Perched gently on a leaf, the green stink bug enjoys a cooling rain in its backyard home in
Story begins on page 30.
Photo by Scott Baxter
Moab, pg. 36
Monticello, pg. 6
Going Green
Melons, river marathons, ferry crossings and canyon country all converge in Green River. story and photographs by Dan Leeth
Pottery Passion
Unearth how mountainside clay turned into the rediscovery of a pottery technique lost for more than 700 years. by Bianca Dumas
Backyard Bugs
It’s time to start looking for the spiders and insects that thrive in Utah. story and photographs by Scott Baxter
The Tough, Tame Desert Tortoise
Cold-blooded critters become unlikely additions to Utah family homes. by Tim Gurrister
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
SUMMER 2024 Volume 7, Number 3
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THE BUZZ AROUND UTAH
Logan’s weeping woman symbolizes mother’s love
by BRANDI CHRISTOFFERSEN
Inside the Logan City Cemetery, the statue of a beautiful woman kneels on her tombstone, holding a wreath of flowers. The sculpture, commissioned in 1914, commemorates Julia Cronquist grieving the loss of her five children.
Local legends say that on the dates of the Cronquist children’s deaths, if one stands before the figure and says, “Weep, woman, weep,” Julia’s mournful tears will fall from the statue’s eyes.
Whether this folklore is real or not, the story behind the sculpture is full of sorrow, loss and a mother’s love. The story began when Julia and Olif Cronquist married in 1880. They quickly began to build a family and soon had four lovely children, including twin boys, Olif Jr. and Oliver.
In 1889, scarlet fever spread across the household. The bacteria – which causes a red rash across the body, a high fever, sore
throat and nausea – is highly contagious. Today, antibiotics easily treat the bacteria, but in the late 19th century, treatment was limited, and mortality rates were high for children under 5.
By the end of March, complications from the fever had claimed the lives of the Cronquist’s 5-year-old twins. Julia contracted scarlet fever and had her own complications. She suffered greatly from the loss of the boys. Then in 1894, her newborn little girl, Lilean, died shortly after birth.
Despite their losses, the family kept forging ahead and by the turn of the century, things seemed to be looking up. Their dairy farm was successful, and Olif was named a Cache County commissioner. The couple was blessed with three more children – a son in 1891 and daughters, Emelia in 1896 and Inez in 1899. This happiness was short-lived. In February of 1901, scarlet fever struck the family again,
this time claiming the lives of the two youngest children, Emelia and Inez.
After losing five children in 12 years, Julia was inconsolable. The mother spent hours grieving at the graves of her children. With her health deteriorating, Julia grew weaker until she died Jan. 8, 1914, of heart disease, likely due to scarlet fever.
Heartbroken when Julia died, Olif had the statue of the “Weeping Woman” erected in her memory. Today, curious onlookers visit the forlorn figure at the Logan City Cemetery and witness a mother’s love for her children.
Find Weeping Woman and the Cronquist family plot near the geographic center of the Logan City Cemetery at 1000 N. 1200 East, on the campus of Utah State University.
From left: Luna Mara; Barre Toelken, Barre Toelken Image Collection, 1954-2002, FOLK COLL 35a. USU Special Collections and Archives.
Watercolor captures rail memories in East Carbon
by BIANCA DUMAS
East Carbon native Scott Yelonek once worked deep underneath his hometown in the Kaiser Steel mine. Open cars on small-gauge rail moved him and his track crew through the mine’s tunnel systems. Yelonek now paints the “old, vintage, rusty stuff” he once rode.
Trains were always part of life in East Carbon, population 1,500. Yelonek remembers sitting in his grandparents’ car on Saturdays, eating ice cream and watching the trains haul coal out of town.
As an adult, Yelonek roamed the railyard in Helper, another Carbon County town, taking photos of rumbling train engines while they sat idling. There he met Thomas Elmo Williams, another coal miner-turned-painter, who encouraged his art.
The trains don’t pass through as often as they once did, but Yelonek still can find engines in the county. He paints from photographs he takes or from photos given to him by railroad crew members. He increasingly receives photos from railfans,
people who make it a hobby of following trains. “Now I’ve got eyes all across the country,” Yelonek said.
Each engine bears a number and letter combination which denotes which railyard it came from and where it’s headed. Yelonek replaces these with personal numbers like 1146, his high school record for total basketball points scored – it’s his way of remembering East Carbon High School, which closed in 2005. He also uses his coal-mining badge number and special family dates.
Once, Yelonek was commissioned to paint a particular Utah Railway engine. The engineer invited him aboard, and Yelonek rode down the siding. He was able to position the engine for the perfect photograph, which he turned into a watercolor painting in his studio.
People react emotionally to his paintings, some with tears in their eyes, and that brings him satisfaction. “People have personal connections to old things,” he said. “It makes you feel good that you strike emotion somewhere, that it brings back the memories they have.”
Wagons from bygone roads find new home in Tremonton
by SCOTT BAXTER
Near where the Bear River flows into the Great Salt Lake is a collection of modes of transportation from a bygone era. More than 350 horse-drawn wagons –some dating back more than a century – make up the largest collection of its kind in North America. It all began with a boyhood dream. Now that boy is giving dreams to a new generation.
The man who has spent half a century restoring several of the wagons, selecting the right species and cuts of wood for parts, shaping them with old and modern
tools, and fashioning the best material and thread for the upholstery – that man began his journey as a second-grade visitor to Pioneer Village in Salt Lake City.
Eli Anderson has restored a range of vehicles: elegant coaches that took tourists through Yellowstone, military ambulances that saved young men, buggies that carried couples in love and hearses that took people on their final journey. He has even restored hand-pushed wagons used by vendors who sold peanuts for 5 cents a bag. They’re all on display at Wagon Land Adventure in Tremonton in Box Elder County.
Using oil or watercolor paints, Scott Yelonek creates photorealistic art. Santa Fe 561 is one of his watercolor pieces.
Keith Johnson
A tall-sided wagon, with traces of green paint on the box and red paint on the wheels and axles, holds special significance to him. That’s because it is one of the wagons that forged a road from what Native Americans knew as the Old North Trail, commonly known as the Montana Trail. Food and supplies were shipped on
Book celebrates legendary ranch
by LISA TRUESDALE
Heidi Redd first glimpsed the Dugout Ranch in southeastern Utah in the mid-1960s, from the passenger seat of her future husband’s pickup truck. She’d always had a passion for adventure –like skiing, skydiving, rock climbing and backpacking through Europe – yet she knew next to nothing about ranching life. On that first day, she had no idea of the adventurous life stretching out ahead of her.
Now, nearly 60 years later, Redd has chronicled that life in a new book, A Cow-
girl’s Conservation Journey: Stories from the Dugout Ranch. She begins with the story of how she first fell in love with the place: “The magic of that moment will always be the sweet perfume of my memories … It was the kind of feeling you grasp maybe once or twice in your life when you are moved by something greater than yourself.”
Dugout Ranch is a historic property in the heart of canyon country. It is the largest swath of private land inside Bears Ears National Monument. The ranch comprises 5,507 private acres and 350,000 acres of adjacent public grazing allotments.
that trail from Utah to Montana.
Anderson isn’t attempting to restore old trails, just the horse-drawn carriages that traveled them. His work instills inspiration in others, especially younger generations. He recently hosted students from Promontory School in Perry and received a dozen thank-you notes, many of them illustrated with colorful, hand-drawn pictures. Several students sent crafted handmade, construction-paper wagons with tiny pioneer replica items inside.
One student, third-grader Evelyn, wrote a heartfelt note: “I’m sure you have made a difference in a lot of students and other people’s lives. You made a big difference in our learning, too.”
Students who visited years ago now bring their children to Wagon Land Adventure. “This was a big payoff for my life’s work,” Anderson said.
challenges she endured, like assuming full control of the day-to-day operations when her marriage ended after 20 years. She also had to evade buyers who wanted to develop the property; she ended up forming a unique partnership with The Nature Conservancy, who purchased the land to protect it but gave her a lifetime lease on 25 acres and a 10year agreement for her to continue running her cattle operation.
Accompanied by full-color photos that set the scene perfectly, Redd’s stories tell of the many joys and hardships living and working on a ranch. Her happiest tales introduce readers to her favorite longtime ranch hand; to her two sons and their families; to her most beloved and faithful horses; and to the breathtaking beauty of the area’s red canyon walls and desert vistas.
She also speaks candidly about the
Through it all, Redd’s deep love and passion for her ranch never wavered: “[This book] is a love song to a land I have been married to for more than half a century,” she wrote. “My deepest belief has been that if I stand up for this land and protect its spirit, I will be rewarded with the honor of joining it forever.”
A Cowgirl’s Conservation Journey: Stories from the Dugout Ranch by Heidi Redd The Nature Conservancy 188 pp, softcover, $43
Keith Johnson
Eli Anderson has collected over 350 antique wagons at in his home in Tremonton. Orson Poulson (above) paints a wagon wheel, helping Anderson restore these bygone buggies.
History desert in The
Find fossils in a private trilobite quarry. Uncover fossils of marine life 550 millions years old and take a piece of history home with you. Dig in the quarry during open hours Mon-Sat 9 am-6 pm from April-Oct.
LESSER-KNOWN LAKES
by LUCAS Mc FARLANE
1 Name the lake in Dixie National Forest renowned for its angling opportunities for various species of trout, whose name translates from Paiute to English as “Big Fish.”
2 What is the most elevated lake in Utah tucked away deep into the High Uinta Wilderness? This lake is split into an upper and lower portion and is named after the peak summit’s grandeur.
3 What is the name of the Y-shaped reservoir in Huntsville that restricts motorboat access and is a hotspot for migratory Kokanee salmon that show their regal red display in the lake’s tributaries every September?
4 What reservoir, created in 1937, has become a popular destination for water sports enthusiasts, even though it only covers about 2,800 acres?
5 Name the watershed lake near Alta Ski Resort that hikers visit during the late summer when the nearby Albion Basin displays its wildflower blooms?
Jay Dash
Joshua Hardin
TRUE OR FALSE
MULTIPLE CHOICE
6
Starting from a trailhead in Brighton, you can hike past a trio of lakes, each with a feminine name. Which of the following is not one of these lake names?
a. Juliet
b. Martha
c. Catherine
7
In which mountain range near Moab can you find the serene Warner Lake, known for its beautiful aspen groves and peaceful fishing spots?
a. Abajo Mountains
b. Henry Mountains
c. La Sal Mountains
8 Following the Bloods Lake Trailhead in Park City to its terminus will take hikers to which smaller lake?
a. Crips Lake
b. Teardrop Lake
c. Lackawaxen Lake
9
Mirror Lake, located in the Uinta Mountains, is known for its crystal-clear waters that create a perfect reflection of which nearby peak?
a. Ensign Peak
b. Bald Mountain
c. Kings Peak
10
Tibble Fork Reservoir, nestled in American Fork Canyon, is a popular spot for fishing and picnicking. In what county is Tibble Fork Reservoir located?
a. Utah County
b. Salt Lake County
c. Summit County
No peeking, answers on page 39.
11
Sand Hollow Reservoir is a hotspot for both land and water motorsport enthusiasts with its proximity to sand dunes, located in Juab County.
12 Though Utah is home to the largest saline lake in the Western Hemisphere, it has more reservoirs than natural lakes.
13 Strawberry Reservoir’s sole tributary is the Strawberry River, one of Utah’s most productive trout fisheries.
14 Red Pine Lake, situated in the Uinta Mountains, is named for the vibrant red algae that bloom in its waters during the summer months.
15
Quail Creek Reservoir is located near St. George and is known for its warm waters, making it a popular spot for swimming.
Howie Garber
Going Green
Green River State Park offers a campground, golf course and riverside boat ramp, all conveniently located in the middle of southeastern Utah’s Canyon Country
story and photographs by DAN LEETH
FIFTY YEARS AGO, the town of Green River had only two swimming pools, both located in motels. When summer temperatures soared, local kids could pay 25 cents to swim for two hours at the Robbers Roost Motel. A more exciting alternative was to go down to the new state park located on the banks of the town’s namesake river. There, safely clad in life jackets, kids could swing like Tarzan from a rope tied to a shoreline cottonwood and drop into the cool river current.
The town of Green River began as a ferry crossing point in the late-1870s. The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad soon arrived, and the community boomed. By the mid-20th century, gas stations, restaurants and motels lined U.S. highways 6 and 50, which ran down Main Street. Now skirted by Interstate 70, this 875-person community serves westbound motorists as the last gas stop for 107 miles – reportedly the longest stretch of interstate highway with no services.
Green River State Park opened in 1965 as a recreational retreat featuring a shady campground with river access. For years, the park’s boat ramp served as the launch point for the annual Canyon Country
River Marathon. The bygone event featured a 184-mile motorboat race through Canyonlands National Park to the Green’s confluence with the Colorado River, then up that stream to Moab.
Boaters not wanting to race could follow the route on the more sedate Friendship Cruise, departing a day earlier. Providing one turns up the Colorado River, the route offers basically flat water the entire way. Miss the confluence, however, and it’s a boat-mangling downstream ride through the thundering rapids of Cataract Canyon.
That happened to one Friendship Cruise motorboat carrying two men and a woman. They missed a planned stop 68 miles downstream at Mineral Bottom
and 52 miles later, they missed their turn up the Colorado. After plunging through a pair of Cataract Canyon rapids, they staggered into a river rafters’ camp at 10 p.m. The National Park Service ultimately rescued the trio and hauled their boat, allegedly awash in empty beer cans, downstream to Lake Powell.
These days, the boat launch at Green River State Park mostly serves rafters and kayakers floating through Labyrinth Canyon to Mineral Bottom. It’s not uncommon to encounter groups of young people occupying the park’s group campsites the night before launching downstream.
Many of Utah’s 46 state parks offer hiking trails. For those who don’t believe that
Ray’s Tavern in downtown Green River opened in 1943 and earned the nickname “river rat Mecca,” because of its proximity to the river, but also because its charbroiled burgers pull motorists of I-70.
Jenna Smith
“golf is a good walk spoiled,” Green River State Park sports a scenic, nine-hole riverside golf course instead of backcountry trails. With three par-5 holes, golfers consider it to be a somewhat challenging course, and it’s inexpensive with nine holes going for $15. For Frisbee-flingers, the park offers 18-holes of disc golf along the perimeter of the conventional course. It’s a mere $10 to play.
Of course, most Green River State Park visitors come to camp. The park offers 59 individual sites with electric and water hookups plus three group campsites scattered around a shady, riverside oasis of grassy lawns and towering trees. There are flush toilet restrooms, showers and an RV dump station. For those preferring to “camp” behind solid walls, the park offers a cabin with beds but no bathroom along with a quartet of new, tiny homes featuring running water, microwave ovens, toilets, showers and decks overlooking the river.
Green River is famous for John Wesley Powell’s perilous Green River expeditions, memorialized in the museum bearing his name. After a nine-hole round of golf alongside the river, cool off with a slice of Utah’s famed melon.
Patsy Stoddard
GREEN RIVER STATE PARK
Located a day’s drive from Denver, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, many campers use Green River as a convenient stopover point on their way to somewhere else. For others, Green River can serve as an extended-stay hub for exploring southeastern Utah’s famed canyon country. Moab, Arches, Canyonlands, Dead Horse Point, Goblin Valley and Capital Reef all lie less than a 90-minute drive away.
In addition to those celebrated sites, inquisitive travelers will find much more to see in the Green River area. At the John Wesley Powell River History Museum, visitors can learn about the one-armed explorer’s voyage down the Green and Colorado rivers, examine historic river boats and max-out their credit cards in the book section of the gallery’s gift shop. The museum serves as the local visitor information center, and their parking lot offers
eight Tesla supercharger stations.
Once a major railroad town, Green River still offers an Amtrak stop. In its heyday, the area around the railyards abounded with beer joints, only one of which still stands. Known as Ray’s Tavern, it was founded in the 1940s by Ray Sherrill. The only food they served back then were Stewart Sandwiches, which were frozen hamburgers they’d run through a grill on a conveyor belt. When Sherrill retired, the new owner turned Ray’s into an actual restaurant serving real, half-pound hamburgers, hand-cut fries, chops and steaks, along with beer on tap. Their burgers have been featured on lists of Utah’s best. Another popular place to dine are the food trucks of Tacos la Pasadita, which offers traditional Mexican fare. Across from the taco trucks lies OK Anderson City Park where a 1960s-vintage, Athe-
“Vernal”-style petroglyphs, with broad shoulders and narrow waists, abound nearby the town of Green River. Locations include Petroglyph Canyon and Spirit Arch, less than an hour’s drive west of town.
na missile sits on display. From 1964 to 1974, the U.S. Air Force launched these missiles from Green River. From here, the rockets would fly over the Four Corners region to a landing site at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Occasionally, things didn’t go as planned. In 1970, instead of landing in the state of New Mexico, one of Green River’s missiles flew across the international border and crashed in Old Mexico.
The military is gone now, but a few of the launch site’s abandoned buildings still stand in the hills southeast of town. They lie off a series of graded roads that lead to Crystal Geyser, a rare, cold-water, carbon dioxide-powered geyser that spouts from a riverside drill pipe left by an oil company in 1935. Locals claim the geyser formerly erupted every four hours or so and would shoot up over 100 feet. Vandals, including
someone who dropped dynamite down the pipe, have altered the flow. These days, eruptions come less often and spurt far fewer feet in the air.
Visitors willing to get their cars dusty can visit historic, Fremont-culture rock art sites near Green River. A few, like the Black Dragon and Head of Sinbad sites lie off back roads best navigated with higher clearance vehicles. Others, such as those near the ghost town of Sego, can be reached in Grandma’s Buick.
Off-pavement drivers can also visit the site of a backcountry cabin left by the Swasey brothers, who ran cattle in the Green River area a century ago. The brothers’ name graces a few other places in the area, such as Swasey’s Beach, a sandy bank along the river north of town. In the summer, locals come here to picnic, camp and take turns inner tubing through
The Crystal Geyser, rst recorded by John Wesley Powell, erupts with cold water 100 minutes a day.
an upstream rapid, also named for the Swasey brothers.
Across the river from Swasey’s Beach rises the towering mass of Gunnison Butte. Below stretch farm fields. While the town was once rife with peach orchards, today’s Green River is best known for its delicious melons. On the third weekend of September, Green River celebrates its signature crop with a Melon Days Festival. There’s a parade and free melon slices down at the park along with vendors, dances, races, ballgames, target shoots and, of course, a golf tournament. The town triples in size.
Anyone thinking of camping at Green River State Park during Melon Days will need to make a campsite reservation when they first become available, four months in advance. Campsites run $45 per night and reservations: 800-322-3770, stateparks.utah.gov.
POTTERY
PASSION
by BIANCA DUMAS
Boulder potter rediscovers
Ancestral Puebloan techniques lost for 700 years.
On a drenching afternoon in 1969, John Olsen and his dad were driving out of the Pine Valley mountains in southern Utah’s Dixie National Forest. While pulling a horse trailer down a narrow dirt road, they hit a slick patch. The trailer slid off the road’s edge, and the two panicked horses inside the trailer nearly pulled the truck and trailer over the slope.
Very carefully, 17-year-old Olsen got out of the truck and chocked the wheels with rocks. He led the horses out of the trailer, attached leads to their bridles and guided them up and over the edge. His father pulled the outfit forward to safety, while Olsen guided the horses off the mountain.
Young Olsen later returned to the site of that slide, but not to face his fears or analyze why the trailer slid. He knew why: The truck hit a patch of wet clay. And it was that clay specifically that brought Olsen back to the slick road.
As a boy, Olsen had been making pottery. Like most people, he used storebought clay, but a teacher had encouraged him to try digging clay himself, like ancient cultures who came before.
He took some of that mountainside clay home and made his first pots from “native, wild” clay. Fifty-five years later, his parents still have those pots, and Olsen, who now lives in Boulder, is considered one of the world’s premier potters in the Ancestral Puebloan style.
Ancestral Puebloan pottery was made by the Anasazi and Fremont peoples in
the desert Southwest from about A.D. 900 to 1300. It is hand-made from clay and other material gathered from the land. The pots are formed by one of two methods, both of which Olsen has mastered: coil-and-scrape, which comes out with a smooth surface and is painted; and corrugated, which has ridges and is not painted.
Paints are made by cooking down plant materials or crushing minerals, then applying it with a brush formed from the leaves of a yucca plant. The pots are then wood fired in a trench kiln or surface fire.
The original technique for making corrugated pots had been lost since the 1300s, even to the Native American descendants of the ancient Puebloans. Olsen is credited with rediscovering it.
Other people were making corrugated pottery before John, but it wasn’t exactly as the ancients had done it, said pottery expert Andy Ward, who is an author and host of “Andy Ward’s Ancient Potter y” website and YouTube channel. “So, John didn’t just make corrugated pots, he figured out how prehistoric people were making them,” Ward said.
WHILE WORKING AS a heavy equipment operator, Olsen spent his free time obsessively examining the pots and potsherds in the storage room of Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum in Blanding, then replicating what he’d seen. In doing so, he rediscovered the way the Puebloans had made corrugated clay pots. His method was later vindicated by an archaeologist and an FBI fingerprint analysis expert who compared the finger and thumb prints on Olsen’s work with the pressure and direction of the prints on the ancient pieces. They were a perfect match.
“He is considered a legend among others who have interest in this field,” said Jonathan Till, curator and archaeologist at the museum. Till admires Olsen for being “both a craftsman and a researcher.”
Olsen made a living selling his replica pottery at museum gift shops across the Southwest before construction work brought him to Boulder, where he got into other primitive technologies.
One of the large, corrugated pots he sold through Anasazi State Park Museum was purchased by Boulder Outdoor Survival School (BOSS) as a functional
Faund Images Photography (above), Andy Ward (below)
John Olsen starts each corrugated pot with a small clay disk, slowing adding tight coils. As the size grows, he presses, or pinches, the clay until the pot takes form.
cooking pot in their classes. BOSS teaches skills like fire making, flintknapping and hide tanning, which students use on extended trips into the desert backcountry. BOSS invited Olsen to teach a pottery course, and within two years, he was a head instructor and could replicate a variety of artifacts.
In the 1990s, new Utah laws required that archaeological collections be housed in a climate-controlled environment.
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area’s artifacts were housed in simple glass cases at Anasazi Restaurant. The U.S. National Park Service hired Olsen to create replicas, which would remain on public display – this assignment unknowingly put Olsen
in the crosshairs of a sting operation.
He was foraging materials near Zion National Park. When he got back to his car, he noticed it was surrounded by several government vehicles and one very nervous Bureau of Land Management ranger.
“I looked up where I just came from, and there were people running down the ridges in camo gear with riot shotguns,” Olsen said. The woman in charge of the sting was the undercover agent.
She started interrogating Olsen on the spot. “She said, ‘We know what you’re doing up there, you’re digging pots. And you have an accomplice up there with you, we heard you talking.’ ”
Bianca Dumas (both)
The agent had also seen what was in Olsen’s car: ancient-looking arrowheads, baskets and a black-on-white Anasazi pot. He’d made the whole cache, but they accused Olsen of being an illegal artifact hunter.
After three hours of interrogation, Olsen realized he could exonerate himself with a postcard that featured the blackon-white pot, a “sunflower bowl” from a well-known collection. He remembers delivering the coup de gras: “Do you really think I bought a post card and then went hiking up the canyon to find a pot that looked exactly like it?”
Olsen’s pots are often mistaken for antiquities, which is no small feat. “A lot of replicators make pots overly perfect so that when you handle it, there’s something lacking,” Ward said. “A prehistoric pot is slightly wonky, maybe a little asymmetrical, not quite as perfect.”
Olsen’s pottery is purposefully imperfect – and often slightly used.
Chris Hanson, the museum director at Edge of the Cedars, has seen Olsen make a pot one day, paint it and dry it the next, then serve food out of it to guests a few days later. “Using it gives the pot a character that others don’t have.”
The twist is that Olsen has occasionally found his own pots in black market catalogs. Unscrupulous sellers file off his signature and offer the pieces as genuine artifacts. Buyers can’t tell the difference. Olsen said he doesn’t feel sorry when those willing to buy undocumented pieces on the black market get ripped off.
Like his pots, Olsen has a distinct character. “A lot of potters are very secretive, but John is always so open with everybody,” Ward said. “If you want to learn, he’ll say, ‘Come over and I’ll show you how to do it.’ It has given him a reputation all around the Southwest.”
Olsen often shrugs off his accomplishments, as though rediscovering an ancient pottery technique was inevitable. And maybe for him, it was. “I always wanted to do this primitive stuff,” he said. “Trying to figure things out is kinda my deal.”
Look for annual pottery workshops at Edge of the Cedars Museum in Blanding, Anasazi State Park Museum or the Elkhorn Earth Skills Gathering, both in Boulder. Many classes are taught by Olsen’s protégé, Kelly Magleby, whose work can be found at kayentafire.com.
Olsen often teaches at primitive workshops or conferences, demonstrating corrugated techniques. At the TKTKEVENTNAMETKTK, Olsen’s co-teacher Callie Russell, on the left, builds an Anasazi trench kiln for firing pots with Olsen’s protégé, Kelly Magleby.
Faund Images Photography (both)
BERRY, BERRY Special
FIND YOUR THRILL ON BLUEBERRY HILL
recipes and photographs by DANELLE McCOLLUM
WHEN BLUEBERRIES are in season, typically through September, they’re available in stores in jumbo size, the perfect bite of sweetness in each juicy burst. You’ll be tempted to eat them straight out of their packaging. Consider adding them, fresh or frozen, to recipes with dairy and lemon juice or zest.
Blueberry Cheesecake Parfait
Start with store-bought pound cake (or make yours from scratch), spend five minutes making blueberry sauce, and another five for a cheesecake layer, then layer it all in glass cups or dessert jars (mini Mason jars would work great too), and add a sprig of fresh mint. You’ll have an easy, fancy, fool-proof dessert so simple, your kids can help put it together.
In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and cornstarch. Stir in water and lemon juice. Add frozen blueberries and stir to combine. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce to a simmer and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes, stirring often, until mixture is thickened. Cool completely.
In a medium bowl, beat heavy cream with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. In a separate bowl, beat cream cheese, vanilla and sugar until smooth and fluffy. Fold in whipped cream.
Cut the pound cake into small squares. Divide half of the cake between 6-8 small cups or parfait glasses. Pipe or spoon half of the cheesecake filling over the cake. Top with a few spoonfuls of blueberry sauce. Repeat once, ending with blueberry sauce. Garnish with fresh mint before serving, if desired.
Blueberry sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp lemon juice
3 cups frozen blueberries
1 tsp vanilla
Pinch of salt
Cheesecake filling
1 ¼ cups heavy cream
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
Serves 6-8
Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream
For someone with a summer birthday, this recipe serves ice cream and cake all at the same time. Consider investing the time and effort to use homemade ice cream. Although the recipe calls for fresh blueberries, frozen will do, because they’ll be cooked into a sauce. If fresh, the blueberries should be firm and plump. Avoid soft, mushy, moist or damaged berries. Wait until the last minute: washing them in advance will hasten spoilage; keep unwashed blueberries in the refrigerator in a rigid, covered container. They should last at least a week, and maybe even two.
In a medium saucepan, bring blueberries, 1/3 cup sugar and lemon juice to a boil over medium heat. Cook for 8-10 minutes, or until blueberries have burst and mixture has thickened. Chill in refrigerator until cold.
Beat cream cheese and 1 cup sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in cream, milk and vanilla. Chill mixture for several hours, until cold.
Pour ice cream mixture into an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. Pour half of the ice cream into a freezer safe container, top with half of blueberry mixture.
Top with remaining cream and remaining blueberry sauce. Run a knife through the ice cream to swirl the blueberry mixture. Cover and freeze for 2-3 hours, or until firm.
Blueberry swirl
2 cups blueberries
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice
Ice cream
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
Serves 6
What’s in Your Recipe Box?
The editors are interested in featuring your favorite family recipes. Send your recipes (and memories inspired by your recipes) to editor@utahlifemag.com.
Lemon Blueberry Muffins with Lemon Glaze
These muffins go fast, so consider making more than one batch. If you’ve got frozen blueberries, this is the perfect recipe; just don’t thaw them first, or your batter will be too moist. Flexibility is key: The recipe calls for almond paste in the glaze, but vanilla works, too, and mixing berries or using raspberries instead can be just as tasty.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Beat in buttermilk, lemon juice, vanilla and zest.
Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Stir into creamed mixture just until moistened. Fold in blueberries.
Fill paper-lined muffin cups threefourths full of batter. Bake at 375° for 2530 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack.
To make glaze, in a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, lemon juice, almond extract. Drizzle over cooled muffins.
Muffins
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp lemon zest
2 cups + 1 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
Glaze
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp almond extract
Serves 12
Stagecoach Mountain and Brigham’s Tomb are two iconic formations found along Highway 163 in Southern Utah.
UTAH THROUGH OUR POETS
From highways to main streets to back roads and dirt paths, our poets tell of stories only found along the many winding roads across Utah. Each route weaves through the towns, monuments and parks we call home.
This Long Road Trip of Ours
Adam Starr, Pleasant Grove
Just when it appears I love life a er all and quite a lot that goes with it I’m afraid to cough for fear I’ll pull something or tear a searing pain in a whole new place.
is long road trip of ours joins hands with mountain passes and lovely valleys brooding over the last car and the next and the next; we are part of that parade,
should inhale our however home with deep grateful breaths because there are no guarantees and that's the beauty of it! We could die today without completion or we can choose to live, even the rich or ruined.
On a Rural Highway in Utah
Lorraine Je ery, Orem
Driving a direction without a destination. A distance far enough to dream close enough to hope.
No cars swapping steel DNA. A side road meanders across a bridge like a grandfather with an old story to unpack.
is is not my immortal dirt. Someone has memories of that cave in the sandstone that dry creek bed the mesquite growing from the red rock but they are not here to share.
No demands –e-books, music or the world-weary news just the drone of the motor.
So many blessings of empty.
Rainer Mirau
Somewhere on a Desert Road
Logan
Wolf, Provo
Out of the valley,
From the interlocked cities, From the gridlocked highways, Sky brown and buildings gray.
And,
On the road, With little more than an idea of a destination, With nothing more to do today, Asphalt black and lines fading yellow.
And,
Into the desert, rough the God-formed monoliths, rough the God-forsaken landscape, Rocks red and sagebrush green.
And, then,
Out of the car, To look out and feel amazed, To look up and feel small, To look in and nally feel still –
Somewhere on a desert road, out of the valley.
Sunflowers
Barbara Comnes,
Ivins
Glorious sun owers
Spring up along the roadside Golden yellow suns
Utah’s Journey
Garry Glidden, St. George
On Utah’s roads, where red rocks rise, Pioneer echoes harmonize, Guiding light through day and night, From valleys deep to the mountain’s height.
In the wilderness, where peace is found, Midst peaks that pierce the sky unbound, Nature’s call, a whispered song, In valleys deep, where we belong.
rough shi ing seasons, stark and bold, From winter’s chill to summer’s hold, e land’s heartbeat, strong and clear, In Utah’s embrace, we draw near.
Sacred spaces etched in stone, Where spirits roam, not le alone, Zion’s grace and Salt Lake’s lore, Tell tales of those who came before.
On this journey, life’s winding road, Truth and self, our quest bestowed, In Utah’s heart, forever soar, Tradition meets the modern lore.
Freedom’s Song on Open Plains, In Utah’s story, our dreams remain, With spirits free, we roam and roam, In Utah’s embrace, we nd our home.
We invite you to submit poems on the theme “Canyons” for the Fall issue, deadline Sept. 15, and “Only in Utah” for the Winter issue, deadline Oct. 1. Send to poetry@utahlifemag.com or to the address at the front of this magazine.
Equipped for off-road exploration and overnight camping, a Ford F250 Tremor travels a dirt road below the Henry Mountains near Glen Canyon.
Robyn Koelling
BUGS
Advocacy for insect populations starts at home.
story and photographs by SCOTT BAXTER
UTAH IS A PLACE of wonder for insects and a land of diversity. As a young boy, I was captivated by the world of insects and spiders, and now, as an old man, my fascination has only deepened. In a state that hosts over 1,100 species of bees and more than 600 species of spiders, it’s no surprise we encounter these creatures, and occasionally, they find their way into our homes.
A few years ago, I decided to see how many insects I could photograph in my backyard on the Wasatch Front. My project began as a diversion from writing – grab-
bing my camera with a macro lens, wandering around the backyard for 15 minutes to clear my head. My yard has an abundance of trees, bushes, grasses, forbs and a big garden to go with it. In the last two years, I have identified more than 500 species of six- and eight-leg critters in my yard.
If I could find that many insects in my backyard, I wondered what a statewide view would reveal.
Using iNaturalist, a website and app where scientists and community scientists collaborate on documenting the living world, I found over 140,000 observations
representing over 4,500 species of little exoskeleton types in Utah. This compares to about 600 species of fish, mammals, birds and reptiles documented in the state.
I enlisted local experts to help better understand what lives around us and what we know about it. One of those experts, Rebecca Ray, is a native of Utah. Like many people growing up in Utah, she was raised by a father who feared spiders, a trait the entire family developed. She loved nature but recoiled at the sight of crawly things.
When she was a teenager, she came across a cat-faced spider sitting on a big
Look for the larvae of gray hairstreak – gossamer-winged butterflies – wherever ants appear. Bold jumping spiders can be curious and wave their front legs. The planthopper and globular springtail feed together.
orb web, a favorite of children all over Utah. She picked up a piece of peanut shell lying on the ground and threw it in the web. The spider ran over, picked up the shell and threw it out of the web. The spider faced her and shook, shaking the entire web. She caught a fly and threw it into the web. The spider ran over and feasted on it. It turned out the spider she’d been taught was her enemy was really a friend; it just took a little interaction to connect. Two worlds became one that day.
In her early 20s, Rebecca was in a science center in North Carolina, face to face with colossal orb weaver spiders like she had never seen before. It wasn’t long before she noticed something was missing: There was no glass between her and the spiders. To make sure, she cautiously and gently blew on the web, and it moved. She asked one of the people at the exhibit about the lack of an enclosure, and he responded there was no need. The spiders have everything they need: shelter, food and space; they will not leave. She was hooked; little did she know then that she would become known as the Spiderwoman of Utah.
AMANDA BARTH GREW up by the Sonoran Desert in Arizona spying on insects and lizards around her backyard. Throughout her science education and career, she focused on conservation, particularly drawn to work with insects. In 2019, she became the Rare Insect Conservation Coordinator for Utah, a new position created by the Legislature and coordinated through Utah State University. Like Rebecca, Amanda enthusiastically launched an effort to understand, document and communicate the diversity of crawly things in Utah – an overwhelming task they both love.
Amanda’s work focuses especially on at-risk species that face possible listing under the Endangered Species Act. For nearly every target species, she started from scratch. With little budget and no staff, she has used her skills to collaborate with local, state and federal agencies and non-profits to study dozens of species, from monarch butterflies to tiny velvet ants (which are actually small wasps, one of her favorites).
The false flower beetle prefers glamorous habitats. The twenty-spotted lady beetle, just 1/16th of an inch long, is a gardener’s friend.
Become an
iNATURALIST
Used by backyard bug enthusiasts to conservation biologists, iNaturalist is an app that identifies species by connecting observers with naturalists and scientists. Users upload images or recorded sounds of any living thing along with its location and date it was observed.
Once submitted, iNaturalist compares the data to 203 million observa-
One of Amanda’s significant efforts is to include insect data in the State Wildlife Action Plan, a 10-year conservation blueprint used to determine management priorities and coordinate resources. Amanda sees this as a great opportunity to act and dedicate more resources towards understanding insect populations over a greater geographic area.
Utah’s wetlands provide a lush habitat supporting a broad, abundant spectrum of insects. The Great Salt Lake, with its brine flies and brine shrimp (a small crustacean), allow more specialized species that have adapted to the harsh environment to thrive without competition from other species. We have studied the brine shrimp for years but have little understanding of the brine fly, which is equally essential for migratory birds and likely more sensitive to lake fluctuation. Understanding the brine fly could lead to better management of the lake.
tions of over 480,000 species, presenting images and reference material of likely matches.
Scientists worldwide use the information in studies of insect ranges, local biodiversity, effects of climate change and more. Every observation contributes to personal education, science research and biodiversity studies.
Get started at inaturalist.org.
WHILE MOST OF Amanda’s work intersects with small groups of scientists and public land managers, community involvement is also integral. Community outreach not only educates the public about insect species and diversity but generates valuable data. The Utah Pollinator Pursuit uses observations from local communities to help define, understand and monitor the populations of pollinators in our state, information that informs conservation goals and decisions.
When Rebecca started exploring spiders and insects in her yard, she turned to iNaturalist to develop her expertise. Understanding and experiencing spiders was not enough; she had to contribute to their future. She soon became a presenter, panelist, coordinator and behind-the-scenes supporter of various community outreach events.
Rebecca is also an administrator of the Utah Society of Entomology page on
Facebook. This friendly group relies on local experts and enthusiasts to identify species found across the state. Utah is also home to several bug-friendly events.
The Natural History Museum of Utah hosts multiple events, including the annual BUGfest, a weekend focused on all things buggy.
The annual City Nature Challenge, hosted by the Natural History Museum of Utah for the Wasatch Front, encourages communities to document things that crawl around in your backyard.
The Spider Festival at Antelope Island State Park, where spiders outnumber humans by about 1,000 to 1, hosts the Spider Festival each year.
The insect lab at Utah State University, which has a collection of over 6 million specimens of insects, offers guided tours and hosts outreach efforts throughout the year.
With the support of local outreach, Rebecca and Amanda are undaunted by the work ahead of them. Rebecca, Amanda, and I share a common dream: a world where all life matters, even the life of spiders and insects.
Rebecca captured it well: In addition to bumper stickers that say, “Start Seeing Motorcycles,” we need ones that say, “Start Seeing Spiders and Insects.”
Author Scott Baxter wrote “Utah’s Other Wildlife” in the May/June 2019 issue of UL, featuring more backyard finds of Utah’s insect biodiversity.
The odorous house ant farms aphids, secreting honeydew. Sawfly larvae chew tree leaves, preparing for their next stage of growth. Known as love bugs or honeymoon flies, march flies feed on nectar.
Like many flower flies, the syrphus opinator is often mistaken for a wasp but is harmless to humans.
CULTURE. ADVENTURE. HISTORY.
by TOM HESS
FOOD + MUSIC SUMMER AT DEER VALLEY
SEPTEMBER • PARK CITY
At an elevation of about 7,000 feet, Park City’s Deer Valley Resort tends to be about 20 degrees cooler than Salt Lake City in the summer. Because it provides some relief from valley heat, is just as alive with activity as it is during ski season.
Deer Valley is a world-famous Winter Olympic venue. It hosted freestyle moguls, aerial and slalom events in the 2002 Winter Olympics and will be the official venue for the 2034 Winter Olympics. Summer events center around food, music and breweries.
For Mountaintop Brews and Tunes on Aug. 31 and Sept. 7, Deer Valley’s Sterling Express chairlift takes visitors to Bald Mountain at Snowshoe Tommy’s for Utah craft beers and Utah musicians: Salt Lake City busker River Arrow (Aug. 31) and
Park City singer-songwriter Shannon Runyon (Sept. 7).
For the Mountain Beer Festival on Sept. 14 and 15, festivalgoers sample a wide variety of beer flavors and styles made only in Utah. Local breweries include Offset Bier and Park City Brewery, as well as Uinta Brewing Co. and Squatters Pub Brewery from Salt Lake City.
General admission starts at $50 with three beer tasting tokens. The imperial package includes eight beer tasting tokens and access to a VIP BBQ.
Children and families are welcome to enjoy the festival’s outdoor dining, live music and family-friendly activities. Non-drinker tickets start at $15. 2250 Deer Valley Drive S. (435) 649-1000.
Deer Valley Resort lifts guests and festivalgoers on the Silver Lake Express for food, music and beer.
WHERE TO GO
Utah Olympic Park
The 400-acre park includes the Alf Engen Ski Museum and the George Eccles 2002 Olympic Winter Games Museum. The Alf Engen collection includes trophies, medals and clothing. 3419 Olympic Parkway. (435) 658-4200.
Deer Valley Resort
MUSIC MOAB MUSIC FESTIVAL
THROUGH SEPT. 15 • MOAB
The annual, scenic Moab Music Festival –known for grand piano performances in red-rock alcoves along the Colorado River – is adding something new to its schedule this year: a Movable, Musical Feast at Easy Bee Farm.
Located seven miles south of Moab, the Spanish Valley farm promotes native pollinators and healthy soil, composts food waste, and uses drop irrigation – all in keeping with the festival’s concern for the environment. The farm is hosting musicians who perform short solo and chamber music from Mozart, Bach and Brahms alongside recent works by Andy Akiho and Giovanni Sollima throughout the property.
Concertgoing motorists arrive at the farm via a free, mandatory shuttle, which departs Aarchway Inn at 5:45 p.m.
On Aug. 29, at a performance of 19th century German music composed by Brahms and his mentor Schumann, guests arrive by jet boat to a pristine wilderness grotto carved from the surrounding red rocks along the Colorado River. Concertgoers dress for a desert environment. The festival provides hors d’oeuvres, wine and beer, as well as camp chairs that surround the artists.
On Aug. 31, along the banks of the Colorado, on an expansive lawn at Red Cliffs Lodge, two up-and-coming composers – Maya Miro Johnson and Roydon Tse –are performing world premieres of music
inspired by the river in a program entitled “Colorado Currents.” The program includes a work by Salt Lake City composer John Costa, original music by Diné composer/ pianist Connor Chee, a presentation by the Hopi Nation and literary readings from Utah authors.
WHERE TO GO KEN’S LAKE
Enjoy Utah’s beauty away from the city by visiting this uncrowded reservoir 10 miles south of Moab along U.S. 191. Its mountain runoff from Mill Creek and pebbly beach, with the La Sal Mountains and Moab Rim in view, offer a respite from summer heat. (435) 259-2100.
WHERE TO EAT THE BROKEN OAR
Start with a bowl of sweet potato fries, or beer-battered Wisconsin cheddar cheese curds, and if you’re still hungry, order the Beast Burger – elk, bison, boar and wagyu beef. Order it “Broken oar style” to add pastrami, bacon and Swiss cheese. 53 W. 400 North. (435) 259-3127.
SEPTEMBER
Ferron Peach Days
Sept. 3-7 • Ferron
Emery County’s favorable weather conditions encouraged farmers to plant peach orchards early in the 20th century. Most closed because they were too far from market, but some remained, and Peach Days celebrates those peaches’ unmatched juicy sweetness with a parade and peach dessertcontest.
20 E. Main St. (435) 384-2350.
Old Capitol Arts & Living History Festival
Sept. 8-9 • Fillmore
The county seat of Millard County served as capital of Utah Territory for just five years, 1851-56. The Territorial Statehouse still stands, as does the annual celebration of the “Old Capitol.” The local quilt club displays their creations. Children play with giant-size Lincoln logs, sidewalk chalk, stilts and more. (435) 743-5316.
Rocky Mountain ATV Jamboree
Sept. 16-20 • Richfield
All-Terrain Vehicle riders choose from 86 guided tours, from beginner to advanced, with a trailer and without, that take them miles through scenery and history, including in the Paiute system of trails. 250 N. Main St. (435) 893-0400.
Green River Melon Days
Sept. 20-21 • GreenRiver
Farmers have been growing melons in Green River for 118 years, and that’s worth celebrating. Activities include a parade, melon carving contest, trap shoot, 5K melon run, wild west dancing and unicorn rides. (435) 820-0592.
Escalante Canyons Art Festival
Sept. 20-29 • Escalante
Named for a Franciscan missionary, this town of 838 hosts plein air and studio competitions, on-site sales, workshops, live music and more. Utah artist Melody Greenlief, past president of the Utah Watercolor Society, will paint using watercolor from start to finish while discussing her techniques. (435) 616-1075.
Moab Music Festival
OCTOBER
A Taste of Ireland
Oct. 2 • Logan
Direct from Off-Broadway, A Taste of Ireland – The Irish Music & Dance Sensation performs at the Cache Valley Center for the Arts. Learn about Ireland’s history with folk mashups, acapella tap battles and Irish wit – all performed live on stage. 43 Main St. (435) 752-0026.
Park City Wine Festival
Oct. 3-5 • Park City
Taste wins from more than 100 wineries from the West Coast to France. Experience curated dinners and wine pairings, attend sommelier seminars and even hike along nature trails for exclusive threecourse lunches. (303) 777-6887.
Give Light Festival
Oct. 5 • Panguitch
At Panguitch City Park, crowds gather to play horseshoes, cornhole and spikeball. At dark, the sky is filled with light as lanterns are released one by one. Enjoy s’mores around a campfire and dance under the floating lights. 775 N. Main St.
Art in Kayenta
Oct. 11-13 • Ivins
This free art festival in Kayenta Art Village features a collection of over 50 regional and national artists. Explore sculptures, paintings, jewelry, ceramics, wood and metal art. Xetava Café and Tapas Bar offers fresh summer plates, espresso drinks and refreshing cream sodas. 851 Coyote Gulch Ct. (435) 6742787.
Cedar Livestock and Heritage Festival
Oct. 25-27 • Cedar City
This three-day festival features antique tractor and horse pulls, cowboy poetry and music, rodeo competitions, Dutch oven-cooking contests and vintage car shows. The sheep parade starts at 10 a.m. on Main Street. cedarlivestockfest.com.
NATURE HERITAGE STARFEST
SEPT. 27-28 • TORREY
Utah is home to 24 certified dark sky parks and communities, the highest concentration in the world. One of the state’s best sites for viewing the Milky Way and more distant stars is Capitol Reef National Park, certified as a dark sky location in 2015.
An annual Capitol Reef dark-sky festival that began in 2010, Heritage StarFest offers visitors the chance to learn from astronomers about the human connection to the night sky and how darkness is important to the health of all living things. Events are held at Capitol Reef National Park and in Torrey, including telescope viewings at night and solar telescope viewings during the day.
Year-round, stargazing locations in the park include Panorama Point on State Route 24, two miles west of the park visitor center, and just feet after that, Goosenecks Overlook; Danish Hill and Slickrock Drive on the Scenic Drive; the Fruita Campground
Amphitheater Parking Lot; and two primitive campgrounds – Cedar Mesa Primitive Campground, and the Cathedral Valley Primitive Campground, which requires high-clearance, four-wheel vehicles.
In daylight, petroglyphs appear along Highway 24 between the Hickman Bridge trailhead and Fruita. The Fruita District features several historic buildings, including a one-room schoolhouse and the Gifford Homestead.
The Gifford family sold the home to the National Park Service in 1960. The Gifford kitchen is now the Capitol Reef Natural History Association Bookstore and Museum. Items for sale include reproduction utensils and household tools used by pioneers in their daily tasks. Local artisans and craftsmen created quilts, aprons, woven rugs, soap, crockery, candles, toys, jams and locally baked goods available for purchase.
National Park Service
WHERE TO STAY CAPITOL REEF RESORT
Among the resort’s lodging choices is the Red Cliff View cabin, the Teepee with a king-size bed and a Conestoga Wagon with a king-size bed and four twin beds. 2600 E. Highway 24. (855) 516-1090.
WHERE TO EAT HUNT & GATHER RESTAURANT
The fact that this restaurant won the Slow Food Snail of Approval in 2024 gives every indication of why the family that owns the restaurant moved away from the city. Chef Chet Saign prepares wild game and fish using locally sourced ingredients. 599 W. Main St. (435) 425-3070.
TRIVIA ANSWERS
Questions on p 10-11
13 False, the Strawberry Aqueduct and Collection System (SACS), completed in the 1980s, diverts water from nine other tributaries in addition to the Strawberry River to the reservoir. 14 False 15 True
Trivia Photographs
Page 10, Top: Quail Creek Reservoir in Hurricane. Bottom: Mirror Lake in the Uinta Mountains.
Page 11 Red Pine Lake in Little Cottonwood Canyon. 1 Panguitch Lake
Glenn Randall
The Utah Desert Tortoise Adoption Program allows families to care for desert tortoises that have been displaced from their natural habitats.
THE TOUGH, TAME DESERT TORTOISE
State of Utah adopts out critters to a good home, but they may outlive you.
by Tim Gurrister
UTAH’S DESERT tortoise will grow to be six inches tall, but should they ever choose to show off their full height, the mature adult – standing proudly, head held high – could reach two feet were it ever to arise on its back legs.
They don’t, so six inches is about as lanky as they get hauling their high-domed shell. But they’ll weigh 15 pounds or more, with huge, clawed front legs for digging and longer elephantine back legs for locomotion.
With their skill at burrowing, they can elude and endure temperatures up to 140 degrees. Such underground engineering feats, in the wild, they’re known to share with fellow tortoises and other species, even birds, seeking to beat the heat of the Utah summer.
They can be quite vocal, have been known to almost sprint at the sight of a strawberry, and predate humans, having lived on the earth for 15 to 20 million years.
And they make great pets. Which is something the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources points out once or twice a year in reminding the public of the existence and ongoing success of the Utah Desert Tortoise Adoption Program. They’ll eat the weeds in your yard, are low maintenance as long as they have shade and food, plus they hibernate five – even six – months of the year.
But they might just outlive you. They can reach a lusty age of
80, even 100 years old, especially in captivity.
Captivity in their case can be something of a variable. “They’re escape artists,” said Alyssa Hoekstra, the DWR’s state herpetologist, one of the administrators of the adoption program.
The division typically has up to 20 available for adoption, she said. They become available after people take them from the wild, which is illegal, or they’re found ailing or injured. And then there is the aforementioned longevity issue, as their owners “expire.” “That’s another reason they recirculate through our program,” Hoekstra said.
“My kids know he’s going to outlive me,” said Crystal Ross of Kaysville, who with husband Chris adopted Shelldon from the DWR seven years ago.
Ages 6 and 10, their two children have grown up with Shelldon, now 13 years old.
“He is just the coolest,” Crystal said. “An absolute delight. It’s like having a pet dinosaur.”
And he’s very popular – always a celebrity of show-and-tell at school and take-your-tortoise-to-work day. “He’s the superstar of the cul-de-sac,” she said. “The neighbors’ kids bring him dandelions all the time.”
Her children are attuned to the finer points of herpetology. “My kids will get a little snobby when someone calls him a turtle. They’ll explain tortoises live on land; turtles live in water.”
From left: Cameron Rognan; Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
SHELLDON’S LONG NAP
Shelldon, hibernating since last fall in the Ross basement, began scratching at the inside of his box at the end of April. Coming out after the long winter’s nap can take a few weeks.
“He went to sleep in October,” said Crystal Ross. “He’s awake for the year now, eating and drinking again by mid-May.” They need nothing in the suspended state, no food or water, but she worries. And can’t help but check in, as she usually wakes him up briefly around December. “In case he needs a drink. I’ll touch his leg and he’ll retract it. And hiss. So I know he’s all right.”
Other than that, nothing really perturbs him, she said. “He’ll show what I think of as affection.
“He’ll rest his head on your foot. But if I have my toenails painted red, he’ll try to bite them, thinking they’re strawberries.”
After they give Shelldon an occasional “soak” per DWR guidelines –setting him in water where he’ll briefly submerge and drink heavily to replenish – he’ll linger on laps.
Usually always on the move, “he’ll sit still as we towel him off, let us snuggle him,” Ross said.
“Just like my six-year-old.”
Dandelions are Shelldon’s major staple with the backyard allowed to grow a little unkempt, untrimmed, with weed duty left to the voracious Shelldon.
The local homeowners’ association regulations mean the Rosses have to patrol the dandelions in the front yard and not wait for Shelldon. “First he eats the flower, then the leaves and the rest of it,” Crystal said.”
His favorite snack by far is strawberries. “They basically see in black and white, but they can see vibrant colors, so when we show him a strawberry, he comes running. Or what passes for running for a tortoise,” she said.
UTAH SHARES ONE of the largest desert tortoise habitats in the country, officials say. Their stronghold range of Washington County in Utah’s southwest corner (plus the southern tips of Nevada and California, and northwest Arizona) holds roughly 2,000 of the scaly bulldogs.
But they’re not contiguous, instead spread out equally over the four states, including California’s Mohave Desert.
The adoption process is involved, with fees, permits and inspections. The DWR has a 47-page booklet, a desert tortoise owner’s manual of sorts.
The program includes the issuance of something new to solve the runaway problem: a PIT tag (passive integrative transponder), which can be scanned for the tortoise owner’s info. It’s much like a microchip for a cat or dog, except instead of implanted in the body, it’s epoxied to the shell.
“If we don’t know where they came from, or they’ve been around humans too long, we can’t risk returning them to their native habitat because of the possibility of disease,” Hoekstra said, “especially respiratory ailments they are susceptible to.” For the same reason, she said, a zoo is often not an option.
The Utah Desert Tortoise Adoption Program began in the 1990s, after the tortoises were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. They are also covered by state law as protected wildlife, the same as deer and elk.
To inquire about adopting a desert tortoise, prospective candidates can email tortoise@utah.gov.
An adoption application carries a $10 fee. A safe outdoor and indoor environment is required following the DWR guidelines, which must be escape-proof and pass inspection. Approval for adoption results in a Certificate of Registration with a $75 fee.
Crystal Ross
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
TORTOISE TRIVIA
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, even the U.S. Geologic Survey, o er a plethora of desert tortoise trivia:
• They have been clocked at an average speed of 0.2 mph.
• Each desert tortoise in the wild uses about 5 to 25 burrows per year.
• They can be quite vocal, chatty even, with a vocabulary consisting of “hisses, grunts, pops, whoops, huhs, echs, bips, etc.”
• In the wild, up to 20 or more of the creatures will share a burrow.
• They’ll frequent the same summer and winter burrow sites for years, typically spending their entire life within a few miles of their birthplace.
• They have been known to scrape a depression in the ground when it rains to collect the water for a sip.
• The desert tortoise is the designated state reptile of Nevada and California. Utah chose the gila monster.
• The collective noun for a tortoise includes a bale, turn, creep, nest or dole.
story by KERRY SOPER illustration by JOSH TALBOT
Lackadaisical Parenting Styles
Trouble for Baby Boomers’ children meant dislocated shoulders, MLM schemes and shoddy tree forts
WHAT WERE OUR Baby Boomer parents doing with all their free time back in the 1970s and 1980s? Jazzercize? Family History scrapbooks? Talking to strangers on HAM radios? Installing wall-to-wall shag carpets? All I know is they weren’t watching us. Growing up in the Beehive State back then was like taking part in a low-budget mash up of Leave it to Beaver and Lord of the Flies. We lived like feral animals, though of the well-fed and modestly dressed variety. Without supervision, we subsisted on Captain Crunch, baloney sandwiches and the adrenaline rush of getting into continual, low-grade mischief along the wide streets and vacant fields of the Wasatch Front.
The only rule seemed to be that you had to show up in one piece at the end of the day – ideally unescorted by the local police.
When kids got bored back then (which was a lot, since this was before Netflix, video games and cell phones), we did tons of reckless things on bikes and skateboards and other wheeled contraptions. Because this was before the skatepark era, we concocted our own dangerous substitutes: built a motocross course through an empty lot and four vegetable gardens, hitched rides holding onto car bumpers and built Evil Knievel-style sidewalk jumps.
WHEN PERFORMING RISKY stunts on banana seat bikes, it was not enough to endanger just yourself; you also had to recruit a bunch of younger kids to lay in a row under the plywood ramp. I still marvel that no serious injuries occurred – unless you count concussions, abrasions and the occasional dislocated shoulder, which usually re-found its socket, eventually.
Building dilapidated tree forts was also a big deal. You just needed a few scraps of wood, some rusty nails, a poor tree and a high tolerance for hammer-related pain. The best part was the planning stage – when you could imagine all kinds of grandiose possibilities, like the multi-story masterpiece in Swiss Family Robinson
Once the flimsy structure was finished, however, things tended to degenerate. I remember spending afternoons dealing with treehouse-related injuries that usu-
ally required, but never got, stitches or a tetanus shot, negotiating which sexist or ageist rules we should adopt into our bylaws and plotting attacks on rival treehouse gangs. Those battles never happened, though I once lost a tooth during a martial arts training session when a flying egg carton full of rusty bolts connected with my mouth. This weapon was my buddy Steven’s invention: a Utah version of a Chinese throwing star.
We occasionally went indoors to do
unsupervised activities, like 14-hourlong Dungeons and Dragons quests in half-finished basements. These events weren’t dangerous for the reasons cultural guardians feared back then (as gateways into Satan worship or socialism).
Instead, we just faced the risk of gradually reducing the chance of ever attracting a companion of the opposite sex as we repeatedly overdosed on processed snacks, Dr. Pepper and the dopamine high of pretending to be heroic elves, rangers and necromancers while merely rolling a tiny, twelve-sided die.
We also spent our unsupervised days pursuing money-making schemes: planning overly ambitious haunted houses, selling our dads’ tools door to door and charging younger children five cents to get lawn rash on homemade slip and slides.
We ran lemonade stands like mafia bosses. Selling tepid Kool-Aid was a front. The real business was conning a half dozen neighborhood kids to raid their parents’ pantries for sellable items – and then later in the day, selling back those same items at an inflated price to the same kids with money from their moms’ purses. I think we accidentally created Utah’s first Multilevel Marketing business.
but somehow we justified ourselves by taking “just one drumstick and soda per pavilion” – like a reasonable tax to support the local urchins. Did I mention we Yogi-beared our way through at least five pavilions per day?
Looking back, perhaps this was one unsupervised activity that did not cause actual harm or injury. Unless you count the damage to our souls, to peoples’ shattered faith in their fellow humans and to the increased risk I had of becoming prediabetic at an early age.
AUTHOR Kerry Soper writes and teaches satire, humor and history from Provo.
Utah kids back then engaged in other low-grade juvenile delinquency: doing foolish things with BB guns, messing with mailboxes, trespassing all over the place, toilet-papering houses and egging cars. Teenagers one generation ahead of us got involved in even more inappropriate crazes like “streaking” (running through public spaces in the nude) and “mooning” (pointing bare butts out of car windows). I’m not sure what was wrong with them; at least we knew how to keep our clothes on.
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AS DAVIS COUNTY locals, my friends and I engaged in some questionable behavior at Lagoon Amusement Park: winning and reselling ride tickets for a profit, covertly drooling on people from the Sky Ride and practicing “Yogi-bearing.” When large families went off to explore the park, we would approach their untended picnic baskets and loudly announce, “I WONDER WHEN MOM AND DAD ARE GETTING BACK?” and “DIDN’T THEY SAY TO START WITHOUT THEM?” while helping ourselves to some KFC and orange Fanta.
Of course, we knew this was wrong,
I guess I should admit that my own smothery, helicopter-parenting did not necessarily keep my kids out of trouble in the 1990s and 2000s. It mostly just kept them indoors where they still found ways to injure themselves while playing Power Rangers on top of coffee tables, Ninja Turtles next to stone fireplaces and Magic School Bus on the slippery, carpeted stairs. If the next generation of Utah parents becomes even more protective, then we may have to take a fresh look at the lackadaisical methods of those Boomer parents who raised me.
At least their neglect was mostly benign – and it might have better prepared us for a world filled with scrapes, con artists and the random, unscrupulous kid who wants to Yogi-bear a drumstick from your picnic basket.
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