In This Issue

Visitors inspecting fossil specimens, October 1937. USHS collections, gift of Dinosaur National Monument.

With more national parks and monuments than any other state, Utah has become a popular tourist destination; but the creation and management of some of these wonders have generated controversy, as the first two articles in this issue relate Achieving national park status for Canyonlands in the 1960s launched a flash flood of verbiage from politicians, ranchers, miners, and conservationists with differing opinions on the proposed park's size and "purity." Management of Dinosaur National Monument, on the other hand, slowly eroded the patience of Uinta Basin residents who felt that eastern museums had, with federal approval, stripped Utah of part of its past and thwarted attempts to develop a local museum.

Questioning federal motives, an automatic reaction for many Utahns, has a long history. When the Corps of Topographical Engineers set out to survey the Great Salt Lake and its environs in 1849, Capt. Howard Stansbury, to allay Mormon suspicion, appointed Brigham Young's secretary, Albert Carrington, as an assistant Carrington and Stansburys second in command, 1st Lt. John Williams Gunnison, became friends. Eight letters of Gunnison to Carrington, included in the third anicle, illustrate the extent of their friendship.

The final two articles focus on white-Indian conflict in ways that underscore the importance of communication. The so-called White Pine War of 1875 created hysteria among some whites that led to inaccurate accounts of events and ultimately had a profound effect on the Gosiutes. Twenty-five years earlier the pungent talk of Mormon leaders, found in a variety of records, shows that colorful rhetoric and surprisingly tough statements were used to orchestrate white responses to the Indians. As has often been the case in history, however, fiery words did not always ignite the desired responses.