The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-05-01
BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON

:" !. !. /. ]:
the Union with nicknameS
II related to birds or ami
IL b mails, presumably because
III n they are so characteristic
ii "a of those states that a per-
81 son invariably thinks of
them together. They are
Ill the following:
Arkansas, the Bear
state.
Delaware, the Blue Hen state.
Iowa, the Hawkeye state
Louisiana, the Pelican state.
Michigan, the Wolverine state.
Minnesota, the Gopher state.
Oregon, the Beaver state.
Wisconsin, the Badger state.
But 1t is curious fact that in adj
dition to every state having popular
nickname, there are some states
which have symbols that are in no way
connected with the nickname. If they
were connected, whenever you thought
of Arkansas, you would think of
bear. But the fact is that whenever
you think Of that state, the chances
are that there rises to your mind the
image Of one of those lean, lanky
porkers with its long snout and high,
sharp backbone which gives it the
name of razorback. For the razorback,
descendant of the pigs which the Span
ish explorer, De Soto, brought to
America and which escaped to the
woods and ran wild for generations,
Is Arkansas native hog and as such
has become that states symbol rather
than the bear.
Time was when the razorback was
such familiar figure in the Arkansas
landscape that it became a part of
those popular legends" which are re-
sponsible for fixing in the public mind
certain ideas, as often erroneous as
not, about the people in some one state
or some section of the country. Hence
the tradition Of the "Ozark hill-billy"
whose "shiftlessness" has been per-
petuated in the famous Arkansas
Traveller" story. And a similar story
in which the razorback figures is
this one:
Traveller Through Arkansas (observ-
Ing raZorback scratching itself
against a post)-Your hogs seem to
be troubled with the mango
Ozark Hill-Billy - Mango nuthin'
stranger. That there is a razorback
and he's just stroppin' hisself!
So while it may be true that the
raZorback hog was once the most dis
tinctive domestic animal in Arkansas,
modern farming and modern live stock
raising in Arkansas have largely done
away with him and he is more of a
relic and a tradition than a living
fact. The tradition has been pre-
served, however, by the athletic teams
Of the University of Arkansas which
have become widely known as the
''Razorbacks," especially since an Ar
kansas football star made the ALI
American.
In fact, such has been the wide
spread interest in college athletics in
recent years that the mascots and
nicknames Of athletic teams, espe-
cially those Of the state universities.
have done much to fix in the public
mind a certain state symbolism, even
though It may not always agree with
that suggested by the official" state
nickname Outstanding examples of
those which symbolic both the state
and the college athlete are the "Wol-
verines'' of the University of Michi-
gan, the "Gophers" of the University
of Minnesota and the Badgers of the
University of Wisconsin.
In that connection there has come
to light recently the curious paradox
that in all probability Michigan, the
Wolverine state, does not now have a
single wild wolverine within its bor-
ders That is the discovery that
Fielding HI. YOst, famous football
coach and athletic director at the Uni
yersity of Michigan made, according
to an article which appeared recently
In the Detroit Free Press which says:
"When Professor Yost started out to
ascertain why Michigan is known as
the Wolverine state, he ran up against
two printed explanations. 1t appears
most likely that the name was given
Michigan because bales Of wolverine