Sagebrush Empire

How a Remote Utah County Became the Battlefront of American Public Lands

Jonathan P. Thompson

• Publisher: Torrey House Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781948814447
• eBook ISBN:
  9781948814454
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Biological Sciences

"Thompson's investigative chops are impressive."
— SIERRA MAGAZINE San Juan County, Utah, contains some of the most spectacular landscapes in the world, rich in natural wonders and Indigenous culture and history. But it's also long been plagued with racism, bitterness, and politics as twisted as the beckoning canyons. In 2017, en route to the Valley of the Gods with his spouse, a Colorado man closed the gate on a corral. Two weeks later, the couple was facing felony charges. Award–winning journalist Jonathan P. Thompson places the case in its fraught historical context and—alongside personal stories from a life shaped by slickrock and sagebrush—shows why this corner of the western United States has been at the center of the American public lands wars for over a century.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• One: Gategate
• Two: State Line
• Three: Potsherd Purloiner
• Four: Bears Ears Genesis
• Five: Shash Jáa Sanctuary
• Six: Blizzard at Moon House
• Seven: Sagebrush Rebellion Roots
• Eight: J. A. Scorup: Proto-Sagebrush Rebel
• Nine: Yellow Monster
• Ten: Aneth Oil
• Eleven: The Three Rs and the First Sagebrush Rebellion
• Twelve: F&^%$#ll Canyon
• Thirteen: Wise Use?
• Fourteen: Backlash
• Fifteen: Recapture
• Sixteen: The River
• Seventeen: Bears Ears: Beginnings
• Eighteen: A New Monument, A New Battle
• Nineteen: The Disaster Known as Trump
• Twenty: Sagebrush Site
• Twenty-One: The Tourism Quandary
• Twenty-Two: Gategategate
• Epilogue
• About the Author
• Glossary of Terms
• Endnotes
• Index