Utah Trivia & Tidbits - Page 10

Looking for Utah trivia? Try our list Utah little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

With 15,000 farms totaling nearly 11.6 million acres, Utah farmers and ranchers produce crops and livestock valued at nearly $1 billion annually.

first appeared: 2/29/2004

The honey bee was named Utah’s state insect in 1983, thanks to the lobbying efforts of a fifth-grade class.

first appeared: 2/29/2004

An estimated 70 Mormons died in the Black Hawk Wars of 1865-72, which began when a frontiersman pulled a Ute Indian off his horse. A loose confederation was formed by the Ute chief, Black Hawk, of Utes, Paiutes, and Navajo, who raided Mormons for their cattle. The conflict finally ended when 200 U.S. troops arrived in 1872.

first appeared: 2/22/2004

At 11,235 feet above sea level, Mount Hood is a dormant volcano with steam constantly spewing from some areas. Its last minor eruption was in 1907, and scientists believe a significant eruption could occur this century.

first appeared: 2/15/2004

The state grass is Indian ricegrass. It was eaten by American Indians and early pioneers as a source of flour, and today is considered excellent forage for livestock and big game animals. It is found at elevations up to 10,000 feet, and grows 1 to 2.5 feet tall.

first appeared: 2/8/2004

For all its great size—2,100 square miles, or large enough to fit Rhode Island within its shores—the Great Salt Lake is only 13 feet deep on average. The deepest point is 34 feet.

first appeared: 2/1/2004

Arches National Park is home to the world’s largest concentration of sandstone arches, roughly 2,000 total.

first appeared: 2/1/2004

The original source of water for Salt Lake City was a freshwater creek, now called City Creek.

first appeared: 1/25/2004

The beehive was chosen as the emblem for the provisional Mormon State of Deseret in 1848 and was maintained on the seal of the State of Utah when it became a state in 1896. The hive stands for industry, thrift and perseverance.

first appeared: 1/25/2004

Rainbow Bridge, near Navajo Mountain, is the largest natural stone bridge in the world. From its highest point to the canyon bottom is 309 feet, with a span of 278 feet—or enough to arch over the dome of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Some 300,000 people visit the bridge annually.

first appeared: 1/18/2004

Heber C. Kimball, a Mormon settler, named Utah’s Jordan River after the biblical Jordan River in 1847. Both rivers flow from a freshwater lake through fertile valleys into a “dead sea” (in Utah’s case, Great Salt Lake).

first appeared: 1/11/2004

The state has the highest literacy rate in the nation. Ninety-four percent of residents age 20 and over can read and write, and 89.3 percent have graduated from high school. Utah also has the youngest median age (26.7) and ranks third in longevity of its citizens (77.7 years).

first appeared: 1/4/2004

Moab (pop. 4,779) is surrounded by more than 20 parks and scenic attractions, including the Arches and Canyonlands national parks, and geological sites such as The Windows, Delicate Arch, Needles Overlook, Angel Arch, Standing Rocks, Newspaper Rock and The Maze.

first appeared: 12/28/2003

If you find yourself in the area around Kanab (pop. 3,564), and think you’ve been there before, it’s because of the more than 300 Western movies and television shows filmed on location in the region. These range from episodes of Gunsmoke and The Long Ranger to movies such as Sergeants Three, Westward the Women, The Outlaw Josie Wales, and The Apple Dumpling Gang.

first appeared: 12/21/2003

Established in the late 1800s, Helper (pop. 2,025) earned its name from the “helper” locomotives stationed there to help push trains from the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad up the steep grades to Soldier Summit, 25 miles to the west.

first appeared: 12/14/2003

Some of the birds passing through the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge near Brigham City (pop. 17,411) fly as far afield as Russia, Central America and the Pacific Islands. The 74,000-acre refuge, which celebrated its 75th anniversary this year, hosts some 30,000 migrating tundra swans from mid-October through December.

first appeared: 12/7/2003

The Fielding Garr Ranch House, built in 1848 on Antelope Island and occupied until 1981 when the island became a state park, is the state’s oldest continuously inhabited pioneer-built home. The island, located in the Great Salt Lake, is connected to the mainland by a causeway near Syracuse (pop. 9,398).

first appeared: 11/30/2003

Elias Adams built what was reportedly the state’s first reservoir in 1852, near Layton (pop. 58,474). The state’s first large water reclamation project was built in 1922, when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation created the 8,400-acre Strawberry Reservoir in Wasatch County.

first appeared: 11/23/2003

The Great Salt Lake occupies a broad, level valley with no outflow, which results in major changes in the lake’s surface area during wet years. In 1962, the lake’s surface area was only 969 square miles. In the early 1980s, however, it covered 2,300 square miles.

first appeared: 11/16/2003

Thousands of years ago, Lake Bonneville’s changing shoreline left behind an alluvial fan, or bench, that today is the site of Cedar Hills (pop. 3,094). The deposits of sand and stone left by the lake water created a raised area, which now overlooks Utah Lake and the Utah Valley.

first appeared: 11/9/2003

jump to page: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18

newspaper partner login create account

Recent

Popular

Recipes

Below are the most recent American Profile articles:

Below are the most recent, highest rated American Profile articles:

Below are the most recent, highest rated American Profile recipes:

Relish

Spry

Below are the most recent articles from our Relish sister site. Click on the "Spry" tab above to see the most recent articles from our other sister site.

Below are the most recent articles from our Spry sister site. Click on the "Relish" tab above to see the most recent articles from our other sister site.