recognized the site that had been shown him in a vision. The State prison stands in the southern part of the city. Public parks and playgrounds cover 1,035 acres. Saltair, 15 m. west of the city, is a popular pleasure resort on the lake (in which it is impossible to sink, on account of the large amount [about 22%] of salt in the water).
Of the 130 churches, about half are Mormon chapels, and the rest (including a Roman Catholic cathedral) represent most of the faiths and denominations com monly found in American cities. The public school system com prises 48 elementary, seven junior high, and two senior high schools, and a part-time school for boys and girls who go to work before the age of 18. There are several private schools; a junior college under Presbyterian auspices (Westminster ; established 1897) ; and various hospitals and charitable institutions. Interest in music, the dance, and the drama was fostered from the be ginning by Brigham Young. The Tabernacle choir (50o voices) is one of the best choruses in the United States, and the Salt Lake theatre (one of the foremost in design and appointments when it was built in 1862) has had a brilliant history. Salt Lake City ranked second among the large cities of the country in 1920 in the proportion of children and young people attending school and in literacy. The general death rate and the infant mortality are among the lowest in the country. Since 1911 the city has had a commission form of government. The assessed valuation of property for 1927 was $194,146,087.