How The States Got Their Shapes

“How the states got their shapes” was the program I viewed on History Channel. I turned on the television and their happened to be a mini-marathon on this series. To be honest I had never heard of it before and was expecting to catch Pawn Stars. The show recaps the history of each individual state. The first episode focused on American secrets and they did a segment about Nevada and the mysterious Area 51. I’ve always wondered if it was so top secret how did it manage to get out to the public? They confirmed that most of Nevada was government owned and that there was in fact an Area 51. The host of the show and an Area 51 expert drove as close as they could come to the sight of Area 51 without getting arrested. It was literally in the middle of nowhere and of course security knew they were coming long before they got their. I wonder how much security Area 51 has?
The second episode focused on how religion shaped several states. Blue Laws, which forbid liquor sales on Sunday, began with the Puritans and were picked up with intensity by Kansas. In fact, Kansas led the temperance movement which caused the short American period of prohibition. The host even met with a present local brewery owner, who has stated that in the beginning of his business he had received hate mail informing him he was doing the devils work, showing how Kansas still looked down on drinking.
It was no surprise that they had also covered Utah when it came to religion. They discussed how Utah was denied statehood several times because of the Mormon religion. Polygamy was a practice which was declared federally illegal and which was common among the Church of Later Day Saints. What I did not know was how large Utah originally was. Apparently when silver and gold were struck Utah was cut down and yet still denied statehood. The show also did a short bit about Brigham Young University and how this LDS supported University encourages young adults to get married early and have plenty of children. I was interested to see the history of our state told by outsiders. This episode somewhat opened my eyes to how unique Utah is viewed by other Americans.