Here in Salt Lake City, we love our pets! Salt Lake City’s history is intertwined with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and the church’s history is intertwined with kindness toward animals. Founder Joseph Smith preached that animals should only be used sparingly. His successor, Brigham Young, who led church members west to the Salt Lake Valley, said animals should be used only for human survival and preached that animals also receive salvation.
Mormon leaders since have condemned hunting for sport and have declared animal cruelty a sin.
Utah was part of Mexico when Young and the first Mormon settlers arrived from Illinois in 1847. The area had for centuries been home to native tribes—the Goshute, Ute, Shoshone, and Paiute—but Mormons created settlements throughout what became Utah Territory after the area was ceded to the United States in 1848.
While less than half of Salt Lake City’s current residents are Mormon, the church still has a significant presence. It’s one of the city’s biggest employers, with more than 7,000 people on its local payroll. Temple Square, the site of the church’s iconic 250,000-square-foot temple, was laid out as the center of the city within days of the first settlers’ arrival.
The city is home to more than 200,000 residents today, and it’s the center of a metropolitan area of more than 1.14 million. Salt Lake City is the capital of Utah and its biggest city, located in the northern part of Utah between the Great Salt Lake and the Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains.
Local weather is marked by hot, dry summers and cold, snowy winters. Salt Lake City gets 54 inches of snow annually, almost twice as much as the U.S. average, and it gets 20 inches of rain, about half the national average. Average high temperatures are at similar extremes: 90 degrees in July and just 38 in January.
Salt Lake City also has been shaped by two events in the nation’s westward migration. The California Gold Rush made it a milestone on people’s journey to the Golden State. And the First Transcontinental Railroad, completed in 1869 with a Golden Spike north of the city, linked Salt Lake City to both the East and West coasts.
Salt Lake City remains a major transportation center as one of the biggest hubs for Delta Airlines. The city was a center of the sports world as well when it hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics.