Utah Trivia & Tidbits - Page 4

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

—Big Rock Candy Mountain near Marysvale (pop. 381) gained fame in the 1950s when Burl Ives recorded the namesake folk song written by Harry McClintock. While the song celebrates the area’s welcome for railroad hobos, the mountain also is known for its colorful yellow and red hues, created when its volcanic rock was altered by mineralization 21 million years ago.

first appeared: 6/3/2007

—Leone Gurr of Kaysville (pop. 20,351) was so convinced that every child should learn to swim that she began giving lessons when she was 16. In 2003, at age 78, she estimated that she’d taught more than 10,000 people to swim. Gurr died in 2004, but she left a legacy of patience, instruction and encouragement. In fact, some of her students now teach others to swim.

first appeared: 5/28/2007

—In 1926, David Abbott Jenkins drove a car from New York City to San Francisco in 86 hours and 20 minutes. Hailing from Spanish Fork (pop. 20,246) and Salt Lake City—where he was mayor in the early 1940s—Jenkins set numerous automobile speed records at Bonneville Speed Flats between 1932 and 1956, including 199.19 mph in 1950 in his Mormon Meteor III car.

first appeared: 5/6/2007

In recognition of U.S. President Millard Fillmore’s appointment of Brigham Young as Utah’s first territorial governor, the territorial Legislature in October 1851 created Millard County, and named its county seat Fillmore (pop. 2,253). Although Fillmore was intended to be the state’s capital, Salt Lake City eventually was selected after insufficient accommodation was found in Fillmore for the Legislature’s 1856 session.

first appeared: 5/6/2007

—North America’s first ski tunnel opened last December at Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort in Snowbird near Salt Lake City. The 600-foot, $1.4-million tunnel, located below a ridge that separates Peruvian Gulch and Mineral Basin skiing areas, transports skiers and snowboarders between the two areas on a moving conveyor belt ride that takes four minutes.

first appeared: 4/22/2007

—Lindsey Brinton of Salt Lake Valley was crowned Miss Utah’s Outstanding Teen last October during a pageant in Lehi (pop. 19,028). Brinton will represent her state in the Miss America’s Outstanding Teen pageant, scheduled this August in Orlando, Fla.

first appeared: 4/8/2007

—The solid rocket motors, or boosters, that launch NASA’s space shuttles to a height of 24 nautical miles before they separate from the spacecraft and fall into the ocean are manufactured by ATK near Brigham City (pop. 17,411). Measuring about 149 feet long, the boosters are the largest solid-propellant motors ever used in space travel, and the first ones designed for re-use.

first appeared: 3/25/2007

—Located near Cedar City (pop. 20,527) in the Dixie National Forest, Navajo Lake has no natural surface outlet. Instead of overflowing its shoreline, the water drains away through sinkholes in the underlying limestone, emerging several miles away at Cascade Falls and Duck Creek. The lake offers anglers good fishing for rainbow and brook trout.

first appeared: 3/11/2007

Carbon dioxide drives the cold-water plume of Crystal Geyser, near Moab (pop. 4,779) and Green River (pop. 973). Created in 1936 after a well was drilled, the geyser erupts several times a day on an irregular schedule, sending a surge of water skyward 30 feet or more. The exposed sandstone cliffs nearby are named Rainbow Rocks for their colorful surfaces.

first appeared: 3/11/2007

—With 228 blocks, Shawn Bradley led the National Basketball Association in shot blocking during the 2000-2001 season. The 7-foot-6-inch player was born in 1972, grew up in Castle Dale (pop. 1,657) and attended Brigham Young University before embarking in 1993 on a professional basketball career that included the Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Nets and Dallas Mavericks.

first appeared: 2/27/2007

—When motorcycle racing champion Chris Carr reached 350.884 mph last September at the Bonneville Salt Flats near Wendover (pop. 1,537), he not only broke a land speed record for motorcycles, but became the first motorcyclist to reach 350 mph. Carr was riding a BUB Enterprises streamliner.

first appeared: 2/11/2007

—With about 20 miles of cross-country ski trails designed for all skill levels from novice to expert, Soldier Hollow is a lasting legacy from the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Located in Midway (pop. 2,121), the resort was the venue for Olympic biathlon and cross-country skiing competitions. It also features a biathlon shooting range and 1,200-foot-long tubing lanes that are some of the longest in the state.

first appeared: 1/28/2007

In the Manti-La Sal National Forest, adjacent to State Route 31 between Huntington (pop. 2,131) and Fairview (pop. 1,160), the historic Stuart Guard Station is now a museum and visitor center. Built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, the building was home to a forest ranger and his family, a day’s ride from the next station.

first appeared: 1/14/2007

—The U.S. Postal Service this year honored the nation’s largest plant—a grove of quaking aspen in the Wasatch Mountains—with its own postage stamp. The aspen trees share a single root system, or clone, and are considered one plant rather than many. The clone—named Pando, which is Latin for “I spread”—extends across 106 acres.

first appeared: 12/17/2006

—Residents of two communities along Snake Creek banded together in the 1860s and built a fort midway between them for protection against Indian raids. The new community was appropriately named Midway (pop. 2,121). By the 1880s, many immigrants from Switzerland had settled in Midway, attracted by the nearby mountains that reminded them of the Swiss Alps. Today, Swiss architectural features are apparent in local buildings.

first appeared: 12/3/2006

Provo teen Ben Cook set a world record in July for speedy cell phone text messaging when he entered a message containing 160 characters in just 42.22 seconds. Using fingers of fury, the 18-year-old entered the phrase: “The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.” Sponsored by a wireless phone company, the text-off results were validated for inclusion in the Guinness Book of Records.

first appeared: 12/3/2006

—The exhibitions at Brigham Young University’s Museum of Peoples and Cultures in Provo are produced by students in the university’s “museum practices” anthropology classes. The students co-curate, research, design, document and install all the elements of the shows, which currently include “Seeking the Divine: Ritual, Prayer and Celebration” and “Rise Up From Fragments: Life and Arts of the Western Anasazi.”

first appeared: 11/19/2006

—According to Paiute Indian legend, the rock formations and colors in Bryce Canyon originated with “Legend People” who once lived there. They angered Coyote, a character in the native spirit world who turned them into stone. Legend says that explains why the rocks today resemble people standing in rows, sitting, and holding onto each other. Bryce Canyon National Park protects the area, located near Tropic (pop. 508).

first appeared: 11/5/2006

—One dinosaur recently excavated at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument stood 7 feet tall with curved claws and a feathered, turkey-like tail. Researchers named it Hagryphus giganteus, meaning “giant 4-footed bird-like god of the Western desert.” The fossil can be seen at the Utah Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake City and at the Monument’s Big Water (pop. 417) visitor’s center.

first appeared: 10/22/2006

Located near Bryce Canyon National Park at more than 6,600 feet above sea level, Panguitch (pop. 1,623) was named for a Paiute Indian word that means “big fish”—which refers to the trout that still can be found in nearby Panguitch Lake.

first appeared: 10/22/2006

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