Whoever is trying to buy drilling rights in an archaeologically rich corner of Utah canyon country, they appear to be going to great lengths to hide their identity.
A lone and obscure company purchased nearly all the public-lands leases the Bureau of Land Management auctioned on Tuesday in an area blanketed with prehistoric structures, rock art and other artifacts left by Ancestral Puebloan cultures.
Acting on behalf of Ayers Energy LLC, a Texas lawyer named Jeremy Westphal submitted the winning bids, totaling $715,168, on 19 of the 21 parcels the BLM sold on lands east and south of Blanding, according to the BLM’s summary of the online auction.