Friday, March 27, 2009

Official Dirt

Pursuant to this blog's love of trivia......James Lileks at the Star-Tribune.

In 1987, the Minnesota Association of Professional Soil Scientists -- dedicated, no doubt, to combating all the falsehoods and junk science put out by those amateur soil scientists with mail-order degrees -- declared our state soil was Lester Loam. Or Lester Loam was the fellow who sent the press release. Records are sketchy.

Of course I had to make sure South Dakota wasn't behind the curve on this. Quoth the State website.

......the South Dakota Legislature made Houdek (pronounced hoo-deck) the official state soil in 1990.

Why Houdek?

Houdek soil is not found in any other state. It was chosen because it and closely-related soils occur on more than two million acres across South Dakota.

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