dividing utah

I've been looking back through my old Xanga a fair bit lately, and was amused to find a post written about Utah almost four years before I visited the state for the first time. The subject of the post was a bill introduced to the Utah State Legislature, sponsored by Neal Hendrickson (D - West Valley City), that proposed splitting the state into two states, the dividing line between North Utah and South Utah being the modern boundary between Utah County and Juab, Sanpete, and Carbon Counties.

At the time, I thought the proposal was ridiculous. If you read my old post, you'll see that I make the argument that if Utah deserves to be split into two states, then larger, more diverse states like California or Texas should be split into seven or eight states each. Utah is surely not the only state with "varied interests" represented therein.

Living in Utah now, however, I appreciate the proposal a little bit more. Northern and southern Utah are very different animals, with major differences in weather patterns, geography, industry, and even culture. In particular, the Wasatch Front of Northern Utah is the most urbanized and diverse area of the state, while Dixie (yes, that's what locals call Southwestern Utah) is much warmer and closely tied culturally with Las Vegas and Northern Arizona.

In general, the way states relate out here in the Intermountain West is very different from the larger states where I have lived (Texas and California). Northern Utah bleeds into Idaho, Wyoming, and even Montana fairly seamlessly, while Southern Utah blends in with Nevada and Arizona. Utah also seems to hold a tenuous but symbiotic relationship with Colorado, competing for supremacy but sharing much in their joint resilience in the secluded Rocky Mountain region. It's also no big deal to go out and spend a weekend three or four states away, something rare in other parts of the United States where I have lived.

So, maybe Utah would be well-served by being split into two states. I still think it's kind of absurd.