Flagpole installed illegally on Black Rock near Great Salt Lake, state agency mulls over removal
Sep 23, 2025, 7:46 AM | Updated: 1:57 pm
(Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands)
(Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands)
Editor’s note: This article is published through the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative that partners news, education and media organizations to help inform people about the plight of the Great Salt Lake.
SALT LAKE CITY — After a flagpole was illegally installed on Black Rock, the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands is considering removing it.
In a Sept. 22 statement, the division said it is tasked with protecting the site, which sits on the southern shore of Great Salt Lake and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The flagpole, which displays an American flag, popped up last week. Whoever installed it did not have a permit, according to a Facebook post from the division.
“The issue is not about the flag but the flagpole that was installed into Black Rock. The division respects the desire to display the flag but needs to ensure it is done so in a proper and legal manner,” the division wrote.
Under Utah State Code 65A-3-1, building structures on public lands without permission and altering a historical element are class B misdemeanor offenses.
Law Insider defines a flagpole as a “free-standing structure.”
Since the flagpole appeared, it has been a hot topic of discussion on social media. Some comments on the Division of Forestry, Fire and Public Land’s Facebook post urged the department to leave it alone. Others expressed frustration toward the unauthorized modification of a historical landmark.
What is Black Rock?
“Black Rock is a distinctive feature on the southern end of Great Salt Lake and was a valuable waypoint for travelers crossing the Great Basin on the California Trail,” wrote the Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands.
A photo of the Great Salt Lake’s shoreline near Black Rock Site taken sometime in the 1960s or 1970s. (Utah Division of State History)
Although many Native American tribes have viewed the area surrounding the formation as sacred, there is currently no direct evidence of Black Rock’s direct significance.
The National Park Service said the Bryant-Russell Party, a vanguard of 300 emigrants who followed the Hastings Cutoff of the California Trail in 1846, was likely the first group of European Americans to arrive at the rock. However, their travel journals do not reference Black Rock specifically.
Historical photo of Black Rock on the Great Salt Lake. Photo taken approximately 1878. (Utah Historical Society)
Later, bathing resorts were built near the formation. They operated for periods throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, until the final iteration was abandoned in the 1960s.
Black Rock was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.
Related: Great Salt Lake in a glass: Utah bartender creates cocktail inspired by lake ecology
