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Discover Utah County: Top 6 Amazing Fun Facts You Need to Know!

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Get ready to uncover the quirkiest secrets and unexpected treasures nestled within the vibrant landscapes of Utah County!

1. BYU: A Global Melting Pot

Forget the United Nations – Utah County has its own global melting pot just in Brigham Young University: Nearly half of its students have lived outside of the United States, 65% speak a second language, and the university teaches an impressive roster of 63 different languages!
Source => en.wikipedia.org

2. Rapid Population Growth in Utah County

They say that Rome wasn't built in a day, but Utah County seems to be giving it a run for its money with its bustling expansion: Utah County, featuring rapidly growing cities like Provo and Orem, added over 16,000 new residents in just a year, pushing its population past 700,000 and inching closer to Salt Lake County’s 1.19 million!
Source => ksl.com

3. Improving Traffic Dance at Thanksgiving Point

In Utah County, they don't say "rush hour"; they say "beltway breakdance," and it's getting groovier by the day: Due to the rapid influx of tech companies and jobs, the Utah Transportation Commission is investing $450 million to improve the traffic-jam two-step along the Thanksgiving Point/Lehi Tech Corridor by adding more lanes, frontage roads, and interchanges.
Source => newsroom.siliconslopes.com

4. Redford's Stewardly Vision: Sundance

Sundance Mountain Resort: proof that even the most serious of actors can have a "stewardly" vision. In Utah County, Robert Redford turned a quaint, family-run ski haven into the hub of arts, conservation, and fashion we know today as the Sundance Institute and Sundance Catalog. All thanks to the Stewart family's homesteading efforts in the early 1900s and their little slice of snowy paradise called Timp Haven.
Source => sundanceresort.com

Footloose's Utah County Connection

5. Footloose's Utah County Connection

In a place where loose feet once dared to dance on hallowed ground, a jamboree of youthful exuberance sprung forth, defiantly shaking their groove thing to the beat of nonconformity: Utah County was the stomping ground for many iconic scenes in the 1980s classic, Footloose, including Bomont High School portrayed by Payson High School and Ren's house nestled in Provo; Payson High even hosted the iconic final dance sequence in its gymnasium.
Source => giggster.com

6. Granite Flats: Time-Traveling TV in Utah

Step into the time machine, buckle up, and grab your beehive 'dos, dear folks—because we're about to teleport to the swinging '60s, smack-dab in the heart of...Utah? No, this isn't an alternate universe hypothesis cooked up by Doc Brown and Marty McFly; This quirky truth is all about "Granite Flats": the first original scripted drama series produced by BYUtv and filmed in a converted high school in Salt Lake City, Utah. Gracing approximately 500,000 households per episode, this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints values-inspired show—boasting a budget of $800,000 per episode, a third of the Hollywood standard—captured the hearts and minds of its audience with its tales of espionage and Cold War mysteries set in a quaint Colorado town during the early 1960s!
Source => en.wikipedia.org

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