Provo

Provo, city, United States

Provo (prō`vō), city (1990 pop. 86,835), seat of Utah co., N central Utah, on the Provo River near Utah Lake; inc. 1851. It is a distribution, processing, and manufacturing center in an extensive mining (silver, lead, copper, gold) and irrigated farm and fruit area. A major source of employment is a large steel mill nearby. Among the manufactures in Provo are electronic equipment, apparel, concrete and metal products, herbal products and health supplements, and computer software. There is also book publishing, coal tar refining, and iron casting. The city was settled by Mormons in 1849 and successfully defended against Native Americans in a war from 1865 to 1868. Railroad connections from Salt Lake City (1873) and Scofield (1878) made it a shipping point for the region's mines. The city grew considerably in the late 20th cent. Provo is the seat of Brigham Young Univ. Nearby are the Uinta National Forest, with headquarters in Provo; a state fish hatchery; a wild bird refuge; and Provo Peak (11,070 ft/3,374 m).

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Provo, river, United States

Provo, river, c.70 mi (110 km) long, rising in the Uinta Mts., NE Utah, and flowing SW past Provo to Utah Lake. It was early used for irrigation, but after Utah Lake was badly depleted in the 1930s, the Bureau of Reclamation rehabilitated the old irrigation installations and built new ones centering on the Provo River. The project also gets water from the Weber River by a canal (built 1929–30; enlarged 1941–47) and from the Duchesne River, a tributary of the Green River, by a tunnel (completed 1942) across the mountain divide. The water is used to irrigate the valley of Utah Lake and to supply the needs of the towns there; in addition, Salt Lake City is served by the 42-mi-long (68-km) Salt Lake Aqueduct (completed 1951). The Deer Creek Dam (completed 1941) is the chief dam on the Provo River; it impounds a large reservoir and has a power plant.

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Provo

City (pop., 2000: 105,166), north-central Utah, U.S. Situated on the Provo River between Utah Lake and the Wasatch Mountains, it was founded in 1849 by Mormon colonists. Construction of railroads in the 1870s spurred the city's development as a centre for the mining of silver, lead, copper, and gold. The founding in 1875 of Brigham Young Academy (now Brigham Young University) also contributed to Provo's growth. The city's industries include steel, canning, electronics, and textiles. Nearby is Timpanogos Cave National Monument.