It’s been a few years ago, when I heard this talked about. It was reported that some Utah state officials were given a quiz. As I heard it, they were given maps with the 29 counties of Utah outlined, but without the counties named.

The assignment was to identify the counties. I remember taking a similar quiz in Mrs. Jacobsen’s 7th grade Utah History class in Richfield Junior High School.

She carried a yardstick around with her and we were motivated to learn. (By the way, did you hear that they aren’t making yardsticks any longer? – Think about that.)

So, do you have a guess as to which county was the least known among those taking the quiz? If I were guessing, I would say Piute County or Daggett County. But what I heard was that Sanpete County was dead last in terms of being able to be identified by the officials. That might be different now, since our governor hails from Sanpete.

I didn’t go on a search to try to find out the details of this quiz. For one thing, every once in a while, I don’t feel like researching details. For a second thing, and more importantly – what if this information was pure gossip and untrue?

If that were the case, the whole premise of this column would be flawed and compromised. I didn’t feel like I could risk good research standing in the way of what I thought was a decent column idea.

The fact of the matter is that I don’t need a state quiz or research to tell me what I already know. I know that there are many, many Utahns in the population centers of the Wasatch Front who simply don’t know where Sanpete County is located.

The maps they are using up there must be like the ones in use before Christopher Columbus set sail. As they look at those Utah maps, there’s a big, whirling vortex of a nothingness just south of Provo depicted.

That part of the map has sketches of monsters and sea serpents, with the words “Here Be Dragons.” Then as you look further south, you come out of the black hole of uncharted wilderness and see Cedar City and St. George on the map.

I talk to people from the Wasatch Front quite often. It’s surprising how many of them really don’t know Sanpete’s location. I’ve even had multiple instances of people, one of them a relative, driving down I-15 all the way to the I-70 junction by Cove Fort thinking they were on their way to Sanpete. Only then did they scratch their heads and start to wonder about where exactly is Sanpete County located and how in blazes do I get there.

When I talk to people who don’t know where we are, I usually give them an easy way to find us. I tell them to draw an “X” over the map of Utah and the center of the “X” is where Sanpete County lies. We’re in the middle of the state.

Another thing people have trouble with is the spelling of Sanpete. They want to put us in the same bucket with San Francisco, San Jose and San Bernardino. I guess we could change our name and be San Pete County.

It all gets a little confusing to outsiders. I’m told that Sanpete is an Indian name which is a corruption of San Pitch or San Peech. There are some who say that San Pedro has something to do with it. I don’t know.

I believe that many of us here in Sanpete actually enjoy being low profile and isolated in the state. There’s a certain feeling of safety and security.

And yes, there’s something akin to a “reverse elitism” that comes from living in the hinterlands of mid-Utah. Some Sanpeters want the outside world to think that there really are monsters and sea serpents here and that people should stay away.

Many residents here are glad that there’s not a freeway that runs through the county. A few people were sad to see the first traffic light go into Ephraim years ago. And then, “Holy Cow!” – another traffic light went up in Mt. Pleasant.

That second light in the county messed up my method of giving directions to people. When there was only one light in the county, For my first instruction, I could say, “Drive until you come to the light.” “What light?” — they’d say. “The only traffic light in the county,” I’d reply.

Sanpete may not be as cosmopolitan or as well-known as Piute County or Daggett County in the minds of some Utahns. Moroni and Manti might not be as glamorous or well known as Circleville or Manila, in some people’s minds.

But, we know we’re here. We know Sanpete exists. And that’s what matters.

We also know that people outside of the “Whoville of Sanpete” just need a little reminding. If they open their minds, they’ll be able to know that we’re here too and perhaps, be able to find us on a modern map. — Merrill

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