Aug. 9--Protest signs carried by about 3,000 American flag waving-motorized recreation enthusiasts riding off-highway vehicles up State Street to the steps of the state Capitol told the story of Saturday's Take Back Utah rally.

"I'll keep my guns, my freedom, my land. You keep the change," read one sign.

"This is the Place for US, not the U.S. government," opined another that was part of a parade that included sheep trailers, mountain bikers, oil and coal trucks and dozens of ATV riders exercising their freedom by not wearing helmets.

"A Man and His ATV -- A Beautiful Thing" read a placard carried by one participant, while another rider wore a T-shirt claiming that "paved roads are a fine example of needless government spending."

Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett addressed an appreciative and somewhat angry throng. So did two of Bennett's 2010 Republican Senate nomination opponents, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and firebrand Cherilyn Eagar, who sang part of a Sesame Street song.

Organized by Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, and a host of off-highway vehicle clubs and sponsored by a diverse group of public land users including hunters, ranchers, farmers, miners and oil and gas companies, the event was long on anger and rhetoric and short on specifics about how federal land management should be changed or even eliminated.

"We're God-fearing and gun clinging," said Mike Swenson of the off-highway vehicle group USA-ALL, who offered

a message for what he called radical environmental groups: "You guys that love rocks and trees more than human beings, you have awakened a sleeping giant. We are not going away. We've been way too easy on you. There is a new war in the western United States to take back our lands."

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance -- one sign read "Don't commit SUWA-cide" -- joined the Bureau of Land Management, the Obama administration, any wilderness designation and the federal government as the rally's biggest bogeymen.

Noel, who worked for nearly 20 years for the BLM as a lands specialist before quitting in disgust when the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was established by then-President Bill Clinton, said he hoped the event would energize Utahns who might not have time to backpack into scenic parts of the state for two weeks but want to access public lands.

"This is more than about recreation, it's about farming and mining and keeping revenues generated by the lands of Utah," Noel said. "This is a beginning.