In This Issue

World War I veterans in aJuly 4 parade in Blanding, Utah. San Juan County Historical Commission photograph donated by Frank Wright.

Separated by some 200 miles of Colorado Plateau country, the communities of Kanarraville in Iron County and Blanding, Monticello, and Moab in San Juan and Grand counties responded to World War I in remarkably similar ways Initially, southern Utahns shared the feeling widespread among Americans that the Great War was a European conflict best left to the Europeans themselves to resolve. But when German submarine attacks on the high seas drew the U.S into the war, southern Utahns answered their nation's call with men for the armed forces, Liberty Loan drives, sewing and knitting projects, and watchfulness for German spies that some believed were operating in the Utah hinterland. The first two narratives in this issue paint a vivid picture of wartime in southern Utah through the use of first-person accounts and newspaper reports

One of Utah's famous scientists, John A. Widtsoe, is the subject of the next article Focusing on his years as director of the Utah Experiment Station in Logan, it tells of revolutionary changes in farming brought about by scientific studies in agriculture.

Rounding out this issue is a delightful account of Utah's state flower, the sego lily. Fact and folklore about this beautiful native plant abound. From pioneer stories of eating its bulbs to poems and songs written in its honor, the author tracks the sego's symbolic metamorphosis over almost a century and a half.