News from the CLUI Complex in the
Great Salt Lake Desert
The Altered States of Wendover?
Recent media attention has publicized the latest
development in the the persistent debate about what to do about
poor, orphaned Wendover, Utah (where the facilities of the CLUIÙs
Wendover Complex reside). With the state line running right
through the community, Wendover is a town cleft in two. One
side (Nevada) is booming due to legalized gambling, 24-hour
liquor, and tolerated prostitution, while the other (Utah) languishes
in the remains of the old railway and military towns that came
and went, a community of trailers, churches and an impoverished
(financially, but not morally) school system. Once, the Utah
state legislature considered allowing gambling in this remote
corner of Utah. That proposal didnÙt make it very far in the
Mormon-dominated politics of the State. The current, simpler
solution has been proposed more than once: move the Nevada state
line, which is perfectly straight for 300 miles, so that it
pokes out in a small rectangular bulge around what is now Wendover,
Utah. While the proposal continues to be debated (with most
resistance now coming from WendoverÙs Nevada side), the CLUI
ponders the implications of moving from one state to another,
while staying completely still.
