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.”