Nice puzzle! I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise, but IDAHO is the 4th most common state name to appear in the New York Times crossword with 222 appearances. It follows UTAH (556), OHIO (446), and IOWA (267). MAINE is only 2 behind IDAHO with 220 appearances, so IDAHO's gotta step up its game! Fun Crossword Fact of the Day (FCFOTD): NORTH DAKOTA and SOUTH CAROLINA have still yet to appear in the NYT. Credit xwordinfo.com for the stats.
Interesting! :) I currently live in Utah, and yeah, I see that often. I also frequently a neighboring town of Orem--nice mix of vowels and friendly consonants--along with the ski resort Alta, that is not far away. BTW where do you find the stats?
If you have a subscription, you can search this data using XWord Info's finder at https://www.xwordinfo.com/Finder. If you're really into construction, you can get a regular membership for $20 per year - pretty cool resource!
Solved downs-only but leaned heavily on the title (and note) to infer 3D (and 1A, whose etymology I’d never put together). Also was inferring for 5D — can anyone explain/unpack the clue? Thank you!