A proposal to rename a road after President Donald Trump in southern Utah failed on a 2-1 vote of Garfield County Commissioners.
The effort would have given a new name to the Burr Trail Scenic Backway, a 67-mile historic route that crosses parts of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Capitol Reef National Park. The road is named after settler John Atlantic Burr, who built it in the 1800s as a trail for moving his cattle. The proposal would have changed it to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Burr Trail Backway.
“It's a really signature road on the monument, and has a very long-standing history with the local community,” said Jackie Grant, executive director of the environmental organization Grand Staircase Escalante Partners,
At the Jan. 27 public hearing in Panguitch, a crowd of attendees cheered after the commissioners read their votes and it became clear the motion would fail. Many residents value the pioneer past celebrated by the road’s original name and didn’t want the county to inject modern politics into that, Grant said.
“They wouldn't want Kamala Harris's name on the road sign either. They don't want any politician’s name on these roads because of their historical significance,” she said. “Also when you start putting politicians’ names on things, it contributes to divisiveness in the community.”
An online petition opposed to renaming the Burr Trail garnered more than 4,000 signatures as of the vote. Many of those signatures came from Utah, Grant said, with more than 200 from rural Garfield County, where nearly 79% of voters supported Trump in the 2024 election.
Grant’s organization also opposed the proposal because Trump reduced protections for Grand Staircase during his first term. Some local leaders, however, viewed Trump’s actions related to Utah public lands in a different light.
“We just want to honor the work [Trump] has done for protecting multiple-use access to our land,” Commissioner Leland Pollock told Garfield County newspaper, The Insider, about his motivation for championing the proposal.
The county commission also considered changing the name of a highway north of Bryce Canyon National Park from Johns Valley Road to Donald J. Trump Presidential Highway, but that measure failed in the same vote.
Naming roads and landmarks after presidents and other influential figures is nothing new, from George Washington Boulevard in St. George to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Salt Lake City. Yet, University of Arizona historian Susan Crane sees a difference between examples like those and the Garfield County proposal.
“The precedent is that it's commemorative. That's what's been typical,” Crane said. “That's keeping a memory alive and honoring a legacy, as opposed to renaming the street because we've had a regime change.”
Typically, that means naming things for people after they’ve left public office or after they’ve died, she said. The U.S. Geological Survey, for instance, doesn’t allow naming natural landmarks after living people. To qualify, the person must have been dead for at least five years and have had a long-term direct association with that place. The Utah Geological Survey follows the same guidelines.
“In this case, it's not yet history. It's current events,” Crane said. “It's preemptive. It's trying to control a future rather than a past.”
Despite the Utah vote failing, it’s not the last effort of its kind. Lawmakers in other states such as Arizona and Kentucky have also proposed renaming roads for Trump in recent weeks.
Even when efforts like these succeed, Crane said, they often fail to change the way people refer to a road in day-to-day life, especially if its historic name is deeply ingrained into local vernacular. Many times, the official names become invisible monuments that people don’t pay attention to after a while.
Still, the Garfield County effort could offer a glimpse into how place names will become an increasingly active front in the battle to shape historical narratives in the United States.
“What if each succeeding regime does the same thing? What if that becomes the new norm?” Crane said. “It hasn't been normal, but it could become normal.”
