Last Wednesday evening as I was driving home from court in Moab, I pulled off Highway 6 to take pictures of the wonderful formations on the San Rafael Reef, which is the eastern boundary of our winter grazing permit. As I waited for the lighting to improve, I noticed the large volume of southbound traffic. I had totally forgotten that Easter Weekend was upon us!
As I watched our Utah version of the Easter Parade, I concentrated on the license plates. Most were Utahns. A significant number were from Colorado and a small number were from other neighboring states. NONE WERE FROM EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI WHERE MOST DECISIONS CONCERNING THE FUTURE OF OUR DESERTS ARE BEING MADE.
As the vehicles, campers, motorhomes, horse trailers, OHVs, mountain bikes, etc streamed south, I wondered how many of those families understood what will happen to our historic traditions like "Eastering" if the Red Rock Wilderness Act or another form of wilderness designation is adopted. We are truly on the verge of being locked out of our own heritage.
This morning on Facebook, the Emery County Historical Society posted some amazing old pictures of "Eastering" in the San Rafael Swell. The pictures span almost a hundred years of Eastering by Utahns, and particularly by the citizens of southeastern Utah. Such pictures capture the heart and spirit of family recreation in Utah since pioneer days. Wilderness designation will take most of those recreational activities away unless you are prepared to leave everything and EVERYONE home that cannot hike numerous miles into our deserts.
Wilderness, currently disguised by its new "Wild Lands" label, was expressly prohibited in areas of frequent human use. The definition of wilderness excludes lands with roads or trails that provided for regular vehicular traffic and reoccurring human uses. It suddenly occurred to me that Emery County Historical Society's pictures are valuable evidence which demonstrates how inappropriate wilderness designation is for much of the proposed federal land grab.
If any of you have pictures or memories of human activities in the San Rafael Swell, please send me copies to this blog and I will see that your contributions are used to preserve our historical access to our public lands.
HAVE A HAPPY EASTER AND SHARE OUR WESTERN PUBLIC LANDS HERITAGE WITH THE YOUNGER GENERATIONS IN YOUR FAMILIES AS THEY ARE THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC ACCESS.
Enjoy the pictures and stories of "Eastering" from the Emery County Historical Society:
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