This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Some county sheriffs and county commissioners think that the rest of the owners of the federal lands in their out-of-the-way neck of the woods, including those of us Utahns not their immediate neighbors, need to bow down to their inherent human superiority.
But, notice. There's a reason why you never see them trying to pull their heavy-handed BS on the Utah Highway Patrol or the conservation officers of the Division of Wildlife Resources. Gov. Gary Herbert would saddle up a posse of other Republican bigwigs and perform a house cleaning that would be impressive in its thoroughness. Because here's a little-known fact. Utah counties don't have any jurisdiction, even in Utah, except to the extent that state statutes say they do. And there isn't one state statute in the entire United States that supersedes duly enacted federal law.
Sometimes being at the bottom of the totem pole hurts some tiny little egos, but it's something that those folks really need to work on. Being the biggest fish in a really, really small pond gets some people super excited, but some people simply need to get over themselves.
Darrell Prows
Murray