In another thread titled “The KKK, Mormons in Bluffdale—KKK,” RfM contributor “cantsay,” launches with a “Whatever?," but then proceeds to ad:

“I remember a statement read over the pulpit that said something like, 'Stay away from the KKK, or other groups like that.' The statement of no associating with members of the KKK was polished in my mind--if you associate with a white supremacy organization.

"To this day, it is peculiar that everyone in the congregation had to be told to not associate. Maybe Spencer W. Kimball sent the memo? Why does the leadership [issue a] proclamation? [M]ust have been a bunch of KKK members organizing."

RfM poster, “en passant,” rather angrily responded:

“Steve's original post doesn't mention Bluffdale,

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1911682,1911695#msg-1911695

"What, specifically, does Bluffdale have to do with this topic? If you have relevant information, please attempt to post with a bit of substance instead of cluttering up the forum with your crass innuendos.”

Whoa.

All "cantsay" was doing was daring to ask legitimate historical questions. I replied to "en passant" that my post--while not mentioning Bluffdale specifically--nonetheless “dealt with the historical connection between Mormons, the Utah Mormon Church and the KKK in Utah. hence, the justifiable linkage . . . . Folks can take it away from here as to what, if any, interplay there is today between Mormons, Bluffdale and the KKK. I was simply putting present matters within historical context for purposes of this ongoing discussion.”

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1911682,1911682#msg-1911682


Given the apparent sensitivities among some about Bluffdale;s fine neighbor-hoods, I decided to do a bit of research on its reported involvement with the KKK.

Alas, I was not disappointed.

I soon came across a forum where residents of Bluffdale were acknowledging amongst themselves their area's history of Klan companionship--as, for instance, it blossomed in nearby communities like Riverton. Bluffdale, being close to South Salt Lake,, is only 2.3 miles from Riverton, by way of South Redwood Road.

https://www.google.com/#q=How+far+is+Riverton+Utah+from+Bluffdate+Utah%3F)


Below is the local low-down on the KKK in that neck of the woods. Come to find out, Bluffdale was a satellite sister city of shared Klan bigotry, officially headquartered, as it were, a stone's throw up the trail in Riverton:

"Riverton was a remote, private, rural farming community until the 1990s. In the mid-1970s, Riverton’s environment was ripe for activism. A Riverton young man heard a national radio broadcast that spurred action. The ultra-conservative areas of Bluffdale, Riverton, Herriman, Draper and South Jordan harbored some individuals with common beliefs of promoting Caucasian interests.

"They united, with official headquarter endorsement, forming the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan based in Riverton. They became very visible in SLC when letter-size posters like this were stapled on construction barricades and telephone poles. Intense police and press attention quickly drove the group underground.

"It is commonly thought Riverton’s KKK disintegrated by the mid-1980s. Some speculate ruminate, clandestine membership still reside in Riverton areas.

"Share what you and your family remember, have heard or been told."

What follows is reader response [names deleted] from the year 2015. By the looks of things, the KKK may still have a presence, to one degree or another, in good ol' Rivertaon/Bluffdale, USA:

--"I would of never thought, but it don't surprise me."

--"I worked at the Riverton 'Dee's' [a hamburger joint] from '79-81. While cleaning off the tables in the dining area, I found KKK business cards left on the tables. It really ticked me off, and I was just a teenager then. Even as a young girl I knew how horrible the Klan was/is."

--"Used to burn there crosses above 11400, where the new temple is. Also, our neighbor had one burned in their lawn when they adopted a little black boy from Haiti."

-- . . . "[W]e lived on 11400 and it was where the temple was when we seen it." (16 January 2015)

--"Who's the Grand Wizard responsible for making sure those symbols made it into the new park design?"

--"I remember the posters turning up on telephone poles around town, including right in front of the old elementary school while I was attending. I recall being frightened at the idea of the Klan in Riverton (I'd seen enough references to them in movies and TV shows by that time to know what the Klan was). The thought that this organization might still be lurking in town is plausible to me, and utterly disgusting."

--"This sickens me."

--"I lived right next door to the Grand Dragon (I think that was his title). I was too young to understand what that meant, but as I got older, I was disgusted. His family moved away when I was an early teen."

--"They also met on lovers’ lane! Sad times!" (15 January 2015)

--"Yes, it happened and is a part of history. Nothing wrong. They had beliefs. Didn't last long. I heard the meetings were at Hidden Valley narrows area in Bluffdale."

--"There was an African-American gentleman in our ward who was married to a white woman and the KKK basically ran him out of Riverton. I believe it was in the late 1970's. He was an elementary school teacher. Such a sad story."

--"Yes, he was my 6th grade teacher at Southland Elementary. . . . True story and very sad."

---"Hey, Riverton, your description reads as if you are making excuses for the native sons of the south end of the valley creating a KKK chapter. It was then, and is still now, absurd and disgusting, especially the way the majority of people were raised out there."

--"Yes, they had the Klan here. Anybody that lived here that long ago knows that. And before that there was the Guardian Angels, in Utah,"

--"They are still here. Not as prominent but, unfortunately, still here."

--"I remember a large burning cross."

--“Capital punishment, getter done,"

--"Some of them lived on that street by Broomhead. My parents always told us to stay away from that area."

--"I remember going by the old white house that was turned into a restaurant where 'Taco Bell' is now and seeing their marquee announcing a KKK meeting there. That was in the mid-'80s."

--“The US flag is also one of the KKK's emblems.”

--“Nothing wrong with being proud of your race, ethnic background, etc. It's when people discriminate, hate or offend others because of it. Need more love and Peace for humanity generally.”

--“I knew someone's dad that was part of it. So sad”

--“When '7-11' was going to open up on 13 West and 126, there was going to be a African-American manager and '7-11' was threatened, so they put a white manager in. I remember this well because I was working for them at the time.”

--“If you go to the Klan website, [it] still list[s] Riverton and Ogden [as] hav[ing] chapters of it.”

--“If those cross circles are in the new park design that is hilarious.”

--“I only heard rumors that were more like urban legends. I never saw anything related to the KKK growing up in Riverton during the ‘70s and ‘80s.”

--“Those pictures are not related to the KKK at all. Do your research.”

--“I do remember this.”

--“If this was going on right under our noses, I was totally oblivious to it.”

--“Amazing that this crap was still active in the ‘90's. Just proves you can't change stupid.”

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjYjd-tqd_QAhXF4SYKHf0UDe4QFggbMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Friverton.utah.1%2Fphotos%2Fa.676388029120333.1073741827.676387919120344%2F783245731767895%2F&usg=AFQjCNHEZU2EMTh3insedF6NidqV0wjilw
_____


In her book, “Restless Spirits: Utah’s Small Town Ghosts” [Springville, Utah: CFI, 2010, p. 101], author Linda Dunning writes:

“Back in the 1970s . . . the Klu [sic] Klux Klan began to get a following in the area. A graduate of Bingham High School [located in South Jordan, near Salt Lake City] organized a Klan branch in Riverton, Herriman and Bluffdale. Riverton was experiencing an economic depression at the time, so it was easy to start the Klan there. The organizers set up an initiation ceremony at the Point of the Mountain in August 1975.

"A few public Klan-related incidents were reported in the late 1970s. Hate flyers were distributed and tacked on to public buildings and telephone poles in the area. The Klan also held several mock executions in the Riverton Cemetery. They hung the effigy of a black man, shot it in the stomach with a shotgun and left dead ducks below it on both sides of the cemetery gate. These mock executions continued in the cemetery during the months of October and November of that year, with the letters ‘KKK' painted on the street below the dummies, and several of the surrounding streetlights were shot out.

"The Klan began to recruit people in the area, and did succeed to some extent. By the early 1980s, the Klan had reached a membership of over 100 people. They began barging into stores in Riverton ordering black clerks to get out of town. Raising money with cockfights and dogfights, Klan members bought arms and ammunition and stockpiled these weapons near Camp Williams, south of Bluffdale, and held guerrilla-training exercise there.

"So, after this, the whole movement died out, leaving the town of Riverton with an unwanted notoriety that lives on to this day. Some feel that the whole movement did not die out but simply went underground because occasional dead cats and rabbits are found hanging on farmers’ fences as a reminder.”

https://books.google.com/books?id=xAYcNo9NXgcC&pg=PA101&lpg=PA101&dq=Bluffdale+KKK&source=bl&ots=twTkRj1enR&sig=h4v5mw9AnmVckYoiSmDK2EJEyp8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjbmuqX_d7QAhWCyyYKHe4lCbMQ6AEIO


Tellingly, the Aryan Nations--a white supremacist hate group that spews racist views in alignment with those of the KKK--let loose an anti-Semitic screed from Bluffdale, Utah, on 9 September 2005, as reported by David M. Brannon in his essay, “Left-and Right-wing Political Terrorism,” printed in Andrew T H Tan’s “The Politics of Terrorism: A Survey” (London: Routledge, 2006, p. 64):

“BLUFFDALE, Utah, Sept. 9: Carrying the scrips of their lives in plastic trash bags, citizens of the drowned city of New Orleans landed in a strange ne place a week ago and wondered where they were. The land was brown, and nearly everyone they saw was site. (here is the jews [sic] plan! To darken the White areas of our nation with wet***** and new Negros [sic]. It’s not enough that they leave the floodwater gates open from Mexico, now they are behind yet another scheme to spread filth throughout White communities). (‘Aryan Nations, 2005).”

As they say, bigots of a feather hang Blacks together.

The KKK’s history in Mormon Utah is one that has affected nearly all of its communities in one way or another. Former BYU professor of Church history and doctrine Dennis A. Wright, together with BYU humanities major Rebekah E. Westrup, acknowledge something they curiously describe as "unique" that occurred at 'Ensign Peak'--a place, the say is] "best described as an undistinguished hill, rising over a thousand feet from the northern edge of the Salt Lake Valley, approximately one mile north of the Utah State Capitol Building."

From their article, “Ensign Peak: A Historical Review":

"One of the most unique events held at 'Ensign Peak' in the early 20th century involved the Ku Klux Klan.involved the Ku Klux Klan. During the 1920s [the KKK] expanded into the western states. In the fall of 1924 they concentrated their efforts in Salt Lake County. By the end of the year, they had succeeded in establishing a statewide administrative structure that touched most of the communities within the state. . ..

"In February 1925, the Klan launched their Utah offensive with a parade through the business district of Salt Lake City. They followed up with a second demonstration on April 6, during the Church’s semi-annual General Conference. Defying increasing community opposition, members of the Klan marched up 'Ensign Peak' and burned several large crosses at the summit.

"To ensure the success of this effort, hooded Klansmen blocked access to the summit. This resulted in a public assembly at the foot of Ensign Peak that numbered in the thousands; some of those gathered were members of the Klan, and others were simply onlookers who were curious over the actions of this controversial group.

"While the Klan considered the event a success, it frightened the community, causing the Klan to continue to lose influence in Utah."

https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/salt-lake-city/3-ensign-peak-historical-preview


But, decades later--rekindled in the 1970s and moving into the '90s--the spirit of the Klan was brought back to life in Bluffdale: a rancid reminder of Mormon Land’s historic Dance with the White Hoods. Presently, the KKK's once overt profile in town has gone underground. Much more prominent in today's Bluffdale is another group--the “Apostolic United Brethren” or “The Allred Group.”

As reported by the “Apologetic Index” in its “Informal List of Polygamous Sects,”

“. . . [H}eaded by 85-year-old Owen Allred, [it] is centered in Bluffdale, south of Salt Lake City . . . [and]has members in Idaho, Nevada, Montana, England and Mexico. They have developed an underground following in the United Kingdom. Allred, who claims eight wives, has said the group has 6,000 members. Some estimates place membership as high as 9,000 or more.”

http://www.apologeticsindex.org/680-polygamy-sects


Poor Bluffdale. If it's not the hood-wearing Klan, it's the multi-wifing patriarchs. The place just can’t seem to get a break. Probably because it doesn’t deserve one.
_____


For an overview of the Utah Mormon Church's relationship with the KKK, see: http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1911682,1911695#msg-1911695



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2016 06:03AM by steve benson.

Bluffdale the cesspool of Utah ?
Who'da thunk it ?
I guess West Valley will just have to settle for second place.