Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain West sub-region of the Western United States.  It borders Colorado to its east, Wyoming to its northeast, Idaho to its north, Arizona to its south, and Nevada to its west.  Utah also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast.  Urban development is mostly concentrated in two areas: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, which is home to roughly two-thirds of the population and includes the capital city, Salt Lake City; and Washington County in the southwest.  Most of the western half of Utah lies in the Great Basin.

Utah has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups such as the ancient Puebloans, Navajo, and Ute.  The Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive in the mid-a6th century, though the region’s difficult geography and harsh climate made it a peripheral part of New Spain and later Mexico.  Even while it was Mexican territory, many of Utah’s earliest settler were American, particularly Mormons fleeing marginalization and persecution from the United States via the Mormon Trail.  Following the Mexican-American War in 1848, the region was annexed by the U.S., becoming part of the Utah Territory, which included what is now Colorado and Nevada.  In 1896 it became the U.S. 45th state.

Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah