Tom Trout was a Texas cowboy who settled in Moab, Utah in the 1880s and a prankster. At one Moab town dance, as was the practice, women left their babies on a common bed in the dancehall, wrapped in their own heavy wool shawls. Tom Trout switched the babies. At the end of the dance, the women, as was their custom, grabbed their shawls, babies inside and went home. It was only after getting home late and unwrapping the shawls they discovered that they had someone else’s baby. It took most of the next day to sort out who had whose baby.
Moab is still a town for a good time.
In fact the good times are getting so regular that at the Grand County Council Meeting (Moab is in Grand County) on 15 April 2021, Council Attorney Christina Sloan suggested the proposed discussion on revisions to the county noise ordinance be postponed. Evidently, many on the council weren’t ready as the number of ATVs is growing rapidly and locals now worry that there are too many hours of too many days at too high a decibel, and outfitters don’t want their businesses constrained.
