Provo

City in north-central Utah, USA, on the Provo River, 60 km/38 mi southeast of Salt Lake City; population (2000) 105,200. It is a rail distribution point, and the commercial and industrial centre of a rich mining and irrigated agricultural area. Iron and steel goods are manufactured with material sourced from a nearby steelworks at Geneva. Products include processed-foods, electronics, computer-ware, bricks, and tiles. Silver, lead, copper, and gold are mined locally. It is the seat of Brigham Young University (1875).

Provo was settled in 1849 by Mormon missionaries and initially named Fort Utah; the city was renamed in 1850 after Etienne Provost, a French-Canadian trapper who had settled in the area in 1825. It grew rapidly after the arrival of the railroad in the 1870s.