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Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America
Beginning with an Olympic ski race in northern Utah, this heartfelt book from award-winning writer and photographer Stephen Trimble takes a penetrating look at the battles raging over the land-and the soul-of the American West. "Bargaining for Eden "investigates the high-profile story of a reclusive billionaire who worked relentlessly to acquire public land for his ski resort and to host the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. In a gripping, character-driven narrative, based on extensive interviews, Trimble tells of the land exchange deal that ensued, one of the largest and most controversial in U.S. history, as he deftly explores the inner conflicts, paradoxes, and greed at the heart of land-use disputes from the back rooms of Washington to the grassroots efforts of passionate citizens. Into this mix, Trimble weaves the personal story of how he, a lifelong environmentalist, ironically became a landowner and developer himself, and began to explore the ethics of ownership anew. We travel with Trimble in a fascinating journey that becomes, in the end, a hopeful credo to guide citizens and communities seeking to reinvent their relationship with the beloved American landscape.
- GenresPoliticsNonfiction
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2008
4 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Trimble
44 books12 followersAs writer, editor, and photographer, Stephen Trimble has published 25 award-winning books during 45 years of paying attention to the landscapes and peoples of the Desert West. He’s received The Sierra Club's Ansel Adams Award for photography and conservation and a Doctor of Humane Letters from his alma mater, Colorado College. In 2019, he was honored as one of Utah’s 15 most influential artists.
Trimble speaks and writes as a conservation advocate and has taught writing at the University of Utah. He makes his home in Salt Lake City and in the redrock country of Torrey, Utah. Environmental historian James Aton has said: Trimble's books comprise one of the most well-rounded, sustained, and profound visions of people and landscape that we have ever seen in the American West.
Trimble speaks and writes as a conservation advocate and has taught writing at the University of Utah. He makes his home in Salt Lake City and in the redrock country of Torrey, Utah. Environmental historian James Aton has said: Trimble's books comprise one of the most well-rounded, sustained, and profound visions of people and landscape that we have ever seen in the American West.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 17, 2018
A really great exposé on the efforts, in the 1990's, of Utah Congressmen and Senators to wield their power and influence to greatly enrich a single individual who was already one of the wealthiest men in America -- all at the expense of American taxpayers and citizens who were forced to sacrifice 1300+ acres of irreplaceable public land.
Earl Holding, owner of Sun Valley ski resort in Idaho, Little America Hotels, and Sinclair Oil, also owned Snowbasin ski area near Ogden, Utah. He wanted more than the few hundred acres he currently owned that were surrounded by publicly owned land which he leased from the Forest Service. But the land he coveted, was managed with the directive of preserving it in a way that benefited the most people in the best way without degradation of the land itself.
Holding's greed is exemplified by this quote, said to be his motto:
Through disturbing, unethical, and corrupt political maneuverings these lawmakers pushed through Congress a land trade rider attached to an omnibus bill that gave Holding everything he wanted and more, all without any citizen input or discussion. It also generously (to Earl Holding) and detrimentally (to the land itself and to citizens everywhere) exempted Holding from complying with the otherwise mandatory NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) requirements.
This public theft and deceit occurred in the 1990's. Proponents of the deal justified it by Utah's approaching deadline to be ready for the Winter Olympics of 2002.
Before this public land theft I used to ski at Snowbasin. It was then a small-time, local, low-priced, uncrowded ski area. I loved the place. I hiked there in the summer and always saw moose. But that wonderful place of my memory is now gone forever -- replaced with a crowded, overly-developed, scarred and unnatural mountain.
When this land trade deal was being pushed through Congress I remember seeing Orrin Hatch on the news as he publicly declared that "anyone who opposes this land transfer is a Neanderthal."
Well, for the past 20 years one of my senators has thought of me (one of his constituents, along with hundreds of thousands of other like-minded constituents of his) as a "Neanderthal." In the succeeding 20+ years, Hatch has only become more divisive, scornful, and derisive of those in his constituency who dare to disagree with him. Just recently he referred to me and everyone who disagrees with him on his (primitive, costly, inefficient, and cruel) stance on health care in America as "some of the stupidest dumbass people [he has] ever met."
Of course, being called a "dumbass" and a "Neanderthal" by my Senator isn't quite as bad as what my Congressman wishes for me. This guy openly stated that I, along with everyone else who disagrees with him on public land policy, "should die."
I hope I can be excused for having lost the faith I used to have that my voice mattered or that my representatives in Washington represented my interests.
This was a very good, but depressing book that details how some of richest and most powerful people in America use their wealth and power and their political influence to screw over anyone and everyone in their way as they push forward in their never-ending pursuit of even more wealth and power -- in this particular case by stealing treasured land from the public domain.
Earl Holding, owner of Sun Valley ski resort in Idaho, Little America Hotels, and Sinclair Oil, also owned Snowbasin ski area near Ogden, Utah. He wanted more than the few hundred acres he currently owned that were surrounded by publicly owned land which he leased from the Forest Service. But the land he coveted, was managed with the directive of preserving it in a way that benefited the most people in the best way without degradation of the land itself.
Holding's greed is exemplified by this quote, said to be his motto:
I won't be satisfied until I own all the land next to mine.Holding intimidated local opposition to his plan, and he pressured the Forest Service to acquiesce to his demands. He insisted that they hand over nearly the entire mountain in a land trade in order to allow him to build a world class resort - which, not coincidently, would immediately and dramatically increase his own immense wealth. When the Forest Service responded by offering a reasonable and scientifically justified portion of what he wanted, Holding called on his paid-for servants: Senators Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett and Congressman James Hansen.
Through disturbing, unethical, and corrupt political maneuverings these lawmakers pushed through Congress a land trade rider attached to an omnibus bill that gave Holding everything he wanted and more, all without any citizen input or discussion. It also generously (to Earl Holding) and detrimentally (to the land itself and to citizens everywhere) exempted Holding from complying with the otherwise mandatory NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) requirements.
This public theft and deceit occurred in the 1990's. Proponents of the deal justified it by Utah's approaching deadline to be ready for the Winter Olympics of 2002.
Before this public land theft I used to ski at Snowbasin. It was then a small-time, local, low-priced, uncrowded ski area. I loved the place. I hiked there in the summer and always saw moose. But that wonderful place of my memory is now gone forever -- replaced with a crowded, overly-developed, scarred and unnatural mountain.
When this land trade deal was being pushed through Congress I remember seeing Orrin Hatch on the news as he publicly declared that "anyone who opposes this land transfer is a Neanderthal."
Well, for the past 20 years one of my senators has thought of me (one of his constituents, along with hundreds of thousands of other like-minded constituents of his) as a "Neanderthal." In the succeeding 20+ years, Hatch has only become more divisive, scornful, and derisive of those in his constituency who dare to disagree with him. Just recently he referred to me and everyone who disagrees with him on his (primitive, costly, inefficient, and cruel) stance on health care in America as "some of the stupidest dumbass people [he has] ever met."
Of course, being called a "dumbass" and a "Neanderthal" by my Senator isn't quite as bad as what my Congressman wishes for me. This guy openly stated that I, along with everyone else who disagrees with him on public land policy, "should die."
I hope I can be excused for having lost the faith I used to have that my voice mattered or that my representatives in Washington represented my interests.
This was a very good, but depressing book that details how some of richest and most powerful people in America use their wealth and power and their political influence to screw over anyone and everyone in their way as they push forward in their never-ending pursuit of even more wealth and power -- in this particular case by stealing treasured land from the public domain.
January 20, 2009
The author is avowedly biased, yet evenhanded. It is clear that he dislikes Earl Holding - one of Utah's largest landowners and the book's developer villain - but a surprise twist towards the end of the book allows him to identify with Holding on some level. The political machinations that allowed Holding to purchase and develop a large swath of public land made me cringe throughout the story. In sum, Holding used his powerful political allies, including Orrin Hatch and Jim Hansen, and the Olympic Games to bypass federal regulations and create a mega ski resort.
The best part of the book is a description of the local businessman and his lawyer who blocked Holden from a huge public subsidy. According to the book: In preparation for construction of the Grand America in downtown SLC, Holden's company allowed some of its property to become derelict. Then he asked the city redevelopment agency to declare the area "blighted" in order to collect huge public subsidies. But instead, one guy, who is affiliated with the flower shop that never sold its land to Holding, used a series of sneaky legal tactics to stall the process long enough that Holden had to develop the hotel on his own dime. Sweet.
The best part of the book is a description of the local businessman and his lawyer who blocked Holden from a huge public subsidy. According to the book: In preparation for construction of the Grand America in downtown SLC, Holden's company allowed some of its property to become derelict. Then he asked the city redevelopment agency to declare the area "blighted" in order to collect huge public subsidies. But instead, one guy, who is affiliated with the flower shop that never sold its land to Holding, used a series of sneaky legal tactics to stall the process long enough that Holden had to develop the hotel on his own dime. Sweet.
November 6, 2008
When Earl Holding bought the bankrupt Snowbasin ski area in Ogden, Colorado, in 1984, he was already the owner of Sun Valley in Utah, not to mention Sinclair Oil. Yes, he had the top of the mountain, so to speak, but not the bottom. That belonged to the National Forest—in other words, to you and me. In 1996, still without the additional land, Snowbasin was named a venue for the 2002 Winter Olympics, and the pressure came to a head. Earl Holding wanted all the land, a complete whole to shape and build on and call his own. Don’t we all. As Trimble writes, “On some levels, I am Earl—we are all Earl.”
Writer, photographer, and naturalist Trimble begins his story about 30 miles outside of Laramie, Wyoming, and ends up right at the dinner table of everyone who has ever wanted to put up a fence. “How do we live ethically on land as it shifts underneath us with changing values, exploding growth, and money and politics wielding brute force?” writes Trimble. “I’m looking for answers.”
Writer, photographer, and naturalist Trimble begins his story about 30 miles outside of Laramie, Wyoming, and ends up right at the dinner table of everyone who has ever wanted to put up a fence. “How do we live ethically on land as it shifts underneath us with changing values, exploding growth, and money and politics wielding brute force?” writes Trimble. “I’m looking for answers.”
April 20, 2015
This was the second book for my book club and Stephen Trimble joined us for the discussion. I thought the book read like a novel and so I had to remind myself that this really happened and I could go and look at the places mentioned in the book(not too far from where I live) and see that they are real. As a matter of fact, the flower shop was just torn down last year. I came away from the book club meeting thinking that this was a story that needed to be told and I was glad Steve was the one who told it. I learned how ski resorts work in the West and I also learned how the powerful get things done. It has been a while since I read this, but I feel it was written well and objectively although some may disagree.
December 27, 2009
I really, really liked this book. As a political conservative who loves wilderness and the outdoors and public lands, I appreciated the honesty of the author in recognizing the similarites of those who use (abuse) power to obtain public land for private development and those who act in the same way to protect public lands without involvement of those who live and work there. I love the author's credo given at the end of the book and surfacing in his words throughout the book, that true solutions will only come through dialog, mutual respect, trust, and understanding.
May 14, 2019
This sad book recounts how one wealthy outsider was able to buy off two Utah senators and at least one congressman to aid him in thwarting the will of the local community near Snow Basin and the US Forest Service back in the 1990s. As I read this detailed account, I was reminded that the United States really isn't all that different than many Third World countries when it comes to our inability to protect ourselves from corruption on a grand scale.
If you look up Earl Holding on the Wikipedia, you'll get the idea that he was some sort of big-hearted philanthropist who made the lives of everyone around him better. Yet he was only too happy to subsidize his grandiose and self-serving projects with public funding to the tune of tens of millions of dollars whenever he could get away with it. Thanks to one particularly vigilant citizen by the name of Mac Livingston, however, Holding failed to collect some 27 million dollars from Salt Lake City taxpayers when he pushed his ghastly and out of scale Grand America Hotel onto the Salt Lake City skyline during the same decade.
Holding used the imminent 2002 Olympics as an excuse for pushing his reckless and unnecessarily large and intrusive ski resort on an unwilling community. And, naturally, pious Orrin Hatch, who had never lived in Utah before becoming a resident in order to run for a Utah Senate seat, enthusiastically dubbed any naysayers “dumbasses” because, of course, that’s apparently how a distinguished high public official who claims to be a Christian is supposed to talk.
The end of the book is about land issues in the southern part of our fair state. The author describes how he and his wife bought property near Torrey, Utah and incurred the wrath of locals when he attempted to push for protections against the large-scale loss of public lands to private interests. He acknowledges that he himself is similar to Holding except on a smaller scale in that he imposed his own will on the land he purchased, engineering a road to the house he and his wife built which was perched high on a hill overlooking the valley.
Why do Utahns continue to elect officials who facilitate corruption of the sort that Earl Holding engaged in? I'm baffled by this. How can we convince rural Utahns that it is not in their interest to continue to allow well-heeled outsiders to get rich off mineral deposits while paying the locals a pittance to extract them whether in the form of petroleum, uranium or coal? Their big complaint is always that they don't want people coming in and challenging their traditional lifestyle. Yet industrial projects of these sorts do more to undermine their quality of life than anything else, including the “dirtbag Gen X’ers”, to quote one Torrey resident from the book, who have the nerve to come down and hike and bike on local trails.
If you are interested in learning more about local politics in the state of Utah, I highly recommend this book.
If you look up Earl Holding on the Wikipedia, you'll get the idea that he was some sort of big-hearted philanthropist who made the lives of everyone around him better. Yet he was only too happy to subsidize his grandiose and self-serving projects with public funding to the tune of tens of millions of dollars whenever he could get away with it. Thanks to one particularly vigilant citizen by the name of Mac Livingston, however, Holding failed to collect some 27 million dollars from Salt Lake City taxpayers when he pushed his ghastly and out of scale Grand America Hotel onto the Salt Lake City skyline during the same decade.
Holding used the imminent 2002 Olympics as an excuse for pushing his reckless and unnecessarily large and intrusive ski resort on an unwilling community. And, naturally, pious Orrin Hatch, who had never lived in Utah before becoming a resident in order to run for a Utah Senate seat, enthusiastically dubbed any naysayers “dumbasses” because, of course, that’s apparently how a distinguished high public official who claims to be a Christian is supposed to talk.
The end of the book is about land issues in the southern part of our fair state. The author describes how he and his wife bought property near Torrey, Utah and incurred the wrath of locals when he attempted to push for protections against the large-scale loss of public lands to private interests. He acknowledges that he himself is similar to Holding except on a smaller scale in that he imposed his own will on the land he purchased, engineering a road to the house he and his wife built which was perched high on a hill overlooking the valley.
Why do Utahns continue to elect officials who facilitate corruption of the sort that Earl Holding engaged in? I'm baffled by this. How can we convince rural Utahns that it is not in their interest to continue to allow well-heeled outsiders to get rich off mineral deposits while paying the locals a pittance to extract them whether in the form of petroleum, uranium or coal? Their big complaint is always that they don't want people coming in and challenging their traditional lifestyle. Yet industrial projects of these sorts do more to undermine their quality of life than anything else, including the “dirtbag Gen X’ers”, to quote one Torrey resident from the book, who have the nerve to come down and hike and bike on local trails.
If you are interested in learning more about local politics in the state of Utah, I highly recommend this book.
June 17, 2021
The author, a ranger at Capital Reef for 30 years, moves from Salt Lake City to land outside Torrey, Utah and builds his dream house. He contrasts this with Earl Holding, mega millionare owner of Little America motels, Sun Valley ski resort and now the Winter Olympic game site in Utah at Snowbasin resort. He tells the story of Earl's shenanigans to obtain land for the supposed Olympic games, but really just a land grab for himself. He uses Utah congressman to push through measures in DC that locals then cannot block and builds himself an empire. Discouraging to see the billionaires do whatever they wish.
June 5, 2009
Stephen Trimble unveils a critical account of Earl Holding's quest to build the Grand America Hotel and take over Snow Basin Resort. This is a great example of how capitalists disrupt the grace of a community. In comparison to Holding, Trimble uses himself as an example of someone that also desires private ownership of public land. However, his success in gaining a 'private Eden' is different because Holding's objective involved building assets with no endpoint. His greed and political power caused immense distress and hatred among mass numbers of informed citizens.
June 16, 2010
I found this book incredibly interesting from a very personal perspective. Having grown up in the shadow of Snowbasin, the fight for the land IS personal. Because of Holding, my father has had to look into new ways to protect his farm holdings and the future of the Diamond F ranch. So reading Mr. Trimble's 'take' on gave word to some of my own feelings.
February 21, 2011
The description of the SnowBasin land exchange was more illuminating than the recap of his personal home-buying experience. Nice description of the role of land trusts as a preservation tool.
December 30, 2019
A must-read for anyone interested in the collision of money, politics and public lands. It’s not all Bundys, fracking and pit mines we have to worry about.
December 31, 2023
Idk how to rate nonfiction with the same scale i use to rate fiction but this is a great read.
Want to read
July 7, 2008@ both.
Highly recommended by the owner of The King's English bookstore in Salt Lake City.
Highly recommended by the owner of The King's English bookstore in Salt Lake City.
November 20, 2008
Trimble tells about the shenanigans behind the development of Earl Holding's Snowbasin ski resort in Ogden, Utah.
February 16, 2010
Loved the discussion of open lands. Since I live near Snowbasin, I have a new appreciation for the beauty of the area and the importance of preserving it.
September 16, 2016
Reviewed for Orion Magazine
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews