Utah Trivia & Tidbits - Page 6

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

Hometown artist Lynn Fausett (1894-1977) worked on the mural in the foyer of the municipal building in Price (pop. 8,402) from 1938 to 1941, under federal Works Progress Administration sponsorship. Fausett used old photographs, tintypes and personal recollections to illustrate Price and Carbon County.

first appeared: 2/26/2006

The 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo created a photo finish for track and field athlete Blaine Lindgren, of Magna (pop. 22,770). He and teammate Hayes Jones crossed the finish line of the 110-meter hurdles at virtually the same instant, with Lindgren earning the silver medal for his efforts. A year earlier, he won a gold medal in the same event at the Pan American Games.

first appeared: 2/12/2006

When a new county courthouse was built in Beaver (pop. 2,454) in 1877, it was expected to last for 100 years. Parts of the courthouse endured, but much was destroyed in 1932 by a fire accidentally started by workers attempting to dry paint with a blowtorch. The courthouse was rebuilt from the wreckage and re-opened in 1933. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and today it is a museum.

first appeared: 1/29/2006

A restored carriage house in Provo is home to more than 4,000 antique dolls dating to 1910. The McCurdy Historical Doll Museum is named for Laura McCurdy Clark, whose collection of fine dolls from around the world is displayed. Exhibits include toy soldiers, First Ladies of America, biblical character dolls, American Indian dolls, rare boy dolls and miniature furniture.

first appeared: 1/15/2006

MISS UTAH 2006—Julia Marie Bachison of North Ogden (pop. 15,026) hopes to become a political broadcast journalist, and she’s already had a taste of government, working as a page for state Speaker of the House Marty Stephens. The Weber State University junior also has a passion for fitness, and has teamed with Gold Medal Schools, a Utah program that helps children develop good exercise habits.

first appeared: 1/8/2006

Archeological excavations in the 1940s and 1950s revealed leather scraps, tools and basket fragments in Danger Cave, near Wendover (pop. 1,537), dating to more than 10,000 years ago. University of Utah professor Jesse Jennings, who helped found the Utah Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake City, discovered the artifacts, which belonged to a previously unknown desert-dwelling culture.

first appeared: 1/1/2006

Although petroglyphs have been found in nearby Juke Box Cave, along with artifacts dating to 7,000 years ago, the cave also has been used in modern times. World War II airmen stationed near Wendover transformed the cave into a dance hall, even pouring a concrete floor.

first appeared: 1/1/2006

Quarterback Jim McMahon, who attended high school in Roy (pop. 32,885) before playing college football at Brigham Young University, was chosen by the Chicago Bears in the first round of the 1982 NFL draft. In 1985, he helped the Bears to an 18-1 season, which concluded with a 46-10 win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX.

first appeared: 12/18/2005

Nine Mile Canyon near Price (pop. 8,402) is known as "the world’s longest art gallery." Containing more than 10,000 images carved onto the canyon walls by American Indians beginning about 1,700 years ago, the site was listed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of 11 Most Endangered Places, because of increased tourism and domestic energy production demands, in 2004. Interestingly, the canyon is 40 miles in length, not nine.

first appeared: 12/18/2005

Founded in 1852 as the second settlement in Sanpete County, Spring City (pop. 956) was established primarily by Danish pioneers. Some of the town’s buildings—including the Church of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse and elementary school—date to the late 19th and early

first appeared: 12/4/2005

20th centuries, leading to the town’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

first appeared: 12/4/2005

The water in Lake Powell, which stretches 186 miles from Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona to Hite, appears to boil when fish feed at the water surface from spring through fall. Schools of striped bass trap shad near the surface, boxing them in and actually driving the shad in front as they attack from behind.

first appeared: 11/20/2005

Since the 1940s, Quonset huts have housed monks living at the Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity near Huntsville (pop. 649). Home to about 20 monks, the abbey belongs to the Trappist order. Currently a campaign is underway to raise money for more permanent housing for the monks, who grow barley and alfalfa and raise beef cattle on the 1,800-acre property. They also tend hives of bees from which they produce flavored honeys.

first appeared: 11/20/2005

Manila (pop. 308), near the Flaming Gorge Reservoir, was named in 1898 by surveyor Adolph Jessen to commemorate Commodore George Dewey’s May 1, 1898, victory over the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay in the Philippine Islands during the Spanish-American War.

first appeared: 11/6/2005

Orchards featuring apple, pear, peach, cherry, apricot, mulberry and plum trees are a living reminder of a pioneer community, originally known as Junction and later as Fruita, that prospered in Utah’s Fremont River Valley beginning in the 1880s. With the establishment of the Capitol Reef National Monument (now Park) in 1937, the National Park Service purchased the land and today preserves the orchards as a historic rural landscape.

first appeared: 11/6/2005

In 1854, territorial governor Brigham Young and Chief Walkara (Walker) made peace at Levan (pop. 688), thus ending the Walker War. Although both men had attempted to maintain civil relations between settlers and American Indians, the war erupted the previous year when a settler killed a Ute Indian, leading to raids on Mormon settlements.

first appeared: 10/23/2005

A powerful Indian leader in Utah’s Great Basin region in the 1830s and 1840s, Walkara organized a band of fighters from various tribes—Utes, Paiutes and Shoshones—and raided ranches in California. In 1840, the band captured about 3,000 horses and spirited them back to their base in Utah. Walkara became known as the greatest horse thief in history of the West.

first appeared: 10/23/2005

One of the rock art panels at Rochester Creek, near Ferron (pop. 1,623), shows the parallel arcs of a rainbow. The petroglyphs date back at least 2,000 years and combine animal and human figures with the depictions of the spiritual world of the prehistoric carvers.

first appeared: 10/9/2005

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir includes more than 300 volunteer singers. Founded in August 1847, only one month after Morman pioneers arrived in the Great Salt Lake area, the group has performed at five presidential inaugurations and at venues around the world. A Tuesday practice session and Sunday performance are open to the public free-of-charge in Salt Lake City.

first appeared: 10/9/2005

Logan (pop. 42,670) was founded in 1859, after Mormon leader Brigham Young sent a group of settlers to establish a cattle ranch in the Cache Valley. The community was named after Ephraim Logan, a local trapper; the name of the valley comes from a French word meaning "hiding place." Fur trappers would hide packets of pelts in the valley for future retrieval.

first appeared: 9/25/2005

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