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Forty five before it was.
Now a tribe but once did buzz.
I'm mostly desert with a little e.
Was proposed but never would be.
Though quite religious I'm historic too.
And followed by industry, book, and news.

What am I?

Hint

forty five as in 1896.

p.s. A similar riddle is used in another of my puzzles (where in the world am I supposed to go). But I thought that it deserved a puzzle all to itself.

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  • $\begingroup$ just added a hint hopefully that helps $\endgroup$
    – Hashbrowns
    Jan 24, 2017 at 17:30
  • $\begingroup$ The hint is a new puzzle for me :-/ $\endgroup$
    – Techidiot
    Jan 24, 2017 at 17:53

3 Answers 3

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You're

Deseret

Forty five before it was.

It was proposed instead of Utah, the 45th state

Now a tribe but once did buzz.

LDS (Jaredites?)

I'm mostly desert with a little e.

Deseret

Was proposed but never would be.

Indeed, Utah came to be instead

Though quite religious I'm historic too.

LDS again

And followed by industry, book, and news.

Deseret Industries, Deseret Book, Deseret News

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  • $\begingroup$ Well done! As for the last line: Deseret Books is an LDS bookstore; Deseret Industries is an LDS non-profit organisation and Deseret News is a newspaper from Salt Lake City, as I've just learned. $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Jan 24, 2017 at 18:01
  • $\begingroup$ @MOehm Yup, I was editing those in. :) $\endgroup$
    – Will
    Jan 24, 2017 at 18:02
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    $\begingroup$ Sorry, didn't want to cut you short. Your findings and my research have yielded a new angle of attack for the original puzzle, though. $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Jan 24, 2017 at 18:03
  • $\begingroup$ we have a winner!!!!. did you catch the title? $\endgroup$
    – Hashbrowns
    Jan 24, 2017 at 18:06
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I think it's

Israel

Because

"Forty five before it was,"

Israel obtained its independence in 1945

"Now a tribe but once did buzz."

Well, we could say Israel is actually just the tribe of Judah, down from 12 tribes

"I'm mostly desert with a little e."

Israel is mostly desert and its shape can be likened to an e

"Was proposed but never would be."

Sounds more like Palestine, admittedly

"Though quite religious I'm historic too."

Israel is definitely religious and historic

"And followed by industry, book, and news."

Israel is followed by industry, book and news

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  • $\begingroup$ sorry but that's not correct. $\endgroup$
    – Hashbrowns
    Jan 23, 2017 at 19:17
  • $\begingroup$ Your answer and @Br0therBrigham question share something though: You have both misspelled "its" (possessive of it) as "it's" $\endgroup$
    – Bohemian
    Jan 23, 2017 at 23:11
  • $\begingroup$ Misspelling? It's a contraction of "it is". And I don't see it anywhere in his question. @Bohemian $\endgroup$
    – shalvah
    Jan 23, 2017 at 23:12
  • $\begingroup$ Lol...Oh, I see... Autocorrect things $\endgroup$
    – shalvah
    Jan 23, 2017 at 23:15
  • $\begingroup$ The error is at the end of the last sentence. Correctly spelled, it would be "... all its self" or the more common portmanteau "itself". (It wouldn't be correct if "it's" was expended to "all it is self") $\endgroup$
    – Bohemian
    Jan 23, 2017 at 23:18
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I am about 99% confident that this is not the correct answer, but its correspondence with the first couple of lines amuses me enough that I can't resist posting it.

(No spoilers because, duh, it's almost certainly wrong.)

There is a sort of spoof secret society called E Clampus Vitus. It was apparently founded in 1845 ("forty-five before it was") by Ephraim ("now a tribe") Bee ("once did buzz"), though its early history is a bit obscure.

It calls itself a "historical drinking society" or sometimes a "drinking historical society" ("I'm historic too"). Its motto, "Credo quia absurdum", is taken from the early Christian writer Tertullian who (approximately) said it about the Christian faith and more specifically about the idea that the Son of God could die ("quite religious").

I'm not sure anything else fits well, though. Its home is the American Midwest, most of which isn't desert. Its name has a conspicuous big E and I don't see any obvious little ones. So far as I can know, nothing about it fits "Was proposed but never would be". And it's not "followed by industry, book and news" either in the sense of having a lot of attention paid to it or in the sense that its name naturally precedes all those words.

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  • $\begingroup$ definitely wrong. but still a funny coincidence. $\endgroup$
    – Hashbrowns
    Jan 24, 2017 at 2:52
  • $\begingroup$ Maybe I'm the weird one but... everyone is going on about 1845 and 1945, but isn't the date 1972? (2017-45)... Or possibly 45BC but that is quite unlikely haha. $\endgroup$
    – stack reader
    Jan 24, 2017 at 4:33

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