7043 South 300 West
Midvale, Utah 84047
U.S.A.
Company Perspectives:
With a particular interest in healthcare for women and their babies, Utah Medical develops, manufactures, and markets a broad range of disposable and reusable specialty medical devices designed for better health outcomes for patients and their care-providers.
History of Utah Medical Products, Inc.
Utah Medical Products, Inc. designs, manufactures, and distributes disposable and reusable products mainly for women and babies. It sells fetal monitoring devices that allow physicians to track the condition of the fetus as well as products to assess the mother's health status. The company also provides tools for electrosurgery, an innovation that first began in the early 1990s that allowed physicians in small clinics or their offices to take biopsy samples from the cervix. Its third main line includes breathing accessories, feeding tubes, and several other items for premature or critically ill babies. With facilities in Midvale, Utah; Athlone, Ireland; and Redmond, Oregon, that have a total of about 200,000 square feet, Utah Medical Products successfully competes in selected niche markets. It is one of the many companies that comprise Utah's growing biomedical products industry.
Origin and Early History
On April 21, 1978, James Young, Ralph Walker, and Reed Chidester incorporated Utah Medical Products, Inc. under Utah law 'to develop, manufacture and market medical devices and supplies, with principal interest directed toward disposable, unique and high volume products,' according to the firm's 1982 annual report.
The firm's initial product was the Delta-Flow Flush device, first sold in March 1979 for maintaining 'catheter patency during invasive arterial pressure monitoring procedures.' In February 1980 it began producing and marketing its Dispiro Disposable Spirometer, a disposable device used by respiratory therapists to measure pulmonary function. The Disposa-Hood for giving oxygen to babies was first made and sold in May 1980. Two years later the company began making and selling its Arthroscopy Drainage Cannula Set for draining and collecting fluid discharges resulting from inserting an arthroscope into the knee joint.
In April 1982 Utah Medical Products reached an out-of-court settlement with Sorenson Research Company over a lawsuit filed by Sorenson in January 1980. Sorenson charged Utah Medical Products with violating patent rights because the defendant's Delta-Flow product closely resembled Sorenson's Intra-Flow device. In February 1982 a jury in the U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City found Utah Medical Products guilty of patent violations, but during the appeal process the two firms settled. Utah Medical Products paid Sorenson $175,000 and dropped its appeal. In turn, Sorenson granted Utah Medical Products a nonexclusive license to continue making and selling Delta-Flow and also to pay Sorenson six percent of Delta-Flow net sales until the Sorenson patent expired in 1989.
More Developments in the 1980s
On July 21, 1983 UMED, Inc., Utah Medical Products' wholly owned subsidiary, merged with Salt Lake City's Medicor, with Medicor being the surviving entity. In September 1983 Utah Medical Products gained a new president when Fred P. Lampropoulos resigned as Medicor's chairman to assume his new duties. By this time the original founders and officers had departed. In addition to Lampropoulos, who had become a company director in 1981, the other directors included Dr. William Dean Wallace, who had served as Medicor's founding president before becoming the executive vice-president and a director of Utah Medical Products in 1983. Christopher A. Cutler, Ph.D., another Medicor founder and officer, became a director of Utah Medical Products in 1984 and vice-president of engineering a year later.
In 1984 Utah Medical Products sold Medicor's Salt Lake City facility and also began leasing 32,000 square feet in a building in Midvale, a Salt Lake City suburb, where it set up its corporate offices, warehouse, and manufacturing facilities. In 1986 it still owned a Lehi building with a tool and die shop and injection molding capabilities but eventually sold that facility.
Utah Medical Products suffered through a bad financial year in 1983. According to its 1983 annual report, its net sales declined from $935,344 in 1982 to $701,257 in 1983, and its net income of $106,612 in 1982 slipped to a 1983 net loss of $1.1 million.
In 1984 the company's net sales rebounded to $1.98 million and then in 1985 reached $3.3 million. The company remained unprofitable in both years, however, with net losses of $455,000 and $269,000, respectively.
In 1986 the company did much better, with net sales increasing to $5.7 million and a net income of $440,953. At the end of the year the firm employed 120 individuals. Two customers accounted for the majority of 1986 sales. Hewlett-Packard purchased $2.7 million worth of company products, mainly flush devices, transducer kits, and the firm's disposable transducer; that brought in 47 percent of sales. Deseret Medical, another Utah medical products firm, bought products worth nine percent of 1986 sales.
Several key developments occurred in 1987. The company in June introduced its Intran device to monitor intrauterine pressure during difficult deliveries. In 1987 Fred Lampropoulos left the firm to start Merit Medical Systems, a move that would result in litigation. He was replaced as company president by Dr. William Dean Wallace.
In December 1987 the firm signed an important agreement with Baxter Healthcare in which Baxter invested $1.15 million in the company and loaned it another $1.15 million. Baxter also made a six-year supply agreement to buy Utah Medical Product devices, which the company estimated would bring in $40 million in revenue. Since Baxter supplied hospitals globally, this contract in effect represented Utah Medical Products' entry into international markets. Later these agreements were amended and expanded. For example, in 1990 the company signed a three-year contract with Baxter's Japanese Division to have exclusive distribution rights to UMP's Deltran disposable blood pressure transducer.
The company at the end of 1989 reached $17.9 million in net sales and $2.6 million in net income. That solid financial performance, also seen in other indicators such as increasing total assets and decreasing long-term debt, continued into the 1990s.
Growth and Challenges in the 1990s and Beyond
In 1990 Utah Medical Products enjoyed a 'successful year,' according to Chairman/President Dr. William Dean Wallace in the firm's annual report. The company completed purchasing its property and building in Midvale. Business Week in its May 21, 1990 issue ranked the Midvale firm as number 33 in its list of 'Hot Growth Companies.' Forbes on November 12, 1990 honored the company by ranking it as number 57 in the list of its '200 Best Small Companies in America.' In its November 1991 issue Forbes ranked Utah Medical number 26 in the same list, based on its average five-year annual return on equity of 29.4 percent.
Baxter Healthcare remained Utah Medical Products' main customer as the new decade began, accounting for 41 percent of sales in 1991 and 37 percent in 1992. The agreement between the two firms was extended and amended in January 1993 for another three years. Utah Medical employed 393 individuals at the end of 1992, and its annual sales for that year increased to $36.1 million, while its 1992 net income was $6.9 million.
On December 31, 1992 Kevin L. Cornwell became Utah Medical Products' president and CEO. With a B.S. in chemical engineering, an M.S. in engineering-economic systems, and an M.B.A., all from Stanford University, Cornwell had worked 21 years in management and investment positions before joining Utah Medical Products.
The departure of Dr. William Dean Wallace resulted in litigation. After a federal grand jury had charged him with 18 separate offenses, including five counts of tax evasion, he had resigned as the president of Utah Medical Products but remained on its board of directors. On December 23, 1992 U.S. District Judge David Sam ruled that Wallace was not guilty of insider trading and falsifying documents, and he dismissed Wallace's five tax evasion charges.
In December 1992 Utah Medical Products said that it expected Wallace to continue working for the firm, mainly on research and development projects, but in April 1993 the company fired Wallace. In June 1993 Wallace filed a civil lawsuit against Utah Medical Products. In March 1994 seven of Wallace's nine claims against Utah Medical Products were dismissed by Third District Judge David S. Young.
In 1992 Utah Medical Products and Merit Medical Systems settled patent litigation concerning Merit's IntelliSystem and Monarch angioplasty inflation products. Utah Medical granted Merit a nonexclusive license to its angioplasty patents for a single licensing fee of $600,000. Merit committed to pay 5.75 percent annual royalties, not exceeding $450,000, to Utah Medical for annual sales of its products using the angioplasty patents.
In 1994 another lawsuit was filed concerning the relationship between the two Utah medical devices firms. Merit Medical stockholder David D. Bennett claimed that Merit and its founder Fred Lampropoulos committed fraud in the company's initial stock prospectus by claiming that Merit had no products that competed with Utah Medical products. Bennett also charged that the 1992 patent litigation settlement between the two firms proved that Merit 'owed its entire corporate existence to cannibalizing Utah Medical personnel, customers and technology.' In 1998 the Third District Court granted Merit a summary judgment that ended Bennett's claim.
Although Utah Medical Products and Merit Medical Systems initially had a serious legal contest, the reality was that the two firms in the 1990s specialized in different kinds of medical devices. Merit continued to develop products for diagnosing and treating cardiovascular disease. Utah Medical specialized in items mostly for women and babies. Its winter/spring fact sheet listed three product lines for use in 1) neonatal intensive care, 2) labor and delivery, and 3) gynecology, urology, and electrosurgery.
Utah Medical began offering its third product line in 1991 when it entered the market for minimally invasive surgery (MIS). It started selling its trademarked Finesse electrical generators and disposable Prendiville Loops for a gynecological procedure to cut out precancerous tissues on the cervix. Done in doctors' offices or clinics, this form of electrosurgery was less expensive than laser surgery and quicker and safer than traditional scalpel methods used in hospitals. In 1991 its generators and Loops brought in only three percent of total revenues but increased to 15 percent the following year.
Utah Medical's electrosurgery products for office or clinical use was part of a general trend in medical care as high-tech items based on microelectronics and computers allowed many procedures to be done in decentralized settings. This was obvious from the decline in hospital occupancy rates that began in the 1980s and the increasing use of smaller surgical centers, clinics, and even more home healthcare.
Most hospitals had been started as centralized institutions, a key feature of the Industrial Revolution that began initially around 1750 A.D. in Great Britain. Hospitals gradually replaced home healthcare, just as factories replaced home or small shop production. By the 1960s, however, the United States had entered the early phases of the so-called Postindustrial Society or Information Age characterized by decentralization. Alvin Toffler's 1980 book The Third Wave described this ongoing transformation.
Starting in 1992, biomedical products companies like Utah Medical Products faced increased regulatory demands from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The time needed for initial product approvals by the FDA increased significantly. Established firms simply passed on higher FDA fees to the consumers, but smaller companies sometimes struggled to meet the tougher requirements.
Utah Medical Products was just one of Utah's 145 biomedical companies that employed 7,891 workers and produced estimated revenues of $865.5 million, according to a study by the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research reported in the May/June 1994 Utah Business. The industry was aided by the state's well educated workforce, research universities like the University of Utah and Brigham Young University, and low wages influenced by Utah's right-to-work law, which made unions optional.
In May 1995 Utah Medical Products announced its plans to build a manufacturing plant in Athlone, Ireland. In 1995 the company enjoyed its best financial performance of the decade, with annual net sales reaching $42 million and a net income of $8.4 million.
When the firm's Irish plant was completed in 1997, the new facility allowed the firm to save on distribution costs to European Community customers and take advantage of Europe's less demanding government regulations, compared with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The new Irish plant was important because 25 percent of Utah Medical Products' revenues came from foreign sales. Only 25,000 square feet of the planned 75,000-square-foot plant were finished, however, because the company's important contract with Baxter was collapsing in 1997. Thus Paul Richins, the company's chief administrative officer, said in the November 11, 1998 Deseret News, 'I wouldn't call (the Ireland plant) a smashing success, because the volumes have been much lower, and we've had to work to try to get enough business there to keep that plant at a level where it can be profitable. But we've been able to do that.'
In 1997 Utah Medical Products' financial performance declined after several years of expansion. Its net sales declined to $24.3 million from $38.7 million in 1996. In addition, the firm's net income fell from $8.8 million in 1996 to $4.3 million in 1997. Sales and income increased over the next two years, with 1999 bringing in $29.4 million in net sales and net income of $5.5 million. It was clear that after the Baxter Healthcare agreements ended, Utah Medical Products in the late 1990s had to rely on other options to strengthen its market position.
In 1999 Utah Medical Products received 47 percent of its revenues from its labor and delivery products, including devices for monitoring both the fetus and the mother, vacuum systems that replaced forceps in difficult deliveries, and other products for umbilical cord management.
The company's blood pressure monitoring and other miscellaneous products brought in 25 percent of its 1999 revenues. These items for adult use included erectile dysfunction pumps. Subcontracting injection molding for other companies was also in this category.
Gynecology, electrosurgery, and urology products accounted for 15 percent of 1999 annual revenues. This third category included generators and tools for using electrosurgery to take biopsy samples from the cervix and also endoscopic irrigation devices used in urology.
The firm's neonatal products, responsible for 13 percent of 1999 revenues, were designed to help premature and critically ill babies survive. Products in this line included disposable hoods to help babies get enough oxygen, blood filtering systems, spinal fluid sampling devices, feeding tubes, and several other items.
To face strong competitors in 2000, Utah Medical Products continued to be led by a strong management team headed by Kevin Cornwall, president, CEO, and chairman of the board. It seemed that the company finally had found a long-term leader, unlike its two former presidents who each had stayed about five years and then left under clouds of litigation.
Principal Subsidiaries: Utah Medical Products Ltd. (Ireland); Columbia Medical, Inc.
Principal Competitors: Abbott Laboratories; Argon Medical; Baxter Cardiovascular Group; Becton, Dickinson & Company; Clinical Innovations; Corometrics; GE Medical; Kendall International, Inc.; Marquette Electronics, Inc.; Medex; Prism Enterprises; Quest Medical; Spectramed; Tyco International Ltd.
Related information about Utah
pop (2000e) 2 223 200; area
219 880 km²/84 899 sq mi. State in W USA,
divided into 29 counties; the ‘Beehive State’; first white
exploration by the Spanish, 1540; acquired by the USA through the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848; arrival of the Mormons, 1847;
Utah Territory organized, 1850; several petitions for statehood
denied because of the Mormons' practice of polygamy; antagonism
between Mormon Church and Federal law over this issue led to the
‘Utah War’, 1857–8; joined the Union as the 45th state, 1896;
capital, Salt Lake City; other chief cities, Provo and Ogden;
rivers include the Colorado and Green; contains the Great Salt Lake
in the NW, the largest salt-water lake in the country
(2590 km²/1000 sq mi); L Utah is a freshwater lake S
of Great Salt Lake; the Wasatch Range, part of the Rocky Mts, runs
N–S through the state; the Uinta Mts in the NE; highest point,
Kings Peak (4123 m/13 527 ft); mountainous and
sparsely inhabited E region dissected by deep canyons; major cities
(containing four-fifths of the population) lie along W foothills of
the Wasatch Range; the Great Basin further W; the arid Great Salt
Lake Desert in the NW; cattle, sheep, poultry, hay, wheat, barley,
sugar-beet; copper, petroleum, coal; aerospace research, machinery,
transportation equipment, electronic components, fabricated metals,
processed foods; tourism (Arches, Bryce Canyon, Glen Canyon
National Recreation Area, Zion National Park).
citations
missing
Utah (IPA: ) is a U.S. state located in the western United States. It was the
45th state admitted to the union on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's
2,500,000 people live in an urban concentration with Salt Lake City as
the center, known as the Wasatch Front. In contrast, vast expanses of the state
are nearly uninhabited, making the population the sixth most
urbanized in the U.S.MSN Encarta
The state is generally rocky with three distinct geological
regions: the Rocky
Mountains, the Great
Basin, and the Colorado Plateau. Utah is known for its natural
diversity and is home to features ranging from arid deserts with
sand dunes to thriving
pine forests in mountain
valleys.
It has a large tourism business and was host to the 2002 Winter
Olympics. The ski resorts in the northern Wasatch Range, the
Bonneville
Salt Flats, the Great Salt Lake, the five national parks in the south,
such as Arches, Zion and Bryce Canyon, and cultural attractions such as
Temple Square,
Sundance Film
Festival, and the Utah Shakespearean Festival are among the most
visited. The religion has historically had a strong regional
influence and has contributed to the state's restrictive attitude
towards alcohol and gambling, while also contributing to its high birth rate (25% higher than
the national average; the highest for a state in the U.S.).Utah holds onto No.1 birth rate Before the
1890 Manifesto,
the Church's teachings of plural marriage had led to confrontation with the U.S.
federal government in the Utah War.
Beginning in the late 19th century with the state's mining boom, including
what is now the world's largest open pit mine, companies attracted large
numbers of immigrants (of diverse faiths) with job
opportunities.
Geography
Utah is one of the Four
Corners states, and is bordered by Idaho and Wyoming in the north; Portions of these mountains
receive more than 500 inches (1,250 cm) of snow each year and are home to world-renowned ski resorts, made popular by
the light, fluffy snow, which is considered good for skiing. The
major cities of Ogden, Salt Lake City, Layton, West Valley City, Sandy, West Jordan, Orem, and Provo are located within this region, which stretches
approximately from Brigham City at the north end to Nephi at the south end.
The Great Salt
Lake and Utah Lake
are the only two significant remains of this ancient freshwater
lake, which once covered most of the eastern Great Basin. West of the
Great Salt Lake,
stretching to the Nevada
border, lies the Great Salt Lake Desert, the most arid area in
Utah.
Much of the scenic southern landscape is sandstone, more specifically
Kayenta
sandstone and Navajo sandstone. This terrain is accentuated in
protected parks such as Arches, Bryce Canyon,
Canyonlands, Capitol Reef,
and Zion
national parks, Cedar Breaks, Grand Staircase-Escalante, Hovenweep,
and Natural Bridges national monuments, Glen
Canyon National Recreation Area (site of the popular tourist
destination, Lake
Powell), Dead Horse Point and Goblin Valley
state parks, and Monument Valley, a popular photographic and filming
site.
Southwestern Utah is the lowest and hottest spot in Utah. Economies
are dominated by mining,
oil and natural gas-drilling,
ranching, and recreation. The most popular
destination within eastern Utah is Dinosaur National
Monument.
Like most of the west and southwest states, the federal
government owns much of the land in Utah. Over seventy percent
of the land is either BLM land or U.S. National Forest, park, U.S. National
Monument, National Recreation Area or U.S. Wilderness
Area.
Climate
Most of Utah is arid and high in elevation. St. George averages
about 3 inches (7.5 cm) of snow per year, while Salt Lake City
receives almost 60 inches (150 cm) annually (amplified by the
lake effect
from the Great Salt Lake). Fog and haze often caused by temperature
inversions are common in the valleys and basins during winter,
especially the Uinta
Basin, just south of the Uinta Mountains.
During summer and
fall, most of the
precipitation is received from the storms coming from the south and
consists of short, sporadic, and intense thunderstorms that can
cause wildfires and
flash floods. The
record high temperature in Utah was 117 °F (47 °C),
recorded at St. George on July 5, 1985,fact and
the record low was -69 °F (-56 °C), recorded at Peter's Sink in the
Bear River
Mountains of northern Utah on February 1, 1985.Utah Cold Weather Facts - Snow
and Winter Storms. Some left petroglyphs and pictographs which exist throughout the
state.
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado may have crossed into what
is now southern Utah in 1540, when he was seeking the legendary
Cíbola.
A group led by two Catholic priests—sometimes called the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition—left Santa Fe in 1776,
hoping to find a route to the California coast. The expedition traveled as far north
as Utah Lake and
encountered the native residents.
Fur trappers—including Jim Bridger—explored some regions of Utah in the early
1800s.
Mormon settlement
Mormon
pioneers first came to the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. As a consequence of the Mexican-American
War, the land became the territory of the United States upon the
signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848. In 1850, the Utah Territory was
created with the Compromise of 1850, and Fillmore was designated
the capital.
Disputes between the Mormon inhabitants and the US
Government intensified due to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'
practice of plural
marriage among its members. The resulting conflict is known as
the Utah War.
As troops approached Salt Lake in northern Utah, nervous Mormon
settlers and Paiutes
attacked and killed 120 immigrants from Arkansas in southern Utah.
Before troops led by Albert Sidney Johnston entered the territory,
Brigham Young ordered all residents of Salt Lake City to evacuate
southward to Utah
Valley and sent out a force, known as the Nauvoo Legion, to delay
the government's advance. Brigham Young was among the first to send
a message, along with Abraham Lincoln and other officials.
Because of the American Civil War, federal troops were pulled out of
Utah Territory, leaving the territory in LDS hands until Patrick E. The war is
unique among Indian
Wars because it was a three-way conflict, with mounted
Timpanogos Utes led by
Antonguer Black Hawk exploited by federal and LDS
authorities.
On May 10, 1869, the First
Transcontinental Railroad was completed at Promontory Summit,
north of the Great
Salt Lake. The railroad brought increasing numbers of people
into the state, and several influential businessmen made fortunes
in the territory.
During the 1870s and
1880s, laws were passed to
punish polygamists, and in the 1890 Manifesto, the LDS Church banned polygamy.
During the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, with the construction of the
Interstate
highway system, accessibility to the southern scenic areas was
made easier.
Beginning in 1939, with the establishment of Alta Ski Area, Utah has
become world-renowned for its skiing. This also spurred the
development of the light-rail system in the Salt Lake Valley, known
as TRAX, and the
re-construction of the freeway system around the city.
During the late 20th century, the state grew quickly. Northern
Davis,
southern and western Salt Lake, Summit, eastern Tooele, Utah, Wasatch, and Washington
counties are all growing very quickly. Immigration from outside the
United States resulted in a net increase of 49,995 people, and
migration within the country produced a net loss of 33,822
people.
Much of the population lives in cities and towns along the Wasatch Front, a
metropolitan region that runs north-south with the Wasatch Mountains
rising on the eastern side. Utah has a higher percentage of people
sharing a single religious denomination than any other state.
Utah contains 5 metropolitan areas (Logan, Ogden-Clearfield, Salt Lake City, Provo-Orem, and St. George), and 5 micropolitan
areas (Brigham City, Heber, Vernal, Price, and Cedar City). The St. George metropolitan area is currently the
second-fastest growing in the country (behind Las Vegas), while
the Heber micropolitan area is also the second-fastest growing in
the country (behind Palm Coast, Florida).St. George growth 2nd fastest
in U.S.. Deborah Bulkeley, Deseret Morning News
Race and ancestry
The five largest ancestry groups in the state are:
- 29.0% English
- 11.6% German
- 6.8% Native American
- 6.5% Danish
- 6.1% Mexican
Most Utahns are of Northern European descent.Demographics & Statistics. Chinese
form the largest Asian group and Tongans form the largest Pacific
Islander group.
Religion
Utah is well-known for being a heavily Mormon (or Latter Day Saint) state. This means that a
majority of the state's residents are affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or one
of its schisms, such as the significantly smaller and
polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints and other Latter Day Saint denominations. Matt Canham,
Salt Lake
Tribune. which represent less than 50% of the population in
urban areas and over 90% in rural areas.fact There are a large and increasing number of
Catholics in Utah as a result of immigration from Mexico, including previous waves
of Catholics from Italy,facts and
as with all states in the West the percentage of those claiming no
religion is above the national average, earning the state the title
of the 10th highest irreligious population, which it
shares with five other states. The Salt Lake Tribune
has projected that Latter-day Saints may no longer be a majority as
early as 2030.
The religious affiliations of the people of Utah are:
Religious
statistics
- Latter-day
Saints - 57%
- Roman Catholics - 6%
- Episcopalians - 3%
- Baptists -
2%
- Other Christians - 3%
- Evangelicals - 1%
- Presbyterians - 1%
- Lutherans -
1%
- Methodists -
1%
- Non-religious - 17%
- Refused to identify - 4%
- Other - 3%
- Muslim -
1%
Totals are rounded.
Transportation
Interstate 15 is
the main interstate highway in the state, entering from Arizona north to Idaho and serving such cities as
St. George,
Provo, Salt Lake City, and Ogden. Breaking from Interstate 80 at Echo, Interstate 84
heads northwest through the mountains and out onto the Wasatch
Front, merging with I-15 at Roy and staying merged until Tremonton. I-80 enters
from Nevada at Wendover and heads east
through Salt Lake City, briefly merging with I-15 before climbing
into the mountains and weaving through canyons and across plateaus
into Wyoming, just
before reaching Evanston. Interstate 70 begins at Cove Fort and heads
east through mostly uninhabited areas, providing access to many of
southern Utah's recreation areas before entering Colorado.
A light rail system in the Salt Lake Valley known as TRAX consists of two lines, one
providing access from downtown Salt Lake City and Sandy, and the other
providing access to the University of Utah east of downtown. Several bus
companies provide access to the ski resorts in winter, and local
bus services also serve Logan, St. George and Cedar City. The first portion, known as the
Legacy Parkway,
in southern Davis County, will begin construction in spring 2006. A commuter rail line, named
FrontRunner, is
under construction between Salt Lake City and Pleasant View,
north of Ogden,
and will be complete by 2008. State of Utah Elections
Office. Three recent amendments were put on the Utah election
ballot: Amendment 1 would
allow the state legislature to convene special sessions to impeach authority; and Amendment
3 defined marriage
as a civil union
between one man and one woman and provided no legal recognition for
other forms of civil unions.
All three amendments passed and went into effect on January 1, 2005. the other is Hawaii.
Utah is an Alcoholic beverage control state. He is known for
being a proponent of a flat
taxdeseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635164929,00.html 5% flat
tax urged for Utah Deseret Morning News, opposition to
same-sex marriage while supporting the creation of a reciprocal beneficiary status for same-sex
coupleswww.hrc.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&CONTENTID=22369&TEMPLATE=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm
Marriage Measure Dividing Utah Race Deseret Morning News,
opposition to intelligent design being taught in the classroomdeseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600158730,00.html
Huntsman opposes 'design' as science Deseret Morning News,
and receives high approval ratings from across the Utah political
spectrumsurveyusa.com/50State2006/50StateGovernor060321Approval.htm
Huntsman approval.
The state has two Republican senators, Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett. Two more Republicans, Rob Bishop and Chris Cannon, as well as
one member of the Democratic Party, Jim Matheson, represent Utah in the United States House of Representatives. However, the
brand of Republicanism is more libertarian than most.(or) See
marriage amendments
The state's leadership is run by the Republican Party. The custody measure passed the
legislature and was vetoed by the governor, a reciprocal benefits
supporter.
Prayers are commonplace in Utah politics, and lawmakers of both
parties, whether liberal
or conservative,
speak of their relationship with God or their religious beliefs in ordinary
conversation.(or)
Utah's liberal areas include Carbon County,
Grand
County, Salt
Lake County, and Summit County. Salt Lake City's Mayor Rocky Anderson is known
for his support of same-sex marriage and the Kyoto Treaty, while
the county mayor Peter
Corroon is a relative of Howard Dean and shares similar views.
Carbon County's Democrats are generally made up of members of the
large Greek, Italian,and Southeastern European
communities, whose ancestors migrated in the early 1900s to work in the extensive
mining industry. The views common amongst this group are heavily
influenced by labor
politics, particularly of the New Deal Era.Utah History Encyclopedia -
United Mine Workers of America
Grand County's politics are heavy on environmentalism and
being socially liberal. The county has a large hippie community situated in the
resort town of Moab
in red rock country between Arches National Park and Canyonlands
National Park.
The Democrats of Summit County are the by-product of the migration
of wealthy families from California in the 1990s to the ski resort town of Park City; their views
are generally supportive of the economic policies favored by unions
and the social policies favored by the liberals.
The state's most Republican areas tend to be Utah County, which is the
home to Brigham Young University and Provo, and nearly all the
rural counties.www.le.state.ut.us/asp/roster/roster.aspwww.le.state.ut.us/documents/redistricting/redist.htm
The Republicans found in these areas generally hold socially
conservative views in line with that of the national Religious Right.
The state has not voted for a Democrat for president since 1964.
Utah was the Republicans' best state in the 1976, 1980, 1984,
1988, 1996, 2000 and 2004
elections. Utah's Democrats publicly expressed displeasure with the
selection of John
Kerry after the election, whom they found to be too friendly to
abortion and the
labor unions, and
too hostile to gay-rights and free trade for their constituents'
taste. In the 1996 Presidential elections the Republican candidate
received a smaller 54% of the vote while the Democrat earned
34%.President Elect - 1996
Important cities and towns
Lists of cities in Utah: Alphabetical?Ranked by population
Utah's population is concentrated in two areas, the Wasatch Front in the
north-central part of the state, with a population of approximately
2 million; St.
George, in the southwest, is the second-fastest growing
metropolitan area in the United States, trailing Las Vegas,
Nevada.
The state's two fastest growing counties are: Summit (at 91.6%; The
cities (defined as having at least 9,000 residents in 2000) that
saw the greatest increases between 1990 and 2000 were: Draper (248%), South Jordan
(141%), Lehi
(125%), Riverton (122%), and Syracuse (102%). Between 1990 and 2000 the five
fastest-growing cities of any size were Cedar Hills (302%),
Draper (248%),
Woodland
Hills (213%), Ivins (173%), and South Jordan (141%). According to U.S. Census Bureau
estimates, the five fastest-growing cities of any size between 2000
and 2005 were Herriman (637%), Saratoga
Springs (548%), Eagle Mountain (380%), Cedar Hills (152%),
and Syracuse
(91%).
Utah
Rank |
Metropolitan Area |
Population
(2004)
|
U.S.
Rank |
Counties
|
| 1 |
Salt Lake City* |
1,018,826 |
50 |
Salt Lake, Tooele, Summit
|
| 2 |
Ogden-Clearfield* |
477,455 |
101 |
Weber, Davis, Morgan
|
| 3 |
Provo Orem |
412,361 |
112 |
Utah
|
| 4 |
St. George |
109,924 |
318 |
Washington
|
| 5 |
Logan |
109,666 |
320 |
Cache, Franklin (Idaho)
|
* Until 2003, the Salt Lake City and Ogden-Clearfield
metropolitan areas were considered as a single metropolitan
area.An Economist's
Perspective on Urban Sprawl, Part 1
Utah locations by per capita income
Education
Colleges and universities
|
- Brigham Young University in Provo
- College of Eastern Utah in Price
- Dixie State College of Utah (formerly Dixie
College) in St. George
- ITT Technical Institute in Murray
- LDS
Business College in Salt Lake
City
- Neumont University in South
Jordan
- Provo
College in Provo
- Salt Lake Community College in Taylorsville
- Snow
College in Ephraim and Richfield
- Southern Utah University (formerly Southern Utah
State College) in Cedar City
|
- Stevens-Henager College at various locations
statewide
- University of Phoenix at various locations
statewide
- University of Utah in Salt Lake
City
- Utah College of Massage Therapy in
Salt
Lake City
- Utah State University in Logan (satellite
campuses at various state locations)
- Utah Valley State College (formerly Utah Valley
Community College) in Orem
- Weber State University in Ogden
- Western Governors University an online
university, begun by former Utah Governor, Michael O.
Leavitt
- Westminster College in Salt Lake
City
|
Professional sports teams
The Utah Jazz of
the National Basketball Association play in the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.
Utah is by far the least populous U.S. state to have a major
professional sports league franchise, although the
- Real Salt
Lake of Major League Soccer in Rice-Eccles
Stadium in Salt Lake City (a soccer-specific
stadium has been approved for Sandy, and ground was broken for the new stadium
on August 12,
2006)Real Salt Lake Breaks Ground
For Sandy Stadium. kutv.com.
- Salt Lake
Bees of the Pacific Coast League in Franklin Covey
Field in Salt Lake City
- Ogden
Raptors of the Pioneer League in Lindquist Field in Ogden
- Orem Owlz of the
Pioneer League
in Parkway
Crossings in Orem
- Utah
Grizzlies of the ECHL
in the E Center in
West
Valley City
- Utah Blaze of
the Arena
Football League at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City
Miscellanea
- Popular recreational destinations within the mountains
besides the ski resorts include Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, Timpanogos Cave National Monument, Bear Lake,
and Jordanelle, Strawberry, East Canyon, and
Rockport
reservoirs. The mountains are popular camping, rock-climbing, skiing, snowboarding, and hiking destinations.
- The USS
Utah was named in honor of this state.
- The Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster is built and
serviced by the Thiokol division of ATK, which has its facilities in Brigham City.
Boosters are tested periodically at a proving grounds in the
Wasatch Range.
- Utah (as of 2002) ranks first in antidepressant use www.mmmo.org/articlesofinterest/utahdepress.htm and
(as of 2005) no longer ranks first in personal bankruptcies per
capita in the United States deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635206768,00.html.
Statistics relating to pregnancies and abortions may be
artificially low from teenagers going out of state for abortions
because of parental notification requirements www.agi-usa.org/pubs/journals/2911597.html, www.agi-usa.org/pubs/ib22.html. Utah
has the lowest child poverty rate in the country, despite its
young demographics www.adherents.com/largecom/lds_dem.html.
- According to Internal Revenue Service tax returns, Utahns
rank first among all U.S. states in the proportion of income
given to charity by the wealthy www.adherents.com/largecom/lds_dem.html.
- Jell-O is the official snack food of Utah news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1156021.stm, giving
rise to the term the Jello Belt.
- Mexican President Vicente Fox visited Salt Lake City, Utah, on May 23,
2006, as the first stop on his trip to the United States, which
also included stops in California and Washington state.
LDS.org Newsroom.
Famous Utahns
- Philo
Farnsworth - inventor of the electronic television.
- John Moses
Browning - designer of popular firearms like the M2 .50 caliber machine
gun and the Colt Model
1911 .45 semi-automatic handgun.
- George
Ouzounian (aka Maddox)- Satirist
- John
Willard Marriott - founder of worldwide hotel business
Marriott International, Inc..
- The band The Used
was formed in Utah, and 3 of the 4 members were born there as
well.
- The
Osmonds
- Roseanne
- Brandon
Flowers - lead singer of The Killers
(although born in Las
Vegas he was raised in Nephi, Utah)
- Steve Young - Hall of Fame quarterback for San Francisco
49ers, won NFL's Most Valuable Player award 1992 and 1994, direct
descendant of Brigham Young.
- Jake Garn -
former astronaut and
U.S. Senator.
Branding
The state of Utah relies heavily on income from tourists and
travelers taking advantage of the state's ski resorts and natural
beauty, and thus the need to "brand" Utah and create an impression
of the state throughout the world has led to several state slogans,
the most famous of which being "The Greatest Snow on Earth," which
has been in use in Utah officially since 1975 (although the slogan was in unofficial use as
early as 1962) and now
adorns nearly 50% of the state's license plates. In 2001, Utah Governor Mike Leavitt approved a new
state slogan, "Utah! Where Ideas Connect," which lasted until
March 10, 2006, when the Utah Travel Council
and the office of
In fiction
- In the Doctor
Who episode "Dalek,"
Utah was the base of operations for the fictional character
Henry van Statten.
- In the Fox series Prison Break D.B. Cooper buried his money under a silo in the Utah
desert, somewhere near Tooele.
- The film SLC
Punk! takes place in Salt Lake City, Utah.
See also
portal
- Mormon
Corridor
- Mormon Miracle Pageant
- Mormon Tabernacle Choir
- Sundance Film Festival
- Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar
City
- Utah Symphony Orchestra, which performs in
Abravanel
Hall in Salt Lake City
- Music of
Utah
- Scouting in Utah
Notes
|
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