CHAPTER 1
Introduction
BEAVER COUNTY: THE PLACES THAT SHAPE US i n part, my love of Beaver's countryside motivated me to write this book. It is easy to find many attractions in rural Utah, and in Beaver County these natural features a b o u n d — m o u n t a i n s to hike and explore, fertile farm fields and grazing land to the west, and small historic towns to investigate and learn from. For those of us who live outside the county, rural Utah has been home for significant periods of our lives, and it is where the stories of our ancestors play out. I feel privileged to have been able to help tell their stories. As have m a n y of you, I have become increasingly concerned about the many threats to Beaver County's historically rural atmosphere. It is possible that our state will undergo overwhelming changes that will alter the whole landscape irretrievably in the next generation. In some places change is accelerating beyond our ability to imagine its impact by the end of the century. Therefore, places like Beaver County that hang onto some vestige of the hundred years of rural life are important to preserve. Technically a rural environment is sparsely populated, lies well beyond the metropolis or the suburbs, and is a place where natural
