Where's YOUR Utah?The first time I saw the black & white photographs in John Telford's show, "People Places and Things on US 89," I had the immediate urge to hop in my car and do my own tour of our amazing state. Eventually, I did just that, eating my way from the Trail’s End Café in Kanab to the Hometown Drive-In in Garden City. You can read about my trip through Utah on U.S. 89 in my essay "The Tastes of Highway 89."
But other Utahns have also been inspired by this show. This space--or, more precisely, this cyberspace-- offers a place for every viewer of the Highway 89 show to post their own private visions of Utah, as seen from U.S. Highway 89.
Telford's 503-mile photo tour of Highway 89 (called by many Utahns "the old road") passes through rural and historical parts of the state that the casual traveler will never see from the Interstate highways. Other guides to the state usually focus on Utah's red rock wilderness and national parks, or on our cultural eccentricities like polygamy and our famous fondness for green jello. But those of us who live here know that those guides are really intended for visitors, for outsiders. We know that behind the public face of the Beehive State there is a real place with a diverse people, a rich history, and fascinating stories.
Telford's photos give us a view of that authentic, unexploited part of Utah. You won't find Duane Cox, the beekeeper in Logan, or Merlin Figgins, the casket maker in Orderville, playing any part in the Utah Travel Council's marketing plan, but they fit perfectly into Telford's presentation of the real Utah, the one we all know is there, but don't often look for.
So join us, please. View Telford's photos, and take a tour along Highway 89, even if only in your imagination. Tell us what you saw. Share your own vision of Utah.
