What do you think?
Rate this book
Sagebrush Empire: How a Remote Utah County Became the Battlefront of American Public Lands
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.
364 pages, Paperback
Published August 3, 2021
23 people are currently reading
206 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
September 18, 2023
Many of the books about the Colorado Plateau that I have read have been natural histories or travelogues. This book contains a bit of that, but mostly it’s about the other side of the region’s landscapes: the land use issues that occupy the politics of southeastern Utah.
I enjoyed learning about these issues, and reading Thompson’s detailed yet clear writing. (Reading this book was like reading a very long-form article from High Country News, which Thompson has been affiliated with.)
I enjoyed learning about these issues, and reading Thompson’s detailed yet clear writing. (Reading this book was like reading a very long-form article from High Country News, which Thompson has been affiliated with.)
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.
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.
April 5, 2022
great book, i learned lots and the reading was engaging
September 18, 2022
As a kid Jonathan Thompson, author of this book, came to southeastern Utah with his dad to hike and explore. He characterized it as going behind the Slickrock Curtain and it has been a personal spirit quest and place for adventure ever since. Thompson is affiliated with High Country News, a paper that advocates for environmental protection on the Colorado Plateau. As Thompson explained why he sees San Juan County, Utah as the focal point for debates on how public land should be managed, he looped in viewpoints from several perspectives.
Local cattle baron J.A. Scorup would have been a Sagebrush Rebel if the movement had been around in the early years of the county. Former commissioner Cal Black backed development and ardently opposed environmental protections, according to Thompson. He goes on to set up Phil Lyman, local representative to the Utah legislature, as the posterchild for the Sagebrush Rebellion. Thompson points fingers at the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Bureau of Reclamation, and Forest Service for their atrocities as well. To balance his presentation, Thompson also finds fault with a variety of environmental organizations and lone warriors. He finds very little to complain about, however, when he speaks respectfully of Native American interests in the county, and spends quite a bit of the book exposing behind-the-scenes stories of why and how the Bears Ears National Monument was established and modified.
In the end I found the book to be a pretty good look at land use in San Juan County, although it was less effective at tying the local situation to national conservation issues. I won't say I agree with all of Thompson's assertions, but I do credit him with his effort to give the reader a better balanced account that some other authors and organizations have provided. And he managed to do so with an easy style that was quite readable.
Local cattle baron J.A. Scorup would have been a Sagebrush Rebel if the movement had been around in the early years of the county. Former commissioner Cal Black backed development and ardently opposed environmental protections, according to Thompson. He goes on to set up Phil Lyman, local representative to the Utah legislature, as the posterchild for the Sagebrush Rebellion. Thompson points fingers at the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Bureau of Reclamation, and Forest Service for their atrocities as well. To balance his presentation, Thompson also finds fault with a variety of environmental organizations and lone warriors. He finds very little to complain about, however, when he speaks respectfully of Native American interests in the county, and spends quite a bit of the book exposing behind-the-scenes stories of why and how the Bears Ears National Monument was established and modified.
In the end I found the book to be a pretty good look at land use in San Juan County, although it was less effective at tying the local situation to national conservation issues. I won't say I agree with all of Thompson's assertions, but I do credit him with his effort to give the reader a better balanced account that some other authors and organizations have provided. And he managed to do so with an easy style that was quite readable.
May 3, 2022
i guarantee that unless you are from the Four Corners area you will be blown away by the skullduggery and greed of the grab of public lands detailed in this book. I read this book with an eye to trying to understand the viewpoints of ranchers, miners, etc who use the vast western lands that belong to all of us, relying on laws enacted many generations ago when the fragility of arid lands was not understood, and when America still had an openly racist attitude towards the indigenous peoples that have called the area home for millennia. Unfortunately, the author points out that the most ardent adherents to a philosophy of "this is our land to use and abuse any way we see fit," are mostly white, fairly intolerant males (though there are many females in this herd as well) who seem to suffer from the fear of a loss of control.
The biomes of Earth that humans have lived with operate within really narrow tolerances of temperature, moisture, diversity and the ability to regenerate. Ignoring this will ultimately bring peril to not only the human species, but so many other species of animals, plants, insects.
The biomes of Earth that humans have lived with operate within really narrow tolerances of temperature, moisture, diversity and the ability to regenerate. Ignoring this will ultimately bring peril to not only the human species, but so many other species of animals, plants, insects.
February 17, 2022
Public lands history of San Juan County, Utah interspersed with personal tales of outdoor adventure and the sheer terror of journalism to cover armed, amped-up, anti-government right-wingers. Thompson, who writes for High Country News, makes this harrowing tale of government public lands bureaucracy and irascible white settler-colonialists (a.k.a. "Sagebrush Rebels") readable and fascinating.
November 6, 2023
A frustrating read. I hate the homespun and ignorant politics of my fellow Utahns in the southeast corner of our state.
Some of the stories that come out of that area are hard to fathom. For example, people who repeatedly purloin priceless artifacts from public lands get off with a relative slap on the wrist compared to Tim De Christopher, who went to prison for two years for trying to protect public lands. The difference seems to be that they were in it for personal gain, something which can be forgiven by the powers that be, while De Christopher wanted to save something beautiful and irreplaceable, something which they cannot comprehend and therefore could never forgive.
As for Phil Lyman, the Bundys are right to brand him a coward. But the payoff for him is that he can now pose as an upstanding member of society by serving on the Utah state legislature.
As for the Bundys, they are dangerous clowns, and they can never make restitution for the damage they and their irresponsible father have done. They belong in jail, and yet they continue to spew their ignorant and dangerous drivel to people who don't know any better. And, of course, they still owe the federal government (in other words, the American people) millions of dollars in overdue grazing fees and who knows how much for damage to ecologically sensitive lands they abused for decades.
There's a lot more ugly behavior that is discussed in this book, and it's pretty dispiriting to read. Thank God that Thompson writes so eloquently about these issues, though. It helps to know that there are sane, reasonable people out there who understand how senseless and stupid the so-called sagebrush rebels are.
Some of the stories that come out of that area are hard to fathom. For example, people who repeatedly purloin priceless artifacts from public lands get off with a relative slap on the wrist compared to Tim De Christopher, who went to prison for two years for trying to protect public lands. The difference seems to be that they were in it for personal gain, something which can be forgiven by the powers that be, while De Christopher wanted to save something beautiful and irreplaceable, something which they cannot comprehend and therefore could never forgive.
As for Phil Lyman, the Bundys are right to brand him a coward. But the payoff for him is that he can now pose as an upstanding member of society by serving on the Utah state legislature.
As for the Bundys, they are dangerous clowns, and they can never make restitution for the damage they and their irresponsible father have done. They belong in jail, and yet they continue to spew their ignorant and dangerous drivel to people who don't know any better. And, of course, they still owe the federal government (in other words, the American people) millions of dollars in overdue grazing fees and who knows how much for damage to ecologically sensitive lands they abused for decades.
There's a lot more ugly behavior that is discussed in this book, and it's pretty dispiriting to read. Thank God that Thompson writes so eloquently about these issues, though. It helps to know that there are sane, reasonable people out there who understand how senseless and stupid the so-called sagebrush rebels are.
April 19, 2023
Incredibly Interesting and Easy to Read
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.
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.
May 5, 2024
Overall a great look at the public land battles of the past several decades through the lens of San Juan County, UT. Thompson’s descriptions of the earlier years in particular seem well researched and make for fascinating reading. I just felt like he got a bit too into his own opinion and a bit too Abbey-esque in the last couple chapters, with no recognition that the “hordes” enjoying his treasured places are his co-owners of our public lands, enjoying the same beauty he does, perhaps in their own ways. Would have been 4 or 5 stars but the lack of self awareness after dunking on all these folks who see public lands as belonging to them was pretty disappointing.
February 23, 2024
The author does a good job of explaining the different facets of land-use related political struggles and their historical context in Southeastern Utah. I feel very informed about these issues regarding their recent developments and their primary historical threads.
If you've never heard a crunchy gringo from this area wax poetic about the authenticity and depth of their connection to canyon country and the life-changing nature of a rafting trip, get ready. But I found the alternating journalist to outdoors bro register endearing in the end.
If you've never heard a crunchy gringo from this area wax poetic about the authenticity and depth of their connection to canyon country and the life-changing nature of a rafting trip, get ready. But I found the alternating journalist to outdoors bro register endearing in the end.
February 9, 2022
saving San Juan County and ourselves
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
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
February 16, 2024
A fascinating look at San Juan county, Utah where Morman ranchers lead their own sagebrush rebellion. These entitled White men feel they should own and manage federal lands while still taking federal subsidies for grazing lands. Racism abides here against indigenous tribes. It's a startling look at the greed and entitlement of the American West.
Read
August 10, 2022Great read!
May 28, 2023
Such a great history and present-day map of the San Juan county area. I enjoyed it from beginning to end.
December 22, 2023
insightful history on the fight for public lands in Utah primarily. Some good story telling with some poorly placed political jabs to take away from the story at large.
February 6, 2022
Book 25 of 2021: Sagebrush Empire by Jonathan P. Thompson
Thompson, a contributing editor and writer for the High Country News documents the history of the Sagebrush Rebellion centering on San Juan County, Utah. San Juan County is home to descendants of Mormon settlers from the Hole-in-the Rock expedition and indigenous peoples (a large chunk of the county is Navajo Nation). The grassroots effort by indigenous tribes in the area to create Bears Ears National Monument is central to this story. San Juan County is also home to Recapture Canyon, in which a San Juan County commissioner led a protest ATV ride in 2017 and well as infamous raids on pot hunting residents of Blanding.
The author weaves stories of his personal involvement with the land from backpacking in his youth to rafting down the San Juan River. He often reminds his audience that public land is also stolen land. I know that this is true, but it still makes me uncomfortable as a white male growing up in the West. As I stated in my overview of Betsy Gaines Quammen's book, American Zion, I don't know exactly what the solution to this is, but i do know that the co-management of public lands by the tribes (as was to be the case with Bears Ears), would go a long way to healing these past wounds.
Addressing national monument designations and the protections it offers, Thompson writes, "...a monument does far more than keep looters or drillers at bay. It gives federal land managers more leverage to limit visitation, to steer people away from the most sensitive sites, to ban or strictly regulate motorized and nonmotorized recreation, to forbid mountain bike races or other competitive events, to keep BASE jumpers from launching themselves from Arch Canyon, and to stop "adventure guides" form leading dozens of paying clients through your favorite, no-longer-so-secret slot canyon.." (p. 310).
In addressing "industrial tourism" he brings up the poster child for this (Moab) and presents a viewpoint that Moab became Moab due to promotion/marketing of Moab BY Moab and Utah ("the Mighty Five"), not from outside influences. He speaks to the fact that, while we may bemoan the crowds and their effects at our once favorite national park, the Place still is there. When visiting Zion at the peak of tourist season he writes, "...I would have preferred to be there before all the roads and parking lots and shuttle buses were there, but, with apologies for anthropomorphizing, I kind of doubt that the Place really gives a damn whether all those people are looking at it or not. The masses have an impact, of course, but to imply that they somehow suck the soul out of a place, to think that it is any less sublime because of the masses is to underestimate the power and strength of Beauty." (p. 326).
He ends his main narrative with a quote from Wallace Stegner from The Sound of Mountain Water about "the native home of hope" and that the West is characterized and preserved more on cooperation than "rugged individualism". This cooperation is the future of public lands in San Juan County and the West.
The book is pretty up to date, ending with the hope that our newly and legally elected President Biden will restore Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments and the promise of his nomination of Deb Haaland, an Native American, as the Secretary of the Interior (now confirmed). I would recommend this book to anyone interested in public lands issues, especially the history of the Sagebrush Rebellion.
Thompson, a contributing editor and writer for the High Country News documents the history of the Sagebrush Rebellion centering on San Juan County, Utah. San Juan County is home to descendants of Mormon settlers from the Hole-in-the Rock expedition and indigenous peoples (a large chunk of the county is Navajo Nation). The grassroots effort by indigenous tribes in the area to create Bears Ears National Monument is central to this story. San Juan County is also home to Recapture Canyon, in which a San Juan County commissioner led a protest ATV ride in 2017 and well as infamous raids on pot hunting residents of Blanding.
The author weaves stories of his personal involvement with the land from backpacking in his youth to rafting down the San Juan River. He often reminds his audience that public land is also stolen land. I know that this is true, but it still makes me uncomfortable as a white male growing up in the West. As I stated in my overview of Betsy Gaines Quammen's book, American Zion, I don't know exactly what the solution to this is, but i do know that the co-management of public lands by the tribes (as was to be the case with Bears Ears), would go a long way to healing these past wounds.
Addressing national monument designations and the protections it offers, Thompson writes, "...a monument does far more than keep looters or drillers at bay. It gives federal land managers more leverage to limit visitation, to steer people away from the most sensitive sites, to ban or strictly regulate motorized and nonmotorized recreation, to forbid mountain bike races or other competitive events, to keep BASE jumpers from launching themselves from Arch Canyon, and to stop "adventure guides" form leading dozens of paying clients through your favorite, no-longer-so-secret slot canyon.." (p. 310).
In addressing "industrial tourism" he brings up the poster child for this (Moab) and presents a viewpoint that Moab became Moab due to promotion/marketing of Moab BY Moab and Utah ("the Mighty Five"), not from outside influences. He speaks to the fact that, while we may bemoan the crowds and their effects at our once favorite national park, the Place still is there. When visiting Zion at the peak of tourist season he writes, "...I would have preferred to be there before all the roads and parking lots and shuttle buses were there, but, with apologies for anthropomorphizing, I kind of doubt that the Place really gives a damn whether all those people are looking at it or not. The masses have an impact, of course, but to imply that they somehow suck the soul out of a place, to think that it is any less sublime because of the masses is to underestimate the power and strength of Beauty." (p. 326).
He ends his main narrative with a quote from Wallace Stegner from The Sound of Mountain Water about "the native home of hope" and that the West is characterized and preserved more on cooperation than "rugged individualism". This cooperation is the future of public lands in San Juan County and the West.
The book is pretty up to date, ending with the hope that our newly and legally elected President Biden will restore Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments and the promise of his nomination of Deb Haaland, an Native American, as the Secretary of the Interior (now confirmed). I would recommend this book to anyone interested in public lands issues, especially the history of the Sagebrush Rebellion.
October 22, 2021
Excellent overview of the history and policies that have shaped the southeastern Utah politics. I really admire Thompson’s investigative digging.
January 3, 2023
Excellent book on one of the most fascinating places in the West. If you're into the politics of America's public lands, you'll enjoy and learn a lot from this book.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews