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100 free Utah trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
52 free Utah trivia questions with answers. Utah packs a lot into one state: the saltiest lake in the hemisphere, five national parks, the spot where the transcontinental railroad met, two Winter Olympics and a state snack that is a wobbly green dessert. This quiz covers all of it. There are questions on history (the pioneers of 1847, Brigham Young, the 1890 Manifesto and statehood in 1896), geography (Kings Peak, the Bonneville Salt Flats, the Uintas, Monument Valley) and the Mighty 5 (Arches, Bryce, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Zion). The culture rounds take in the Utah Jazz, Sundance, fry sauce, Philo Farnsworth's television, the Dutch oven and the state firearm. Early questions suit anyone who has driven I-15; the later ones ask which president appointed the first territorial governor and how wide Salt Lake City's streets were meant to be. Good for a classroom, a road trip or a Pioneer Day gathering. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Utah became a state on 4 January of which year?
1896
It was the 45th state; statehood had been delayed for decades by disputes over polygamy.
Q 02Utah's official nickname refers to what?
A beehive
The beehive is a symbol of industry, and 'Industry' is the state motto.
Q 03On what date did Brigham Young and the first Mormon pioneers reach the Salt Lake Valley?
24 July 1847
Utah still marks the day as Pioneer Day, a state holiday.
Q 04At which Utah location was the first transcontinental railroad completed in 1869?
Promontory Summit
Leland Stanford drove the ceremonial golden spike on 10 May.
Q 05Which university has held the transcontinental railroad's golden spike since the 1890s?
Stanford
It weighed just over 14 troy ounces of 17.6-karat gold and joined the Central Pacific and Union Pacific lines.
Q 06What is the highest point in Utah?
Kings Peak
It stands 13,528 feet in the Uinta Mountains, the highest range in the contiguous US that runs east to west.
Q 07Utah is one of the Four Corners states, along with Arizona, New Mexico and which other state?
Colorado
It is the only spot in the US where four states meet at a single point.
Q 08The name Utah comes from the English name of which Native American tribe?
The Ute
Brigham Young had wanted to call the territory Deseret, a Book of Mormon word for honeybee.
Q 09In which year did the LDS Church issue the Manifesto banning polygamy, clearing the way for statehood?
1890
Statehood followed six years later.
Q 10What is the state bird of Utah?
California gull
Legend says the gulls saved the pioneers' 1848 crops by devouring a plague of crickets.
Q 11What is Utah's state flower?
Sego lily
Pioneers ate its bulbs during lean years, which is why it was chosen.
Q 12Utah ranks where among US states by area?
13th
Its population of just over three million ranks around 30th.
Q 13Utah is the only state in which every county contains some of what?
National forest
More than 60 percent of the state's land is federally owned or protected.
Q 14Utah's ski slogan, adopted in the 1980s, calls its powder what?
Q 21Which Utah national park has the world's highest density of natural stone spans, over 2,000?
Arches
That is the highest density of natural arches in the world; Delicate Arch appears on the state's quarter and licence plates.
Q 22Delicate Arch and its 2,000 neighbours sit four miles north of which Utah town?
Moab
Canyonlands is also near Moab, on the other side of the Colorado River.
Q 23Bryce Canyon's namesake Ebenezer Bryce supposedly called it 'a helluva place to' do what?
Lose a cow
Despite its name it is not a canyon but a row of natural amphitheatres full of hoodoos.
The Greatest Snow on Earth
Parts of the Wasatch Range in the lake-effect zone get up to 500 inches a year.
Q 15Roughly what share of Utahns are Latter-day Saints?
Slightly over half
The share is falling as the Wasatch Front's tech economy draws newcomers.
Q 16Utah's record high temperature, 118 °F, was set in 2007 near which city?
St. George
The record low of minus 69 °F was measured at Peter Sinks in 1985.
Q 17The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in which part of the world?
The Western Hemisphere
It is a remnant of a vast prehistoric lake and has no outlet to the sea.
Q 18The Great Salt Lake supplies roughly what share of the world's brine shrimp?
35 to 45 percent
The tiny cysts are harvested in autumn and sold as fish-farm feed.
Q 19Utah's great inland sea is the remnant of which giant prehistoric lake?
Bonneville
At its greatest extent it was nearly as large as Lake Michigan.
Q 20What is the largest island in the Great Salt Lake, now a state park with a bison herd?
Antelope
The lake fell to its smallest recorded area, 950 square miles, in 2021.
Q 24What was Zion National Park called when it was first protected as a national monument in 1909?
Mukuntuweap
Congress renamed it Zion when it became Utah's first national park in 1919.
Q 25Which river carved Zion Canyon?
The Virgin
The Narrows, where the canyon shrinks to 20 feet wide, is hiked in the riverbed itself.
Q 26Which two rivers meet inside Canyonlands National Park, dividing it into districts?
The Colorado and the Green
Island in the Sky, the Needles and the Maze are the three land districts.
Q 27Capitol Reef National Park is built around a nearly 100-mile wrinkle in the Earth's crust called what?
The Waterpocket Fold
'Reef' is local slang for any rocky barrier to travel; the 'Capitol' is its white sandstone domes.
Q 28Utah's famous salt flats near Wendover have hosted land-speed record attempts since which year?
1914
Teddy Tetzlaff set the first; Speed Week is still held there every August.
Q 29Salt Lake City dropped which word from its original name in 1868?
Great
It had been founded as Great Salt Lake City by Brigham Young in 1847.
Q 30How long did the Salt Lake Temple take to build?
40 years
Construction started in 1853 and it was dedicated in April 1893.