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Sagebrush Empire: How a Remote Utah County Became the Battlefront of American Public Lands Kindle Edition

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 53 ratings

"Thompson's investigative chops are impressive."

SIERRA MAGAZINE


San Juan County, Utah, contains some of the most spectacular landscapes in the world
, rich in natural wonders and Indigenous culture and history. But it's also long been plagued with racism, bitterness, and politics as twisted as the beckoning canyons. In 2017, en route to the Valley of the Gods with his spouse, a Colorado man closed the gate on a corral. Two weeks later, the couple was facing felony charges. Award–winning journalist Jonathan P. Thompson places the case in its fraught historical context and—alongside personal stories from a life shaped by slickrock and sagebrush—shows why this corner of the western United States has been at the center of the American public lands wars for over a century.

From the Publisher

Sagebrush Empire

Praise from Amy McClelland

Sagebrush Empire cover

Praise from Evan Schertz

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A highly readable account of the origins of the ‘Sagebrush Rebellion’ and its connections to the ongoing battle over Bears Ears National Monument as well as the Native American-led push for voting rights in the area. …It’s Thompson’s ability to capture some of that diversity that makes Sagebrush Empire a must-read for anyone who shares his love of the land and his fascination with San Juan County’s storied history.”

SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

"Equal parts piercing investigative journalism and exquisite narrative, Sagebrush Empire delivers brilliant insight into the conflicting identity of the changing American West."

— EVAN SCHERTZ, Maria's Bookshop

“This book is as gritty as the Southwest itself. Readers will get a glimpse behind the glamour of redrock country, behind the vistas that take your breath away, and learn about the ongoing conflicts between the people who make this area their home. Thompson pulls you into a story that exposes some hard truths about the locals, politicians, and land laws of the West. In narrative style, with well-researched facts, this book reveals the depths to which people will go to protect the things they hold important.”

—AMY MCCLELLAND, Bright Side Bookshop

Praise for Jonathan P. Thompson:

“Thompson’s investigative chops are impressive."

SIERRA MAGAZINE

“Thompson weaves his skills of investigative journalism and factual verification with the empowering tools and devices of a novelist.”

THE UTAH REVIEW

About the Author

JONATHAN P. THOMPSON has been an environmental journalist focusing on the American West since he signed on as reporter and photographer at the Silverton Standard & the Miner newspaper in 1996. He has worked and written for High Country News for over a decade, and his work has appeared in numerous other outlets. He is the author of River of Lost Souls: The Science, Politics, and Greed behind the Gold King Mine Disaster. He and his wife, Wendy, and daughters Lydia and Elena split their time between Colorado and Bulgaria.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B094NV3J87
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Torrey House Press (August 24, 2021)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 24, 2021
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2664 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 361 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1948814447
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 53 ratings

About the author

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Jonathan P. Thompson
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Jonathan P. Thompson has been writing about the Western United States for more than 25 years. He worked at and then owned the Silverton Standard & the Miner newspaper over the course of a decade. Then in 2005 he hired on at High Country News, where he has served as associate editor, editor-in-chief, senior editor, and is now a contributing editor and writer. Thompson received his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Mathematics at St. Johns College in Santa Fe, was a Ted Scripps Fellow at the Center for Environmental Journalism at University of Colorado, Boulder, and has also worked as an artisan baker, bike mechanic, janitor, and seed-germination technician. He currently is the editor of The Land Desk, a newsletter covering Western lands and communities--in context. JonathanPThompson.com

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
53 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2023
    Being an east coaster/ flat lander my entire life - southeast Utah draws me in and I can never seem to get enough of it. This book taught me so much about the concepts, politics, and people of the area - I could not put it down. I’ve just returned from a river trip in the San Juan so the context of this book was particularly specific for me and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more of the history and politics of this beautiful piece of our country.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2023
    Well written and interesting. Mergers regional culture and history with a pinch of travel guide thrown in. Discusses the 4 corners region of Utah and the ongoing regional conflicts between local interests and the BLM and Bears Ears National Monument. Thompson is a local who has spent week long excursions hiking in the wilderness. He has an opinion but he tries to present the information objectively and accepts the fact that there is no one universal answer accepted by those involved. Although the book delves into the evolution of the local culture and political history, its seems to be more about the place and why its important.
  • Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2021
    I just finished this remarkable book and am filled with memories and braced by surprise. I grew up in San Juan County, New Mexico, adjacent by a single corner to the San Juan County, Utah Jonathan P. Thompson writes about. I know this landscape intimately. When I left my job at Vanderbilt University to move to Utah I told the Dean I missed the scent of sage. Thompson is a consummate journalist who documents the public lands battles in the area—pitched battles dominated by extractive industry and White settlers—while weaving into the tapestry life-long personal adventures in the landscape. The combination is enlightening and envigorating in a way that neither creative non-fiction nor journalism alone can be. The accounts move, in the end, to a hopeful time when Native Americans and pre- and post-Trumpian politicians and environmentally concerned citizens have a greater say in how best to relate to our public lands.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2021
    A friend recommended this book; I almost didn’t purchase it because I well know and fight for the protection these lands. I learned and loved so much more! Mr. Thompson weaves an understated narrative for why we need to fight forever; these lands are a soul of our Nation. No one is more compelling than someone who has survived those character-building camping trips. Thank you!
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2021
    I loved this book for how it worked its way through the complicated history and politics of the Four Corners Region. I have spent a lot of time in that area, and yet learned so much about an area that is too often neglected in works of non-fiction. This is a must read for anyone who has bothered to explore the the region South of Moab.
  • Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2022
    A lovely and disturbing discussion of the devastating history of greed shaped San Juan County Utah and its people. How it’s inherent beauty has been devastated by decades of misuse and yet the need for solace in a noisy chaotic world beckons all of us to heal ourselves and this ecosystem
  • Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2021
    This backstory makes sense of the headlines and the culture wars in the West. Highly recommend. He informs without being an activist.
  • Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2021
    One word might come to mind as you read Sagebrush Empire, Jonathan P. Thompson’s fascinating analysis of the cultural and political battles in Utah’s San Juan County.

    That word is mine. Not mine as in uranium mining, but mine like a two-year-old grabbing a toy from a big-brother.

    Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine.

    Everybody’s got a claim, as the ongoing, multi-layered fight over the Bears Ears National Monument demonstrates.

    Who has a right to land? Who gets to build a road? Who has a right to put up a fence? Who determines what needs protecting? What are those protections designed to guard against? Who is enforcing those protections? Can’t we all, to coin a phrase, just get along?

    Thompson starts with a perfect case, an emblematic moment that you might think would be chalked up to innocent mistake but somehow turned into a nasty legal showdown between a cattle rancher and a couple of visitors passing through San Juan County. They closed a gate! Was it malicious? Was it intentional? In our hair-trigger nation, the accusations flew. So did the lawsuits. Over, yes, a gate.

    San Juan County is Thompson’s microcosm for all the “sagebrush rebellion” battles across the western United States. It’s a county he knows intimately. Originally from Durango, Thompson had explored San Juan County with family and friends on a fairly relentless basis since he was a youth. “I grew up on the Colorado side of the line,” he writes. “But I was brought up as a resident of the entire region, state lines be damned.”

    As Thompson did with River of Lost Souls, his account the 2015 Gold King disaster above Silverton, he turns Sagebrush Empire into a mix of history, personal adventure, reporting, and straight-up commentary. The book is a mosaic. Thompson details the Mormon expansion to southwest Utah, along with the harrowing journey down the 1,000-foot drop known as Hole-in-the-Rock and across the Colorado River. He writes about the legal complexities of pothunting and Kit Carson’s reign of terror against Native American tribes. Thompson layers background and history with tales of his own journeys across the land--harrowing hikes and a rafting trip through wind and dust storms on the San Juan River, often told with a great deal of self-deprecating humor. The history sections are a snap to follow, the adventures are a blast to read. We see both the rugged beauty and all the impacted layers of politics and attitudes that have come to bear on the county.

    Everywhere he turns, Thompson finds people who are oppressed—or feel oppressed, victimized, hampered, and hindered by rules, signs, roads, fences, regulations, or the big old bad bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. Complaints are as common as dusty roads. And, no surprise, debates rage within factions over the appropriate tactics for fighting back. Thompson takes us up close and personal on a hair-raising protest as ATVs roar across precious, sacred Native American grounds. And he takes us into the thicket of local politics as some in San Juan County link arms with Cliven Bundy, the notorious “rebel” who chooses to believe that the federal government lacks the authority to manage BLM land and who would rather point guns at authorities than pay a modest grazing fee.

    “The folks of San Juan County have been in backlash mode nearly since the day that the Hole-in -the-Rock expedition arrived in 1880,” writes Thompson. “They lashed back at the land that beat and battered them and washed out their crops and ditches; they lashed back when the feds tried to turn the county into a reservation for the Utes and when thousands of greedy Gentiles descended on the place in order to get at the gold in the river's banks; they lashed back at forest reserves, at national monuments, at grazing restrictions, at road closures, at environmental policies. The sagebrush rebellion, a reactionary, backlashing movement by definition, constantly has raged in this little corner of Canyon Country for well over a century.”

    In early October, President Biden announced that he was restoring the original 1.36 million acres of Bears Ears National Monument, reversing President Trump’s order to scale it back by 85 percent. If you just finished reading Sagebrush Empire when that news broke, as I did, you would know that this announcement does nothing to end the debates or lower tensions. Not hardly.
    2 people found this helpful
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