In honor of 801 Day (we can’t wait to see you there), here are some of our favorite facts about the 801, from why it’s the best area code ever to the details and people that make it special here.
🐋 801 Day is More Than a Holiday
With a proclamation from Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, 801 Day became an official holiday in 2023. It’s a one-of-a-kind celebration of Salt Lake City that highlights the delightful quirks that unite us. This year’s 801 Day is sure to be Salt Lake-ier than ever, and even features a Salt Laker costume contest (calling all parents to dress up your kid as Julia Reagan).
☎️ How Did We Get 801 Anyway?
Thank our relatively small population for our area code. Salt Lake Tribune reporter Andy Larsen told us that AT&T was looking for a system to unify dialing across the country, so they assigned area codes with zero in the second spot to smaller states.
Salt Lake City’s Obon Festival in the ‘90s. Catch a young Hey Salt Lake editor Terina Ria sporting an orange kimono and a bob! (Terina Ria/City Cast Lake)
👀 We Fight For 801 Neighborhoods
Japantown is located on a block in downtown Salt Lake City and holds a rich history for Japanese Americans in Utah, a slice of the new sports and entertainment district. Franklin Avenue — now Edison Street — has long been known as a historically Black neighborhood. The city “rebranded” the street in 1906 to encourage white-owneded businesses to move in, which displaced residents. Swedish immigrants once thrived in Swedetown, a several block section around Hot Springs Road and 1500 North.
Salt Lake City wrote an anti-gentrification plan in 2023, but living here has come to mean fighting for thoughtful growth and neighborhood identities.
🛣️ 801 Streets are Unique
Downtown SLC blocks are uniquely wide, measuring 600 by 600 feet, which may make them among the widest streets of any major U.S. city (read: dangerous!). The urban grid was designed to tell you where you are at any given time in relation to Temple Square and why our streets read like coordinates. Going to 300 South 2100 East? That means three blocks down and 21 blocks east of Template Square. Kinda wild, but very easy.
The real fake prop acid from SLC Punk! (Ali Vallarta/City Cast Salt Lake)
🎞️ Hollywood Loves Us
So many of your favorite movies were filmed here. Some scenes of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” were shot at Solitude Mountain Resort. “The Sandlot” was shot in Salt Lake as a fake Los Angeles. “Footloose” was filmed at many locations in Utah including Payson High School in the 801. The house in the horror film “Hereditary” is a real house in the Avenues. “SLC Punk!” might be the city’s best debut.
2024 marked 100 years of Utah on screen. 2027 will be the year we lose the Sundance Film Festival 😢
🎸 We Inspire Musicians
(And they love to stop here on their way to Vegas.) Lead singer Brian Wilson loved Salt Lake City so much that The Beach Boys wrote “Salt Lake City” in 1965, singing that the 801 has “got the grooviest kids.” Between 1963 and 1973, the band played at Lagoon’s Patio Gardens at least a dozen times. We think the modern version of this must be “801” by The Aces.
Afternoons in the foothills. (Ali Vallarta/City Cast Salt Lake)
🌄 We’re Basecamp
How lucky are we that we’re just a short drive away from some of the most stunning places on earth. There are 23 cities in Salt Lake County, and buried under many of their concrete jungles are the seven different creeks that flow from the seven different canyons along the Wasatch Front.
🏅 We’re Obsessed with The Olympics
Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics and, partly because we’ve already got the infrastructure, the Olympics are coming back in 2034. For a fun parable of our Olympic legacy, check out City Cast Salt Lake podcast host Ali Vallarta’s obsession with the rise and fall of the Hoberman Arch, which was installed for the 2002 Olympics.
