The Bureau of Land Management has bolstered its single law enforcement officer in the area with four additional U.S. Rangers, four representatives of the Division of Motor Vehicles, eight patrol deputies from the Juab County Sheriff's Office, and 15 Search and Rescue officers for the Labor Day holiday.
"This whole operation is about safety," said U.S. Ranger Curt Toovey, called in from California to help patrol.
The Labor Day crowd of about 9,700 people Saturday was less than a third of the 35,000 who crammed the areas surrounding the dunes during Easter. That weekend, two incidents involving more than 1,000 people each resulted in 300 arrests or citations and 37 instances of medical assistance. Groups of partiers blocked off areas and forced women to bare their breasts to leave the area along with unwanted fondling of women, according to police reports.
As of Saturday evening, officers said they had made three arrests for driving under the influence and ticketed several for open container and underage drinking violations. Two injuries required ambulance trips and one back injury required a person to be airlifted to an area hospital.
Juab County Sheriff Alden Orme said no disorderly conduct or assault arrests had been made Saturday. Orme said Easter drew many college students and unsupervised teenagers, and he cautioned parents not to send their teens to Little Sahara without a responsible adult.
Regardless of the lawless behavior over Easter, many families came to race up the dune mountain at Sand Mountain on Saturday.
"It gets crazy out here," said James Pullen of Salt Lake City. "If you can think of it, it's out here."
But he and his wife, Laura, still came with their children and their friends' children - ranging in age from 1 to 7 - and 15 ATVs. James Pullen has visited Little Sahara regularly since he was a child and now enjoys sharing the experience, including a makeshift swimming pool in the back of a pickup truck, with his kids.
"We come all the time, as often as possible," he said.
Troy Starley of Magna also began visiting Little Sahara when he was young, and now he and his wife, Lynn, and their children come up every other weekend throughout the summer. They avoid the chaotic Sand Mountain campground during busy weekends and instead take refuge at the Jericho campground - a more family-oriented area with a circular pit of microdunes for the young kids to go off-roading.
While many of the residents in the surrounding cities of Nephi and Delta know that some people can get out of control, the steadily growing crowds appearing at Little Sahara help business.
Labor Day weekend is a hectic time at the Delta Sports Center, which sells Yamaha, Kawasaki and KTM motorbikes, and dune buggies. Drey Oppenheimer, the parts manager at the store, said he's seen the crowds grow steadily larger at Little Sahara.
"That seems to be where the party's at," the 17-year-old said.
BLM spokeswoman Lisa Reid said she hopes more people do visit the area - responsibly.
"Having more law enforcement officers out and visible has helped, and hopefully after someone gets tagged they won't do it again," she said. "But you could have all the law enforcement officers in the world and people are still going to break the law and have accidents."
smcfarland@sltrib.com
