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Blanding is a city in San Juan County, Utah, and with 3,394 people at the 2020 census it is the most populous city in San Juan County.

The 2020 census counted 3,394 people in Blanding, up from 3,375 in 2010, and there were 1,035 households in the city.

Blanding was founded in 1905 by Mormon settlers, predominantly from the famed Hole-in-the-Rock expedition, and was first known as Grayson, after Nellie Grayson Lyman.

In 1914 the town was renamed Blanding after the maiden name of Amelia Blanding Bicknell, the wife of wealthy easterner Thomas W. Bicknell, who offered a thousand-volume library to any town that would adopt his name.

Blanding's Navajo name is Shash Jaa', and the city sits near both the Navajo and White Mesa Ute reservations, with a significant share of residents having family ties to those cultures.

Blanding calls itself the Basecamp to Adventure, as a gateway to Natural Bridges National Monument, Monument Valley, the Four Corners area, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Cedar Mesa, and the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park.

The Dinosaur Museum in Blanding is one of the city's attractions, and the city is about an hour south of Moab and Arches National Park.

Blanding is home to one of Utah State University's nine statewide regional campuses, and the San Juan School District operates Blanding Elementary School, Albert R. Lyman Middle School, and San Juan High School in the city.

On June 10, 2009, sixteen Blanding residents were arrested in federal raids in an undercover investigation of violations of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, the largest sting of its kind in the country.

Blanding has a cold semi-arid climate, with a record high of 110 degrees Fahrenheit on June 22, 1905, and a record low of minus 23 degrees on February 8, 1933.