When Brigham Young led the first party of Mormon pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley, he had a mission statement of sorts: "If there's a place on this earth that nobody else wants, that's the place I am hunting for." So on July 24, 1847, when Young gazed across the vast and somewhat desolate valley of the Great Salt Lake and reportedly announced "This is the place," it would have been understandable if his followers had some mixed feelings. If they did, they must have kept them to themselves, for they continued down the mountain and began to build a home.

Salt Lake City is the heart of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormon faith is officially called. It is also an important western center for business, medicine, education, and culture.

Salt Lake City proper is really only a small piece of the Salt Lake Valley, which runs 25 mi north and south and 20 mi east to west. There are 250,000 people living in Salt Lake City. Another 600,000 live in widening rings of suburbia outside the city limits (see Neighborhoods, below). The Wasatch Mountains, on the east, border the entire length of the valley---and beyond---providing one of the most scenic backdrops in the country.

Modern Salt Lake City is a study in change. Salt Lakers have learned to deal with both victory and defeat while enthusiastically supporting their NBA team, the Utah Jazz. Increased commitment to the arts from the public and private sectors has created a cultural scene as prodigious as you'd expect in a city twice Salt Lake's size. Recent media attention touting Salt Lake City as an excellent environment for business has helped create an influx of new industries. Interstate 15 is under major reconstruction. A $312 million light rail system has been constructed.

The announcement that Salt Lake City is to be the site of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games focused well-deserved attention on little-known winter sports sites, but weathering Olympic-related scandals has contributed to the city's coming of age. Despite ups and downs, citizens continue to live up to their reputation as a down-to-earth, friendly, and resilient bunch. In fact, these days most Salt Lake residents would tell you "change is good."