This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Whither the Bears Ears? State or federal control? Consider the following:

"The National Parks are composed of lands that were once part of the public domain. Exceedingly small in total area, they are permanently reserved and dedicated to their present uses: the preservation of wilderness areas, the protection of supreme scenic beauties, and the pleasure and recreation of the American people. They contain timber, grazing land, water, and minerals. And that, in the West's eyes, is exactly what is wrong with them.

"At the very moment when the West is blueprinting an economy which must be based on sustained, permanent use of its natural resources, it is also conducting an assault on those resources with the simple objective of liquidating them. The dissociation of intelligence could go no farther, but there it is — and there is the West yesterday, today, and forever. It is the Western mind stripped to the basic split. The West as its own worst enemy. The West committing suicide."

Sally Jewell, 2016? Nope, rather the Ogden born and bred historian Bernard DeVoto in his seminal 1947 essay, The West Against Itself.

Which brings us back to two current issues on the table: Should we create a Bears Ears National Monument or should we sue the feds to cede federal lands to the states? Boom. When the opportunity arises for the few to benefit over the many at the expense of the commonwealth, should we be so alarmed to see history repeat itself again and again and again and again and again?

Bust.

Drew Hardesty

Salt Lake City