
Revealing Some Of Utah’s Most Shocking Facts
How long have you been in Utah?
A year? Ten years? Twenty years? Your whole life?
Maybe you've been here awhile, but let me present to you some interesting facts about the Beehive State that even lifelong Utahns may not know.
- Utah is the driest state in the country -- both figuratively (we do have some weird liquor laws) and literally (Nevada and New Mexico are the driest in raw numbers, but there are very few populated places in the world drier than Washington County, which receives just over eight inches of rain a year).
- Explorer John Wesley Powell (yes, Lake Powell is named after him) hated Utah because of one nasty event. In August of 1869, he and his brother had climbed a tall, steep cliff face to get some compass readings when it started raining. It was a moonless night and the rain was relentless. Partway down the cliff, Powell and his brother gave up trying to descend and spent a "endless night" on the cliff. "The rain comes down in torrents, and we can find no shelter. We can neither climb up nor go down, and in the darkness dare not move about, but sit and 'weather out' the night." He gained a dislike for Utah as a result.
- The state rock of Utah is coal, not to be confused with the state gem, which is Topaz.
- Utah has more plastic surgeons per capita than any other state in the United States. Apparently we love "getting work done."
- The Park City Resort is the largest ski resort in the world.
- One of the world's most prolific serial killers was from Utah. Ted Bundy confessed to killing at least 30 people (authorities believe the number was much higher). In 1975, Bundy, who started his killer ways while a law student at the University of Utah, was caught when a teenage Utah girl named Carol DaRonch escaped his deadly grip and later identified him in a police lineup.
- Philo T. Farnsworth, a native of Manderfield (near Beaver), invented the television. Most Utahns know this, but did you know he also had patents for more than 300 other devices, including a nuclear fusion device that is still being used today.
- The army at Dugway Proving Grounds inadvertently killed nearly 7,000 sheep. According to Axios Salt Lake, "About 6,400 sheep died in a single week 56 years ago. Initially, the scientists who rushed to Utah suspected the herd was poisoned, possibly by plants they ate. They also noticed the sheep were about 30 miles from the U.S. Army's Dugway Proving Grounds, where crews tested biological and chemical weapons. The Army was testing the VX nerve agent the day before the sheep dropped dead. The Army denied any involvement.
- The first KFC was actually located in Salt Lake City, not Kentucky. The fried chicken was served in the cafe of Leon W. “Pete” Harman, a friend of the Colonel Sanders and a Utah native.
- The infamous Donner Party crossed through the Salt Lake Valley in 1846, a year before Brigham Young and his pioneers. They decided this wasn't "the right place" and continued to California instead of staying for the winter. Bad idea.

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Gallery Credit: Katherine Gallagher
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