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Utah Trivia & Tidbits - Page 5

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

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—The Bonneville Seabase provides an inland ocean for snorkelers and scuba divers near Grantsville (pop. 6,015), complete with nurse sharks and fish such as angels, puffers and damsels. The seabase was created by enlarging and connecting natural pools of warm, salty water. Temperatures vary between 70 and 90 degrees, depending on the season and water depth, which ranges from 14 to 62 feet.
first appeared: 10/8/2006
Olympic Cauldron Park, located at Salt Lake City’s Rice-Eccles Stadium, preserves the heritage of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games by providing a permanent home for the glass and steel cauldron in which the 24-foot-high Olympic Flame burned during the games. The park also is home to the 72-foot-wide Hoberman Arch, under which athletes received their medals.
first appeared: 9/24/2006
The town of Wales (pop. 219) originally was known as Coalbed, and later Coalville in the mid-1800s, taking its name from coal beds discovered in the area. It was renamed Wales in 1869 to recognize the country from which many of the original Mormon settlers hailed.
first appeared: 9/10/2006
The Mars Society, dedicated to the goal of humans exploring Mars, has built the Mars Desert Research Station near Hanksville, in Wayne County (pop. 2,509), to simulate life on the red planet. The research station is a cylinder 26 feet wide that serves up to six crew members, such as geologists and engineers, who volunteer for research and maintenance stays conducted under many of the same conditions that life on Mars would create.
first appeared: 9/8/2006
The Eccles Community Art Center in Ogden, which features works by local and regional artists, educational programs and a sculpture garden, is named for Bertha Eccles, who made the mansion a center of social and cultural life after she and her husband, David, bought it as their family home in 1896. It has served as an arts center since the 1950s.
first appeared: 8/27/2006
In 1961, track and field athlete Jay Silvester became the first person to throw the discus more than 60 meters (196.85 feet). Silvester, who was born in Tremonton (pop. 5,592), competed in four Olympic Games, placing fourth in 1964, fifth in 1968 and eighth in 1976—and earning a silver medal in the discus throw at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.
first appeared: 8/13/2006
After floods washed away much of the pioneer fort at Santa Clara (pop. 4,630) in 1862, Jacob Hamblin built a new house for his family out of sandstone and Ponderosa pine. The house, completed in 1863, stands today. Originally from Ohio, Hamblin was sent to the region by Brigham Young as a noted pioneer, missionary and peacemaker.
first appeared: 8/13/2006
Built of rock and wood by Mormon settlers in 1854, the Benson Grist Mill served the community around present-day Stansbury Park (pop. 2,385) by grinding and processing flour, bran and cornmeal. Closed in the 1940s, the mill benefited from a volunteer restoration beginning in 1983 and, today, also features a blacksmith shop and pioneer cabin.
first appeared: 7/30/2006
The scenic 67.4-mile Burr Trail road connecting Boulder (pop. 180) and Bullfrog takes its name from John Atlantic Burr, who was born aboard a ship in the Atlantic Ocean in 1846. When Burr later settled in Utah, he developed the route through rough terrain to move his cattle between feeding ranges and to markets.
first appeared: 7/16/2006
The Mormon pioneers who founded Panguitch (pop. 1,623) in the 1860s faced a harsh first winter. When supplies ran out, seven men headed to Parowan (pop. 2,565) for more, taking wagons and then walking through deep mountain snow. After one man accidentally dropped a quilt and discovered that it helped to support his weight, all seven men used their quilts to help them walk over the snow surface. The expedition became known as "the quilt walk."
first appeared: 7/2/2006
The Chamberlain family bought Moqui Cave, which runs some 200 feet into the earth near Kanab (pop. 3,564), in 1951, initially creating a bar and dance hall in the cool interior. Since then, they've turned the cave into a museum featuring dinosaur tracks, fluorescent rocks and artifacts from the Anasazi Indians who lived in the area centuries ago.
first appeared: 6/25/2006
Josh Bernstein, host of the History Channel's Digging for the Truth, also is president of the Boulder Outdoor Survival School, which has field offices in Utah's Boulder (pop. 180) and corporate offices in Colorado's Boulder. Bernstein travels the world on behalf of the television series, investigating archeological mysteries.
first appeared: 6/4/2006
Originally named Mego and then Sanpitch after local American Indian figures, Moroni (pop. 1,280) was founded in 1859 by Mormon settlers who named the community after a prophet in the Book of Mormon. Today, the town is known as the headquarters of the Moroni Feed Co., a turkey-producing and processing cooperative that hatches more than 5 million turkey eggs annually.
first appeared: 5/21/2006
A journey that took seven years, 2.9 billion miles and $212 million came to a successful completion in the Utah desert near Dugway (pop. 2,016) in January, when NASA's Stardust space capsule landed safely under parachute. On board were particles of billion-year-old interstellar and comet dust that the capsule's mother ship gathered from the Wild 2 comet in 2004.
first appeared: 5/14/2006
The Utah Heritage Highway courses for 250 miles along Highway 89, between Fairview (pop. 1,160) and Kanab (pop. 3,564). Its five regions include Little Denmark, named for the influence of Scandinavian pioneers; Sevier Valley; the Headwaters heritage area; Boulder Mountain Loop; and Under the Rim, named for its location beneath redrock rims of the Colorado Plateau.
first appeared: 4/23/2006
The home of artist Maynard Dixon, who painted scenes from the West, is a Utah Heritage Highway stop in Mount Carmel near Orderville (pop. 596). Dixon and his wife, Edith, finished their pioneer-style log and stone home there in 1940. He died in 1946. Today, the Thunderbird Foundation for the Arts maintains the restored home and studio.
first appeared: 4/23/2006
When the solar power energy system at Natural Bridges National Monument’s visitors center, west of Blanding (pop. 3,162), came online in 1980, it was one of the world’s largest photovoltaic systems. Today, the system’s solar panels generate up to 50 kilowatts of power, enough to supply the visitors center, monument personnel and their family housing. Batteries store enough power for two days without sunshine.
first appeared: 4/9/2006
Little Bart, a 1,100-pound, orphaned grizzly bear, lives with Doug and Lynne Seus in Heber City (pop. 7,291). Little Bart and his sister, Honey-Bump, appeared in the 2001 movie Dr. Dolittle 2, and Little Bart recently starred in the Robert Redford film An Unfinished Life. The bears are ambassadors for Vital Ground, a nonprofit organization that conserves grizzly habitat.
first appeared: 3/26/2006
Surrounded by scenic vistas of southern Utah, the Canyons Softball Complex in St. George (pop. 49,663) is a repeat winner of the National Softball Association’s award for "softball complex of the year." Teams travel from throughout the nation to play on its seven ball fields, where some 30 tournaments are held annually.
first appeared: 3/12/2006
In episode 9 of CBS television’s family edition of The Amazing Race, teams arriving at the Gemini Bridges rock formation near Moab (pop. 4,779) had to choose between two tasks that featured Bull Canyon as their destination: a 6-mile bicycle ride or a two-stage, 270-foot rappel. Gemini Bridges is named for a pair of natural rock spans and is known for its mountain bike trail.
first appeared: 3/12/2006
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