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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2002

Mormon Church leaders in Wyoming wrote a critical letter to members of Congress last month, accusing the Department of Interior of poorly managing a sacred site.

Martin's Cove is located in Wyoming and under federal jurisdiction. Church leaders want to buy the 1,000-acre site because dozens of Mormon pioneers died there.

"If the site is truly nationally significant then why did the government do so little over so many decades to bring this history forward?" the September 8 letter states, as quoted by the Associated Press.

A bill to sell the land to the Church was all but dead until Republican leaders in the House attached it to an unrelated bill to compensate two Sioux tribes for 4,000 acres of lost land.

Get the Story:
Mormons press for land sale (AP 10/3)

Get the Bill:
H.R.4103 (To direct the Secretary of the Interior to transfer certain public lands in Natrona County, Wyoming, to the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop, and for other purposes)

Related Stories:
Republicans change Sioux land bill (10/2)
Sacred site land sale bill 'dead' (9/25)
Sacred site bill was a 'done deal' (6/20)
Sacred site bill approved by House (6/18)
Input sought into sacred sites (6/5)
Wyo. delegates oppose sacred site sale (5/30)
Sacred site sale opposed (5/27)
House panel approves sacred site sale (5/23)
Congress considering sacred sites (5/21)
Interior worried about Mormon sale (5/15)