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About Provo
Provo lies between the shores of Utah Lake and the towering peaks of the Wasatch Mountains. Being one of the earliest settlements of the Mormon Pioneers, in 1849, it features wide streets, laid out in a grid, enclosing large city blocks. The Provo River flow through the city, emerging from Provo Canyon at the northern tip of the city limits. Mt. Timpanogas rises to 11,750 feet in elevation, a well-known landmark visible throughout the city.
Provo is home to Brigham Young University (BYU), whose student body (above 25,000) used to double the population of the town. It is also home to the Missionary Training Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, whose missionaries travel every corner of the earth, and often return to BYU and make Provo a foreign-language capitol of the world.
The valley surrounding the city, known as Utah Valley, is a grassland and rich farmland watered by the streams flowing from the snow-capped mountains. With the growth of business and urbanization, farmland has been giving way to subdivisions. Families, seeking a healthy environment for raising their children, both of the LDS faith and other religions, find it in this traditional community.
Provo's population, as of the year 2000, is 105,166. The metropolitan area also includes Orem just to the north, Springville on the south, and other closely-spaced communities in the valley. Salt Lake City is just an hour's drive to the north. Interstate 15 passes through the valley south to north. U.S. Highway 189 climbs Provo Canyon towards Heber.