President Grover Cleveland signed the proclamation making Utah the 45th state on January 4, 1896. Utah residents should fly the U.S. flag today in commemoration.
The pen used by Grover Cleveland to enable the statehood process. The plaque reads: “This pen & holder used 10 m. before midnight July 16th, 1894, by President Cleveland to sign bill to enable the people of Utah to form a Constitution & be admitted into the Union, on an equal footing with the other States.” Sources of the photograph do not say who has the pen now, nor where it might be displayed.https://ilovehistory.utah.gov/1896-statehood/
Flying the U.S. flag is a big deal in Utah. Most families have at least one flag to fly on holidays. But in my decades in the state, I don’t think I saw anyone fly the flag for Utah Statehood day.
Utah’s public officials take their oaths of office on January 4, traditionally. In the past couple of decades, a ball for statehood, a Statehood Dance, is scheduled on a Saturday close to January 4, in the museum in Fillmore, Utah, which once was the territorial capitol building before the capital was moved to Salt Lake City.
Got a U.S. flag, Utahns? Fly ’em if you got ’em.
Marchers carrying stars and colored material to make stripes for a flag in a statehood parade in Salt Lake City, 1910. Photo from the University of Utah Marriott Library.
Rare 1900 campaign flag featuring portraits of President William McKinley and Vice President nominee Theodore Roosevelt. Such a display is contrary to the U.S. Flag Code today, but in 1900 there was no flag code, and not really much solid regulation on U.S. flags. Bonsell/Americana image.
More:
Utah, the 45th star and the largest flag ever made to that time, film from Colonial Flags
Late for me to remind you, if you didn’t, but January 3 is Alaska’s Statehood Day. Alaskans should have flown their U.S. flags today in commemoration.
Of course, some people would like to fly their state flags, too — makes more sense, some say. I don’t argue, but I note that very rarely do I come across some household that has a state flag. Most homes have a U.S. flag.
Alaska’s flag is a work of art, though, and many Alaskans have one. Did you fly it today, if you have one?
Beleaguered sign makers will tell you, sometimes it’s damnably difficult to make signs make sense to motorists who speed by faster than they should — and sometimes, the story is just too difficult for pictures.
Take this one, posted on Twitter by @Weasel3071:
What does this sign mean? Sign near Bolinas, wherever than is. On Twitter from @Weasel3071.
Responses cover a lot of territory, and of course the flying cows of “Tornado” and “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” got mentions.
One response appears to come from an actual sign maker, who expresses sign maker frustration.
Cheap county didn't want to pay for two signs, one with the, also it should be 500 ft. on the plaque. Source: it's how I make a living. pic.twitter.com/rqBxb71Onn
— Barry Stock, The Carpet Does Not Match the Drapes (@BusStationDrift) July 30, 2021
Other responses hint that some people may be modifying actual cow warning signs, in New Mexico or Nevada.
Salina Skin Lotion, from Pure Cell Organics, in Salt Lake City. Hoping it’s not a mirage.
The page invites raised hopes:
Ready for something new?
Try this 70+ year-old recipe developed by a local pharmacist in Salina, Utah.
Salina Lotion is a glycerin, bay rum and rosemary essential oil based liquid lotion that promotes the healing of dry, cracked and itchy skin, especially on feet and hands. It softens skin, cuticles and calluses and is great for sunburn relief.
Local family owned and operated.
After checking to be sure it isn’t a scam, or badly outdated, and an email exchange with the woman who owns the company, we should have a bottle on the way.
It’s almost as good as DNA tests finding lost, wealthy or entertaining relatives.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Hand lotion from Salina Drug, in Salina, Utah — long ago.
Utah friends, or anyone who can help: Do you know where to find this great hand lotion?
We nursed this bottle as long as we could. It ran out in January. Where do we get more?
We have not been able to get more in Salina, Utah.
The story: I heard stories about Salina Drug’s great hand lotion on the trail, hiking around Southern Utah. I was always in Salina late at night, or early in the morning, when the drug store was closed — Kathryn and I finally picked up a bottle on a red rock vacation, in 1983
A few drops are all you need. There was eucalyptus, I think, and camphor. A touch of glycerine. Witch hazel? Fantastic stuff. Miracle cure. We rationed the stuff through law school, awaiting a chance to get more.
Finals, a job change or two, a baby, another job change and move to Texas, bar exam, another baby — we didn’t get back to Salina until one Sunday in 1991 or 1992. We got late on a Sunday. Salina Drug was closed.
Was it closed for good? I don’t know. I tried a couple times to phone. No success.
New jobs, kids in school. Our rationing system consisted of putting it in the back of the medicine cabinet and forgetting about it, until you get hands so chapped in desperation you remembered that old hand lotion. Just a few drops. It’s particularly good for hands chapped from climbing red rocks, or bouldering.
It was a formula probably close to a century old in 1983. They brewed and bottled the stuff right there in the pharmacy. Amber bottle, locally-printed stick-on label, a piece of real cork with a slit to dispense, under the cap. But at some point in between 1985 and 2000, Salina Drug slipped away (like Bobbie McGee near Salinas, not to be confused with Salina).
When the drugstore died, did anybody save the recipe? Is anyone selling the stuff now?
Chimney Rock National Monument, Colorado, and Moon. NPS image.
It’s off the tourist-beaten path, it’s relatively new to the National Parks system, and it’s not highly developed.
All of which means you can have a fantastic, unhurried adventure among ruins of ancient Americans, without the crowds.
We found it almost accidentally, driving by on our way to Abiquiue, New Mexico. Film from CRIA (Chimney Rock Interpretive Association?) recently dropped into my in-box.
I tried to get the definitive photo of a rufous hummingbird male who was trying to keep a dozen other hummers of three different species away from a battery of hummingbird feeders, but he was too fast.
Chimney Rock is a good example of the vast number of ruins from Puebloan Indian tribes and tribes even more ancient, found across the desert Southwest, mostly unprotected, uncatalogued, and unknown to any but local people who hunt pots, mostly illegally. As a nation, we should fund better preservation and more study of these human habitations.
Another short video:
Note there is at least one other formation in southern Colorado called Chimney Rock, and another formation in North Carolina that is probably more famous.
A view of the kiva and other ruins atop the small mesa formation of Chimney Rock N.P. USDA photo via OutThere Colorado.
Recently ran across this photo of Utah’s Mt. Timpanogos in the snow. You can see how majestic the mountain is dressed in white, and how its glory can bring awe and joy to people in the valley.
Evening view of Mount Timpanogos from Provo, Utah, January 7, 2008. Photographer is identified only as A4GPA. Wikipedia image, Creative Commons license.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Angel Oak is popular for wedding pictures, it appears — this one is featured in a local real estate advertisement. “This beautiful live oak tree, called The Angel Oak, is located in Angel Oak Park off Bohicket Road and is said to be the oldest living thing east of the Rockies. It is about 1,500 years old and stands 66.5 ft tall, measures 28 ft in circumference, and produces shade that covers 17,200 square feet. From tip to tip its longest branch distance is 187 ft. From Picture Gallery Johns Island Real Estate by Greater Charleston Properties”
I love this ad from Allstate Insurance. “Still Standing.”
ISpot describes the ad:
Allstate tells the story of the Angel Oak on Johns Island, South Carolina (known as “The Tree” by locals). It’s rumored that it is the oldest living thing east of the Mississippi River and remains standing despite all the harsh weather and natural disasters it has faced over the past 500 years. Allstate likens its strength to the resilience that resides in us all and says it’s humbled by the courage shown by Hurricane Florence victims, offering up helping hands in partnership with the American Red Cross.
Dennis Haysbert narrates the ad, but without appearing himself, as he does in several other Allstate ads.
It’s not the oldest tree east of the Mississippi; there are cypress trees much older even in South Carolina. The name “Angel Oak” comes from the surname of a man who owned the land once, not from any angelic action or legend.
Even through corrections of the legends, the tree stands, a beautiful monument to endurance of living things, and trees. Allstate’s ad is a feel-good moment, and the feelings are worthwhile. Endurance through adversity is a virtue. The Angel Oak itself suffered great damage in a 1942 hurricane, but recovered.
Here’s a tourist video showing off more the tree, and the supports used to keep branches alive, similar to the supports we saw in China supporting 2,000-year-old trees.
Honoring trees is a worldwide tradition, and a great one. We don’t honor trees nearly enough, in my opinion.
Most of the limbs of Angel Oak run almost parallel to the ground. Over time, dust, seeds and spores settle along the branches. Ferns and other greenery now grow along the massive branches, making even the trunk appear green. Photo by MadeYourReadThis – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64371945
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM, Department of Interior) great photographer Bob Wick captures a photo that separates the redrock lovers from everybody else.
The road seems to dead end in the mountains ahead. Nobody visible in the land for miles around. It’s either incredibly desolate and lonely, or among the most beautiful, everyday views among rocks of incredible beauty you’ll ever see and remember forever.
Caption from America’s Great Outdoors, Tumblr blog of the U.S. Department of Interior: Heading south from Hanksville, Utah, towards Lake Powell, highway travelers bisect the remote Henry Mountains – the last area mapped in the lower 48. The 11,000-foot forested peaks of the main mountain range rise to the west, while two distinctive summits, Mount’s Ellsworth and Holmes, jut skyward from the rolling red sandstone mesas to the east. Known as the “Little Rockies,” these peaks are studied by geologists around the world as a classic example of igneous rocks, formed deep within the earth’s mantle, thrusting through the overlying sandstone layers. The Little Rockies have been designated as a National Natural Landmark for their geological significance. The peaks also provide habitat for desert bighorn sheep and numerous birds of prey. Photo by Bob Wick, Bureau of Land Management, @mypubliclands
Outdoors people in Utah usually know the Henry Mountains. There’s a buffalo herd there, open to hunting. It’s an amazing rock formation in the middle of other amazing rocks, a towering landmark for miles.
Hanksville would have to be invented by a good fiction writer if it didn’t exist, a desert town where everybody stops who passes by, with nothing really to commend it but the fact that it’s there, and populated by people of great character. Who names a town “Hanksville?”
Who wouldn’t like to be on that road?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
We passed this garage on the way to Mt. Ranier National Park, on a day in August when smoke from global-warming aggravated fires in British Columbia almost obscured one of America’s biggest, mist obvious mountains. That’s part of the yellow tint to the light.
A lot of voters have second thoughts.
And this voter’s sign for candidate “Trump” has become a sign for candidate “TRump.”
But I missed it. It’s worth noting a day or so late, though, just for his creed.
H. L. Mencken celebrates the end of Prohibition with a glass of beer with friends. (Who took the photo? In what bar? Who are those people with Mencken?)
I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind – that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.
I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious.
I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war upon liberty…
I believe that the evidence for immortality is no better than the evidence of witches, and deserves no more respect.
I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech…
I believe in the capacity of man to conquer his world, and to find out what it is made of, and how it is run.
I believe in the reality of progress.
I – But the whole thing, after all, may be put very simply. I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.
From Instagram: pkwanpiOf course there’s a #newtcrossing — this is #berkeley after all! In Tilden Regional Park
Oakland side of San Francisco Bay has a stunning string of parks from the water’s edge, following abandoned rail lines, through parks in the city, wending and winding up into the mountains into real wilderness. It’s impressive, decades later, to remember the President’s Commission on Americans Outdoors touring these sites as they were being redeveloped from abandoned industrial sites, real brownfield recovery — and see what a grand complex it is now.
And there, one may find a newt crossing one’s path. Watch out for the newts!
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Moving ice on Utah Lake, from a drone movie by Bill Church, screen capture.
Where does the great @BillChurchPhoto post his photos? (Update: On Instagram, and sales at BillChurchPhoto.com.) His work around Utah Lake, and Utah, is spectacular (and I hope people buy his images so he’s making money off of the great art he’s captured).
Here is a photo of plain old Utah Lake, in February. Church makes it look beautiful and exciting, instead of just cold and muddy.
Poster on the event! “Joys and Perils of Self-Publishing,” April 26, 6:00 p.m., Half-Price Books at Northwest Highway in Dallas (the Mother Ship). Bob Reitz and Gardner Smith.
Bob Reitz is the curator of the Jack Harbin Museum at Camp Wisdom, one of the finest museums of Scout materials in the country, focused on Scouting in the Circle 10 Council BSA (Dallas and surrounding counties). He and Gardner Smith trek and travel about Texas and the West, and for a time published a series of exquisite books, string bound, fancy paper, and extraordinary content. Great reads.
This presentation is probably a good one for authors, publishers, book lovers, poetry lovers and travelers.
I wonder if there is CPE credit available — and for which professions?
Bob Reitz at an earlier presentation, on Dallas history.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Or, until that account is unsuspended by the forces supporting Donald Trump: Follow @FillmoreWhite, the account of the Millard Fillmore White House Library
We've been soaking in the Bathtub for several months, long enough that some of the links we've used have gone to the Great Internet in the Sky.
If you find a dead link, please leave a comment to that post, and tell us what link has expired.
Thanks!
Retired teacher of law, economics, history, AP government, psychology and science. Former speechwriter, press guy and legislative aide in U.S. Senate. Former Department of Education. Former airline real estate, telecom towers, Big 6 (that old!) consultant. Lab and field research in air pollution control.
My blog, Millard Fillmore's Bathtub, is a continuing experiment to test how to use blogs to improve and speed up learning processes for students, perhaps by making some of the courses actually interesting. It is a blog for teachers, to see if we can use blogs. It is for people interested in social studies and social studies education, to see if we can learn to get it right. It's a blog for science fans, to promote good science and good science policy. It's a blog for people interested in good government and how to achieve it.
BS in Mass Communication, University of Utah
Graduate study in Rhetoric and Speech Communication, University of Arizona
JD from the National Law Center, George Washington University
Posted by Ed Darrell 
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 