[UA] Trouble for Cliomancers

[Graham Donald]

>From the Charlotte Observer (31/08/2003)

Mayor's fantasy creates a festival
Many in Utah town believed his tales about their Viking heritage
DAVID KELLY
Los Angeles Times

CEDAR CITY, Utah - Each year when summer ends and the tourists leave, the 
economy plummets in this little town, nestled among the cliffs of southwest 
Utah.

Mayor Gerald Sherratt decided to boost off-season revenues with a festival 
of feasts, shows and pageantry based upon its Viking heritage. And he didn't 
let the lack of that heritage stand in the way.

With a liberal blend of fact and fantasy, Sherratt took out a series of ads 
in which he wrote stories -- some under the byline "Gretchen Vanderhooven" 
-- that reported incredible finds of Viking swords, tools, anvils and papers 
documenting a secret Norse kingdom in what is now Cedar City.

Sherratt, 71, published photographs of Viking artifacts supposedly found in 
local caves that he had in fact photocopied from Norwegian tour books.

Soon he had created an entire history of the imaginary Kingdom of Himmelsk. 
He sprinkled in bogus quotes from historians, analysts and anthropologists 
to lend an air of legitimacy to the tales.

Atop each installment, the words "paid advertisement" appeared in small type 
-- apparently too small for some readers.

"It was so absurd," he said. "We have no Norwegian blood in this town. Who 
would believe it?"

One resident marched into City Hall and said the cave where the artifacts 
were found was on his land.

"He said they belonged to him," recalled Sherratt, stifling a chuckle. 
"Another man said he owned the mold used to make the swords."

Sensing trouble, Sherratt wrote a story saying the Smithsonian Institution 
was taking control of the artifacts based on the fabricated "Antiquities Act 
of 1803," which he said awards items of "historical importance more than 500 
years old" to the government.

People called in, terrified that they'd never get the stuff back.

When the mayor confessed to the prank, they weren't amused.

"You can't let them go too far; they get embarrassed and then they get mad," 
said the bespectacled Sherratt, wearing a crisp black suit and suspenders. 
"Some don't believe us when we say it's a hoax, and they think there is some 
government cover-up going on. It boggles the mind."

Sherratt began the tales last year and will resume work next week to gin up 
excitement for the first Festival Royale of Himmelsk, a sort of Norse Mardi 
Gras planned for April 14-17. Himmelsk, incidentally, is Norwegian for 
"heavenly."

"The whole object of this is money," Sherratt said. "Motels and restaurants 
have a tough time here during the off-season, so we are trying to come with 
a festival each month to keep things going."

The rural community of 22,000 has dubbed itself Festival Town USA. It has a 
yearly rodeo, powwow, Renaissance fair, July Jamboree Street Festival and 
nationally known Shakespeare festival, which ended last week.

A conservative, largely Mormon town, Cedar City also has an 88-foot 
lighthouse just off the interstate and 400 miles from the ocean. The 
lighthouse was built to draw attention to a local developer's company. 
Sherratt claimed it was a remnant of Himmelsk.

"We loved that," said Brent Drew, vice president for business development at 
Quantum Construction, the building's owner.

At Southern Utah University, there is a near-perfect replica of 
Shakespeare's Globe Theater. The college hosts the Utah Shakespearean 
Festival, which draws 150,000 people annually and won a Tony Award in 2000 
for excellence in regional theater.

"We bring in 56 million tourist dollars a year," said Fred Adams, who 
started the festival in 1962. "We essentially give Cedar City a second 
Christmas."

Sherratt, who was the university's president for 16 years before he retired, 
wants to give it a third.

"I honestly think the Festival Royale could be huge," he said.

The story begins with a band of lost Vikings who find themselves marooned on 
a tropical island in the South Pacific. The date: April 1, 956. They soon 
doff their Viking furs and helmets for Polynesian attire. Years later, a 
volcanic eruption jars the island loose and a tidal wave carries it over 
California and Nevada and deposits it here, 7,000 feet above sea level.

Pioneer explorers eventually find the tiny kingdom. Then-President James 
Polk orders it burned, fearing Norwegian claims on the territory. By the 
time Mormon settlers arrive, only the lighthouse remains.

A more contemporary mystery for Betty McDonald is devising the festival's 
Scandinavian/Polynesian feast, or "smorgaluau."

"I'm having a hard time," said McDonald, who was recruited by Sherratt for 
the job. "Jerry doesn't want whitefish in cream sauce but I said, `That's 
what they eat in Scandinavia.' "


"...it's very pukka and bigglesish but still very interesting, talk about on 
a wing and a prayer!"

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