St George, Utah

St. George, Utah
City
Overlook of downtown St. George at dusk
Logo
Nickname(s): Utah's Dixie, STG
Location in Washington County and the state of Utah
Coordinates: 37°5′43″N 113°34′41″W / 37.09528°N 113.57806°W / 37.09528; -113.57806Coordinates: 37°5′43″N 113°34′41″W / 37.09528°N 113.57806°W / 37.09528; -113.57806
Country	United States
State	Utah
County	Washington
Settled	1861
Incorporated	1862
Named for	George A. Smith
Government
• Mayor	Jon Pike
• City Manager	Gary Esplin
Area
• City	64.9 sq mi (168.0 km2)
• Land	64.4 sq mi (162.2 km2)
• Water	0.5 sq mi (1.2 km2)  0.72%
Elevation	2,860 ft (872 m)
Population (2015)
• City	80,202
• Metro	155,600
Demonym(s)	St. Georgian
Time zone	Mountain (UTC-7)
• Summer (DST)	Mountain (UTC-6)
ZIP Code	84770-84771, 84790-84791
Area code(s)	435
Federal Information Processing Standards	49-65330
Geographic Names Information System feature ID	1455098
Website	St. George, Utah

St. George is a city located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Utah on the Utah-Arizona border, near the tri-state junction of Utah, Nevada and Arizona. It is the county seat of Washington County, Utah and is the principal city of the St. George Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city lies in the northeastern-most part of the Mojave Desert adjacent to the Pine Valley Mountains; it's also at the convergence of three distinct geological areas: the Mojave Desert, Colorado Plateau, and Great Basin. The city is 118 miles northeast of Las Vegas and 300 miles south-southwest of Salt Lake City on Interstate 15. The city is named after George A. Smith, a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Apostle.

As of the 2015 U.S Census estimates, St. George had a population of 80,202, and the metropolitan area, defined as Washington County, had an estimated population of 155,600. St. George is the seventh-largest city in Utah and the most populous city in the state outside of the Wasatch Front. In 2005, St. George was ranked the second fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States, beat only by Greeley, Colorado, this trend continued through 2010, when growth slowed substantially due to the economic recession. Today however, growth trends have once again increased at a steady pace, ranking St. George as the fifth fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States.

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the St. George area was inhabited by the Virgin River Anasazi and later by the Paiute tribe. The first Europeans in the area were part of the Dominguez–Escalante Expedition in 1776. St. George was founded as a cotton mission in 1861 under the direction of Apostle Erastus Snow which was called Dixie by Brigham Young, who was then the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While early settlers did manage to grow cotton, it was never produced at competitive market rates; consequently, cotton farming was eventually abandoned and replaced by a tourist based economy as the railroads developed bringing visitors to the nearest National Park which is Zion National Park.