Mysteries and Legends of Utah: True Stories Of The Unsolved And Unexplained

by Michael O'Reilly, Michael E. O'Reilly

From Jedediah Smith's final moments to persistent rumors of bigfoot, from the rise of an unlikely uranium magnate to the mysterious end of Butch Cassidy, this selection of twelve stories from Utah's past explores some of the Beehive State's most compelling mysteries and debunks some of its most famous myths.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Mystery

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 14, 2009

Reviews

[Trevor Parker · Rating 2 out of 5]

This quote captures the essence of this book so well:

"If it is true, as some have suggested, that the reptilians [sentient extraterrestrial reptiles living in Utah, and secretly in colonies around the world] have infiltrated human society in order to facilitate the creation of a New World Order, is it possible they also have influence among Mormon Leaders? Given the secretive nature of the Latter-Day Saints Church, the idea is compelling."

O'Reilly took too many liberties in this for me to take it seriously. He spelled names wrong, cited nothing though did included a bibliography, took creative liberty filling in the cracks of historical stories with emotion, thoughts, dialogue that he merely imagined. When dealing with characters such as the outlaw Rafael Lopez, it is annoying but manageable. Very few people know anything about the man. But when taking the same creative liberties with people such as Brigham Young, it becomes insultingly hilarious. According to O'Reilly, Young was a sex-crazed pirate who sacrificed (ordered killed) followers when the whim hit him. etc...

And finally, the writing was unpolished and tedious. Two stars because the subject matter was interesting and had great potential, though it fell far short.

[LAB · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the Rhoades, Josephine and Relief mines to Mormon disasters, to aliens and UFOs, to Charlie Steen and Bigfoot, author Michael O'Reilly shares several of Utah's more infamous tall tales. Or legends or alternative science, depending on your perspective. While O'Reilly claims to make no judgement on the veracity of the stories, he sure enjoyed tracking them down. His amusement, amazement, and fun come through easily in this book, and the people he met along the way stand out as, well, unique. No matter which side of the storyline you're on this is a quick and fun read.

[Alan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just finished this book. It is tall on criticism of the LDS church and it's followers and short on facts. Should be categorized in the "fantasy" section. It seems the author has an axe to grind with the predominate religion in Utah. Besides being poorly written and only marginally researched the book tends to get a bit speculative and presumptuous to mitigate the dry writing style of the author. i guess this is what can be expected of former U of U students. it is a shame too, the author could have made a fascinating book, he let his bigotry get in the way of reality.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was thinking of buying this book at B&N, but fortunately chose to check it out from the library.
This book was very short on facts and played loose with historical information. The author seems to want to attribute the worst possible motives to the LDS Church and speculate wildly. While some of this may be expected from the title, I would still hope that some modest amount of fact checking and research would have been done.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The historical parts were actually pretty good. For me, the book fell down in the last couple of chapters, as the author wandered far afield from the apparent theme of the book, and spent time on cryptozoology and UFOs. Those two chapters were weirdly gullible, and damaged the author's credibility on the other parts, which were supposed to be purely historical. Even the parts about a haunted cemetery were more historical, because there was interesting factual information involved.
There's a big difference between knowing that Air Force reports on UFOs mention a bunch of different descriptions of supposed aliens and saying that means the Pentagon admits to all of them having come to Earth. That kind of thing really undermined O'Reilly as an author, and I almost reduced the rating to two stars as a result. The earlier bits were good enough that I kept the average at 3.
A few reviewers come down hard on his comments about the Mormon church, probably based on the Mountain Meadows Massacre chapter, but his version of that story agrees with most modern versions that I've read. Horrific deeds were done by people who seem to have thought they were doing what was right, for the benefit of their church and its leader. That hasn't always gone well, throughout history.
There were other comments about the church, but the book does take place entirely in Utah, so that's to be expected. Okay, so Brigham Young's 19th wife didn't get along with him or his ideas about architecture. That wasn't a slap at the Mormon church...

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book. I picked this up while vacationing in eastern Utah. I had expected more paranormal and "spooky" stories. But I also like that there were more unsolved mysteries in here than just ghosts. Once I finished the book and got to the 'about the author' page, I was surprised to see that this author has a masters in poetry. I could tell the author was a novice, but I don't mind it when reading books by local authors. While the writing isn't always the best, you get first-hand (or even third-hand and rumors) accounts of the history of the area. So to see that this authors is an educated writer, I think the writing could do with some help.

I also wasn't a fan of the plot development. A story would start out at the end, and then suddenly be transported back to the beginning. Without any context. There would also be random players in the story introduced without any lead up or explanation. I found myself having to backtrack a few paragraphs, sometimes an entire page or two, to keep up with the narrative. I also think the author fell off the wagon a bit at the end when he introduced Bigfoot and UFO's. While those two subjects do fall under the 'unexplained' portion of the title, I thought they were largely out of place in a historical non-fiction title. Those topics should have been reserved for a different book. I feel like the author was just grasping for pages to add to the length at that point.

Because I'm a complete nerd for local history, I did enjoy this book. However, I felt it does leave a lot of room for improvement from the author.

[Mark Tadder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like reading books that are obviously a bunch of nonsense but this one in particular had a twist that I've never run into before. Apparently Mormons have both visitation from angels but also have ghosts, Bigfoot has been shot and has played tricks on other camping Mormons and UFOs and space aliens might actually be connected to the church of Latter Day Saints. This is some awesome stuff here. If you're in the mood for it. I'm gonna have a hard time forgetting about the discussion of secret tunnels with reptilian aliens living under Salt Lake City.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of entertaining, though it doesn't seem to know what it wants to be, and it wasn't what I hoped for/expected (with perhaps the exception of the lost mine stories). It ranges from dramatized retellings of well-known historical tragedies to speculation that leaders of the LDS Church are shape-shifting reptilian aliens bent on world domination. There's definitely some sloppy historical research and bias, but there were also some stories I didn't know, so not a waste of a few hours worth of time with a library book.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was just not impressed with this book at all. Too many stories about boring mines, for one thing. Lots of unsubstantiated rumors about several of the topics, but not a lot of actual facts. And way too much use of personal anecdotes, most of which didn't seem to have anything to do with the actual story being told. I read a few chapters and mostly just skimmed the rest. It did not hold my interest at all.

[Rbingham]

If you are into local history, you won't find much new here. The author does good job of retelling some stories and legends of tbe area.
People love rehashing tales and traditions amongst families and friends. Good bedtime reading.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you heard of the Lost Rhoades Gold Mine or John Koyle's Dream Mine? Did you know ghosts supposedly haunt Heritage Park? Have you ever wondered if Bigfoot is running around in the Beehive State? These are just some of the fun topics in this little book.

[Troy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the ghost stories, lost gold mines, and even aliens. I learned some new info. I wasn't so taken by his using discredited info regarding the LDS church. Still a good read about some Utah's lesser know or more bizarre stories.

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well intentioned, but thin effort. For those not familiar with Utah or its history, this serves as an interesting footnote, but not in anyway cohesive or focused.