Aerial.America.S05E04.Utah
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00:00If there is one state that looks and feels like a different planet, it's Utah.
00:12Its wild landscapes and soaring rock formations are simply earth-defying.
00:20From a river of red sandstone spires, across icy, jagged pinnacles, to the speedy terrain
00:30of the Salt Lake Flats, this rugged western state has always captivated Americans with
00:37its strange and alien beauty, and cast a spell over all who've dared to clamber up its peaks.
00:47It was in one Utah valley that a visionary exile built a new religion, a city, and a
00:53soaring temple.
00:54It was high above the Utah desert that World War II pilots trained to deliver a terrifying
00:59atomic payload, and where, down below, a famous party of pioneers sank in a desert of salt
01:07before meeting their grisly fate.
01:09In this state's rugged mountains, a Hollywood heartthrob launched a film festival to rival
01:15any in the world, near where the U.S. government is planning to store trillions of electronic
01:20communications sent by Americans and others around the globe.
01:26Long before Utah became the 45th American state, people have been coming here to imagine
01:32a whole new future.
01:36High above this incredible landscape, it's easy to see why, in Utah, it's possible to
01:42discover a whole new world.
02:12No place better captures Utah's otherworldly character than this, Canyonlands National
02:33Park in the state's southeast corner.
02:38There's nothing like floating through the jagged shapes of the needles, or weaving between
02:49a spine of tall, thin towers that are known as the Chocolate Drops.
02:56These spectacular natural sculptures were carved and chiseled by wind, rain, and the
03:02rushing waters of the Green and Colorado Rivers.
03:11Soaring over Utah, it's easy to imagine that you've left Earth and stepped onto another
03:16planet.
03:17And that's just what these three Earthlings are doing.
03:28They're simulating what it would be like to live and work on Mars, except that they're
03:32right here in Utah.
03:38These are students from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
03:42Utah's space-like terrain makes it the perfect stand-in for the Red Planet.
03:46Today, Commander Christine Redman and her crew are setting out on a fact-finding mission.
03:52They need to make sure that a solar device is still working.
03:56Each crew member is wearing an oxygen supply pack, just as they'd have to if they were
04:00really trying to survive on Mars.
04:03This remote outpost is run by the Mars Society, which believes there's a lot to learn just
04:09by simulating a mission to Mars.
04:12When the team is done, they head back down to their cylindrical habitat, which they call
04:18the HAB.
04:19This prototype Mars research station comes complete with landing struts and airlocks.
04:26Inside is a research lab on the lower level and sleeping quarters above.
04:31Each four- to six-member crew comes for two weeks at a time and has to survive with restricted
04:36amounts of food and water in near isolation.
04:43Utah's rugged landscape has long attracted those looking to invent the future, to live
04:49in a whole new way.
04:55That's exactly what one group of pioneers was hoping for as it made its way along a
04:59dusty Utah trail like this one in 1847.
05:04They were followers of a new faith, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more
05:08commonly known as Mormons.
05:12True believers, they lived according to the dictates of their prophet, Joseph Smith, who
05:17claimed to have received divine golden tablets from the angel Moroni.
05:22These tablets became the Book of Mormon, the touchstone of the new faith.
05:28But the Mormons were persecuted for these beliefs and driven out of New York, Missouri,
05:33and finally Illinois, where an angry mob murdered their leader.
05:38It was Joseph Smith's successor, Brigham Young, who heard about a green valley by a great
05:43lake hidden in some western mountains.
05:47In 1846, fearing for their lives, Young and thousands of his Mormon followers set out
05:53from Nauvoo, Illinois.
05:55They crossed what was then the Iowa Territory and kept moving west.
06:00The journey took almost a year and a half and covered 1,300 miles.
06:04Their trail ended at the site of what's now Salt Lake City in Utah.
06:11Some traveled in covered wagons, but many who followed walked the entire way, dragging
06:17hand carts behind them.
06:18Later, to protect their members, the Mormons would build forts like this one, Cove Fort,
06:24to provide shelter and provisions for their fellow travelers.
06:26But on this first journey, they had no protection and faced daily exposure to the elements.
06:34Many perished along the harsh route.
06:38One of the hardest sections of the journey took them up and over a 7,400-foot-high pass
06:44through the Wasatch Mountains.
06:47The Mormons were forced to hack through thickets with axes and push their wagons and animals
06:51over the summit.
06:55All this after crossing half a continent.
07:00Finally, on July 24, 1847, Brigham Young and the first 150 Mormons made it through the
07:09mountains.
07:10And for the first time, they set eyes on Utah's Great Salt Lake Valley.
07:22After reaching the floor of the canyon, it's said that Brigham Young fell to his knees
07:25and declared, this is the right place.
07:28Drive on.
07:29The This is the Place monument honors that moment.
07:37Every July 24, Utah residents gather to celebrate Pioneer Day and the Mormons' arrival in Salt
07:42Lake Valley.
07:46Looking out over the vast lake, Young was determined to build a great Mormon city beside
07:51its waters.
07:53Today, Salt Lake City is the capital of Utah and the center of Mormon faith around the
07:59world.
08:02Nothing symbolizes that more than Temple Square, the city's centerpiece.
08:08Started in 1853, just six years after the Mormons came to Salt Lake, the Salt Lake Temple
08:14would take 40 years to finish.
08:19It towers some 210 feet over Salt Lake City and is capped by a sculpture of the angel
08:25Moroni, who led Prophet Joseph Smith to the Book of Mormon.
08:33Below the temple spires, a futuristic-looking dome is home to the celebrated Mormon Tabernacle
08:38Choir.
08:39360 strong, they rehearse here in the Salt Lake Tabernacle.
08:47The structure's unique roof is supported by a system of wedges and dowels.
08:53It's home to one of the largest pipe organs in the world.
08:58Visitors are welcome in Temple Square, but only Mormons can enter the temple itself.
09:08Less than 20 miles from the square is the lake that gives both the temple and the city
09:12its name, Great Salt Lake.
09:17Covering 1,700 square miles, it's the largest American lake west of the Mississippi and
09:23the biggest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere.
09:29What makes Great Salt Lake so unique is that its water is up to five times saltier than
09:34the ocean, too salty to support fish and most other aquatic life.
09:40The lake is considered a terminal lake, which means there's no outlet.
09:45The small amounts of salt in the rivers and streams that flow into it build up over time.
09:52With nowhere for the water in the lake to go, it evaporates in the hot Utah sun, leaving
09:58vast deposits of salt behind.
10:03But even with all this salt, wildlife thrives in the lake shores, especially here on Antelope
10:10Island.
10:12Despite the name, the island is actually a home for bison.
10:16Herders brought 12 bison to Antelope Island in 1897.
10:20Today, it's home to a 550-strong herd.
10:30Parts of the Great Salt Lake may remain wild, but more and more, humans are leaving their
10:35mark on this water body.
10:39Brine ponds established at the lake's edge capture a host of minerals for industrial
10:43use.
10:46But environmentalists fear that changes like this are inflicting long-term damage on Great
10:50Salt Lake.
10:57Efforts to preserve Utah's landscape extend well beyond the lake.
11:01It was in Utah's mountains that an environmentalist movie star set out to protect one of the state's
11:07most beautiful valleys, and created a haven for independent filmmakers in the process.
11:19One hundred fifty years ago, the valleys around Utah's Mount Timpanogos were home to members
11:25of a Native American tribe called the Ute.
11:29The Utes favored this land for its abundant hunting and grazing, and nearby Utah Lake,
11:35which teemed with fish.
11:38They hunted in the shadows of waterfalls like this one, known today as Stuart Falls.
11:47Utes lived in extended family groups on this land.
11:51Men hunted deer, bison, and antelope with bows and arrows, while women collected berries
11:56and roots.
11:59For centuries, the Utes thrived here.
12:05All that changed when the Mormons and other settlers arrived in the 1840s.
12:11As more and more settlers filled the region, they pursued the same land and water resources
12:16as the Native Americans, and skirmishes broke out.
12:23By 1865, Mormons and Utes were locked in a conflict known as the Black Hawk War.
12:31Some 70 settlers and untold numbers of Indians were killed.
12:37But by 1870, the Mormons had the Utes cornered, and forced them to give up their land and
12:43move on to reservations, but the Utes left their tribal name behind, Utah.
12:52Native Americans weren't the last people to appreciate these lush valleys and mountains.
12:57In 1969, actor Robert Redford was living near here.
13:01After landing a role in the outlaw movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, he urged its
13:06director, George Roy Hill, to film scenes in Utah.
13:10Hill agreed.
13:13After the success of the movie, Redford built his home near Mount Timpanogos.
13:19He also bought a struggling ski resort named Timp Haven, and renamed it Sundance.
13:27Instead of filling it with modern development, Redford cultivated a creative and environmentally
13:32conscious community.
13:34Today, the handsome mountain resort includes a conference center, a rehearsal hall, and
13:39an art studio.
13:41The name Sundance has become a bonafide brand.
13:50Every January, the Sundance Film Festival gets underway here in nearby Park City.
13:56It's now one of the largest independent film festivals in the world.
14:00Films that have won Sundance's prized audience award include Sex, Lies and Videotape and
14:05Fruitvale Station.
14:08Once a silver mining town with saloons and gambling dens, today's Park City is upmarket.
14:15Its theater is freshly painted and upholstered for its annual turn in the spotlight.
14:23It's been more than 40 years since Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid graced the silver screen,
14:31but the legend lives on.
14:34The story behind that legend begins right here, outside the town of Circleville.
14:40In these fields, where Robert Leroy Parker, the future Butch Cassidy, was raised.
14:49Parker's family home exists much as it did more than a century ago.
14:54There's a wooden farmhouse, a stable, and an old wagon.
14:59From this simple beginning, Parker would go on to become Butch, the infamous cattle
15:04rustler, bank robber and bandit, before teaming up with his partner in crime, the Sundance
15:11Kid.
15:16But Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is just one of hundreds of movies filmed in Utah.
15:22The state has long provided an iconic backdrop for Hollywood.
15:27These now dilapidated sets near the town of Kanab were a top shooting destination in
15:31the glory days of Westerns.
15:35The sets became so popular with producers and directors, they functioned as a permanent
15:40stage, with many of Kanab's citizens working as film crew and extras.
15:46Up until the 1980s, several popular TV shows were also filmed at Kanab, including The Lone
15:51Ranger, Lassie, and the long-running Western series Gunsmoke, in which the set was a stand-in
15:57for the town of Dodge City, Kansas.
16:00Even after four decades, the homes, general store, and saloon are still recognizable.
16:11Just one hour west of Kanab is another place that looks like a movie set from the air.
16:17There are men that resemble cowboys, and young families that seem unchanged from pioneer
16:23days.
16:24And there are few cars on the streets, but these aren't actors.
16:30It's real life in a town that's home to a breakaway sect of Mormons, known as the Fundamentalist
16:35Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
16:41Almost 3,000 members of the church live here in Hilldale, on Utah's southern border.
16:47Another 5,000 members live in Arizona's Colorado City, just across the state line.
16:55They lived quietly below the radar until 2006.
16:59That's when sensationalist news stories started spreading about why they had broken from the
17:04Mormon church.
17:07Many here were practicing polygamy, the practice of taking multiple wives.
17:14This group of houses recently belonged to the leader of the Fundamentalist Church, a
17:18man named Warren Jeffs.
17:20In 2006, he was placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list, accused of rape and sexual conduct with
17:27a minor.
17:31That same year, Jeffs was captured, charged, and later convicted of the sexual assault
17:35of children.
17:37Records showed that he'd married 80 wives, some of them as young as 14.
17:45He also expelled some 60 men from his church, and then decided the fate of their wives and
17:50children.
17:52Warren Jeffs never got to live in this custom-built house.
17:56He's now in prison for his crimes.
17:58But some say he still rules over this community from his prison cell.
18:04Today polygamy is officially forbidden by the mainstream Mormon church and is now illegal
18:09in all 50 states.
18:10But that wasn't the case when the Mormons first came to Utah.
18:15As they built Salt Lake City from the ground up, Mormon leader Brigham Young convinced
18:20his followers that polygamy was God's intended lifestyle.
18:25That may have played well in Utah, but in Washington and the rest of the country, it
18:30was a non-starter.
18:32And it fully prevented the territory of Utah from becoming a state.
18:39In 1857, President James Buchanan sent federal troops to Salt Lake City to remove Brigham
18:44Young as territorial governor.
18:50And for 30 years after that, the federal government raided Utah in an effort to stamp out polygamy.
18:55Finally, in 1890, a new Mormon leader named Wilfrid Woodruff forbade the practice.
19:05Six years later, with polygamy outlawed, Utah finally became the 45th state of the union.
19:19Today, most Mormons have moved on and left polygamy behind.
19:23Modern faith is not represented by Warren Jeffs or Hildale, but by the students of Brigham
19:29Young University here in Provo, just one hour south of Salt Lake City.
19:34Begun in 1875, the university is still operated by the Mormon Church.
19:40It's the largest church-sponsored college in the U.S.
19:44Ninety-eight percent of the 33,000 undergraduate student body is Mormon.
19:50BYU students are expected to follow a Latter-day Saints honor code, which requires abstinence
19:55from alcohol, caffeine, and drugs, and avoidance of premarital sex.
20:03Famous students include presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the inventor of television Philo
20:08Farnsworth, and the author of the Twilight Vampire books, Stephenie Meyer.
20:15At the heart of the campus is the Missionary Training Center.
20:19It's here where Mormon missionaries, in their iconic white shirt sleeves and dark suits,
20:24learn church doctrine and the languages of the places they're going.
20:29Then they head overseas on missions that will last two years.
20:35But the landscapes they leave behind can be as strange and captivating as any on planet Earth.
20:45On the far east side of Utah is a feast for the eyes and a miracle of geology.
20:59Stretching for miles long, the Colorado Plateau is a river of red sandstone rocks.
21:05In some places, they look like an army of shark fins.
21:12In others, homes for fairytale giants.
21:21And then there are the Arches, for which the park is named, miraculous sculptures of soaring
21:28stone you might expect in an ancient city, but not in the wild.
21:35This is Arches National Park, named for its more than 2,000 sandstone arches scattered
21:42around the nearly 120-square-mile park.
21:48The most famous arch in Utah is this one, Delicate Arch.
21:53It's one of the most photographed sites in the state and is so iconic it was chosen for
21:58the Utah license plate.
22:02How did arches like this one form?
22:05Over millennia, groundwater eroded a vast bed of salt deep underground, causing layers
22:11of stone above to collapse.
22:14Wind, rain, and erosion did the rest, leaving behind these astonishing shapes.
22:32No less astonishing are the bike trails of Moab, just a few miles away.
22:38Stretching out from the canyon town is a network of bike routes up and down the mountains,
22:43including Slick Rock Trail.
22:48Bikers ride a 10-mile loop through a challenging desert rock landscape to reach the top of
22:53this cliff and a chance to peer down more than 1,000 feet to the Colorado River below.
23:06But 60 years ago, people came to Moab for an entirely different reason.
23:12They came for uranium.
23:14In the early 1950s, the United States and the Soviet Union were locked in an escalating
23:19arms race, the Cold War.
23:23The U.S. government was desperate for uranium, the crucial fuel for nuclear weapons, and
23:28was willing to pay $10,000 for discoveries of the element.
23:35Enter Charles Steen, a 30-year-old petroleum geologist.
23:40Wanting to cash in on the government's offer, he started searching the area for evidence
23:44of uranium.
23:4650 years later, Steen struck nuclear gold.
23:52Steen's mine, which he called Mi Vida, or My Life, would ship a million dollars' worth
23:57of pure uranium ore in its first six months.
24:03But the long-term consequences of this boom were deadly.
24:13Uranium-sickened workers contaminated the nearby Colorado River and scarred the landscape.
24:19Now, the government is spending a billion dollars to clean up a mine that was once worth
24:24$100 million.
24:28Four days a week, trucks fill this 36-car train with 5,000 tons of contaminated waste
24:34for transport to a fortified disposal site.
24:39Six million tons have already been removed, and train shipments are scheduled to continue
24:44through 2025.
24:55Despite this environmental setback, the striking beauty of Utah's Colorado Plateau endures.
25:04Director Ridley Scott selected the gorge at Utah's Dead Horse Point State Park as the
25:09location for the final scene to his famous film, Thelma and Louise.
25:14It served as a stand-in for the Grand Canyon.
25:18Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis played contemporary outlaws, a latter-day female Butch Cassidy
25:23and the Sundance Kid.
25:27In the movie's legendary finale, marshals finally close in on Thelma and Louise and
25:32chase their blue Thunderbird straight towards a cliff.
25:36They drive right over the edge, choosing to die rather than be captured.
25:44The shot of their convertible in midair over this stretch of the Colorado River is one
25:49of modern cinema's most iconic images.
25:58If Thelma and Louise had stuck around, they might have seen another Utah wonder from the
26:03top of Dead Horse Point.
26:06Only this one is man-made.
26:10From above, these extraordinary blue and white shapes look like a giant tattoo of a futuristic
26:15bird.
26:17In fact, they are part of a potash extraction facility 20 miles west of Moab.
26:25Uranium's days may be done around here, but potassium salts, otherwise known as potash,
26:30are big business.
26:37Here at the Intrepid Mine, there are 400 acres of evaporation ponds.
26:42Mined potash and saltwater combine to form a brine, which is fed into the ponds.
26:50Then the water is injected with a bright blue dye, which helps the brine absorb sunlight,
26:55speeding evaporation.
26:57The result? Potash and salt crystals, which are used in a variety of agricultural and
27:02industrial products, like fertilizer.
27:06Unlike uranium mining, this process is environmentally friendly.
27:12Long before industry made its mark in this area of the Utah landscape, it was home to
27:17members of an ancient Native American culture.
27:22Some of their dwellings have survived.
27:27Dating back to around 1200 A.D., the ancient Pueblo people made their homes in these remarkable
27:33caves.
27:35They carved out different chambers for living and worshipping.
27:40The ancient Pueblo mysteriously vanished in the 1300s, and these caves have been empty
27:47ever since.
27:55But cave dwelling is actually still alive and well in Utah.
28:00Call it the cave-McMansion combo.
28:04Suburban homes in the front, caves in the back.
28:09In 1972, a maverick teacher named Robert Dean Foster was excommunicated from the Mormon
28:14Church after being convicted of practicing polygamy.
28:18He went rogue.
28:20Foster sought out an isolated place to create his own Noah's Ark.
28:26In 1979, he leased this giant rock 30 miles from Moab.
28:36He blasted several caves and then covered each one with the facade of a modern suburban
28:40house.
28:42Foster called the finished neighborhood Rockland Ranch and then welcomed his wives and others
28:47interested in his vision.
28:49The Mormon renegade died in 2008 at 83.
28:53Today, his cave-dwelling community continues to thrive.
29:03There's another hideaway, southeast of Salt Lake City, but this one doesn't house humans
29:09and there's no public access.
29:12It's a place called the Utah Data Center, which happens to be run by one of the most
29:16powerful spy organizations in the world.
29:21It lies just 20 miles south of Salt Lake City, at the edge of the small town of Bluffdale,
29:27in the shadow of the Wasatch Mountains.
29:32Here stands a vast, non-descript complex.
29:36It would be easy to think this was just another large American manufacturing company.
29:42The U.S. government was hoping to keep what's inside these buildings completely under wraps.
29:48But that's proving harder and harder to do, because the secret is out.
29:53In June 2013, Edward Snowden, a former national security analyst, leaked NSA documents and
29:59claimed that the agency tracks almost every phone call and email to or from the U.S.
30:05Storing all that data requires a lot of servers, which is why the NSA is building this facility.
30:14Inside is one million square feet of space to house computers that can process billions of
30:20electronic communications.
30:22Some fear this project represents a fatal blow to privacy in the 21st century, but others
30:28argue it's the price we must pay for increased security in an age of terrorism.
30:38But in the 19th century, Utah and America were obsessed by an entirely different technology.
30:46Railroads.
30:48In May 1869, the continent was about to be radically transformed with the linking of the
30:54Transcontinental Railroad north of Salt Lake City.
30:58Thousands of Irish and Italian immigrants were building a railroad west for Union Pacific.
31:04Thousands of Chinese laborers were building another railroad east for Central Pacific.
31:11The two private companies might never have allowed their tracks to meet if not for an
31:15act of Congress that ordered them to connect.
31:23More than a hundred years later, the speed demons of the Great Salt Lake Flats are leaving
31:29those trains in the dust.
31:33Utah is known for its summits, soaring rock formations that tower into the air, and high
31:39vistas that look over vast stretches of the state.
31:46But one of Utah's most legendary landscapes is the opposite.
31:51Forty-five square miles of completely flat white plains.
31:56These are the Bonneville Salt Flats.
31:59Water and wind have created this unique topography just 90 miles west of Salt Lake City.
32:06Thousands of years ago, these flats lay below a massive lake, but that lake evaporated,
32:12leaving a landscape of 90% salt and other minerals.
32:16In some places, the salt layer is up to five feet thick.
32:22Each winter, water still floods the surface of the flats.
32:26But all of it evaporates come spring, leaving a fresh layer of salt behind that's perfect
32:33for speed.
32:36It's August 2013, and hundreds of racing fans are gathering for a Utah obsession.
32:41Speed Week.
32:46This year, there are four separate Speed Week racetracks.
32:50Drivers will try to beat their competition and set new world records.
32:55And the winners will be announced at the end of the week.
32:59This year, there are four separate Speed Week racetracks.
33:03Drivers will try to beat their competition and set new world records.
33:08Vehicle classes include hot rods, roadsters, belly tankers, lakesters, motorcycles, and streamliners.
33:17Some vehicles have such high gear ratios, they need a push truck to get them started.
33:24To set a new record on the flats, a driver has to show that he or she can achieve a record speed twice in two separate runs.
33:33This year, the winner will reach a top speed of almost 452 miles an hour.
33:41Streamliners are the fastest.
33:43Long, slender bodies and enclosed wheels mean less wind resistance to slow them down.
33:54But Speed Week isn't just about speed.
33:57It's also about creating fantastic-looking machines that inspire awe as they fly across this futuristic landscape.
34:07For decades, these forbidding flats triggered more fear than awe.
34:13That's because of the catastrophe that befell a group of pioneers known as the Donner Party in 1846.
34:24That year, the same year the Mormons traveled west, another band of immigrants set out for California, looking for their own promised land.
34:34But the party, made up of the Donner and Reed families from Illinois, followed bad advice from a businessman named Lanford Hastings.
34:43He advised the Donners and Reeds to take a shortcut across the Salt Flats instead of going around them.
34:49That choice proved to be spectacularly wrong.
34:54At the time of crossing, the salt was soft instead of hard.
34:58The size of the Donner Party, their wagons, horses and oxen, was too much weight to bear.
35:05Wheels sliced through the ground, and they sank in the salt.
35:11Facing disaster, the travelers were forced to jettison wagons.
35:14Their animals wandered off in a desperate search for water.
35:23But the worst was yet to come.
35:26The Donner Party fell so far behind schedule that when they reached the Sierra Nevada mountains, they were trapped by winter.
35:34In one of the most disturbing episodes in American history, the Donners were forced to resort to cannibalism to survive.
35:42Only half of the original party made it to California.
35:48For more than a century, animal skeletons and wagon wheels remained here, encased in salt, a tragic memorial to what happened on these flats.
35:59In the 1980s, a flood washed them away.
36:04Now, for mile after mile, there is nothing but blinding white.
36:10Until you arrive here.
36:14In the 1940s, the U.S. government acquired this flat, uninhabited terrain near the tiny town of Wendover.
36:23The isolated space was the perfect place to train pilots in secret.
36:28A huge expanse hidden by mountains.
36:31When it was done, the new Wendover airfield covered nearly 2 million acres, making it America's largest military field.
36:4021 bomber groups and 1,000 air crews lived in these barracks and trained in the sky above them for operations around the world, including D-Day.
36:51But hardly any of them knew about the most secret operation underway here.
36:54Between October 1944 and June 1945, Colonel Paul Tibbets and the 393rd Bomber Squadron trained in B-29 Superfortress bombers above these salt flats.
37:07Their mission? To drop an atomic bomb over Japan.
37:13The original loading pit used to lift the test bombs up into the B-29s is still here.
37:18Once the planes were loaded, they headed out to practice their runs in the skies over Utah.
37:24It was this hangar that housed the most famous bomber of them all, the Enola Gay,
37:30which was the one used to unleash nuclear hell on the city and people of Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945.
37:38A day that changed the world forever.
37:41Three decades later, the Air Force closed the Wendover base for good.
37:45Enola Gay's historic hangar has been rusting away here ever since.
37:49The plane itself is in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
37:55Enola Gay isn't Utah's only connection to World War II.
37:59This is the place where the war began.
38:02In the midst of the war, the U.S. government decided the West Coast Japanese-American community was a security risk.
38:08So they rounded them up and sent them here by train.
38:12The war was over.
38:16The war was over.
38:20The war was over.
38:24The war was over.
38:27So they rounded them up and sent them here by train.
38:32For the next three years, up to 11,000 Japanese-Americans would live on this deserted scrubland,
38:39even though they were American citizens and legal residents and hadn't committed any crimes.
38:45The Topaz Camp was so large, it constituted Utah's fifth biggest city.
38:51Surrounded by barbed wire, there was no escape until the war was over.
38:57Today, the buildings are gone, but their foundations hint at the vast size of a place many have called a concentration camp.
39:08Signs are the only reminders of the buildings that used to stand here.
39:16Very few of those who came to Topaz saw anything but this dry marshland in western Utah.
39:22They never had the freedom to discover the dreamlike landscapes that make Utah a phenomenon among states.
39:36This kingdom of cliffs and vistas looks and feels like a landscape from the Lord of the Rings.
39:43But it's actually Zion National Park in Utah's southwest corner.
39:51And it doesn't lack for stunning highlights.
39:56Even their names seem to conjure magic.
40:01There's the towering rock face known as the Streaked Wall, with its running colors of crimson and crimson.
40:07And there's the park's dramatic centerpiece, Angels Landing, a 5,800-foot challenge for those willing to try to make their way to the top.
40:17The 2.4-mile trail features steep switchbacks called Walter's Wiggles.
40:23From this point on the trail, a climber could fall 1,500 feet straight down to the valley floor.
40:29At least five climbers have died on this route over the last few years.
40:35But for those who reach the final stretch and manage to pull themselves up using these chains, the summit of Angels Landing awaits.
40:45Offering the chance to contemplate the wonder of the world.
40:49In the 1930s, new cars and roads made Utah's parks more accessible than ever.
40:56And Utahns have been spoiled for choice ever since.
41:01That's because Utah is home to what locals call the Mighty Five.
41:06And it's not just Utah.
41:09Five major national parks that lie within a few hours' drive of each other.
41:14They include Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Zion, and what may be the most colorful of them all, Bryce Canyon.
41:25They include Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Zion, and what may be the most colorful of them all, Bryce Canyon.
41:41It's hard to find the words to describe the forms that lie across this landscape.
41:47Forests of stone.
41:51Amphitheaters of rock.
41:55It's as if drip castles made of sand and water were dolloped here by giant children.
42:01But these red and pink spires do have a name.
42:05They're called hoodoos, which seems like the perfect word given that they could easily be at home in the movie Return of the Jedi.
42:16Years of rain and water lash this landscape of limestone rocks, leaving these otherworldly shapes.
42:25Imagine trying to raise animals here.
42:29That's what a Mormon pioneer named Ebenezer Bryce did.
42:33He was the first to settle in this area in 1875.
42:38Bryce tried to rear cattle among the hoodoos, and reportedly said that this canyon was one hell of a place to lose a cow.
42:46Now, the cattle are gone, and the thrilling canyon bears his name.
42:55But despite its dry, desert landscapes, Utah is a land of endless surprises.
43:02And the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is one of them.
43:06Rivaling Arizona's Grand Canyon for sheer majesty, Utah's Glen Canyon leaves those who see it similarly speechless.
43:14Images of this landscape can look like those that rovers might send back to Earth from distant planets.
43:21Except here, there's lots of water, including these turquoise ribbons in a place called Moku'i Canyon.
43:31One of the most beautiful places in the entire state.
43:35And one of the most beautiful places in the world.
43:37Except here, there's lots of water, including these turquoise ribbons in a place called Moku'i Canyon.
43:47One of the most beautiful places in the entire state.
43:55Not long ago, the only water here was the Colorado River and its tributaries that snake through this part of southern Utah.
44:03But all that changed in 1956 when President Eisenhower approved the building of the Glen Canyon Dam just south of the Utah-Arizona border.
44:14That action turned a section of the Colorado River into the fourth largest man-made lake in America.
44:21Today, Lake Powell is a beloved part of Utah, providing water for irrigating fields and growing populations.
44:33From its arches...
44:39...to its canyons...
44:44...to its miles of salt flats...
44:49...there really is no place like Utah.
44:53One has to admire the vision of those who chose to settle this strange land and make it their home.
44:58From Brigham Young...
45:01...to Robert Redford...
45:04...to the Speed Week racers...
45:08...they've all helped Utah become one of America's most colorful states.
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