Culminating a five-year effort, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has gained control of Martin’s Cove — 940 acres of federal land — where several dozen Mormon immigrants died in a blizzard in 1856. The church considers the site, southwest of Casper, Wyo., sacred and sought to buy it (HCN, 9/30/02: This land […]
Christopher Smith
Posted inMay 24, 1999: The last weird place
Bureau of livestock, mining … and parks?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. When Al Gore joined President Clinton in 1996 in announcing the creation of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah, the vice president called it a “great monument to stewardship.” Yet by presidential decree the steward in this case was not the National Park […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Yellowstone soft on safety
After five people working in Yellowstone National Park were accidentally killed in a little less than four years, a federal investigation found that the first and most famous national park had ignored hundreds of safety regulations. “Employees at almost all levels demonstrated an unwillingness to take responsibility for safety,” concluded a 1998 report by the […]
Posted inNovember 9, 1998: Grizzly war
Poacher gets trapped
When the authorities cracked an extensive Utah cougar-poaching ring this fall, they got help from an unlikely source: the poachers themselves. The hunters, unaware that their guide didn’t have the proper permits, documented their illegal hunts in photographs, videotapes and boastful magazine articles. In mid-September, Colorado hunting guide Samuel Sickels pleaded guilty to wanton destruction […]
Posted inNovember 9, 1998: Grizzly war
Deaths drive change at Lake Mead
BOULDER CITY, Nev. – Lake Mead has never pretended to be anything but a watersports playground for the masses. Recreational pursuits that would make visitors outlaws at most areas managed by the National Park Service get a warm reception at Lake Mead. This summer, the lake hosted a hydroplane boat race, a bass-fishing tournament and […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Feds sue a Utah county for building a road in a national park
Garfield County in Utah has yet to prove historical use of the Burr Trail road through Capitol Reef National Park, a federal judge said in April. With the ruling, U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins rejected the county’s motion for summary judgment, and now a trial will likely begin this summer. An attorney defending Garfield County […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Judge gives grave-robbers a green light
The Utah Court of Appeals has decided that state law does not protect Anasazi graves. In late February, the court upheld a state judge’s dismissal of felony charges against Jeanne and James Redd, a Blanding, Utah, couple who were accused of desecrating a Native American burial site while pot hunting. “I am appalled the judges […]
Posted inMarch 16, 1998: Olympic onslaught: Salt Lake City braces for the winter games
The Park Service takes a hard look at itself
The portrait of the National Park Service that Richard West Sellars paints in his new book is not especially flattering: Entrusted by Americans to preserve natural wonders, the agency instead prefers to develop recreation and promote tourism. Such criticism is nothing new – writer Edward Abbey loved to rail against “industrial tourism” and the “National […]
Posted inNovember 25, 1996: Pollution in paradise
The “tough love’ trial is over
After Arizona teenager Aaron Bacon died of perforated ulcers on a wilderness program for wayward teens two years ago, eight North Star employees were charged with felony neglect and abuse of a disabled child (HCN, 6/10/96). Now their trials are over, and only Bacon’s field instructor, 22-year-old Craig Fisher, is guilty as charged. Although Fisher […]
Posted inJune 10, 1996: Outdoor Education
The rise and fall of Steve Cartisano
The controversial “godfather” of wilderness therapy, has left a trail of lawsuits behind him.
Posted inJune 10, 1996: Outdoor Education
Tough love proves too tough
Controversial “wilderness therapy programs” come under critical scrutiny – and lawsuits – after several teenagers die while in their care.
Posted inSeptember 4, 1995: I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook
I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook
TORREY, Utah – J.W. Powell had returned from an extended summer vacation of camping, backpacking and whitewater boating. He found every outdoor-lover’s dream: beautiful, untouched backcountry and not another tourist on the trail. Best of all, this place was a secret, not even shown on the maps. So Powell did what many avid hikers are […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 1995: I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook
How the BLM killed a cow to save a canyon and stop the paperwork
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook. For 10 or more years she was an orphan trapped in a wilderness prison with no means of escape. Finally, she was spotted and a rescue launched. Within sight of freedom, she was killed. One bullet […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 1995: I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook
Did federal negligence help kill two hikers?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook. SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Who’s to blame when a backcountry hike turns deadly? Expert witnesses are being interviewed now for a trial next year that will ask that question. The case revolves around a disastrous […]
Posted inJune 12, 1995: The Southwest's last real river: Will it flow on?
How an ex-clown brought order to a boom town
PARK CITY, Utah – In 1884, the editor of the town newspaper scolded that “there is too much promiscuous shooting on streets at night.” More than a century later, the common complaint is there is too much promiscuous construction each day. This is the land of perpetual nail pounding, where subdivisions materialize overnight. They march […]
Posted inJune 12, 1995: The Southwest's last real river: Will it flow on?
Moab area acts to regain control of public lands
MOAB, Utah – Visitors flock here like swallows returning to Capistrano, decked out in spring plumage of spandex, their vehicles sprouting bike racks and kayaks. Locals call this the “silly season” in Utah’s southeastern canyon country. But thanks to a dramatic change in visitor management at several of the area’s most popular attractions, this season […]
Posted inMay 29, 1995: Politics 101
Ranchers charge tourists for a dose of reality
SALINA, Utah – Jeff Powell and Susan Rottman are schooling about 60 ranchers in the vocabulary of the New West: Family farms are destination vacations, chores are recreational activities and cattle drives are adventure tourism. This is a crash course in “recreation ranching,” a fledgling industry in the mountain states and, some say, the economic […]
Posted inMarch 6, 1995: The fires next time
A delicate question: When is an arch crowded?
MOAB, Utah – Two’s company, 30 is a crowd, visitors to Delicate Arch have told researchers trying to figure out how to protect the experience of viewing one of Utah’s most famous natural attractions. Using a pilot program that will likely be adopted at other national parks, Arches National Park has developed a method for […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 1994: Turmoil on the range
Cows are evicted from Utah
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – A federal judge has kicked cattle out of the canyons of southeastern Utah’s Comb Wash. Both environmentalists and ranchers say the decision could lead to sweeping changes in grazing on public lands. Department of Interior Administrative Law Judge John Rampton’s Dec. 20 decision in the three-year-long Comb Wash case found […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 1994: Turmoil on the range
BLM union comes to Moab
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Turmoil on the range. MOAB, Utah – Citing frustration with their agency’s treatment of natural resources and employees, Bureau of Land Management staffers in two agency offices here voted to unionize. In response, Moab District BLM managers filed an objection to the […]