ACLU Hunts Elusive Monument

Call it a scavenger hunt for a most unusual prize.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah has called on people to help it track down what is probably the final, elusive Ten Commandments monument located on government property in the state.

In an "Action Alert" posted on the ACLU's Web site the group asks readers to visit local parks and city buildings in search of the monument. Of particular interest are locales in Logan, Brigham City, Hurricane, Midvale, Midway and Tremonton.

Nine monuments were donated to the Utah cities, and many others nationwide, by the Fraternal Order of Eagles during the 1950s, '60s and '70s.

Civil-rights attorney Brian Barnard, who is now negotiating removal of the eighth monument from a Pleasant Grove park, said the monuments were donated each year at annual statewide conventions in various cities that had Eagles Aeries Lodges.

Barnard and the ACLU believes "elusive number nine" is in one of the cities listed on the Web site because each has an Aeries Lodge.

When news hit that Barnard had challenged the Pleasant Grove monument, as he has done successfully in Roy, Tooele and Ogden, members of Pleasant Grove’s Eagles Lodge are rumored to have told a news reporter that they know where the final monument sits, but will not tell Barnard where it is.

Terry Carlson, past president of the Pleasant Grove Eagles, said it's entirely possible that the comment was made. "There is a ninth one out there, but we would rather not disclose where it's at," he said.

Carlson confirmed that the ninth monument is on government property.

Anyone who spots the reddish gray marble monument, formed to look like two tablets standing side by side, is asked to call the ACLU at 1-801-521-9862 Ext. 103 or Barnard at 1-801-328-9531.

Based on an article in the Deseret Morning News, Salt Lake City
Tuesday, August 5, 2003


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