Month: April 2018

The reasons people have come to Castle Country and continue to stay in the area vary a great deal. For some who have stayed there were job opportunities that brought them. For others it was family, or the allure of a more quiet setting than what city life offers.

David Brewer is presently a detective with the Carbon County Sheriff’s Department. He moved to Castle Country when he was 15 because his family relocated in the area after having lived most of his young life in southern California. After high school he went into the Marine Corps and then afterward moved to Colorado then back to the area. Then once again he moved to the Salt Lake metropolitan area because of a business he was involved in. Finally he moved back to Castle Country and stayed.

“I can’t exactly tell you what keeps bringing me back here, but the people here are good people,” he says. “The schools are good and it is a great place to raise kids. I always said I didn’t want to bring up my kids where I grew up in California.”

As they say in the Castle Country area, “Many come for a day, but stay for a lifetime.”

He also likes the size of the towns and area.

“I think my favorite things about living here has to do with the size,” he said. “It’s small enough that you almost know everyone, but it is close enough to a larger metropolitan area that when you want that kind of thing you can go there. I’ve always liked the downtown areas in the cities here. They are friendly and older looking. The development here is more laid back.”

Being a police officer would put him in the right spot to see the more negative parts of the area, but he says that doing that job in Castle Country is really very interesting and generally satisfying.

“We don’t have a community here that is anti-cop like they do in some places,” he said. “People here are always willing to help. It is just a great place to be in law enforcement. As a detective I get to do a great variety of work because of the size of the community, whereas in a big city I would be assigned to particular divisions. It makes you well-rounded as an officer. And violent crime in the area is very unusual.”

“I just find I get along with everyone. People are very friendly,” he concluded.

The reasons people have come to Castle Country and continue to stay in the area vary a great deal. For some who have stayed there were job opportunities that brought them. For others it was family, or the allure of a more quiet setting than what city life offers.

Terry Willis grew up in Iowa, spent many years in the United States Navy, lived in northern California and then came to Utah. After some time in Provo, Utah, her husband got a job in the coal industry in eastern Utah and they moved to Castle Country.

“When we moved here we had no long terms plans to stay,” she says. “I had never thought about living in a small town community. But living here I found how easy it is to live, to make friends, to raise my children, I found such a contentment that I have no intention of ever leaving this area. And my husband and I have looked around a lot, thinking about making changes as we retired. But we have not found a better place to live.”

Willis who is now an artist and sits on the city council of the largest town in the region, Price, says that living life in Castle Country is simple and she listed the things she likes best about living there.

“One of the best this is that we all know each other,” she says. “Of course some days we are like a dysfunctional family in that we disagree on things, but in the end we work together and pull together as a community. One of the other things I like is the low traffic. When the worst part of my traffic day is having to stop to let the students cross the street by USU Eastern and then have to stop at the traffic light a half a block down the street that is a bad traffic day.”

She also listed the low cost of living and housing and the nearness to outdoor recreation of all kinds from hiking, to mountain biking to four wheeling to fishing. And even while it is rural in and in the middle of the beautiful eastern Utah desert, the proximity to big city shopping, only a hour away is a real draw.

“The people here are wonderful, friendly, hard working people,” she says. “Within a day of when we moved here 38 years ago, people were coming over to meet us, bringing food and wanting to be friends.”

For Willis, the indeterminate stay in Castle Country when she first got here, has turned into something else; a lifetime of opportunity.

As they say in the Castle Country area, “Many come for a day, but stay for a lifetime.”

The reasons people have come to Castle Country and continue to stay in the area vary a great deal. For some who have stayed there were job opportunities that brought them. For others it was family, or the allure of a more quiet setting than what city life offers.

For Richard Shaw it began with a dream to live in southeastern Utah.

“As a kid I always wanted to live in Moab,” he said recently. “When I got the chance 27 years ago to move to eastern Utah, I just figured I was closer to my goal of going to the red rock country. However once I found Castle Country, and what it had to offer, the dream of living in Moab disappeared. I had found my nirvana as far as I was concerned.”

Shaw said that what he found was a quiet community, with all the amenities he needed, but with many added bonus’. The air was clean and the traffic was low key, but most of all the people were down to earth and very friendly.

“I had lived several places in my life, including outside of the state of Utah and I had never found a community that was so accepting, so ready to welcome my family,” he says. “It was a lot like growing up in the suburban town where I spent my childhood with none of the big city hassles.”

With its outstanding recreational opportunities, a great educational system that covers everything from pre-school to a major university, a community atmosphere, and a freedom seldom found in most places people live these days, Castle Country is truly unique. In many ways it is one of a kind.

As they say in the Castle Country area, “Many come for a year, but stay for a lifetime.”