Lehi, Utah, United States

🇺🇸 Lehi is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is named after Lehi, a prophet in the Book of Mormon. The rapid growth in Lehi is due, in part, to the rapid development of the tech industry region known as Silicon Slopes. Lehi is part of the Provo–Orem Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History A group of Mormon pioneers settled the area now known as Lehi in the fall of 1850 at a place called Dry Creek in the northernmost part of Utah Valley. It was renamed Evansville in 1851 after David Evans, a local bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Other historical names include Sulphur Springs and Snow's Springs.

The settlement grew so rapidly that, in early 1852, Bishop Evans petitioned the Utah Territorial Legislature to incorporate the settlement. Lehi City was incorporated by legislative act on February 5, 1852. It was the sixth city incorporated in Utah. The legislature also approved a request to call the new city Lehi, after a Book of Mormon prophet of the same name. The first mayor of Lehi was Silas P. Barnes, from 1853 to 1854.

The downtown area has been designated the Lehi Main Street Historic District by the National Park Service and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 26.7 square miles (69.1 km²) of which 26.3 square miles (68.2 km²) is land and 0.35 square miles (0.9 km²), or 1.28%, is water.

Economy Lehi has transitioned from an agricultural economy to a technological economy. This first started with the lengthy construction of a DRAM microchip plant by Micron Technology, which eventually evolved into a NAND flash memory business called IM Flash Technologies that was founded by both Micron and the Intel Corporation with headquarters in Lehi. Currently, 1 out of every 14 flash memory chips in the world is produced in Lehi. In 2021, Texas Instruments announced that they would be purchasing this facility. Adobe Systems based one of its U.S. buildings in Lehi, which is home to about 900 employees. According to the Adobe website, "The team in Utah is focused on engineering, product development, sales, marketing, and operations for the industry-leading Adobe Marketing Cloud".

IASIS Healthcare built Lehi's first hospital, which opened in 2015. The company broke ground for the medical centre in 2014. The 23-acre campus houses a 40-bed, full-service facility with an emergency department, intensive care unit, medical imaging, cardiac lab, surgical suites, and labour and delivery. Ancestry.com has its headquarters in Lehi. The headquarters building is located in The Corporate Center at Traverse Mountain. Microsoft has an engineering department specialising in the next version of its MDOP (Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack), code-named "Park City". Initially employing 100, Microsoft has built a second building to house its staff. Microsoft Southwest District is located in Lehi. Other Thanksgiving Park tenants are Infusionsoft, Workfront, Vivint Solar, Agel Enterprises, DigiCert, Jolt and ProPay Inc. Multi-level marketing companies XanGo, Young Living, Younique, and Nature's Sunshine Products also have offices in Lehi.

Lehi Roller Mills Lehi Roller Mills was founded in 1906 by a co-op of farmers. George G. Robinson purchased the mill in 1910, and it has since remained in the Robinson family, currently run by George's grandson, R. Sherman Robinson. The mill produces some 100,000 pounds of flour each day.

The turkey and peacock flour paintings of Lehi Roller Mills were painted on the silos about 1930 by Stan Russon of Lehi, Utah. He used a rope and pulley system to manually raise and lower himself to be able to paint.

Lehi Roller Mills was featured in the 1984 film Footloose as Ren McCormack's workplace and as the site of the dance. At the time the film was made, Lehi Roller Mills was surrounded by nothing but vacant fields. In one scene, the Reverend Shaw Moore and his wife Vi Moore keep a wary eye on the proceedings while standing in a field some distance away. The area is now home to a variety of fast food restaurants and a shopping center.

The Lehi Roller Mills were listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

In 2012, the Mills filed for bankruptcy with the intention of continuing to operate during the proceedings.

Thanksgiving Point Thanksgiving Point is a nonprofit museum complex and estate garden founded in 1995. It consists of six main attractions: the Ashton Gardens, Thanksgiving Point Golf Course, the Museum of Ancient Life, the Museum of Natural Curiosity, Farm Country, and the Butterfly Biosphere. Approximately 1.45 million people visit Thanksgiving Point each year. It is also a location for Megaplex Theaters and has several restaurants and gift shops. It is the site for the region's only Tulip Festival, an annual Scottish Festival, annual Cornbelly's Halloween attraction, and Highland Games.

The complex is a 501(c)(3) organization with operations funded by private donations, venue and event admissions, and profits from shops and restaurants.

Hutchings Museum The Hutchings Museum is a museum located near the centre of Lehi. It was first established in 1955 in what is now the Lehi Arts Building. The museum later moved its current location in the Veteran Memorial Building at 55 N Center St, Lehi, UT. The collection was donated to the city by John and Eunice Hutchings, who were amateur collectors and naturalists.

Originally designed to be a memorial for the veterans in World War I, the Veteran Memorial Building later expanded to host a library, courthouse, jail, police station, and fire station, among others.

The Hutchings Museum's exhibits include a large range of displays and artifacts featuring Native American culture, geology and paleontology, ornithology, live animals, and both local city and regional history.

Some of the Museum's most notable artifacts include a gun that reportedly belonged to Butch Cassidy, a large collection of rocks and minerals, and several pieces of Native American pottery. The museum has online articles, photos, videos, 3-D scans of artifacts, and a virtual tour.

Education Lehi public schools are part of the Alpine School District. Alpine School District has two high schools (Lehi High School and Skyridge High School), three junior high or middle schools, and ten elementary schools in the city.

Mountainland Technical College (MTECH) is a public technical training institution located in Lehi. MTECH serves high school and adult students at the Lehi location, offering programs of study in automotive, culinary arts, healthcare, information technology and a growing number of other industry and technical programs. MTECH offers community education programs such as training in basic computer skills and specific software programs and partners with many area employers in providing customized training for their employees through the Custom Fit program.

Challenger School is located in Lehi, in the Traverse Mountain area.

Transport I-15 runs through Lehi, with five exits (at American Fork Main St/SR-145, Lehi Main St/SR-73, 2100 North/SR-194, Triumph Blvd, and Timpanogos Highway/SR-92) located in the city. The Utah Transit Authority operates a bus system that reaches into the city. Work on the FrontRunner South commuter rail began in August 2008, and the Lehi station opened for service on December 12, 2012. The Lehi station is located near Thanksgiving Point.

I-15 construction Beginning in the spring of 2018, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) began major reconstruction of the I-15 between Lehi Main Street and SR-92 (Timpanogos Highway). The project is contracted to be completed by October 2020.