City search

The map also does not show a town called Rainbow City, which is on the Navajo Reservation. "It's a hard place to get to because you have to go way down into Arizona on a dirt road and come back into Utah. But once you get there, it's a big town with an elementary school, a high school and everything."

Sessions does not include ghost towns in his list. "There have to be people living there. Sometimes, it's just a couple of ranches left in an area that used to have more." But they don't have to be incorporated towns or even have a post office. "A lot of towns share a post office."

The five places he still has to visit include three sites in the northwest corner of the state, Brian Head ski resort community "and a lost town called Angle that's down by Otter Creek." But, he said, if people know of other places that are not listed on his Web site, he welcomes suggestions and information.

The quest has been about photography as much as about visiting all the dots in the state. In addition to recording landmarks, Sessions looks for artistic shots. He uses Photoshop to enhance colors or play around with textures and finishes. "It's a lot of fun," he said.

"He does beautiful work," said Nancy. A lot of his prints decorate their home. "He notices a lot of details you might not see otherwise. You think southern Utah is just desert, but there's a lot of beauty out there, and he does such a good job of capturing it."

Even if Sessions' town visits come to an end, that search for photographs won't end. "My brother and I are also trying to hike every canyon in southern Utah. We figure we're about a fifth of the way done. If I live to be 150, I just might get them all."

Or, he joked, "I could always move to California and start over. They have a lot more towns."

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Utah by the numbers

465: The number of Utah towns and cities and unincorporated residential areas that Lynn Sessions has discovered.

251: The number of cities, towns and areas with at least one ZIP code.

237: The number of incorporated cities and towns.

23: The number of residents in Ophir, Utah's smallest municipality.

4: The number of second-class cities (65,000 to 99,000 population) — Sandy, West Jordan, Orem, Ogden.

3: The number of first-class cities (100,000 or more population) — Salt Lake City, West Valley City, Provo.

2: The number of towns in Daggett County.

Lynn Session's ranking of Utah towns