Great Seal of Utah

The beehive occupies the center of the Utah state seal and is the source of both the state motto ('Industry') and the state's nickname, the Beehive State. It traces to the word 'Deseret,' the name Brigham Young proposed for the Latter-day Saint territory, derived from the Book of Mormon's description of the honeybee in Ether 2:3.

Sego lilies flank the beehive on both sides of the seal. The sego lily is Utah's official state flower, but its presence on the seal is grounded in a specific historical event: the cricket plague of 1848, when Mormon crickets destroyed the pioneers' crops and settlers survived partly by digging and eating the lily's starchy bulb.

Two American flags are draped on either side of the beehive. Their inclusion reflects Utah's statehood and signals loyalty to the federal government, a relationship that had been strained throughout the territorial period. Congress had denied Utah statehood multiple times before admitting it in 1896.

A bald eagle appears at the top of the seal with wings outstretched. The eagle is the national bird of the United States and represents federal authority. On the Utah seal, it sits above the beehive: the national symbol above the state's defining emblem.

The word 'Industry' appears on the seal as Utah's official state motto. It was the motto of the proposed State of Deseret before Utah Territory was established in 1850, and it carried into statehood unchanged. The word describes the ethic of collective labor that defined the Latter-day Saint approach to building the Salt Lake Valley settlement.