Control of Robert Smithson's earthwork masterpiece
Spiral Jetty (360° panorama - QuickTime required) is now in dispute. Last week, a spokesperson for the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands announced that the New York-based Dia Foundation, which was given stewardship over the work by the artist's estate, had been
tardy in making its annual $250 payment on the 10 acres of land and had also failed to respond to an automatically generated notice that the 20 year lease had expired. (The Dia Foundation
disagrees.) Consequently, it will now be "managed like any other sovereign land" - which may be of interest to the
energy companies that have sought to explore the area.
(previously)
posted by Trurl
on Jun 17, 2011 -
46 comments
Utah Attorney General Announces Execution on Twitter. Today marked an evolution of sorts for Twitter. It’s no longer just for following your favorite celebrity rants or for informing your followers you’re having a ham sandwich or just took a shower.
And self-promotion on Twitter seems so yesterday. Consider Friday’s tweets from Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. Around midnight, he tweeted that he’d given “the go ahead” to execute condemned inmate Ronnie Gardner.
posted by Fizz
on Jun 19, 2010 -
84 comments
It
looked legit and not entirely out of the realm of
possibility in today's heated political climate: an anti-gay resolution being introduced in Utah to expel homosexuals from the state. Except that it was an entire, elaborate
hoax courtesy of the
Yes Men.
posted by Leezie
on Mar 9, 2010 -
28 comments
Kari Ferrell is on Salt Lake City's Most Wanted List. Apparently Ms. Ferrell has moved from Utah to New York and has been
hanging out with the hipsters in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Within the space of a half-hour, Ms. Ferrell was peppering him with questions about his sexual history—how many women he’d slept with and so on. “She was coming on to me, and I was super into it for the first part of it,” he said. “I realized I could have fun after work—but then I was like, ‘Let me check this girl out.’”
posted by R. Mutt
on Apr 15, 2009 -
147 comments
Yogi Bear may have been smarter than the average, but Ranger Smith had it right. Don't feed the bears. As a Montana game warden put it: human feeding "can lead to problems later and ultimately mean the animal
has to be put down." A similar event had a Utah ranger upset, saying: "when you have a bear that becomes unafraid of humans,
that's not a good thing."
posted by SeeAych4
on Sep 16, 2008 -
45 comments
The first
National Train Day is this coming Saturday. There will be
events all over, and concerts, special guests and lots of train related attractions in four main cities,
Washington D.C.,
Chicago,
Los Angeles and
New York City. The day is May 10th to
commemorate May 10th, 1869 when the “
golden spike” was driven into the final tie in
Promontory Summit, Utah. It joined two major railways, ceremonially creating the nation’s first transcontinental railroad. Except that
it really didn't. That did not actually happen until August 15th, 1870, near Strasburg, CO. Colorado State officials
list it (pdf) as Comanche Crossing, saying "An
unpretentious white monument marks the spot". The "drab concrete pylon" was moved from the actual site and now sits in Lions Park. Next to the monkey bars.
posted by cashman
on May 3, 2008 -
4 comments
Thirty years ago today,
Gary Gilmore was executed at the Utah State Prison, the first prisoner to be put to death since the moratorium on executions was established four years prior, and the first execution in Utah in sixteen years. His refusal to appeal his death sentence confounded his lawyers and attracted the attention of the
ACLU, among others, who fought to keep Gilmore alive, against his wishes. His frustrations with the uncertainty of his sentence led him to attempt suicide in prison twice.
His life and death have been recounted in
several books,
films, inspired a
few songs, and even an
SNL skit. His final words, “Let’s do it,” led to a
major marketing campaign.
posted by Nathanial Hörnblowér
on Jan 17, 2007 -
24 comments
Have fun with your food! You may never look at fair foods the same way again thanks to this year's ad campaign for the Utah State Fair.
(Warning: videos auto-start)
posted by Orb
on Aug 24, 2006 -
6 comments
While many in the world are glued to the outcomes of the World Cup there is another high-profile international sporting event toiling itself away in the Utah deserts.
Primal Quest, a 417 mile expedition
adventure race consisting of desert trekking, mountain biking,
wilderness navigation, kayaking, and
canyoneering, has a prize-purse of $100,000 and many
professional,
international, and
amateur teams have arrived to compete to be the best endurance athletes in the world. Considered by many to be the successor of
Mark Burnett's Eco-Challenge the Primal Quest has an expected finishing time of 4 days for the winners and 10 days for the slower teams. Along with
the Raid series, Primal Quest continues to give competitive adventurers a grand outlet at the international level but it is to be noted the sport of adventure racing has not been without its
problems in the past.
posted by rlef98
on Jun 27, 2006 -
9 comments
"The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof...." The Seventeeth Amendement provides for the direct election of U.S. Senators. Originally,
Article I Section 3 of the United States Constition provided that each state's senators be chosen by that state's legislature.
The
Populist Party platform from 1892 on, called for direct senatorial election; and the
Progressive movment made it, along with Prohibition (18th Amendment) and Women's Suffrage (19th), a
cornerstone of reform. The 17th was ratified
8 April 1913, when the required 36th of 48 states, Connecticut, approved it. Utah, however, had rejected it 41 days earlier, on
26 February 1913. Although Utah never subsequently ratified it, the 17th Amendment, as part of the Federal Constitution, applies in Utah as in all U.S. States.
But in the
name of
re-invigorating States' Rights,
some on the
Right -- and
some less easy to
label -- have called for the repeal of the 17th Amendement. In 2003 Montana's Senate,
after passing it out of committee, indefinitely postponed by floor vote
a bill calling on Congress to repeal the 17th. Now, the President of
Utah's 29-member State Senate [pdf], with 19 co-sponsers, thinks he's figured out
a way around the Constitution's 17th Amendment. Debate on the
S.B. 156 began yesterday.
posted by orthogonality
on Jan 25, 2006 -
52 comments
OK, so some professional sports players have less-than-usual
first names. Certainly not ones that are likely to appear on the
top ten list. But if you really want weirdness in names (and, quite possibly, other things) you need to head over to
Utah. (Frameset page; click on 'The Cream of The Crop'.)
Personal favorite: VulvaMae
posted by littleme
on Jan 20, 2006 -
144 comments
If you are going to Fall, well this is the place... I started visiting the orchards and farms of northern Utah a few years ago, to take my Dad out for drives, and to take pictures. I met many farmers up there, and came to love the front of Willard Peak, and the amazing canyons, water drainage, warm western rocky slopes; that make the best peaches anywhere. Perry, Utah has a
mountain behind it, that is a sight to behold, and to the West is the National Migratory
Bird Refuge. Shane Whitlock has covered this area pretty well, he is an enthusiastic photographer and chronicles the small town of Perry,
the rodeos, the birds, the animals and the great fortune of small town existence.
Here is my Dad's best friend's, barn. Mantua, Utah.
Usually, the Utah "outsiders" see, is the red rock canyons of the southern part of the state. Northern Utah with the Great Salt Lake, and the Wasatch and Uinta mountain ranges is continuously elegant season to season, and peopled with all kinds of wonderful, tame and
wild life.
posted by Oyéah
on Oct 5, 2005 -
20 comments
