Author: Jesse

The Utah Scottish Festival and Highland Games were held began Friday and will wrap up today at the Utah State Fairpark in Salt Lake City.

According to the Utah Scottish Association, the Utah Scottish Festival and Highland Games has become one of Salt Lake’s premier cultural events, attracting thousands of visitors each year. Featuring world-class competitors, popular regional and international musical acts and plenty of family history.

“Over fifty years of honoring our Scottish community here in Utah is quite the accomplishment,” said Mary McLarty, president of the Utah Scottish Association. “This 50th celebration honors not only the Scottish heritage of our community, but also all of the volunteers who have put in countless hours to make this festival possible.”

“From humble beginnings at Murray Park in the 1970s, to going fully virtual in 2020 and having to skip some years due to financial strain, celebrating the 50th running of this festival is a testament to the resilience of our Scottish community here in Utah,” said McLarty. ”Our event has grown substantially over the years and hitting this milestone is a major win, as each board member of the Utah Scottish Association or festival committee member has volunteered their time and energy to make the event successful year after year.”

This year’s festival included performances by popular performers Wicked Tinkers, Men of Worth, AML Trio, Shannon Stuart and The Reel Folk, An Rogaire Dubh, and a dedicated children’s area with games and activities for families to enjoy.

Highlights of the event included:

● The Women’s U.S. Pro Nationals Highland Athletics competition, along with both men’s and women’s competitions from amateur to masters. Witness feats of strength from 150 competitors per day, including several record-setting athletes and world champions

● The first annual Utah Scottish Festival Open Championship, Utah’s first international highland dance championships.

● A pipe band competition including 11 pipe bands and over 190 individual competitors representing bands from all across the U.S. from grade 5 all the way up to grade 1, the highest level of skill for pipe bands.

● A clan village featuring 18 clans from across Scotland sharing their families history and the roles that their clans played in making Scotland what it is today and how

● The Kirkin’ O’ The Tartan on Sunday, a church service and blessing over the clans and their tartans.

Tickets are available now at utahscots.org, with children 11 and under entering for free.

The Utah Mammoth seem to be involved in just about every rumor leading into the 2025 NHL Draft. If the reports are accurate and they’re looking to make a splash this summer, there’s a real possibility they’ll need to clear some cap space to do it.

One name that’s come up repeatedly over the last few seasons is Lawson Crouse. He’s been tied to trade speculation for a while now, so could this finally be the offseason where Utah moves on from him to open up space for upgrades?

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It would definitely be bittersweet. Crouse has been a long-time member of the organization, spanning both the Arizona Coyotes era and now the Mammoth. But at the end of the day, the NHL is a business—and sometimes that means moving on from players to improve the roster.

If the Mammoth do decide to part with Crouse and his $4.3 million cap hit, they should be getting assets back in return. Contending teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, and others would almost certainly show interest in adding a player like him, especially given his physical game and ability to contribute offensively.

That said, it’s worth remembering that the only reason Crouse would be on the move is if the Mammoth need the cap flexibility to make meaningful improvements. If they don’t need the space, it makes just as much sense to keep him in the fold. He still has two years left on his deal, and can absolutely be part of the group moving forward if the numbers work.

Utah Mammoth News & Notes: Marner, Martin & More Welcome to the first edition of Utah Mammoth News & Notes, where I’ll be covering all the news and rumors surrounding the Mammoth.

Utah Mammoth Should Extend Jack McBain Before Free Agency Starts The Utah Mammoth have plenty of questions that need answering, including whether they should re-sign restricted free agent Jack McBain or leave him unqualified.

3 Free Agent Targets For The Utah Mammoth With all the speculation surrounding the Utah Mammoth and how active they are going to be this offseason, it got me thinking. Who are some free agents that they would actually target? With $21 million in cap space and some players they can move out to clear more, they have the ability to do a few things this summer to drastically change their team.

Mammoth & Islanders GMs Reportedly Talk At NHL Draft Combine Yesterday, my colleague

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Stefen Rosner of the New York Islanders’ team site reported that Utah Mammoth GM Bill Armstrong and Islanders GM Mathieu Darche were seen having conversations at the 2025 NHL Draft Combine.

Utah Mammoth Sign AHL Forward To Contract Extension The Utah Mammoth have announced they’ve signed Ben McCartney to a two-year, two-way contract with an AAV of $775,000.

Note to readers • The Salt Lake Tribune is making this story free to all.

After a shooting left one person “critically injured” during a “No Kings” protest in the heart of Salt Lake City, Utah leaders say they’re thankful for those protesters who remained peaceful and for the first responders who rushed to the scene Saturday night.

Police say they have arrested several people and another is “critically injured” after the shooting, which happened while thousands of marchers made their way across downtown during one of more than a dozen “No Kings” protests across the state on Saturday.

[Read the latest on the shooting in Saturday’s protest in downtown Salt Lake City.]

“The violence we’ve seen today in Salt Lake City and elsewhere in the country is horrific — it’s just not who we are,” Mayor Erin Mendenhall said on social media. “We deserve to feel safe, especially when exercising our First Amendment rights.”

The capital city mayor also expressed her appreciation for the Salt Lake City Police Department and its “quick action tonight to protect lives and support those marching peacefully.”

“My heart is with you, SLC,” she added. “We’ll get through this.”

Gov. Spencer Cox called the shooting “a deeply troubling act of violence and has no place in our public square.”

Later, Cox said he’d spoken with Mendenhall and that he was heartbroken for those impacted by the shooting:

“Thank you to the thousands of protesters who exercised their constitutional rights in the right way tonight,” Cox added. “I’m grateful to security, SLCPD, DPS, and medical personnel who jumped into action to protect lives.”

Utah Attorney General Derek Brown also said, “Violence has no place here in Utah.”

“I’m deeply saddened to hear about the shooting at today’s protest,” Brown added, “and I appreciate law enforcement’s quick response.”

In a statement shared on social media, the Salt Lake City Council said the thousands of people peacefully marching downtown “reflects the heart of our city.”

“It’s especially painful that such a meaningful and peaceful moment was followed by an act of violence,” the council said. “We are deeply saddened by this tragedy and extend our heartfelt condolences to the victim, their family and everyone affected.”

“Salt Lake City is a place where people care deeply, show up for each other and speak out for what they believe in,” the council added. “Violence has no place here — and it will never define who we are.”

Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson said, “Tragically, this is my second statement today expressing sadness and concern regarding gun violence.”

Wilson was referring to the assassination of Minnesota Democratic legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband, who were shot and killed in their home early Saturday. Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were also shot multiple times in their nearby home.

“I’m deeply troubled that a peaceful protest in Salt Lake City was disrupted by a shooting as community members were celebrating their right to assemble,” Wilson added in her statement Saturday night. “I am thinking of all who were impacted by this senseless act.”

She added: “Hateful rhetoric, discriminatory practices, and violence is tearing apart our nation and we must continue to work together to create a future that represents a better America.”

Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said he was grateful for law enforcement’s quick response and them “bringing a dangerous situation under control in Salt Lake City.”

“The freedom to organize and participate in peaceful protests is a cornerstone of our great country,” Adams said on social media. “However, violence, destruction and vandalism are unacceptable.”

This story is breaking and will be updated.

Note to readers • This is a developing story and will be updated.

Utahns gathered Saturday morning at the University of Utah’s Marriott Library Plaza for the first of two scheduled “No Kings” demonstrations in Salt Lake City — part of a sweeping national movement opposing President Donald Trump.

The protests come as Washington, D.C., prepares for a military parade celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army — which coincides with Trump’s 79th birthday — and after the president deployed soldiers and Marines to protests in Los Angeles.

Francie Barber, 74, a lifelong Salt Lake City resident, said she is saddened by the direction the country is going in under Trump’s leadership.

“We don’t trust Trump,” Barber said, while proudly holding up her handmade sign that says “immigrants are the heart of this country.”

Half of Barber’s family is from Mexico, and she said she disagrees with Trump’s immigration policies. Her son-in-law was born in Mexico, and has worked hard to make a comfortable life for himself in the U.S., she said.

“A great number of people are dissatisfied, and it’s great to see that they are in Salt Lake,” Barber said, noting that many participants in the U. demonstration are around her age.

It was 80 degrees and rising as protesters, carrying homemade signs, American flags and water bottles, crowded the library courtyard nearly an hour before the 10 a.m. start.

The No Kings effort, led by the activist group 50501 Movement — named for its call to mobilize protests in all 50 states — is organizing demonstrations in over 2,000 cities and towns across the country, according to a news release shared by the group. Larger rallies are planned in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Atlanta, Houston and Phoenix.

At least 17 No Kings rallies have been scheduled across Utah for Saturday. Sarah Buck, an organizer for the Salt Lake City protest at the U., said the organizers “call ourselves protectors, not protesters.”

“The No Kings movement is to remind Americans and the administration that we broke away from a king and that we are founded on a Constitution,” Buck said in a news release, “and that we demand our leaders follow that Constitution.”

No Kings demonstrations are planned from Logan to St. George, with the earliest events scheduled at 9 a.m. in Cedar City, Bluff, Provo, Moab and Park City.

“To believe in the United States Constitution is to believe there is no American king,” said author and community activist Darlene McDonald, the first speaker at the U.

Leaders in the Trump administration “get the general population to assist in attacking their neighbors by stoking fears and manipulating anger,” McDonald said, which garnered a chorus of boos from the crowd.

Referring to those who buy into what she called the “fear factor,” she told demonstrators “you are here today because you have not.” She chanted, “Ain’t no power like the power of the people, the power of the people don’t stop,” which the crowd repeated back.

Tensions have escalated recently after Trump deployed National Guard troops and U.S. Marines into Los Angeles to suppress immigration protests, against the wishes of California’s governor.

“While we recognize the right to assemble,” Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz said on social media Thursday, “let us be clear: violence and vandalism will not be tolerated.

The speaker said Gov. Spencer Cox has worked with state and local law enforcement agencies to create a public safety plan. “Resources are deployed, and law enforcement is prepared.”

“We are committed to protecting the public, our communities, and state property,” Shultz added.

Utah Senate Democrats said they support the constitutional right of Utahns to protest and honor those who do so.

“We firmly encourage peaceful displays of protest,” Senate Democrats said in a statement. “This is an effective and powerful way to stand united with our community and spark meaningful, necessary change.”

The Utah State Emergency Operations Center, where officials monitor and coordinate responses to disasters and emergencies, has progressively been increasing its level of activation over the week.

On Monday, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety’s Division of Emergency Management told The Salt Lake Tribune that the SEOC was increased from Level 5 for day-to-day operations to a Level 4 “monitoring” activation in response to the protests in Los Angeles.

That was then increased to “Level 3 Enhanced Monitoring” on Wednesday, “in anticipation of potential protest activity and in support of Utah Highway Patrol during the Redbull Soapbox Event” Saturday at the Capitol, emergency officials wrote in a report then.

A spokesperson for the Utah National Guard told The Tribune that troops have not been deployed or staged ahead of Saturday’s protest. They noted that the Air Guard’s security forces squadron has an ongoing, emergency response relationship with the state and can be quickly activated in an emergency or public safety event.

On the busy corner of Main Street and Gentile Street in Layton, an inconspicuous hub is forming.

If you look and listen closely, you’ll pick up clues: the clack of wheels against a wooden surface. The quiet concentration that comes with trying to land a trick. The joyful chorus of cheers when someone does so successfully.

These are all markings of the atmosphere of a skate park. Yet, these moves are happening on a much smaller scale at Skatestation — Utah’s first fingerboard shop, which opens on June 14th.

“Fingerboarding is [where] you use your fingers and mimic skateboarding on the miniature level,” Clark Checketts, the owner of the store, said.

The inside of Skatestation is home to six different parks, display cases and merchandise like T-shirts. The floors are scuffed, the building is dated, but the camaraderie is ample.

On the Wednesday before opening weekend, locals descended on the shop for a session. They moved in a synchronized circle, watching each other land tricks in different parts of the park. Others hovered around to take videos on iPhones and GoPros.

Outside, a game of H-O-R-S-E was being played on the park right in front of the shop’s entrance — the goal is to hit the same trick in the same spot your opponents do.

There’s even “the basement” — an area under the shop that is accessible by a staircase out front. It’s fit with seven parks in a dimly lit room, the smell of acetone and monomer liquid from the nail salon next door lingers in the air.

But, the hobbyists don’t care about the state of the room as they check it out for the first time, eagerly pulling out their boards, ready to hit the parks and show off their skills.

The storefront is the latest development for Utah’s burgeoning fingerboard community — one that’s become a hub for connection, creativity and local business. The top row of the main display case in the store is dedicated to creations from Utah fingerboard businesses.

Where skateboarding and fidget toys meet

Fingerboarding is a nostalgic nod to the skateboard culture of the late 90’s and early 2000’s, but the only real injury risk is carpal tunnel.

Skatestation aims to provide a spot for the Utah fingerboard community to link up, and it’s attracting the attention of fingerboard greats from all corners of the world. For opening weekend, representatives from Germany’s BlackRiver fingerboards have flown in, including the 2019 World Champion of Fingerboarding, Jeldo Ulpts.

“There’s kind of two common core memories, especially [for] millennials with fingerboarding,” Checketts said. “One is the tiny plastic McDonald’s fingerboards … they were key chains, actually. But then people kind of started using them like a real skateboard.”

Then, came Tech Decks, a “fad” of the late ‘90s, according to a compiled history of fingerboarding.

For Checketts, fingerboarding became a lost hallmark of his youth until the COVID-19 pandemic came along. Stuck at home, he decided to get back into fingerboarding. He started posting on Reddit, Instagram and Youtube, and got together a group for Utah fingerboarders, finding connection with other nostalgia enthusiasts.

Checkett’s business partner, Shaun McBride, is a content creator who is bringing his brand, Spacestation, and its burgeoning group of followers to the world of fingerboarding. Combining McBride’s brand with Checketts’ fingerboarding expertise, is how the Skatestation store was born.

Customization craze

Checketts also started Dude Guy Fingerboard, where he sells custom wheels made out of urethane from old skateboard wheels.

Besides their miniature measurements, fingerboards operate very much like their full-size counterparts. The type of wheels, decks and other parts all play a role in individuality, as well as physics. Softer material wheels, for example, have more stickiness to it. Some boarders will even get the nails on their index and middle fingers painted to match their decks.

The customization is “one of the biggest draws” to the hobby, according to Checketts.

Teagan Moore, from North Ogden, is the owner of Holy Grail Fingerboards, where he creates custom fingerboard decks — some glow in the dark, while others change color in different weather and lighting conditions.

Moore first met Checketts through a Reddit post that invited fingerboarders to an outdoor park in Ogden. “I went to go meet a random stranger to play with my toys in the woods at a park that he had built,” Moore said.

Moore said Checketts helped him get his company running. Now, he has 100 of his own fingerboards.

“Fingerboarding has been way more than just a hobby to me, because it’s brought back a huge social part of my life that I didn’t have, where I’m able to make friends easily as an adult,” he said.

Customization also adds up. According to Checketts, a low-priced fingerboard is about $120 with all the necessary parts, but people will spend up to $250 for more high quality parts.

The creativity doesn’t stop at the boards. Seth Checketts, Clark’s brother, owns Level Ledges, a custom fingerboard obstacle course company. Skatestation store manager Ethan Alvey, owns Sketch Made, a company that designs fingerboard parks, many of which are at the store and “the basement.”

“Rails is my big thing,” Alvey said, pointing some out in the park in front of the store. He’s an expert on material: pointing out how granite feels different than wood for fingerboarders.

Alvey provides a crash course to fingerboard vocab: describing kick flips and 180s, and lists the four different stances: regular, switch, nollie and fakie. The boards, he says, also have different types of molds and widths, from 26 to 50 millimeters wide.

Community and creativity go hand-in-hand for fingerboarders in Utah.

Julio Sifuentes, who lives in Orem, doesn’t mind driving “just an hour” to Layton to hang out with the community. Sifuentes is originally from Peru, where his fingerboarding hobby started When he moved to Utah, he didn’t know of anyone else that did it. After going to fingerboard meetings out of state, he realized many fingerboarding companies were based in Utah.

While Sifuentes had to learn about the culture of Utah when he came here, fingerboarding was something he was familiar with — it became the shared language he used to get to know others like himself who find solace, comfort or simply fulfillment from flipping their boards.

“Fingerboarding, it’s always been around, passively, just in our pocket. Sometimes I don’t even have time to use it, but it’s always there. It’s like my little best friend,” Sifuentes said.

Friday’s lunchtime crowd at Brigham Young University’s iconic Creamery did a few double-takes when they spotted an unlikely guest sporting a Ute crimson red polo and enjoying a cone.

University of Utah President Taylor Randall took a quick break from a busy, three-day Southern Utah tour to indulge in his favorite BYU Creamery flavor: In-Shanely Chocolate — named, aptly, for his friend/rival/counterpart, BYU President C. Shane Reese.

But there was nothing cloak-and-dagger about Randall’s lunch-hour reconnaissance deep inside Utah County.

Call it “Ice Cream Diplomacy.”

The University of Utah leader and several members of his team were on campus Friday at the invitation of BYU leadership to enjoy burgers and sample the sugary Creamery goods.

But it also offered leaders from the two Utah schools — one private, one public — a few moments to fortify friendships and academic cooperation at a volatile moment for higher education.

“We have a lot of collaborations that go on between our two institutions — both formal and informal,” Randall told the Deseret News.

The two schools’ respective claims, he added, are actually quite similar. “There’s probably more research collaborations going on between these two schools than you would even imagine, right at the professorial level.”

It’s essential that those collaborations are accessible and maintained.

Both the University of Utah and BYU, Randall added, are entrusted with educating students in Utah. “We share common concerns about how to increase individuals coming into the overall higher education system. So it’s good to talk through what each other is seeing.”

Additionally, the two higher education institutions are working to solve basic societal problems.

“With BYU opening up a new medical school, and us expanding our medical school, one of our shared objectives is to solve access to healthcare issues in the Intermountain West — but also in the state of Utah, which ranks very, very low.”

Much of the University of Utah leadership’s three-day Southern Utah tour focused on meeting with fellow educators and health care professionals to seek ways of improving medical care in rural communities.

BYU Administration Vice President and CFO Steve Hafen said he and his blue-clad associates were eager to host Randall and his team at a popular campus hang-out.

“It’s an opportunity to sit down in a casual environment and get to know them a little bit better,” said Hafen. “There’s so much that they experience that we can relate that to — and so that collaboration and discussion is great.”

Hafen added his school continues to seek opportunities to strengthen relationships with Utah’s flagship public university. “The University of Utah is an outstanding educational institution with good leadership, and we want to learn from them. And I think they want to learn from us.”

“They’re public. We’re private. But there are a lot of synergies and a lot of things that we can collaborate on.”

Randall will return to the BYU campus on Oct. 18 to watch the Utes play the Cougars at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

And Hafen assured that the University of Utah leader will have his choice of Creamery flavors on that fast-approaching football Saturday. “We’ll leave the ice cream open all day long.”

Touring the Camp Williams building project

Randall and his team Friday also toured the U.S. Army Reserves headquarters building project that’s well underway at Camp Williams in Bluffdale.

Last August, the University of Utah and the U.S. Army Reserve announced a historic land transfer and relocation agreement.

Using more than $100 million appropriated by the Utah Legislature, the University of Utah is building a headquarters for the Army Reserve at Camp Williams, clearing the way for the military to vacate the remaining 50.9 acres it occupies just east of the university campus.

Following the relocation of the Army Reserve, the historic Fort Douglas property will be transferred to the University of Utah for future campus development.

The Utah Legislature appropriated a total of $117 million for a land purchase and to relocate the Utah Army National Guard 76th Operational Response Command’s personnel and operations to Camp Williams.

Officials said Utah is the only state to fund such a military relocation.

The state of Utah will reportedly own the building and will lease it to the Army Reserve. Construction of the facility started in April of last year

Fort Douglas and the University of Utah have a shared history spanning more than 150 years.

According to a university press release, at one point, the fort stretched over 10,500 acres, from 900 South to 6th Avenue, and from 1300 East to the mouth of Emigration Canyon. Presently, the university surrounds the remaining 50 acres of fort property.

The new two-story, 215,000-square-foot Army Readiness Building at Camp Williams — which includes administrative offices, storage and a separate vehicle maintenance shop — is slated to open and begin operating in 2026.

The 50-acre Douglas Armed Forces Reserve Center at Fort Douglas has been constrained by outdated infrastructure, according to a university release.

The new site, contiguous to Camp Williams, will offer a modern, secure location with room for future expansion. It will support all current and future Army Reserve operations, providing a more efficient and accessible training environment.

The university had reportedly been working on the exchange for 14 years, annually submitting the proposal to the respective university presidents over that time as an institutional goal.

Following Friday’s tour, Randall said the building projects’ design and progress exceeds his “wildest expectations.”

“It’s exciting that two organizations could find and plot an exciting, joint future together,” he said. “I give particular credit to state leaders for their vision in crafting a really unique interchange of property and buildings so that both of these great institutions could move forward.”

Even while touring the Camp Williams building project, Randall was considering the future of the Fort Douglas property on the university campus.

“We will start early-scenario planning over the next year of how we’ll use that property,” he said. “We already know the broad uses. Some of it will be for healthcare. The other piece will be for actually expanding our ‘College Town Magic’ to create a remarkable place for students to thrive.”

Ski Utah has released its visitation numbers for the 2024/25 ski season to the public. 

As of June 11, 2025, the state’s 15 ski resorts recorded a combined 6,503,635 visits throughout the winter 2024/25 ski season. This number comes in 3.6% lower than the previous season, but still sits as the third-highest number of skier visits in the state’s history. It’s also a 3.3% increase over Utah’s five-year average. 

The 2022/23 season still holds the record for Utah skier visits at 7.1 million. Alta Ski Area recorded 903 inches of snow that year.

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In a press release, Ski Utah noted that despite a year of ‘more variable’ weather patterns, ranking in third for yearly skier visits demonstrates the, “continued strength and resiliency of Utah’s ski industry.” Notably, Utah’s winter season was also plagued by the fallout of a two-week strike by Park City Mountain Resort’s ski patrol.

Low snowfall coupled with a lack of mountain ops personnel during the strike meant that PCMR only had 18% of its terrain open in the week between Christmas and New Years, a peak point in the season for ski areas. 

Despite a lackluster beginning of the season, Utah ski areas were able to bring it back with ski areas like Alta seeing a multitude of mid and late season storms. Notably, an April 1 storm brought a whopping 22.5 inches of snow to the Wasatch, bringing Alta’s season-to-date snowpack past 500″, before another 13″ fell just days layer to help close out the season.

“To hit our third-best season ever and generate $2.51 billion for Utah’s economy is a major win,” said Nathan Rafferty, President and CEO of Ski Utah. “The ski industry in Utah supports approximately 25,000 jobs, and with the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games on the horizon, the eyes of the world will be on us once again. We’re excited about the opportunities ahead and grateful to all who helped make this season a success.”

Utah resorts currently have several major infrastructure projects in the works, such as the massive terrain expansion at Deer Valley and the Sunrise Gondola replacement at Park City. In the next two years, a total of thirteen new lifts are slated to open across Utah’s ski resorts. Utah also has the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games on the schedule, adding to the docket of exciting moments in the coming years for Utah’s ski community.

Related: What’s Going on at Alta Ski Area This Summer?

Skier Visits Decreased in Utah Last Season first appeared on Powder on Jun 13, 2025