Provo, Utah

Provo is the county seat of Utah County. It is perhaps the strongest Mormon stronghold on the planet, home of Brigham Young University. Provo is the community to which Gary Gilmore is paroled in 1976 from Marion State Penitentiary in Illinois. Almost all of the action in the first book of Executioner's Song takes place in Provo, its the sister city of Orem, and a couple of outlying suburban communities such as Spanish Fork and Springville. Provo remains a focal point in Book 2, but some of the action moves to Salt Lake City and Point of the Mountain, where the penitentiary resides and where the execution occurs. Point of the Mountain is approximately equidistant from Salt Lake City and Provo. Book 2 also involves trips to and from Portland, Oregon, where Gilmore's mother resides, and Denver Colorado, home of the Tenth District U.S. Court of Appeals. Certain...