LEHI — For now, Lehi is the center of attention.
It was made official at a recent announcement: The Utah County city is the center of Utah's population.
Dan Knowlden, from the Utah Council of Land Surveyors, said the actual center is 1 mile north of the water tower at Thanksgiving Point, where a marker has been positioned.
Knowlden said the marker represents the point where, theoretically, the state would balance perfectly if Utah were a rigid, flat plate and the 2,233,169 residents counted in the 2000 Census were all of equal weight.
Knowlden said the National Geodetic Survey Association began in 2001 to encourage each state to appropriately mark its epicenter.
The marker will remain as a permanent fixture commemorating the 2000 Census, he said, "unless there's an earthquake."
Linda Taylor, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington, D.C., said the markers raise awareness of the need for mappers and surveyors.
The markers also serve as a survey point for information that funnels into a database used by hikers, builders and recreation enthusiasts across the world.
Neil Ashdown, deputy director of the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget, said Lehi has been growing at a rate of 125 percent since 1990 — four times the state rate and three times the Utah County rate.
"In the next 20 years, you can expect a doubling of the population of Lehi," he said. "You should be prepared."
Ashdown said this center-of-population assessment is more accurate and up to date than one done by his office in 2001. Back then, a point at the mouth of American Fork Canyon was cited as the state's population center.
"What we were doing then was establishing how the population had moved," he said. "We understood then that it was based on an outdated methodology."
The marker was unveiled with brushes borrowed from the nearby Natural History Museum of Ancient Life. The brushes are usually used to uncover dinosaur bones.
Heather Miller, director of Lehi's Chamber of Commerce, said Lehi is proud to be noticed as the central location of the state and hopes more businesses might want to locate in Lehi because of it.
E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com