Rancher Garland dies at 88

SALT LAKE CITY — Cecil Garland, a Utah rancher who led a fight three decades ago to keep a missile system from being built in the western part of the state, has died. He was 88.

He died Sunday from complications with pneumonia, said his wife, Annette Garland.

Garland led the campaign from 1979 to 1981 against the U.S. Air Force’s proposal to build an MX missile system in Utah and Nevada. He also fought against efforts by Nevada officials to take water from the region and route it to Las Vegas.

Before coming to Utah, Garland also helped create the Scapegoat Wilderness Area.

“He really believed we had to give back to the earth,” Annette Garland said.

He was born in Cincinnati in 1925, and grew up in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. He served in the Air Force and lived in Las Vegas and Montana before coming to Utah in 1973 to live near the tiny farming community of Callao, Utah, close to the Nevada border.

There, he met Annette Garland, who was a school teacher. She said her husband packed a lot into his life. He is survived by four children, 10 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

“He had a lot of adventures,” Annette Garland said. “He left a good legacy. I’m proud of him.”