[3] Spanish Fork is the 20th largest city in Utah based on official 2017 estimates from the US Census Bureau.

[5][6] Spanish Fork was settled in 1851 by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as part of the Mormon Pioneers' settlement of Utah Territory.

Its name derives from a visit to the area by two Franciscan friars from Spain, Silvestre Vélez de Escalante and Francisco Atanasio Domínguez in 1776, who followed the stream down Spanish Fork canyon with the objective of opening a new trail from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the Spanish missions in California, along a route later followed by fur trappers.

[citation needed] They described the area inhabited by Native Americans as having "spreading meadows, where there is sufficient irrigable land for two good settlements.

[...] Over and above these finest of advantages, it has plenty of firewood and timber in the adjacent sierra which surrounds it—many sheltered spots, waters, and pasturages, for raising cattle and sheep and horses.

"[7] In 1851, some settlers led by William Pace set up scattered farms in the Spanish Fork bottom lands and called the area the Upper Settlement.

[8]: 823 In 1852, Latter-day Saints founded a settlement called Palmyra west of the historic center of Spanish Fork.

[9] The city also lent its name to the 1865 Treaty of Spanish Fork, where the Utes were forced by an Executive Order of President Abraham Lincoln to relocate to the Uintah Basin.

Spanish Fork has a dry-summer continental climate (Köppen: Dsa) with cold, snowy winters and hot, dry summers.As of the 2010 census, there were 34,691 people, 9,069 households, and 7,885 families residing in the city.

Eight other businesses employ one hundred or more workers: SAPA, Klune Industries, Longview Fibre, Nature's Sunshine, Rocky Mountain Composites, J.C. Penney, Western Wats, and Provo Craft.

[17] A Lutheran church, established by immigrants from Iceland, was built on the east bench of Spanish Fork.

Indian Americans form a small but noticeable community in the Spanish Fork-Provo area (especially in the neighboring town of Springville).

[citation needed] Although other nationalities helped found the town, under colonizer Brigham Young, Icelanders kept their identity and celebrate it with their culture every year during the three-day event.

There are a number of entertainment events, including a rodeo, craft fair, parade, duck race, and a fireworks show on the 24th.