Salt Lake City, Utah
The first permanent settlements in the valley of salt lake date to the arrival of the Latter-day Saints on July 24, 1847. They had traveled beyond the boundaries of the United States into Mexican Territory seeking an isolated area to practice their religion, far away from the violence and the persecution they experienced in the East. Four days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young designated the building site for the Salt Lake Temple, which would eventually become a famous Mormon and Salt Lake City landmark. The city is located in the northeast corner of the Salt Lake Valley surrounded by the Great Salt Lake to the northwest and the steep Wasatch and Oquirrh mountain ranges on the eastern and western borders, respectively. Its encircling mountains contain many narrow glacial and stream carved canyons. Among them, City Creek, Emigration, Millcreek, and Parley's border the eastern city limits The Salt Lake Temple, constructed on the block that would later be called Temple Square, took 40 years to complete Great Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the territorial capital in 1858, and the name was subsequently abbreviated to Salt Lake City The city's population continued to swell with an influx of Mormon converts and Gold Rush gold seekers, making it one of the most populous cities in the American Old West. 1896 is when salt lake city became the state capital. Salt Lake City was selected to host the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1995. Salt Lake City hosted the 16th Winter Deaflympic games in 2007, taking place in the venues in Salt Lake City and Park City. Every year in Salt Lake City, a committee of volunteers, staff and community organizations work together to produce the Utah Pride Festival in June. Begun in 1983, the annual event has grown dramatically from those small and rather secretive first gatherings to a 3-day festival with national headliners