{"id":15391,"date":"2014-09-14T12:25:33","date_gmt":"2014-09-14T17:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=15391"},"modified":"2021-12-20T17:08:30","modified_gmt":"2021-12-20T22:08:30","slug":"hardly-tropic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/hardly-tropic\/","title":{"rendered":"Hardly Tropic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Technically, the tropics would be an area hugging the equator between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, between approximately 23\u00b026′-or-so north and south. The two latitudes marked the extent the sun might appear directly overhead if only briefly on a single day, the summer solstice. Tropics also had a more widespread definition that included mild, lush areas in general. I could understand placenames in South Florida incorporating Tropic, Tropical or Tropicana, for example, because the Tropic of Cancer almost clipped it. But Utah? Not so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tropic, Utah<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"View<\/a>
Utah’s “Tropical” Environment<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yet, that’s what I noticed in the Twelve Mile Circle reader logs. The visitor arrived on the site from Tropic, Utah (map<\/a>). I’m sure it was a fine town full of lovely people in a wonderful setting. I had no quarrel with the town although the name surprised me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tropic was a gateway to Bryce Canyon National Park<\/a>. I’ve been to Bryce and it’s great, albeit not what most observers might consider tropical, geographically or stereotypically. It snows in Bryce Canyon<\/a>. Roads close. Rangers lead snowshoe hikes. The park holds a winter carnival. So that didn’t sound like The Tropics to me.(\u00b9<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, the Town of Tropic<\/a> did its best to put a happy face on its inherent contradiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It was suggested by Andrew J. Hansen to call it ‘Tropic’. To support the suggestion, he stated that people would come to their little valley where peaches, apples, grapes and other semi-tropical fruits would be found. The name Tropic was adopted; with the population of about 15 families.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Thus, the name appeared to be a late 19th Century marketing ploy. Town founders focused optimistically on the warmer months and ignored the rest of the year. That didn’t make it tropical though. For Tropic, Utah to be genuinely tropic it would need to move to a latitude at the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s go ahead a flog that dead horse a bit longer because, honestly, I don’t have anything better to do this morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tropic of Cancer Beach, The Bahamas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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