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Deseret Morning News
By Angie Welling
8/06/2003

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 believed to be the final, elusive Ten Commandments monument that is likely located on government property.

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

The 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 in the process of 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 with an Eagles Aeries Lodge. 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 early last month that Barnard had challenged the Pleasant Grove monument, as he has successfully done in Roy, Tooele and Ogden, an officer with that city's Fraternal Order of Eagles is rumored to have told a news reporter that members 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 the comment was made. "There is a ninth one out there, (but) we would at this point rather not disclose where it's at," he said. Carlson confirmed that the ninth monument is on government property and said the ACLU's list of possible cities is a pretty good one. He said there is only one city on the list where the monument couldn't be, Hurricane, and three others that are left off where it may be, Layton, Nephi and Vernal.

Carlson disputes the ACLU's contention that having the monuments on government property violates the separation of church and state. "It is not meant as a religious monument from the Eagles; that's not how we intended it," he said. "Those are just regular, normal laws. Everybody could find something in the Ten Commandments that they should apply to their life." Of the other Utah cities that have the monuments, Salt Lake City removed its Ten Commandments monument from public property after a federal appeals court ruled that it could remain only if the religious group Summum was allowed to erect a similar monument denoting its Egyptian beliefs. Murray moved its upon the threat of litigation; Provo moved its monument to private property on its own initiative. West Valley City's monument sits on private property in front of that town's Aeries Lodge.

In the Pleasant Grove case, Barnard sent Mayor Jim Danklef a rough draft of a lawsuit late last week. Barnard said the city failed to respond to his original letter threatening litigation if the monument is not moved from the public park. 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.

Disgusting infidels.