Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Utah What?

On January 4th, 1896 Utah became the 45th state of the U.S. of A. Utah is named for the Ute Indians of crossword puzzle fame.  Ute turns up way more than 'eft' which is some kind of amphibian baby.  Anyway, Ute means "people of the mountains", which makes sense because there are about a zillion mountains in Utah.  (According to the US Geologic Survey there is no definition of a mountain, or specified elevation. I checked.) The state emblem is a beehive.  I immediately pictured the sky-high coiffure, but it's the beehive with bees, silly.  The state motto is almost as short as the state's name:  Industry.  That's all they need.  What kind - doesn't matter.  All Industry all the time. But it does go with the bees, busy as they are.  Temperatures:  the coldest it has ever been was -69 degrees on February 1, 1969.  The lucky lucky place that enjoys this record?  Peter's Sink.  I thought it was a town, but it's an actual sinkhole. Now everyone will want to move there. 

Source:  Time Almanac with Information Please

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Now that I know there is no definition for mountains my husband can't really say there aren't any mountains in Iowa.