By Lynn Arave
UTAH is high elevation territory, with a vast amount of outdoor opportunities and open spaces. However, there are some things about the Beehive State's outdoors that a simply myths -- incorrect beliefs.
-Here are some of those myths:
FALSE:
This family-friendly, moderate hike was originally called “The China Wall” in its earliest days, because of the long wall-like formation that lines both sides of Logan Canyon in the area.
Later, the Crimson name took over, often wrongly believed to be based on the vivid fall colors of foliage in the area — which, arguably, are indeed striking there each autumn.
However, there is a historical reason for the Crimson title.
From 1877 to 1926, there existed a “Brigham Young College” (and high school) in Logan, sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This trail in Logan Canyon was often considered the “Senior Walk” for graduating students and the school’s colors were crimson and gold. Hence the “Crimson” trail name.
When the college closed, Logan High was built on the site and it retained the same school colors. -- From the Ogden Standard-Examiner of Sept. 1, 2016, by Lynn Arave.
2. The Wellsville Mountains are the steepest mountains in the world.
FALSE:
Some reports claim the Wellsville Range is the steepest mountains in the world. They certainly are among the steepest in Utah — especially near Sherwood Hills. However, geographically speaking, there is no standard for determining the steepness of mountains, and parts of the Brooks Range in Alaska would surely exceed the Wellsvilles. -- From the Deseret News, June 22, 2001.
-Also, the Wellsville Mountains are a sub section of the Wasatch Mountain range.
3. Kings Peak is so named because it is the king, the tallest of Utah's mountains.
FALSE:
As the original metal plaque atop Kings Peak (shown below) states, the mountain is named for Clarence King, who was the first director of the U.S. Geological Survey (1979-1881.)
Kings Peak is Utah's tallest mountain at 13,528 feet above sea level.
4. Kings Peak has always been known as the highest peak in Utah.
FALSE:
Kings Peak, High Uintas, hasn’t always been recognized as the highest point in Utah. An April 15, 1911 Ogden Standard-Examiner article stated that Emmons Peak in the Uintas, at 13,694 feet above sea level, was tallest. That was the general belief of that year.
(In reality, Emmons is today’s 4th tallest in the Utah at 13,440 feet.)
However, just two years later, the Vernal Express newspaper on Jan. 23, 1913 stated that South Kings Peak was the state’s tallest summit at 13,498 feet. North Kings was second at 13,496 feet.
The Roosevelt Standard newspaper reported on Aug. 20, 1924 that members of Salt Lake’s Wasatch Mountain Club had hiked Kings Peak. On top, they “salted the peak,” by placing a bottle of briny water from the Great Salt Lake on its lofty summit.
The water bottle also had the signatures of Utah Gov. Charles R. Mabey and others on it.
A Jan. 30, 1947 article in the Vernal Express newspaper stated that in the mid-1940s, two men climbed North Kings Peak and constructed a two-foot high monument on the highest part of the summit.
Then, one of the men proclaimed, "There, that makes them even."
Other newspapers of the era referred to the "twin Kings Peaks."
For 53 years, that was the accepted belief, that South Kings was tallest in the Beehive State. So, anyone hiking Utah’s tallest in that time period went to the southern peak, missing or passing by the actual tallest peak – (North) Kings Peak at 13,528 feet.
In June of 1961, a helicopter crash-landed on Kings Peak. The crewmen walked away unharmed, but this crash took place on today's South Kings Peak. (Good thing too, as South Kings has a lot more usable space on top. If they would have crashed on today's Kings Peak, the copter likely would have slid down hundreds of feet on one side or the other.)
It wasn’t until 1966 that new measurements by satellite proclaimed the north Kings as highest and re-measured South Kings Peak to be second-highest at 13,512 feet.
Ironically, the U.S. Forest Service had placed the first official plaque on Kings Peak one year earlier in 1965. Back then, it estimated that only 30 people a year hiked on average to the summit. -- From the Ogden Standard-Examiner, July 24, 2014, by Lynn Arave.
5. Mount Timpanogos is the tallest summit in the Wasatch Mountains.
FALSE:
Consult any accurate map, like Forest Service or USGS Maps and they will confirm that Mount Nebo is 11,928 feet above sea level, while Mount Timpanogos is only 11,750 feet.
-Additionally, the Wasatch Mountains extend much further than most realize. They stretch from Mount Nebo on the south to Soda Point, just north of Grace, Idaho, on the north end. Thus, even the mountains west of Bear Lake are Wasatch Mountains.
5. Utah's state borders are perfectly straight lines, north to south.
FALSE:
Utah has been called a "pretty, great state." Surprisingly it's a "pretty crooked state," too. And we're not talking crime, but the state's deceptively tidy shape.
Minus the distinctive notch in its northeast corner, Utah is commonly thought of as a perfect rectangle. However, those fourth-grade Utah history students are drawing it all wrong with straight lines.In fact, if the borders had been drawn straight - as intended - some Idaho border towns, like Franklin, might straddle the state line. At least one other community, Strevell - now a ghost town - would definitely have been in Utah.
Also, the state would be somewhat larger, maybe several hundred acres bigger, because of land that ended up in Idaho, Colorado or Wyoming.
Utah's true borders contain at least seven crooked spots that are considered "pretty" crooked by mapmaking standards, though perhaps only "slightly" irregular by public perceptions.
These irregularities vary from as small as a quarter of a mile off the true mark to almost a mile in error.
Looking closely at the official Utah State Highway Map, two of the irregularities can be spotted. On the small statewide map on the cover of the Utah Atlas & Gazetteer, a third crooked spot can be seen.
With the Gazetteer's detailed topographical maps, three more crooked locations can be readily seen. The seventh error stands out most on the Bureau of Land Management's overall state map.
Three of the irregularities involve a meandering line, while three others look like notches and the seventh resembles a hump. (See story above.)
Were these six crooked spots meant to be there?
"They're survey errors that were made when the state boundaries were laid out," said Gary Nebeker, chief of operations for the Salt Lake office of the U.S. Geological Survey Center.
The Salt Lake office of the Bureau of Land Management is the caretaker of the original survey documents made on the Utah state line boundaries. It agrees on the cause for the crooked lines.
"It was primarily survey errors," said Daniel W. Webb, chief cadastral surveyor for the BLM in Salt Lake City.
He said surveyors in the late 1800s had crude instruments and pulled 66-foot-long chains for measurements.
A colleague of Webb, Dave Cook, is a cartographer with almost 40 years of map experience with the BLM and the National Weather Service.
After several hours of examining the original, 100-plus-year-old diaries of the different federal surveyors, he could find no apparent reasons for their mistakes.
Cook speculated that surveyors were paid by the mile, so they were in a hurry. If they made a mistake - even if they knew it - they weren't likely to go back and redo it.
Survey crews traveled in parties of one to two dozen men and suffered harsh conditions on Utah's rugged borders in the 1870s and 1880s. Rocks and wooden posts were the common markers left by survey parties. They theoretically put markers every mile along state boundaries, though obviously some are missing more than a century later.
Cook said the sad thing is that we live with these mistakes. Longtime federal laws make states rely on existing survey monuments for borders, whether they are in the right place or not.
"Monuments prevail," he stressed.
Those laws have been challenged by various courts over the years and have always been upheld.
Even with exact location technology available with orbiting satellites, no federal entity has the time or money to correct such errors, according to Webb.
At best, small adjustments may be made as specific landownership issues are raised.
Since Utah's borders are crooked, so are those in the adjoining states of Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado. Cook believes many other states probably have similar boundary problems. For example, the same surveyor who made at least three mistakes across the Utah-Idaho border also kept going west to the Pacific Ocean.
Checking detailed Oregon maps, he made at least four similar mistakes along its southern border with California. (-From the Deseret News, July 26, 1998, by Lynn Arave.)
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