Yuttahih said the Ute Indians and meant someone who “stands further up”, i. e. the people in the mountains. Utah is part of the western United States. On January 4, 1896, the state was admitted to the Union. When the first pioneers arrived in 1847, the area was still part of Mexico. After the end of the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, the territory came into the possession of the United States on February 2, 1848. Disputes arose between the US government and the Mormons living in the area because members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints (LDS Church) practiced plural marriage and did not want to move away from it. As a result, the LDS Church was discredited and labeled as un-American and rebellious. The US government sent troops on the “Utah expedition” to replace the then governor of the Utah Territory, Brigham Young, and Alfred Cumming. The resulting conflict is also known as the “Utah War”. This conflict was bloodless, but caused very high costs. The Pacific Railroad. Also known as the First Transcontinental Railroad, it was completed May 10-1869 at Promontory Summit, north of Salt Lake City. This brought a lot of people into the country, including traders and business people who made their fortunes there. During the 1870s and 1880s laws were enacted against polygamy and in the 1890 Manifesto the LDS Church outlawed polygamy. After the state had included the ban on polygamy in the constitution, nothing stood in the way of admission to the Union. Officially, the state was admitted to the Union on January 4, 1896, making it the last state to join in the 19th century. About 80 percent of the country’s population lives along the Wasatch Front, a narrow mountain range some 160 miles long that stretches south from the Idaho border. The Wasatch Front is a western spur of the Rocky Mountains. To the east, the Wasatch Mountains rise to over 10,000 feet. Mount Nero is the highest mountain at 3,620 meters. According to the Utah History Encyclopedia, Wasatch means “pass over the high mountains” in the language of the Ute Indians. The majority of that 80 percent reside in the Salt Lake City areas. In contrast, vast areas of the state are almost uninhabited. Utah is one of the states where the largest percentage of the population belongs to a single religious group. 58 percent of adults report membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (also known as the Mormon Church or LDS Church ). As a result, the culture and of course daily life are very strongly influenced. The economic activities of the State of Utah primarily include transportation, information technology (IT) and research, and mining. Tourism and leisure activities in the great outdoors also play a major role. Check topschoolsoflaw.com for brief history of the state of Utah.