Summarized by Eileen Bell

Successful Campaign Preserves Open Space on Mormon Trail
Salt Lake Tribune 8Jun00 N6
By Tom Wharton: Salt Lake Tribune

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- A stretch of land on the Mormon Trail will be preserved thanks to fund-raising efforts. Grants come from various private foundations and groups, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The 2.56 million dollars that has been raised will be used to preserve 73 hundred acres of land along East Canyon Creek near Salt Lake City.

The land will remain the property of the Clayton and Macfarlane families, who have owned it for almost a hundred years. Executive director of Utah Open Lands, Wendy Fisher, says, "The wonderful thing is that the private nonprofit community in Utah has come through, as usual, for open space protection. It stresses all the more the importance of the private sector involvement in land preservation."

The conservation easement will make sure the land does not get subdivided, or development. Wildlife will benefit from the maintaining of a habitat.

Besides having part of the Mormon Trail, the land also was used by the Pony Express, and has parts of the California, Donner-Reed, and Overland Stage trails.