History 4130   Utah History  Spring 2002     MacKay

Weeks 14-15

readings: Refuge, An Unnatural history of Family and Place, Terry Tempest Williams

projects: trip to Bear River Bird Refuge - May 4  http://www.northernutah.com/brefuge.htm
            trip to Utah State Historical Society - April 27 http://history.utah.org/

response paper: The history of Utah is not only the history of people and events--it is also the history of place--the environments, the fauna and flora. The Utah Mormon ethos has include a notion of refuge in the mountains, beside a salt desert. This paper should be about how you have coming to a richer understanding of Utah's history by using Refuge and your own reflection of place.

   " Home is where we have a history," says Ms. Williams. "How do we find refuge in change?" is the question she asks in her book. Using Terry's essays and some of your own experience with place, consider the relationships between the lands, looks, locations of Utah and the people inhabiting these lands, looking at this scenery, locating themselves by exploiting its resources. Alexander writes: "The common denominator of these Utahns is neither birthplace, gender, politics, economic position, religion, ethnic background, liberalism, conservatism, nor profession. Rather, it is that each chose Utah as their home...." Stegner called Mormon Country: "a good country to look at, and with the initial hardships out of the way a good country to live in."

In other words:
    Describe your own "sense of place"-- include your answers to the questions about source of water, level of Lake Bonneville, etc.-- and comment how Refuge has (or has not) helped you consider the relationships--over time-- between people and this place called Utah.

reviews of the book, available from Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679740244/o/qid=987520979/sr=2-2/104-7166126-3801529

The Southwestern Literature Association has created a web page for Ms. Williams which includes a fine interview with Tom Lynch, 2000 and other links: http://web.nmsu.edu/~tomlynch/swlit.ttwilliams.html

Utah Birds includes a link to the USGS bird identification site: http://www.utahbirds.org/

The State of Utah Division of Wildlife Resources also has taxonomic information on birds of Utah: http://www.rsgis.usu.edu/rsgis2/Search/SearchSelection.asp?Group=AVES&Species=VERT

A checklist of 405 species of birds in Utah from the Audubon Society: http://www.saltlake-audubon.org/birding/chklist.htm

Common marsh birds of northern Utah: http://www.softcom.net/users/naturenotes/marshbrd.htm

Species list for the Bear River Refuge: http://www.i-bird.com/Location/LGUTBearRiver.htm

Thumbnail guide to the refuge: http://donb.photo.net/bear_river/

Key to bird calls and songs: http://sirismm.si.edu/keystuff/song1.htm

Other "places" discussed in Refuge:

"Metaphor: Tree of Utah": http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/UTWENmetaphor.html

Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels: http://www.grousecreek.com/photo-4.html

West Desert Pumping Project: http://www.ugs.state.ut.us/online/PI-39/PI39PG8.HTM

Nevada Test Site: http://www.nv.doe.gov/Default.htm

Wendover and State Line Casino: http://www.nevadaweb.com/cnt/cc/wendover.html

Danger Cave: http://history.utah.org/Services/puoct01.html#danger

Mormon cricket: http://www.sdvc.uwyo.edu/grasshopper/ansi.htm