However, former Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, said Hill officials were upset at losing the small lodge and sought his assistance to find land for a replacement.

Hansen was in a position to help Hill, the largest employer in his district. He was a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and chairman of the House Resources Committee, which oversees federal lands.

"I kind of argued for something at Bear Lake," Hansen remembers now. "But the Air Force found some BLM (Bureau of Land Management) property in Park City. They came to me and asked what the chance was of helping out" to obtain it for a new lodge.

Morris at Hill said, "The Air Force is looking for a four-season resort area.... Park City was ideal for that. Park City had everything in terms of sports, culture, all those sorts of things."

The Air Force initially identified some property called Gamble Oaks, a hill across from a residential area near the Deer Valley ski resort. It happened to be under long-term recreational lease to Park City, mostly to allow its preservation as open space.

When the public heard of the plans, neighbors complained that the highest hill inside the city might soon be topped by a hotel instead of open space. Park City and Summit County officials met with Hansen. Adding to their concerns, Park City at the time was not in his district — and they wondered why he was dabbling there.

Antagonism

Hansen said an incident in one such meeting created antagonism that led him, in part out of acknowledged spite, to ensure the Air Force would obtain land in Park City.

"One of the women in the group said, 'We don't want that kind of people up here.' That really ticked me off," Hansen says now. "It was like, 'We're an upper-class area and we don't want scum from the military here."'

So Hansen, who was then headed into retirement, said that spurred him to quietly include language in the 2001 Defense Authorization Act to give the Air Force some Park City land.

The trouble is, according to Park City and Summit County leaders, that they do not remember anyone saying such things to Hansen. Summit County Commissioner Sally Elliott said, "We have never once said that."

So she, and others, say it is unfortunate that the ongoing disputes sometimes frame Park City as being anti-military.

"Park City never was, not for one instant, anti-military. We are very, very positive about having the military here," she said. Her son is on active military duty in Iraq, and when she was a young military mother, she and her husband often stayed at military hotels.

Current Park City Manager Thomas Bakaly adds, "We want the military here. But we want them in the right place," not ruining long-protected open space.