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Axios
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Axios
When the "Book of Mormon" musical premiered in Utah
Ten years ago today, the hit musical "The Book of Mormon" premiered in Salt Lake City. Or Sal Tlay Ka Siti. This is Old News, our weekly revue of Utah's past.
Axios
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Axios
When conservationists chose Dinosaur National Monument over Glen Canyon
In the 1950s, conservationists rejoiced in their successful campaign to stop the federal government from flooding swaths of Dinosaur National Monument with a dam on the Green River. The intrigue: It turned out to be a pyrrhic victory — one that environmentalists would be ambivalent about for decades. This is Old News, our weekly float down the currents of Utah history. What drove the news: In the Saturday Evening Post 75 years ago this week, celebrated journalist Bernard DeVoto called the nation's attention to a plan to erect dams that would replace Dinosaur's wild Lodore and Whirlpool canyons with reservoirs. Behind the scenes: The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation quietly developed the plan over several years — without consulting the National Park Service, which manages the canyons. NPS officials were infuriated by their exclusion. Zoom out: If Congress were to allow construction in Dinosaur, it would shift the balance of priorities throughout the nation's protected lands, favoring growth and development over preservation, DeVoto cautioned. He cited similar canceled plans that would have flooded parts of Mammoth Cave, Glacier and Grand Canyon national parks — some of which had been repeatedly revived. "Even when controversies have been formally settled and projects abandoned apparently for good, the park system and the public trust is always under … threat," he warned. What happened: DeVoto's warnings worked; the so-called Echo Park and Split Canyon dams in Dinosaur became conservationists' cause célèbre and letters opposing the dams " poured into Washington" that summer, historian Glenn Sandiford wrote. Federal officials eventually called off the project. Why it mattered: By treating the dams as a point of national interest, DeVoto turned the campaign against them into the catalyzing force behind the modern conservation movement. That unity produced landmark policies like the 1964 Wilderness Act, Sandiford argued. Yes, but: DeVoto had argued the Bureau and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers won Utahns' support by falsely claiming that no other site could facilitate the hydropower and irrigation the region needed. It turned out another site was being considered — and because it wasn't part of the NPS, it got far less attention than Dinosaur did. Friction point: The Sierra Club — the driving force of the newly strengthened conservation movement — was focused on protecting existing parks and didn't initially raise much fuss over plans to build a dam in Glen Canyon. Its director, David Brower, even suggested making that dam taller to replace some of the water storage that was lost to the defeated Dinosaur dams. The bottom line: When conservationists turned their attention to Glen Canyon — a remote area that few outside the Four Corners region had seen — the dam there became widely considered one of the movement's biggest losses of the 20th century.
Axios
03-07-2025
- General
- Axios
When Thomas Jefferson and enslaved Sally Hemings were "sealed" in a Mormon marriage ceremony
Almost 35 years ago, Sally Hemings and her enslaver Thomas Jefferson were reportedly sealed in posthumous marriage in a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is Old News, Fourth of July edition. Why it mattered: Hemings' relationship with Jefferson — the father of at least six of her children — has long been a point of historical debate. The term "power imbalance" understates the problems around consent between an enslaved person and their owner. Hemings was legally Jefferson's property and would have had no recognized right to refuse his sexual advances — even if she was his " paramour." Hemings was 16 when she first became pregnant; Jefferson was 46. What happened: In 2012, Slate reported that the church confirmed Hemings and Jefferson were posthumously "sealed" — a Mormon marriage rite that allows couples to stay connected eternally, per the faith's teachings. The ceremony occurred in 1991 in the Mesa, Arizona, temple, Slate reported. How it works: Church procedures allow Latter-day Saints to perform baptisms, sealings and other ordinances or ceremonies by proxy for people who did not participate when they were alive. Typically, these rites are performed by church members on behalf of their own ancestors, to allow families to reunite after death under the church's teachings. The intrigue:"In the spirit world, deceased persons can choose to accept or reject ordinances that have been performed for them," the church writes. That means, per church teachings, Hemings would at least be able to opt out of the connection to Jefferson in the afterlife. Context: Slate's report emerged shortly after the church threatened to suspend members' access to its massive genealogical databases if they performed proxy ordinances for Holocaust victims. A month earlier, a member had baptized Anne Frank at a temple in the Dominican Republic. For years, Holocaust survivors and descendants of victims decried the practice, while Latter-day Saint leaders tried to modify its record-creation protocols to prevent members from taking non-Mormon names into their own hands. The latest: The church did not respond to Axios' query as to whether the posthumous sealing of Hemings and Jefferson was still documented or considered valid. Previously in Old News
Axios
24-06-2025
- Axios
When a naked lady stole — and wrecked — a Utah police car
Fifteen years ago this week, Salt Lake was captivated by a naked woman who stole a car, crashed it, led police on a foot chase through a field of sagebrush, slipped out of their grasp, stole their cruiser, dragged the officers until they let go of the car, crashed the cruiser, wriggled through a barbed wire fence and got Tasered. This is Old News, where we try to catch our breath and re-examine the headlines of Utah's past. Flashback: The woman, 31, had wrecked the stolen car in a field near S.R. 111 in West Valley City when police found her hiding behind a bush. They tried to grab her when she charged them, but ... What they said: "She was hot and sweaty, dirty, and very slippery. She managed to escape the grasp of the two officers," a West Valley Police spokesperson told KSL. What happened: The woman got into their squad car and drove away — and then crashed through a gate and hit a dirt berm. The car soared about 50 feet before it crashed into another berm, police said. The $30,000 cruiser was "a total loss," the spokesperson said. "I think there's a hubcap that's still usable." The woman ran away again, overcoming a barbed wire fence before police deployed their stun gun. The bottom line: The woman "said that God told her to get naked," police wrote in booking documents. Previously in Old News
Axios
09-06-2025
- Sport
- Axios
Before the scandal: How SLC secured the 2002 Winter Olympics
Thirty years ago this week, Utah was on pins and needles for a big announcement that finally came June 16: Salt Lake City was named the host of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Then it turned out mountains of cash were hiding under the greatest snow on Earth. This is Old News, our weekly attempt to collect the goggles and ski poles lost to the yard sales of time. The week leading up to the hosting announcement was intense. It was SLC's fifth attempt to host the Olympics in 30 years, and polling showed Utahns were not interested in trying again after raising $14 million for the two most recent campaigns. Zoom in: Officials behind Salt Lake's bid were frantically decorating a tiny "hospitality room" at the Budapest hotel where the International Olympic Committee would vote later in the week. While the other finalist cities — representing Canada, Sweden and Switzerland — brought a few posters and brochures, Salt Lake's representatives created a small immersive attraction. They installed floor-to-ceiling paintings of Utah scenery (including Styrofoam snow) and speakers playing cowboy songs and Indigenous flute music. The intrigue: The IOC had told the bidding cities to tone down their hospitality rooms after the elaborate displays four years earlier. Spain flew in flamenco dancers. SLC brought real trees into a luxury suite for scenery. Committee members were lavished with gourmet food and gifts — which the IOC tried to prevent in 1995 with a $200 spending cap. That didn't stop Salt Lake. Friction point: In 1991, the city lost the 1998 games to Nagano, Japan, by just four votes, despite being considered the favorite. Bribery allegations began the day after that decision, with later-substantiated reports that IOC delegates were peppered with millions of dollars' worth of gifts and vacations as part of Japan's pitch. Not to be outdone, SLC's bid committee spent $1 million on behind-the-scenes gifts and favors for IOC members in the leadup to the 1995 vote — decisively eclipsing their try-hard hospitality room in Budapest. Two of Salt Lake's organizers were indicted on federal charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, fraud and racketeering; they were later acquitted. 10 IOC members were removed, and 10 more were sanctioned. The big picture: The revelations in Salt Lake triggered a global scandal and investigations that showed hosting bids for Nagano, Atlanta in 1996, and Sydney in 2000 involved extravagant largesse toward IOC delegates. Reality check: After five bids to host the games, Utahns were hardly clueless as to the blurry lines between bribery and entertainment. In 1995, before the announcement and years before ABC4 exposed the first evidence of payoffs, a columnist for the Ogden Standard-Examiner referred to the IOC as " Incredible Outlays of Cash." The latest: The Olympics reformed the host bidding process before SLC was picked again last year to host in 2034 — but now it's harder to find cities that want the games badly enough to grease the wheels. Previously in Old News
