Police want to find whoever organized a rave party that drew thousands of people to the Utah-Nevada border before officers busted it up.
Early Sunday morning, a Utah Highway Patrol trooper stopped a car on I-80 near the border and arrested two people after finding ecstacy inside their car.
"Information came from two individuals and a map indicating a party was taking place outside of Wendover," Elko County Sheriff Neil Harris said Tuesday. The map gave directions from Salt Lake City to a turnoff just east of the state line heading north into the desert and mountains near West Wendover.
"The map said that coolers and containers, of any kind, were not to be brought into the venue area, and invitations should be ready to access the venue from a check point," Harris said.
Seriously outnumbered with only one deputy assigned to Wendover, officers were called in to break up the party held on land owned by the Bureau of Land Management. At the same time, Harris said a 911 call came in from the rave.
"A 15-year-old girl overdosed on ecstacy," he said.
Pictures of the underground dance party called "Sequence VI" posted on a Web site for Utah's rave culture show young adults dancing with glow sticks in their hands and pacifiers in their mouths. Lights and lasers spread out over the crowd. Numerous DJs were photographed spinning from a table set up on stage. At its height, police estimate as many as 3,000 people were dancing in the Nevada desert.
As deputies arrived, they said nearly 250 cars were leaving the area. On site, police said they found about 350 people still there. An ambulance located the girl, who refused treatment and was driven out of the party in a car.
Breaking up the party, police seized generators and other equipment. They are holding the property to determine the identity of the owner or owners and who organized the rave. Harris said he had seized a contract for the production company involved.
The Elko County Sheriff and agents from the Bureau of Land Management met Tuesday to discuss the case. The BLM's Elko field office said the party is still under investigation. There were no permits for the dance party, which also did not have bathroom facilities.
"It's going to require cleanup and I know there's concern for drugs," said BLM spokesman Mike Brown.
Harris said he wants to see the organizers of the rave prosecuted for hosting such a large-scale event without permits, security, bathroom and medical facilities. On a rave-friendly Web site, people who posted had praise for the rave, but were critical of litterbugs, police and the news media.
E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com