One Person’s Story of Life and Success in Castle Country

The reasons people have come to Castle Country and continue to stay in the area vary a great deal. For some who have migrated to the area 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.

Jeff Hoele came to Carbon County a decade ago after having run and sold a successful construction business in the state of Washington.

“I was looking for a place to ride out the recession and I thought that rural Utah would be a great place to do that,” he says. “I had driven through Castle Country a few times because of volunteer work I was doing in New Orleans and it looked like a great place to move. It had low impact living, the cost of living was lower, people were friendly and we just fell in love with it.”

He said after having lived in larger cities and having also traveled the world Castle Country just seemed like a natural spot to settle down. He said there are a lot of advantages to the area.

“First is the clean air,” he stated. “And there is literally no traffic. My drive in Washington from work to most anywhere I was going to go was from 10 minutes to 45 minutes. And when I got into the Seattle area there was a lot of gridlock. If I missed an exit, I would lose 45 minutes to get back to where I was going. I was very stressed out due to the traffic and the congestion. It just wasn’t worth it.”

He said returning to the life he has now is much like how it was when he was a kid again.

“This place reminds me of what it was like in Olympia 45 years ago,” he explained. “When I was a kid we worked hard on the farm and there were only three traffic lights. Now the area has over 300,000 people. What used to be a few minutes drive from the airport to visit my brother takes an hour and a half.”

The weather also is a factor in him staying in Castle Country after moving from a place so many people in the country aspire to live.

“I also don’t miss the rain,” he said. “I love the dry weather. I didn’t know you could make a living without wearing rain gear. My favorite thing here is the blue skies. Absolutely the blue skies.”

His final comment.

“I should have moved out here 30 years ago,” he concluded.

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