Show mormons credited for naming joshua tree fortnight a california news magazine credits the mormons for the name joshua as applied to the thorny trees of the southwest desert A current issue of the pub li cation says the joshua is s still relatively undiscovered by the tour named probably by the mor mons it has been part of the national park system since 1936 the utah department of public ity points out that few utahna are aware that the beehive state has a joshua forest utah s area of prickly trees starts 20 miles west of st george and spreads out over thousands of acres of utah moun tain and desert land in the ex southwest corner comer of the tate state traversed by highway U S i 91 the joshua forest is an in te resting er esting sight to tourists |