Utah (Yoota), since 1894 a state of the American Union, in the Rocky Mountain region, 350 miles from N. to S., and 280 from E. to W., with an area of 84,970 sq. m. Idaho and Wyoming bound it N.; Colorado, E.; Arizona, S.; and Nevada, W. Utah lies in a great plateau region, having an average elevation of 5000 feet above the level of the sea. The Wahsatch Mountains (12,000 feet), running N. and S., and the Uintah Mountains (14,000 feet), an eastern spur, divide it into two portions differing widely in topography and climate. The division lying N. and W. of these ranges belongs to the great interior basin of the continent, from which no water escapes except by evaporation. The streams which flow from the mountains find their way toward the west, ultimately discharging their waters into Great Salt Lake (q.v.), or into some of the smaller saline lakes or sinks of the desert. In the valleys lying among the western spurs irrigation is practicable, if precarious, depending as it does on the melting snow of the mountains. The prevailing westerly winds are robbed of their moisture by the lofty peaks of the Wahsatch range; and to the E., in the basin of the Colorado River, the towering plateaus which overhang stupendous canons have but a slight and irregular rainfall, and except in a few favoured valleys agriculture is almost an impossibility. The annual product of copper, lead, silver, and gold is valued at $11,000,000. There is also coal. Besides Salt Lake City, the important towns are Ogden, Provo, and Logan. Pop. (1870) 86,786; (1880) 143,963; (1900) 276,749. Utah formed a part of the territory acquired by the United States from Mexico in 1848, was developed by the Mormons, organised as a territory in 1850, and reduced to its present area in 1868. The polygamy of the Mormons formed the main difficulty in the way of the territory being admitted to the privileges of a state, and this did not take place till 1894, when Mormon supremacy had been abolished and after the Mormons had renounced plural marriages. See books by H. H. Bancroft (1888) and Lambourne (1891). Utakamand'. See Ootacamund.