Happy Valley (Utah County)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Happy Valley.

Happy Valley is a nickname for a number of Utah communities, especially Utah County. (The nickname is also used for many other communities in the United States and around the world.)

The term Happy Valley when used to describe any quiet, idyllic locale is probably adapted from Samuel Johnson's The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia.

There are a number of reasons for the nickname:

• About 88% of Utah County residents are Latter-day Saints.^[1]
• LDS-owned BYU is located in Provo, Utah.
• Utah County has rather low levels of crime and drug abuse,^[2] when compared to other areas in Utah, and rather low rates of poverty and unemployment.^[3]
• Utah County's scenery is generally considered pleasant or attractive, and allows for significant outdoor activities: hiking, skiing, fishing and so on.
• Provo was ranked as the healthiest city in the US by Self Magazine in 2000.

"Happy Valley" is — especially when used with air quotes — generally used in a pejorative or ironic sense when describing Utah County, for a number of reasons:

• Some studies and anecdotal evidence suggest Utah County residents have higher than average use of anti-depressant medications, especially Prozac,^[4][5] Note that other researchers have questioned the accuracy of such reports.^[6]
• The large number of Latter-day Saints — The highest concentration of the faith in the world — [8] has led some Utah County residents (including members not native to the area) to charge that some Latter-day Saints practice overt or tacit religious discrimination against persons who do not share their same point of view.^[7] This type of discrimination has been explicitly spoken against in talks at the Annual and Semi-annual General Conferences of the LDS Church, urging members to be friendly and neighborly to people regardless of their religion.^[8][9]
• It's also referred to as "The Zion Bubble".

[edit] References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ [2]
3. ^ [3]
4. ^ [4]
5. ^ [5]
6. ^ [6]
7. ^ [7]
8. ^ "A Time of New Beginnings", President Gordon B. Hinckley
9. ^ "The Work Goes On", President Gordon B. Hinckley