Provo Utah History & Facts

Provo is the fourth-largest city in Utah, United States. It is 43 miles (69 km) south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. Provo is the largest city and county seat of Utah County and is home to Brigham Young University (BYU).

The Provo area was originally called Timpanogas, a Numic (Ute) word perhaps meaning "rock river". The area was inhabited by the Timpanogos. It was the largest and most settled area in modern-day Utah. The ample food from the Provo River made the Timpanogos a peaceful people. The area also served as the traditional meeting place for the Ute and Shoshone tribes and as a spot to worship their creator.

Father Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, a Spanish Franciscan missionary-explorer, is considered the first European explorer to have visited the area, in 1776. He was guided by two Timpanogos Utes, whom he called Silvestre and Joaquín. Escalante chronicled this first European exploration across the Great Basin Desert. The Europeans did not build a permanent settlement, but traded with the Timpanogos whom they called Lagunas (lake people) or Come Pescado (fish eaters).

In 1847, the Mormon pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, which was just north of Timpanogos Mountain. At first, the Natives were friendly with the Mormons. But, as relations deteriorated with the Shoshoni and Utes because of disputes over land and cattle, tensions rose. Because of the reported stolen goods of settlers by the Utes, Brigham Young gave a small militia orders "to take such measures as would put a final end to their [Indian] depredations in future." This ended in what is known as the Battle Creek massacre, in modern-day Pleasant Grove, Utah.

The Mormons continued pushing into Timpanog lands. In 1849, 33 Mormon families from Salt Lake City established Fort Utah. In 1850, Brigham Young sent an army from Salt Lake to drive out the Timpanogos in what is called the Provo War. Escalating tensions with the Timpanog contributed to the Walker War. Fort Utah was renamed Provo in 1850 for Étienne Provost, an early French-Canadian trapper who arrived in the region in 1825.

In 1850, the first school house was constructed in Provo, built within Utah Fort.

As more Latter-day Saints arrived, Provo quickly grew as a city. It soon was nicknamed The Garden City with the large number of fruit orchards and gardens there.

Provo lies in the Utah Valley at an elevation of 4,549 feet (1,387 m). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 44.2 square miles (114.4 km2), of which 41.7 square miles (107.9 km2) is land and 2.5 square miles (6.5 km2), or 5.66%, is water.

The Wasatch Range contains many peaks within Utah County along the east side of the Wasatch Front. One of them, known as Y Mountain, towers over the city. There is a large hillside letter Y made of whitewashed concrete halfway up the steep mountain, built in the early part of the 20th century to commemorate BYU (original plans included construction use of all three letters). Wild deer (and less frequently, cougars, and moose) still roam the mountains (and occasionally the city streets). The geography allows for hiking, skiing, fishing and other outdoor activities.

Famous Peoples From Provo Utah

Lindsay Arnold

Lindsay Arnold Cusick (born January 11, 1994) is an American professional Latin and ballroom dancer. She was a contestant on So You Think You Can Dance. She is a professional dancer and choreographer on Dancing with the Stars.

Lindsay Arnold was born and raised in Provo, Utah, and is the oldest of four daughters. Her siblings are Jensen, Brynley, and Rylee. On June 18, 2015, she married her high-school sweetheart, Samuel Cusick, in a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ceremony at the Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah. Fellow Dancing with the Stars dancers Brittany Cherry, Jenna Johnson, and Emma Slater were among her bridesmaids, with Witney Carson serving as maid of honor. On May 13, 2020, she announced she and Cusick were expecting their first child, a girl, due in November. Their daughter, Sage Jill Cusick, was born on November 2, 2020.

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