Utah Trivia & Tidbits
Looking for Utah trivia? Try our list Utah little know facts, tidbits and trivia.
—Grey’s Anatomy actress Katherine Heigl married singer Josh Kelley in Park City (pop. 7,371) last Dec. 23 in a ceremony whose guests included cast mates Sandra Oh and T.R. Knight, plus Kate Walsh of Private Practice. Heigl, who wore an Oscar de la Renta gown, met Kelley when she starred in the music video for his song “Only You” in 2005.
first appeared: 5/4/2008
Salt Lake City native Jan Bucher grew up as an ice skater, but switched to freestyle skiing’s ballet event as a result of injuries. She became one of the sport’s best, winning a silver medal at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada, where the sport was an exhibition event. Bucher earned gold at the World Cup Ballet Championship in 1986 and 1989.
first appeared: 5/4/2008
—The 500-acre Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele (pop. 22,502), which features a 4.5-mile main racing circuit and 0.9-mile karting track, earned the 2006 Motorsports Facility of the Year award from the Professional Motorsports World Expo. The facility also includes the Ford Racing Performance Training Center, Freddie Spencer’s High-Performance Riding School, the Larry H. Miller Auto Museum and a 22,000-square-foot clubhouse.
first appeared: 3/9/2008
—Born in 1958 in St. George (pop. 49,663), golfer Jay Don Blake attended Utah State University, earning titles as the National Collegiate Athletic Association golf champion in 1980 and Collegiate Player of the Year in 1981. He turned pro in 1981, and has earned more than $5 million during his career, which includes a first-place PGA win in 1991.
first appeared: 2/24/2008
—HawkWatch International got its start in the late 1970s, when founder Steve Hoffman began counting the number of birds of prey that migrated from late summer to mid-fall through the Wellsville Mountains near Mendon (pop. 898). A nonprofit organization now headquartered in Salt Lake City, HawkWatch International works to monitor and protect the birds and their environments.
first appeared: 2/10/2008
—Only a few foundations and crumbling stone walls are left of Newhouse, once a thriving mining town in Beaver County (pop. 6,005). Businessman Samuel Newhouse purchased the nearby Cactus Mine in the early 20th century, and turned the mining camp into a town that featured homes, a dance hall, restaurant and more before the mine was closed and the population dwindled.
first appeared: 1/27/2008
—Stan Watts coached Brigham Young University basketball teams from 1949 to 1972, earning a record of 372 wins against 254 losses and a place in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Watts, from Murray (pop. 34,024), took his teams to two Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference titles, one Mountain States Conference title and two National Invitation Tournament championships.
first appeared: 1/13/2008
—Officials in Lehi (pop. 19,028) have approved a new development that will feature a 450-foot-high hotel, which would become the state’s tallest building. Construction of the 85-acre complex, which will center on the Utah Flash National Basketball Association expansion team and include an arena, shopping center, amphitheater, lakes and the hotel, is scheduled to begin next year.
first appeared: 12/30/2007
—The Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance is donating a copy of its newly published book, Treasures of the Tavaputs, to every fourth- to seventh-grade teacher in the state. The book, by Jerry and Donna Spangler, focuses on the archaeology of Desolation Canyon, Nine Mile Canyon and Range Creek on the Tavaputs Plateau, east of Price (pop. 8,402), before the 19th century.
first appeared: 12/2/2007
—Beginning in the 1850s, settler and Scottish immigrant Archibald Gardner and his family built a variety of mills in the West Jordan area, including an 1877 flour mill that’s still standing. The mill now houses a restaurant named after him—Archibald’s—plus a country furniture and gift shop, forming the centerpiece of Gardner Village, a collection of 22 shops housed in historic buildings.
first appeared: 11/18/2007
––Horsecollar Ruin, a well-preserved kiva and other stone-built structures in Natural Bridges National Monument near Blanding (pop. 3,162), earned its name from its oval-shaped doorways. Abandoned some 700 years ago, the ruins were found by Anglo-Americans in the late 1880s but largely forgotten after 1907. They were “rediscovered” by the monument’s first curator in 1936.
first appeared: 11/4/2007
—Danny “Little Red” Lopez won his first World Featherweight Boxing championship in 1976, in the ring against David Kotey. He successfully defended his title eight times before losing the belt to Salvador Sanchez and retiring from the sport in 1980. Born in Fort Duchesne (pop. 621) in 1952, Lopez’s final record included 42 wins, with 39 of them by a knockout.
first appeared: 10/21/2007
—Each autumn, a three-day bison roundup at Antelope Island State Park, near Syracuse (pop. 9,398), gathers the herd of 500 to 700 animals off the range using horses and riders, with helicopters used on the final day to catch stragglers. After resting in their corrals for several days, the bison—whose ancestors were introduced to the island in 1893—receive health checks and vaccinations.
first appeared: 10/7/2007
—The Salt Lake Tabernacle on Temple Square reopened in April after about two years of upgrades and renovations designed in part to strengthen the building’s structure to help it withstand earthquakes. The 44 piers that support the Tabernacle’s roof were reinforced with steel bars and concrete, while other projects included ceiling repairs, new benches and new gold leafing on organ pipes.
first appeared: 9/30/2007
—A giant owl named Hootz, with bright red feathers and a baseball for a head, is the official mascot of the Orem Owlz, a rookie league affiliate team for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The baseball team, which plays in Orem, won back-to-back Pioneer League Championships in 2004 and 2005.
first appeared: 9/9/2007
—Cherry Hill Farm, located on land near Utah Lake that has been in the Taylor family for more than a century, will remain in the family while also protecting ecologically important wetlands that provide habitat for nearly 200 bird species, thanks to two conservation easements that the family donated to The Nature Conservancy of Utah, and one that the organization purchased, in 2000.
first appeared: 8/26/2007
—An original town bell, a bullet-scarred stagecoach and horse-drawn vehicles used from the 1850s to 1920s are among artifacts in the museum at Iron Mission State Park in Cedar City (pop. 20,527). The museum tells the story of the region’s iron mission: Mormon leader Brigham Young sent missionaries to the area in the 1850s to mine and process the metal.
first appeared: 8/12/2007
Established in the 1870s, Loa (pop. 525) was named after Mauna Loa, Hawaii’s second highest mountain. Franklin W. Young, who had lived in the Hawaiian Islands, suggested the name, which means “high, large and powerful.” Loa, at about 7,000 feet above sea level, is the seat of Wayne County. A town monument erected in 1976 contains a piece of lava from Mauna Loa.
first appeared: 8/12/2007
—This year marks the 50th anniversary of Utah’s state park system, which was established in 1957 with sites that included the Territorial Statehouse in Fillmore (pop. 2,253) and This is the Place Monument in Salt Lake City. Today, the system boasts more than 40 parks, which span from Bear Lake near Garden City (pop. 357) to Coral Pink Sand Dunes near Kanab (pop. 3,564), and attract 4.5 million visitors annually.
first appeared: 7/29/2007
—Settled in 1889, Boulder (pop. 180) was one of the state’s most isolated communities until the mid-1930s, when the Civilian Conservation Corps built a road to the town from Escalante (pop. 818). Until then, mail had to be carried in by pack mule, making Boulder one of the nation’s last communities to stop receiving mail by this delivery method.
first appeared: 7/15/2007
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