Utah Travel Guide 2008 - (Page 15) UTAH CITIES Utah’s capital, Salt Lake City is delightfully cosmopolitan, with amenities and pastimes comparable to cities twice its size. Salt Lake is home to world-class organizations such as the Utah Symphony and Opera, Ballet West, and many venues for concerts, live theater and touring productions and events. Sports fans know Salt Lake as home court to the NBA’s Utah Jazz. The city also plays host to AAA baseball’s Salt Lake Bees and AHL hockey’s Utah Grizzlies. After the game, Salt Lake offers a wide variety of restaurants, clubs, brewpubs and bistros. Nestled against the Wasatch Mountain range, north to south the cities of Ogden, Layton, Farmington, Bountiful, Salt Lake City – with its surrounding suburbs – and the Provo/Orem area comprise Utah’s population center, known as the “Wasatch Front.” Ogden, once known as a major rail hub for the nation is now recognized for the campus of Weber State University. The University of Utah and Westminster College are in Salt Lake City, and Provo is home to Brigham Young University. Near Utah’s northern border lies the city of Logan, home of Utah State University. Northeast of Logan on US 89, you can ski at Beaver Mountain resort. Northeast of Ogden are Powder Mountain, Snowbasin and Wolf Mountain ski resorts. Over the Wasatch Mountains, east of Salt Lake is the resort town of Park City, which boasts three widely acclaimed ski areas, The Canyons, Deer Valley and Park City Mountain Resort. Outside of Park City is the Utah Olympic Park, a site for several events during the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Each January in Park City, the Sundance Film Festival draws filmmakers and studio executives from all over the world, as well as movie stars, paparazzi, and film fans. Additional screenings are held in Salt Lake City, at Sundance Resort, located on US 189 in Provo Canyon and also in Ogden. East of Salt Lake City, Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons shelter the ski resorts offering the quickest trip from the airport to the slopes! Brighton and Solitude are in Big Cottonwood and Alta and Snowbird are in Little Cottonwood. Picturesque towns dot US 89 running north and south through the state. The Mormon Pioneer National Heritage Area, designated in July of 2006, covers 250 miles of US 89 from the town of Fairview, south through Sanpete County and on to the Arizona border. This corridor offers unique opportunities for heritage tourism related to settlement of the area during the mid to late 1800s. Southwestern – Among the major cities are Cedar City, home of the Tony Award®-winning Utah Shakespearean Festival, headquartered at Southern Utah University. The city is also the gateway to Brian Head Ski Resort on Hwy 143. Southwestern Utah’s fastest growing city is St. George, also called “Utah’s Dixie” because of its mild climate. The city is known for its historic district, health spas, year-round golf and Dixie State College. In southeastern Utah, Moab - near Arches and Canyonlands National Park’s Island in the Sky District - as well as Monticello, Blanding and Bluff further south, provide destinations for river runners, slick rock bikers and off-highway vehicle enthusiasts. ECONOMICS Utah is not only a great place to visit, but also one of the best places in the nation to live and work. It is evident that Utah is an unsurpassed recreation destination. What is less known is that it is also a growing destination for a variety of businesses. One of the leading creation capitals for computer graphics, word processing and computer networking, Utah is also home to pioneering genetics, medical devices, and numerous other industries. The state works hard to leverage its strengths and market opportunities to build and sustain strong economic growth. One of these strengths is technology, found in abundance at our major public research institutions – Utah State University and the University of Utah – and Brigham Young University, the largest private university in the U.S. Each of these schools spins off businesses and serves as a source for companies to gain access to the technology they need. Utah universities supplied much of the technologies that led to the creation of companies such as Atari, Adobe Systems, Evans & Sutherland, Iomega, Novell, Pixar and Silicon Graphics. The first artificial heart was implanted in a human in Utah, and more disease-related genes have been discovered at our research universities than any other single location in the world.Utah’s enduring commitment to industry is also reflected in our state emblem, the beehive, chosen by early pioneer settlers for its symbolic value of hard work. It remains a fitting symbol of Utah’s workforce – educated, creative and always energetic. The state’s reputation for an industrious work force, combined with its photogenic diversity has drawn moviemakers to the state since the 1920s. Our ability to provide settings ranging from urban chic to idyllic rural and from stark, dramatic rock formations and desert flats have contributed to Utah’s healthy film industry statewide. Lately, the state has developed an increasingly vibrant homegrown filmmaking community of camera crews, actors, writers, directors and producers. For more information about the Film Industry in Utah contact the Utah Film Commission at (800) 453-8824, or visit www.film.utah.gov. Utah Cities & Economic s 15 http://www.film.utah.gov
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