Prehistoric Indians of the Desert Culture inhabited what is now Utah from about 9000 to 7000 B.C. The Anasazi Indians arrived in the first century A.D. They and their descendants, the Pueblos, dominated the region for some 1,300 years until forced out by a prolonged drought. When the first Europeans reached the area, in the 16th century, the major tribes were the Ute, in the Colorado Plateau area; the Paiute, in southwestern Utah; and the Gosiute, around the Great Salt Lake.

Important dates in Utah
1776 Silvestre Velez de Escalante and Francisco Atanasio Dominguez made the first far-reaching exploration of the Utah region.
1824-1825 Jim Bridger probably was the first white person to see Great Salt Lake.
1847 Brigham Young and the first Mormon pioneers arrived in the Great Salt Lake region.
1848 The United States won the Utah area from Mexico.
1849 The Mormons created the State of Deseret, and adopted their first constitution.
1850 Congress established the Utah Territory.
1860-1861 The pony express crossed Utah.
1861 Telegraph lines met at Salt Lake City, providing the first transcontinental telegraph service.
1869 The first transcontinental railroad system was completed at Promontory.
1890 Mormons in Utah were advised by their church to give up polygamy. Polygamy was prohibited after 1904.
1896 Utah became the 45th state on January 4.
1913 The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation completed the Strawberry River reservoir, the state's first large reclamation project.
1952 Rich uranium deposits were found near Moab.
1959 Utah became an important missile-producing state.
1964 Flaming Gorge and Glen Canyon dams were completed.
1967 Construction began on the Central Utah Project, a program to provide water for Utah's major growth areas.
1996 Utah marked the centennial (100th anniversary) of its statehood.
2003 Lieutenant Governor Olene Walker became Utah's first woman governor after Governor Michael O. Leavitt resigned to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Walker's term ended in 2005.