Editing Blanding, Utah (section)

==History==
First known as '''Grayson''' (after Nellie Grayson Lyman, wife of settler Joseph Lyman), the town changed its name in 1914 when a wealthy easterner, [[Thomas W. Bicknell]], offered a thousand-volume library to any town that would adopt his name. Grayson competed with Thurber, Utah (renamed [[Bicknell, Utah|Bicknell]]) for the prize. Grayson was renamed '''Blanding''' after the maiden name of Bicknell's wife, and each town received 500 books.<ref name=Cott_1990 />

On the morning of June 10, 2009, sixteen Blanding residents were arrested in more than a dozen raids performed by federal agents and indicted as part of an undercover investigation of violations of the [[Archeological Resources Protection Act]]. Eight others around the [[Four Corners]] region were also indicted.<ref name="sltrib_20090610_chargelist" /> The raid was the largest undercover sting of its kind in the country.<ref name="ksl_20180510_raidcriticism" /><ref name="latimes_20090611_24charged" /> The raid was the conclusion of a two-year investigation by FBI and BLM agents code-named "Cerberus Action" in which an undercover agent was able to purchase 256 artifacts for $335,685. One indicted resident, Dr. James DeMar Redd, died by suicide on June 11. The undercover informant, Ted Gardiner, died by suicide on March 1, 2010.<ref name="latimes_20140921_stingdesert" />