In the land of cotton... Look away... Look away...
So we're landing in the 30 seat airplane in St. George UT about a week ago when we pass a giant letter 'D'. It was night time. So how did I see the giant letter 'D'? Well it was in lights, bright lights in fact. So I'm thinking, "St. George" not one god damn 'D' in it. Is this twin turbo prop plane flying pilot taken us to the wrong city? Maybe it's like Cincinnati where the airport isn't in Ohio it's in KY. People get all confused and shit when we land in KY and they were going to "Cincinnati, OH". It's fun to fuck with them too. "Nope this is NOT Ohio", I say and watch as their faces get all weird; Good times. Anyways this time it was my face because there was a giant letter 'D'. It's like St. George was brought to you today by the number '4' and the letter 'D'.
So St. George is not very big and the rental car peeps go home at 6:00pm on Saturday so while we could see our domestically built Japanese mini van we couldn't actually rent it. We had to get a cab. Why do you care? Because with every cab comes a cab driver. They also come with meters and a funny smell, but that's not important. Our driver was from Salt Lake city but he was tired of the big city life. He moved to St. George and now the housing market is as he put it, "insane."
Our resort is new. As in not yet on the map. This is a problem for the cab driver but it has nothing to do with the letter 'D' or the number 4. I always like to talk to the cab drivers. It's fun. One cab driver in Rhode Island told me the state motto (Like New Jersey is the "Garden State") was for Rhode Island "The Mob State." He then quickly corrected himself and said "It's really the 'Ocean State'." (How about that for punctuation?) Maybe the amount of questions I ask is why cab drivers get lost so much with me in the car. Maybe they like to see that meter go. It seems fun for them.
So I ask him, "What is up with the giant letter 'D'?"
He laughed. He told us the story of how St. George was founded. Seems the Mormons needed cotton. So they sent a settlement south to the area to grow cotton. Of course this did not work because you don't grow cotton in the dry red rock canyons of the area. I'm thinking, "Still no giant letter 'D' in this story." He then goes on to tell us that they wanted the area to be the "southern Utah" or the "Dixie" of Utah. D is for Dixie. D is also for "Don't grow cotton in the desert, Moron." Luckily there was precious metal in the area so the town and surrounding area survived.
This concludes this Utah History Minute. Next week we'll have "Silver Reef the Ghost Town or what happens to a town in Utah when the silver runs out."
So St. George is not very big and the rental car peeps go home at 6:00pm on Saturday so while we could see our domestically built Japanese mini van we couldn't actually rent it. We had to get a cab. Why do you care? Because with every cab comes a cab driver. They also come with meters and a funny smell, but that's not important. Our driver was from Salt Lake city but he was tired of the big city life. He moved to St. George and now the housing market is as he put it, "insane."
Our resort is new. As in not yet on the map. This is a problem for the cab driver but it has nothing to do with the letter 'D' or the number 4. I always like to talk to the cab drivers. It's fun. One cab driver in Rhode Island told me the state motto (Like New Jersey is the "Garden State") was for Rhode Island "The Mob State." He then quickly corrected himself and said "It's really the 'Ocean State'." (How about that for punctuation?) Maybe the amount of questions I ask is why cab drivers get lost so much with me in the car. Maybe they like to see that meter go. It seems fun for them.
So I ask him, "What is up with the giant letter 'D'?"
He laughed. He told us the story of how St. George was founded. Seems the Mormons needed cotton. So they sent a settlement south to the area to grow cotton. Of course this did not work because you don't grow cotton in the dry red rock canyons of the area. I'm thinking, "Still no giant letter 'D' in this story." He then goes on to tell us that they wanted the area to be the "southern Utah" or the "Dixie" of Utah. D is for Dixie. D is also for "Don't grow cotton in the desert, Moron." Luckily there was precious metal in the area so the town and surrounding area survived.
This concludes this Utah History Minute. Next week we'll have "Silver Reef the Ghost Town or what happens to a town in Utah when the silver runs out."
posted by J.R. at 7:36 AM
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Other interesting tidbits about Utah:
* When Utah switched to a system where anyone could become a permanent absentee voter, rather than needing a good one-time excuse, the state's voting patterns changes notably. Researchers were curious and followed up on this change; they discovered that Mormon women vote very differently alone in a voting booth than in the kitchen with their husbands.
* According to my brother, who lived in UT last winter, there are still some polygamists living in Utah. Mormons are against social welfare, but since their taxes are paying for it anyway they "bleed the beast". This means the man's wives go on welfare and have lots of children and the man lives off their welfare money.
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