Martin's Cove lease to LDS Church delayed

CASPER, Wyo.— A 25-year lease of the Martin's Cove historic site to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was delayed Wednesday after the U.S. Bureau of Land Management released the document on the Internet, then took it down.

BLM officials said earlier this month the lease of Martin's Cove would be signed to the church Oct. 20, the Casper Star-Tribune reports.

Early Wednesday, the agency had a link to the 71-page environmental study for the lease. But by 10 a.m., the document had been removed.

Wyoming BLM spokeswoman Cindy Wertz said the document needed to be reviewed in Washington, D.C., before being issued publicly.

"We inadvertently posted it because we did think it was going to get signed today," she said. "Our Web guys didn't get the word that it was still in Washington waiting to get signed."

Wertz didn't know how long it was going to be in Washington. "I wouldn't even hazard a guess," she said.