What Will Happen to Promise Rock? Well, Nothing Yet

In mid-March of this year, Bryce Valley erupted when the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, SITLA, put out a request for proposal on two parcels east of Cannonville including Promise Rock. Months later, the situation became much stickier when local leaders found SITLA had been in talks with Aman Resorts Group about a possible boutique luxury resort on the site.

In August, through various communications with SITLA, Garfield County Commission got the impression that the state administration was interested in making an exchange with state parks. That idea fell through.

The perceived agreement would have given the land to Kodachrome State Park. This would have been the ideal outcome for Cannonville. Since the land would be used for multiple use, it would be protected from development and the public would not lose access. “It’s kind of a neat deal,” said Garfield Commissioner Leland Pollock in an August commission meeting.

This best-case-scenario didn’t end up going through exactly how the commissioners had hoped.

The Deal Falls Through

In October, “that deteriorated very quickly,” said Pollock. SITLA had brought together state parks, Garfield County Commissioners, the Mayor of Cannonville, and a private investor for a meeting to discuss the Cannonville property.

As it turned out, SITLA was considering selling the parcels to the investor after all — for a 100 million dollar project. Neither the commissioners nor the investors knew the whole picture going into the meeting, and Commissioner Pollock said each felt blind-sided in what they thought was an agency-to-agency meeting. As a result, he cut the meeting short.

“We made our intentions clear, the mayor made his intentions clear. We don’t know. That’s up in the air for the Bryce Valley area,” Pollock said in a later commission meeting.

Commissioner Pollock said he was frustrated with SITLA’s arrogance and lack of oversight in matters of local importance. “SITLA has these properties on historic sites like Promise Rock that we didn’t think they’d ever sell that are of significant cultural value to the locals that could go on the chopping block,” he said.

Eventually, SITLA would end up putting the whole thing on pause.

The Intentions of All Parties

Garfield County

Leland Pollock said he and Jerry Taylor had made Garfield County’s intentions clear, which were that “if Promise Rock hadn’t been there, there would have been no pushback at all.” The Garfield County commissioners are very open to economic development and private business in the county; they encourage it.

At Promise Rock, though, even a “low impact” development from an environmental standpoint could have a significant impact on the cultural and historical value of the land, and even the real estate of surrounding communities, the commissioners expressed.

That is why Garfield County has put an ordinance in place that protects the land from immediate development. From now on, when SITLA land is sold, it will be automatically zoned into agricultural land. This way a developer will have to come to the county for a rezoning before building on the land.

Involving the public seems to be a much better policy than not, in the county’s view.

Commissioner Jerry Taylor felt that SITLA should have held a public meeting. “If they were thinking along those lines, they should have had a meeting with that community,” said Taylor. He continued, “I think the people of Cannonville need to ask those investors those questions.” Commissioner David Tebbs agreed.

Aman Resorts Group

The investors, a group of individuals under the trading entity of Aman Group Sarl, is a highly successful boutique lodging developer that builds small, ultra-luxury resorts for the top one percent all over the world. Aman Group has another resort not too far away in Kane County, called Amangiri, tucked out of view against the slickrock walls south of Big Water. The development created 250 jobs and contributes about 40% of the county’s annual transient room tax, according to Desert News.

Aman Group also has a reputation for alignment with local culture and environment. The group did not feel comfortable with stepping into a controversy they did not know was there.

In fact, they are currently setting up a meeting with the Cannonville public to discuss these issues at a future date.

“They don’t want to do it unless the community wants it,” said Leland Pollock after talking with the group’s representatives. Whether the community wants it is up to them.

Cannonville

Cannonville has taken a position against development, one they have generally held to over the past decade or so.

The town’s Mayor Bill Scoffield is torn between Cannonville’s longtime policy, and an economic development opportunity that could potentially be very good for the town. “Somewhere in there there’s a happy medium of new growth, development and keeping it serene and peaceful,” he told The Byway in March.

Just south of Promise Rock used to be the site of Cannonville’s predecessor, the town of Clifton. Later, Cannonville’s and Georgetown’s sheep farmers also used the land for shearing sheep up until the 1920s and 30s. The rock itself has a history for marriage proposals, vows, and bridal photos. The proposal tradition possibly dates back to pioneer times, including the story of many different endings where a man asks his sweetheart to marry him and threatens that if she says no, he will push her off. 

Perhaps The Byway will do a more in-depth piece on this history in the future.

The School and Trust Lands Administration

SITLA is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The administration’s entire mission is to maximize revenue for the public school system — a very different one from the public lands missions we are used to. When SITLA originally sent out the request for proposal in March, their intention was to sell to the highest bidder. The sale of this property, though, proved to be more complicated.

The Kodachrome State Park deal would require funds to be moved around at the state. SITLA does not seem to prefer this option, though they have made none of their leanings on this decision public.

The Byway reached out to SITLA, but they made no comment. But in an email to the Garfield County Commissioners, the administration said that they were putting the sale on hold.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done before that thing is put to bed,” said Commissioner Taylor.

Other SITLA News

In other SITLA news, the administration currently has two parcels up for auction in Garfield County. There is a Tropic parcel, through which Highway 12 and a county road run near Bullberry Inn, and another one in Mammoth Creek, 3 miles southwest of the town of Hatch, near the fish hatchery. 

Garfield County Commissioners will be keeping a close eye on these parcels over the coming months.

– by Abbie Call

Feature image caption: Promise Rock as seen from its southern lobe on March 19, 2024. The rock is on one of the parcels SITLA had proposed to sell to Aman Resorts Group. Courtesy of AJ Martel, The Byway.

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Learn more about SITLA in What Is SITLA and How Is It Different from Other State Agencies?