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Wasatch Front
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Wasatch Front is an urban area in the U.S. state of Utah. It consists of a few downtown districts with the largest being that of Salt Lake City, and is fully connected by continous suburban development. Cumulative population statistics for 2005 indicate that it has an estimated population of 2,150,017 residents.
The cities of the urban area span from the western base of the Wasatch Range, hence the name Wasatch Front, and extend to the eastern shores of the Great Salt Lake in the northern portion, the eastern base of the Oquirrh Mountains in the central area, and to the shoreline of Utah Lake in its southernmost reach. The Wasatch Front is 120 miles (193 km) long and an average of 5 miles (8 km) wide due to it being constricted by natural barriers, never exceeding a width of approximately 15 miles (24 km).
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All of the Wasatch Front cities lie at an elevation of approximately 4,330 feet (1,320 m). To the east, the Wasatch Mountains rises dramatically up to an elevation of 11,752 feet (3,582 m) at Mount Timpanogos (bordering Utah Valley). The area's western boundary is formed by Utah Lake (in Utah County), the Oquirrh Mountains (in Salt Lake County), and the Great Salt Lake (in northwestern Salt Lake, Davis, Weber, and southeastern Box Elder Counties). The Wasatch Front's development is constrained by these natural barriers, and thus much of the land has been developed. Transportation issues have been complicated by the narrow north-south orientation of the valley, constrained by the natural barriers on both sides, and the rapid growth of the region.
The region has experienced considerable growth since the 1950s, with its population increasing 308% from 492,374 to 2,009,595. It encompasses three metropolitan areas and one micropolitan area, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. From north to south, these are Brigham City, population 44,810; Ogden-Clearfield, population 477,455; Salt Lake City, population 1,018,826; and Provo-Orem, population 412,361. As of 2005, all four together have a population of 2,009,595 residents. Much of the remaining undeveloped land is rapidly being developed.
If it were considered a single metropolitan area, the Wasatch Front would rank as the seventh most populated in the western United States, just behind Denver, Colorado and Portland, Oregon. The Metro population of Portland, Oregon is 2,127,881 as of 2005 and has since grown. If using the same distance to determine population as was used in the Wasatch Front calculations, the Portland population would be well ahead of the Wasatch Front population as the current standings show that the immediate metro area is already larger then that of Utah's Wasatch Front. Officially, Salt Lake City ranks twelfth, followed by Ogden-Clearfield at twenty-third and Provo-Orem at twenty-eighth in the western region.
The Logan metropolitan area (population 109,666, adjacent to Brigham City) and the Heber micropolitan area (population 18,139, just east of Provo) are sometimes considered part of the larger Wasatch area. They are both approximately 20 miles from the traditional Wasatch Front. When they are included in state estimates, the total area is referred to as the "northern metropolitan region," comprising a combined population of about 2,200,000.
Cities lying on the other side of the Wasatch Range, including Morgan, Park City, and Heber, are sometimes referred to as the "Wasatch Back" and have recently shared in the rapid growth of the region.
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