Utah Stories May 2023

BEHIND THE STORIES

Dan Potts

Dan grew up in SLC, attending West High School, followed by a BS from USU and an MS from Auburn University, where he focused on wildlife management and aquatic ecology. Largely due to his many nature-oriented hobbies, he is a longtime volunteer nature activist and officer of the 100-year-old Salt Lake Fish and Game Foundation.

Dan retired more than 40 years ago after returning from the Peace Corps, devoting himself to promoting Utah’s hunting, fishing, and other renewable and watchable natural resources.

Dan volunteers on a variety of local neighborhood and nature boards. Through his activism and teaching a variety of classes, he has advocated greener approaches to living on Earth. In addition to Utah Stories, Dan has written many how-to and human-interest articles over the years for other local newspapers and magazines. Dan really appreciates working with Utah Stories to “round out” its many great articles.

Mike Jones

Mike has been a Utah stories contributor of photography and articles since 2012. In his spare time he enjoys hiking, nature and portrait photography, whisky and craft beer tastings.

Earlier this year he earned his masters degree in library science with a concentration in archiving from Emporia State University.

“My favorite thing about Utah has got to be the history,” Mike says. “There are so many weird and interesting things that have happened here. The outdoor scene is pretty great as well; summer or winter, there’s always something to do, and lots of great people to do it with.”

The reason he likes contributing to Utah Stories? “The people I get to meet. I get to play an active role in spreading the news about what makes Utah great, and I get to do it with my camera.”

Holly Lammert

Holly Lammert is a teacher, coach, climber and writer who lives in Moab. She currently teaches math at Grand County High School as well as yoga at various places. Mostly, she is motivated to get kids outside to experience the engaging classroom of nature and connect those themes to their lives and the world.

When not in school, she’s working on a project to convert a once-active school bus into a camper/energy lab/think tank to let learning roam and inspire small groups of wanderers. She runs a summer camp called Elements of Change, where participants can experientially study science and mythology and build skills in grassroots activism, along with a girls support and self-discovery group called the Artemis Project.

Holly enjoys exploring canyons, rivers and mountains, and diving into adventures big and small. She also loves to dance wildly, sing in harmony, travel responsibly, and walk dogs aimlessly. She climbs when she can.

She writes mostly recreationally — journaling, blogging and sharing stories with friends. She is embracing investigative journalism and the process of researching, interviewing and bringing stories to the public that invite readers to consider community, our relationship to the environment, healthy living, and critical conversations about justice and education.

Comments from The Utah Stories Facebook Page: A

Typical Case Of Poor Reading Comprehension

Melanie Jackson

I just saw an article written by Richard Markosian called Utah’s Identity Crisis in a magazine. I had to laugh because this was a horrible piece. And he thinks he is a journalist. The article goes on and on, whining about not getting everything practically free, and of course, he plays the victim like so many do today. He is blaming the LDS church for the people like him needing things that most people have to work hard for. Then at the end, he proclaims that the LGBTQ community is growing into a new creature. He compares it to a dragon, and says he hopes the church doesn’t get burned when they try to “ride the dragon.” Hahahahaha!

But no, Richie boy, you got it wrong. Most of the population in Utah does not share your views. Most of us believe in hard work, and we aren’t standing around feeling like victims because someone isn’t giving us/them more handouts. Stop blaming everyone but yourself for the situation you are in. It’s an embarrassment to the rest of us that live here. And one last thing … slamming the church … is that supposed to make you appear intelligent? Hahaha. It did the opposite. You aren’t better than anyone. In fact you are a communist who needs some mental health classes asap.

Oh I almost forgot. Take some journalism classes so you can learn how to write better and have more integrity.

Email From Kimberly Southam

Once again, I love the way you approach a story. I wrote the comment below & tried posting after your Lost Sheep Story on the Homeless, but it was too late. Yet, I wanted you to know, you made me think & care. You’re an excellent writer because you’re thoughtful & reach the viewer by approaching areas that perhaps they may have not thought about. You get people thinking!

My post:

Richard Markosian, again, you challenge us to think differently about why some non-conformist people might be unable to adapt to living in a more & more robotically inclined society; deciding that living on the streets is their best option even if it entails fending off crime, cold weather, or going without shelter. If we as a people can go to the moon, we must figure out how to help these “lost sheep.” I worked downtown all of my life basically, and what scares me most is the apathy of folks, accepting people living on the streets. When we as a people walk by a person wrapped in a blanket and shivering on a cold winter day, and we’re holding our $8.00 cup of specialty coffee, we may want to ask ourselves if we too have lost our way!

Follow

ECONOMIC stimulus in cans & bottles

Small Breweries Create Big Dividends For Rural Towns

By Richard Markosian

ECONOMIC STIMULUS:

When it’s done right, it can turn an economy around; it can help the working class; it can revitalize local areas to help independent small businesses flourish. But when it’s done wrong, it

widens the gap between the rich and the poor. From a national economic perspective, it seems that through rampant inflation we are now paying for our stimulus checks that helped families and businesses get through Covid.

But there is some good news on the economic front. While Utah’s population is swelling in our biggest cities, a few smaller towns with brave entrepreneurs are showing promise of greater development and growth. Helper, Utah has become a stellar example of how economic growth or stimulus can happen the right way — by allowing the local business community and residents to take charge. Together, business owners, artists and residents have transformed a mostly shuttered and dilapidated town into a destination for art, music, culture, architecture and beer! Helper Beer is opening in Helper, Utah, and it’s about time Carbon County had a great brewery, and at the very least, another reason to visit historic Helper.

Jaron Anderson, of TF Brewing and RedRock Brewing Co., has built a stellar state-of-the art brewery with his team. Utah Stories has published many stories about how beer saved the likes of Salt Lake City’s former red light district when Redrock and Squatters opened in the early 1990s; how Wasatch Brewery helped to revitalize Park City’s Main Street at the same time; How Rooster Brewing Co. helped revitalize Ogden’s 25th Street, and how many small towns and areas have been assisted in their efforts to attract tourists and draw more residents using the ever-irresistible lure of freshly brewed beer.

We at Utah Stories contend that craft beer and local breweries are one of the best forms of economic stimulus for building a tourism economy. Colorado has already learned this and the State Office of Economic Development has offered tax rebates and grants to brew-

eries willing to open in small towns. While Utah is now offering Main Street revitalization grants, they have yet to step up to the plate and offer breweries (and distilleries) access to valuable tax incentives, like they currently offer to giant big box stores.

Craft Breweries provide good-paying local jobs and they build the social fabric. Craft breweries offer the teaching of a skill that is in high demand. Breweries produce products that the community can share whether out on the hills biking, hiking, or sandbagging during what is almost certain to become one of our biggest flood years. The last time our mountains looked like they do now was in 1983 when Donna Summers’ “She Works Hard for the Money” was at the top of the Billboard Charts.

Brewers and brewery owners work very hard for their money, as do the working class professionals who live in the small towns we are featuring. Utah needs to revitalize more towns for more people who like working with their bodies and minds to support craft: food, products, farms, and tangible products Made in Utah. Chat GTP might put writers like myself out of a job, but we aren’t yet seeing robots brewing great craft beer.

On another note, also in this issue, we get an incredible case study of how historic architecture can be preserved on a local scale in a cost-effective manner. I wish Salt Lake City could have noted that before they demolished the historic Main Street Pantages Theater. Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall claims the renovation cost of more than $60 million prevented any renovation.

“We could have renovated it for many millions less than that,” said Gary DeVincent.

Now, nothing but a massive hole in the ground remains on SLC’s Main Street where one of its most historic edifices once remained. But I digress. Let’s examine the recent breweries that have opened in small towns and the impact they have had on their communities.

Strap Tank - Trevor Hall

Legends Motorcycle Museum in Springville was founded in 1999 by local businessman and motorcycle enthusiast, Rick Salisbury. Its mission is to preserve and showcase antique and rare motorcycles. The museum also offers exhibits on motorcycle racing history, motorcycle design evolution, world-class art, and the cultural impact of motorcycles on American society.

Next door to the museum, Salisbury founded Strap Tank Brewery in 2015, a craft brewery named after a type of Harley Davidson. Strap Tank Brewery offers a menu of pub-style food and 12

in-house brewed beers. The brewery has expanded to Lehi and is currently building a new location in St. George.

Strap Tank Brewery has had a positive impact on the Springville community by providing a popular gathering place for locals and visitors to enjoy great beer and food. The annual Legends Block Party is an event for the entire community that includes a carnival, motorcycle stunts, and free hot dogs. It is scheduled for June 10th this year. Strap Tank Brewery has helped establish Springville as a destination for craft beer lovers, drawing visitors from across the state and beyond.

Silver Reef - Cindy Walsh

Cindy Walsh began her adventure in 2018 with the intent of creating the newest craft brewery in St. George. Silver Reef offers seasonal beers, spirits, pre-mixed cocktails, homemade root beer and local wines from their sister company, Chanela Vineyards. They are Southern Utah’s largest craft brewery and have created a casual atmosphere where locals & tourists connect by sharing their latest Utah adventures. Their tasting room is located in the middle of their production facility, enabling customers to watch the brew crew hard at work.

“Locals have been supporting us and PHOTO BY

STRAP TANK BREWERY|WIKICOMMONS

Strap Tank Brewery in Springville, Utah.

continue to spread the good word that we’re here and now a must see,” says Walsh.

Supporting local farmers is another way they connect with the community. “Farmers come to pick up our spent grain and feed to their herd, and we hear they love it!” she says.

Starting last summer, they were finally allowed by the DABC to be open on Sundays. “A huge deal … ”

Silver Reef is excited to announce that construction is underway and they expect to be opening the restaurant this summer.

Vernal BreweryGinger Bowden

Ginger Bowden traveled extensively for her oil and gas business where she loved to stop at craft breweries and enjoy great food and drink great beer. Bowden says, “As I saw the unstable ups and downs of the oil and gas industry, I decided I needed something I could see as a long term career.” Bowden had always enjoyed homebrewing and hosting dinners at her home.

Bowde began writing a business plan to bring a brewery and restaurant to smalltown Vernal, Utah. She presented the plan to her dad one evening and he said, “Don’t show this to anyone else!” “He has been my number one supporter over the years as well as my investor.”

After finding land across the street from

the Utah Field House, they began construction in July of 2012. “It was a grueling process,” says Bowden. But finally, in April of 2013, they opened their doors. Vernal is currently celebrating their ten-year anniversary.

We asked our Uintah Travel and tourism director to describe how she felt Vernal Brewing has impacted our community and she said:

Like nothing Vernal has ever seen or experienced. A place you would find in the big cities with food and drinks that are appealing to visitors and locals. A great meeting place for both tourists and business professionals.

Vernal Brewing has created more than 50 local jobs. Vernal Brewing further supports their community through sponsorships, donations to fundraising events, and hosting large scale events in the summer.

Bowden says, “Vernal Brewing is a space where you feel like you’re in the big city, but you are only five minutes away from home.”

PHOTO BY VERNAL BREWING COMPANY | FACEBOOK

Helper beer

Welcome To Helper, Utah — The Teeniest Town In America With A Craft Brewery

By Del Leonard Jones

HELPER — The teensiest town in America with a craft brewery is this Utah micro-burg of 2,000 people.

The least-populated locale had been Milton, Delaware, according to ChatGBT, but Dogfish Craft Brewery in the coastal village of 3,000 has been supplanted by Helper Beer, where 16 draft lines are positioned across a wall like sprinters in the starting blocks. All pints are $5. Oven-fired pepperoni pizzas go for $12.

Helper Beer received a license to

brew on March 30, so less than a dozen beers were available at the May 6 grand opening, but head brewmaster Jaron Anderson expects to make 40 styles in cans or drafts over the next year.

Before the grand opening, Helper Beer posted on Instagram that it would open for a few hours and the place was soon packed with 50 or so locals who ate the place out of food. The fire marshal has yet to determine occupancy, but Anderson said it will be 85 or 90.

Thousands of people a day drive past

PHOTOS BY DIANNA JONES

Jaron Anderson, head brewmaster and co-owner of Helper Beer.

on Highway 6. Helper Beer rests onetenth of a mile off the Main Street exit, and recovering a $2 million investment depends on it becoming a destination spot for travelers headed in the direction of Moab and Lake Powell, or to and from Colorado on I-70.

Ten stainless steel tanks, positioned across from the tables as part of the minimalist décor, ferment 310 gallons at a time, including a fruity sour favored by desert folk who crave electrolytes.

Anderson, a native of Provo, and his southern Californian wife, Amy, are co-owners. They have two children, 10 and 7. Why did they come to Helper, where the economy is barely fit for a dollar store?

The answer can be traced to Charles Callis, Jaron’s best friend, who came in 2010 to intern for six months for artist David Dornan. Callis never left and has his own gallery in town. The Andersons made visits two or three times a year and saw Helper transition from a boarded-up mining town to a budding artsy hamlet.

After one visit, Anderson said, “I feel like I could live here, but then we’d have to build a brewery.”

In 2017, Anderson joined a group of friends in southern Idaho to see the total solar eclipse when he had a “spiritual moment of clarity,” and Callis told Anderson, “You have to do it. If you don’t do it now, someone else will.”

The most difficult time, Amy said, was waiting to get approval for a Small Business Association loan. It came through in March 2020 just as the world shut down with Covid. The Andersons had already sold their house in Salt Lake and moved to Helper, which caused Jaron to commute to TF Brewery in downtown Salt Lake, where he squeezed a 40-hour work week into three days.

No one knows Anderson’s potential better than Kevin Templin, longtime Salt Lake brewmaster and owner of TF Brewery. Templin remembers the 6-foot, 5-inch, 22-year-old Anderson begging him for a job 16 years ago. Grunt work was the only thing available, so Anderson put labels on bottles, cleaned fermentation tanks, and bused tables.

Anderson absorbed it all, Templin said, and was the mastermind behind Red Rock’s Paardebloem beer that won at the Great American Beer Festival, the World Beer Cup, and almost every competition it entered.

Templin calls Jaron “Jarontee,” because he is a guaranteed winner.

Helper is no stranger to libations. In its pre-70s coal mining heyday, it was home to dozens of bars and whorehouses. Today, it has one bar. Residents drive to Price for fast food.

“That whole town’s been sleeping and Jaron just woke it up,” Templin said. “He’ll be freaking mayor one day. He’s a soft-spoken total ham. He’d love to be Mayor Jaron.”

Nationwide, the number of craft breweries climbed to a record 9,552 in 2022, according to the Brewers Association. Those produced 13% of the total beer volume. Utah is home to fewer than 50 of those breweries, but a cold one can be had in the glow of the red rock cliffs at Zions Brewery, or after

dusty dinosaur hunting in Vernal, said Jocelyn Kearl, co-founder of the Utah Ale Trail website.

“We’ve been working to encourage people to get beyond the Wasatch Front breweries and explore the various corners of the state,” said Kearl, who has yet to patronize Helper Beer.

Anderson chose the name Helper Beer, as minimalist as the ambiance, after mulling over “pretentious, fluffy names.” He was leaning toward Book Cliff Brewing, but decided geological names such as Sierra Nevada had been worn out.

A 2019 law increased Utah’s allowable alcohol by volume from 4% to 5%. Seventy percent of revenue must come from food sales, and Anderson stressed that Helper Beer will be family friendly.

Hours of operation are not firm, but Helper Beer will open by 11am seven days a week, closing around 10pm on Friday and Saturday, and at 9pm Sunday thru Thursday.

Amy Anderson, co-owner of Helper Beer, talks to customers.

Beerhive Pub on Main Street was discovered by two locals who walked by and wanted to go inside.

WHERE DO PEOPLE BEER IN SALT

The Green Pig Pub is often recommended to friends and family.

PHOTOS BY MIKE JONES

Wasatch Brewery spreads its reputation all the way to Canada!

Locals tried Shades at a Salt Lake store and wanted to visit the brewery.

PEOPLE GO FOR A

SALT LAKE

Proper Brewing Co. is a favoriteregular for locals.

Proper Brewing is a favorite place for the whole family. Here, a father and son enjoy a beer together.

Helper, utah

Utah’s next tourism boom town

By Richard Markosian

Helper’s Main Street is now one of the most vibrant, visited and flourishing main streets in Utah, but how did they manage to restore facades and dilapidated old buildings on a shoestring?

Malarie and Gary DeVincent have been renovating and restoring Helper’s old buildings and homes for the past eight years. Their crowning achievements are the Lincoln Hotel and the Vintage Motor Company: a museum featuring Gary DeVincent’s huge collection of rare Harley Davidson and Indian motorcycles.

DeVincent describes how he transitioned from living in Salt Lake City. For nearly forty years he was restoring vintage motorcycles before deciding to transition his knowledge into refurbishing historic houses and buildings as well.

Six years ago, DeVincent was attracted to Helper, along with his brother Billy, as a place where he could store and display his Harley collection. His first project

was to renovate an old building into a Harley Davison museum, but he also decided to acquire more buildings and homes around town to help bring more of Helper’s Main Street back to life.

For context, it’s worth knowing a bit of Helper’s history.

Helper, Utah was a former bustling coal mining and railroad town with a rich history dating back to the early Twentieth Century, as it was one of Utah’s most populated regions back then, attracting thousands of exiled young Greeks who fled their homeland due to Turkish-Ottoman rule and decay at the turn-of-the-century.

Helper’s mid-century history harkens back to the days when Hollywood actors like John Wayne, as well as prominent Utah political leaders would go on “hunting trips.” The “hunting” usually involved patronizing and cavorting at one of the town’s 15 brothels.

Helper’s flourishing sex trade was

PHOTO BY RICHARD MARKOSIAN

protected by then prominent businessman Matt Starr. The brothel industry in Helper was patronized even by former Governor Calvin Rampton and many prominent Salt Lake City judges. The illegal trade was granted immunity from the law due to Starr, who ensured that both the ladies and customers were behaving. The brothel era lasted for nearly half-a-century.

The decline of the brothel business coincided with Carbon and Emery Counties’ declining coal industry. Workers migrated to greener pastures, and homes and buildings were shuttered and abandoned. According to Tino Gutierrez, owner of the Regis Club on Main Street, “Helper didn’t die when the coal mines closed; it died when the last brothel closed in 1976.”

In 2022, despite County Commissioners spending money on “A rally for coal”, 17% of all coal miners in Carbon County lost their jobs, further exacerbating the

decline of the industry that sustained families for decades. Since that period, Carbon County has suffered from the use and abuse of oxycodone as well as amphetamines and heroin.

But, as the “old-timers” have told Utah Stories in the past, “We aren’t Moab — we don’t want to be Moab!”

“Now the County is fully on board with tourism,” says Cindy Edwards Curry, who operates four businesses in Helper. She says that when she attempted to push tourism just five years ago, she received a lot of backlash, but today the County agrees that the future of Carbon County might not be what is buried in the hills, but the hills themselves. “Money in the economy is beneficial whether it comes from tourism or coal,” she says.

In 2012, Utah Stories first reported on Helper when some well renowned Utah artists were acquiring the buildings on Main Street for their art galleries and studios and permanently relocating to the town to focus on their craft.

Artists such as Ben Steele and David Dornan, Kathleen Royster, Jannine Hogan, and at least a dozen others have slowly shaped the small town’s Main Street into an artists’ enclave. They love the fact that their cheap mortgages enable them to focus on producing and fine-tuning their skills full-time rather than compromising their artistic vision and values to make ends meet.

But today a new wave of residents are moving into Helper who are enticed by the AirBNB business model. Just five years ago, a large number of the town’s homes and buildings were still abandoned and dilapidated, but thanks to sweat equity, a new breed of renovators and entrepreneurs are adding to the

Malarie and Gary DeVincent at Vintage Motor Company — a museum featuring Gary’s collection of rare Harley Davidson and Indian motorcycles.

town. The former abandoned homes, once unfit for human habitation, are getting a second life.

Nightly Rentals Dominating Economy?

Nightly rentals have plagued Moab’s tourism-based economy by diminishing the housing supply. Old-timers have a valid reason to be afraid that their success could end up pricing locals out of the market. Carbon County once offered the most affordable housing in the state of Utah, but now, every dilapidated home has become an investment opportunity.

Gary elaborates, “The money people got wind of it … homes that were just $50,000 five years ago are going for over $300-$400 thousand.” Malarie says that a fixer-upper can still be bought for under $180K, which is still a bargain by Salt Lake City and neighboring Moab standards.

Still, the equity that DeVincent is adding to not only the nightly rentals, but also to the street’s historic character, is unquestionable. The street is slowly transforming from a shuttered nearly ghost town into a vibrant living museum highlighting a bygone era.

According to the DeVincents, “Helper has become a viable alternative to increasingly expensive Moab housing. There are so many people from Moab who are moving here. They are fleeing here.”

DeVincent believes that the town’s heart for renovation and preservation will remain intact as long as new residents are aware that keeping the old along with the new is the priority. A big part of what’s new is the incredible growth of Helper Saturday Vibes. Organized in 2021 by Kimberly Kuehn

who successfully launched the Park Silly Sunday Market in Park City. Vibes is a bi-monthly event that features not only Helper’s talented visual artists, but also vendors and food trucks including Carbon Counties best top-shelf margaritas. Some of the best musicians from all over Utah now come to perform in Helper. “Every year since we have started we have doubled, attendance, participation doubled our number of vendors,” says Market Manager Allie Farnham.

How Do You Keep Helper’s Economy Strong and Year-Round?

During the weekend, I visited Helper and discovered that the DeVincent’s nightly rentals were completely booked for the first time this year. They believe this is going to be a huge year for the tiny town. DeVincint says this is thanks to the artist community and the incredible talent that has been attracted to the town.

With rates for Moab hotels in April and May going for an average of around $250 per night, Helper’s charm, nature trails and a new brewery are making the town an affordable alternative to Moab during the busy season.

The Growing Pains of Progress

The DeVincents said that they had to “fight the County’’ for six months to get their approval to renovate two old homes rather than tear them down, which would have been simpler.

Everyone Utah Stories spoke to in Helper appreciates what the DeVincents are doing.

Edwards-Curry says, “Gary and Billy work so incredibly hard and they really do put their heart and soul into everything they do. They are making the town a much better place.”

Closing moab’s housing gap

Providing Attainable Housing In A Scarce Market

By Rachel Fixsen

On a cold and windy spring morning just south of Moab, a construction crew is pouring and shaping concrete curbs and gutters around a looped drive that will soon give access to a new development called Lidia Subdivision. Brand new modular homes, delivered earlier by truck, are staged around the site, ready to be moved onto permanent foundations by crane. The homes will be owned by Moab businesses and leased to employees, offering a small step toward meeting the urgent housing demand in the Moab area.

“It’s just a drop in the bucket,” acknowledged Zach Bynum, who is overseeing the development. But, he added, “every bedroom helps.”

Bynum is a familiar name in the Moab area. Zach Bynum’s parents grew up in Moab, and after some time away, they returned and got into the hospitality business. Now, members of the Bynum family own or are involved with several hotels and restaurants around town. Five of those businesses will own homes in the Lidia Subdivision — the Hyatt Place, the Archway Inn,

Moab business owner and developer Zach Bynum stands among the modular homes waiting to be placed on their lots in the Lidia Subdivision.

Zax Restaurant, The Spoke, and Best Western Canyonlands. They’ll be able to offer those homes for rent to their employees.

“We have a list of employees who are interested,” Bynum said. “We shouldn’t have a problem filling them.”

Moab and Grand County, like many other places across the country, have struggled with housing scarcity for years. The issue is exacerbated in Moab and other resort towns, where tourism drives up property values, and many jobs essential to the local economy are relatively low-paying service industry positions.

Attainable housing is hard to find for low-income earners, and also for middle-income earners like teachers and police officers. The Grand County School District, Moab City Police Department, and other local government departments have found it difficult to recruit and retain staff because of the

lack of available housing.

Local elected officials have used various strategies to address the problem. A “High Density Housing Overlay” allows developers in specified areas to build at a higher density than the zoning would allow, provided the developer deed-restricts 80% of the units to Grand County workers. New overnight accommodation developments in Moab must make contributions toward workforce housing. Moab City bought an aging mobile home park with the intention of developing high-quality affordable housing. The county created a new ordinance sanctioning RVs and other alternative living arrangements for use as long term residences as long as they meet certain standards.

Alongside government officials, housing activists and nonprofits have also been tackling the housing shortage: the Moab Area Community Land Trust secured a property of more than 40

Workers prepare to attach a modular home to a crane, which will position it onto a permanent foundation.

acres and designed a 300-unit development; many homes have already been built, some homeowners have moved in, and construction is ongoing. Local nonprofits, Community Rebuilds and the Housing Authority of Southeastern Utah, are contracted to build many of the homes for the Land Trust, and have been developing other housing in the Moab area for years.

Each of these approaches has had some complications, but many of them are starting to produce results. Business owners like Bynum are also pitching in.

The Lidia Subdivision isn’t attached to any of the housing programs or requirements designed by Moab City or Grand County. In fact, it’s located in San Juan County, though it’s still within development contiguous to Moab (it’s about a 15-minute drive from downtown). Bynum said the project did get some grant money through Grand County — around $30,000 — but it’s mostly conventionally funded.

The development will eventually have 58 lots; the first phase includes 15 units which will be dedicated workforce housing, while later phases will have lots or finished homes for sale to the general public. There will be a mix of single-family homes and condominium-style duplexes and triplexes.

Bynum said his businesses have had their share of difficulty in maintaining full staffing in recent years. 2021, the year following the pandemic shutdowns, brought the most pressure, he remembered. Visitors returned to Moab

in a record-breaking surge, and staffing needs correspondingly spiked. The following years have been less hectic, Bynum said. He attributes that largely to visitation numbers ebbing to recognizable levels, but said it could also be that there are more housing options in Moab now than there were a few years ago. Wages, too, have increased in Moab in recent years, potentially opening more housing options for area workers.

A recent “regional housing outlook” from Grand County projects close to 5,000 possible new housing units on the horizon, including over 3,000 envisioned in a whole new community planned south of Moab in San Juan County. Depending on growth in population and housing needs, those units could go a long way towards closing the gap between housing supply and demand.

At Lidia Subdivision, flecks of snow blow across the gray sky as workers prepare to attach a home to the crane. Clouds hang low over red cliffs in the background, a glimpse of the scenery and outdoor access that make Moab such a popular destination and have fueled the tourism and growth the town has seen in recent decades.

“Moab being such a pretty place, lots of people want to be here,” Bynum said.

The community is striving to maintain a balance between the tourism economy and the quality of life for residents. Closing the housing gap is part of that balance — and every bedroom helps.

With moab being such a pretty place, lots of people want to be here.

AMENITIES & ACTIVITIES INCLUDE:

• Home of Bronco

off-Roadeo Moab

• Daily yoga

• Two Restaurants and Full Bar

• Live Entertainment

• Olympic Size Pool with Hottub

• 24 Hour Gym

• Massage & Wellness Offerings

• Wedding, Banquet & Meeting Facilities

• Home of the Museum of Film & Western Heritage

• Gift Shop

• Tennis Courts

• Childrens Playland

• Trail Rides

moab giants

Tripping Back Through Time

By Holly Lammert

Some of the Dinosaurs found along the trails at Moab Giants.

BY HOLLY LAMMERT

How many dinosaurs can you name?

Meet Hiero, who, at three-years-old, can name nine different dinosaurs, thanks to the Moab Giants Museum. With a museum, live paleontology lab, 3-D movie experience and life-sized dinosaurs, this is a dinophile’s paradise.

Whether you are passing through town or want a rest-day activity, a visit to the Moab Giants is sure to inspire you and make you feel young in a field of ancients.

A highlight of this trip was visiting the live paleontology lab. Noses and forehead prints on the glass that peers into the lab shows the interest in the lab. Lee and Susan Shenton, volunteers with the Gastonia Chapter of the Friends of Paleontology, work diligently to uncover the femur of a 155-million-yearold Sauropod that met its unfortunate end in quicksand. Carefully removing beach sand and petrified mud chunks reveals the environment of a delta in the late Jurassic period. Bite-marks in the femur (half the size of my body) indicate it was prey for an even larger carnivore.

Employees take a break to welcome curious guests and show them the perks of being a paleontologist and help interpret the complex and amazing history of these fascinating creatures. They see a lot of traffic. More than 58 people had visited that day, cultivating their fossil fascination.

First, we compared our feet to a replica of a 300-million-year-old Hadrosaur footprint, and noticed that even as a juvenile, it was about 10 times our foot size! Then we compared our hands to an Ankylosaurus, an armored spiked dinosaur the size of a pickup truck. We learned that almost all dinosaurs had five toes at one point, but due to evolution, some have lost them over time. A complex, circuitous path of evolution led to the variety of types of feet and footprints we see today. Scientists use those clues, matched with the skeletons and any other remains to make interpretations of what these mighty beasts may have looked like.

We also saw a fossilized coral reef, evidence that this area wasn’t always desert and canyons, but a sea. This sea water came from what today we call the Gulf of Mexico, and all the way to what is now Vancouver. This Western Interior Seaway came and went 29 times. A mile-long hole drilled into the ground for potash prospecting produced a core-sample revealing these layers.

As we leave the lab, Lee turns off the lights, and reveals that darkness sometimes helps illuminate what could not be seen before. The obvious 3-toed tracks of carnivores were accompanied by subtle turtle footprints!

An understanding of the full timeline in this story, ranging from 300-millionyears-ago to 20 years, is found here.

PHOTOS

A visit to the Paleo Camp shows how a paleontologist that discovered the UtahRaptor 20 years ago lived in tents, immersed in the pursuit of clues.

Across the highway, intrepid visitors can see for themselves the dig site where they discovered not only a footprint, but a skeleton of the Utahraptor (Ostrommaysorum), a flying 2-toed dromaeosaur of the early Cretaceous Period. This site is being turned into the new UtahRaptor State Park, which should open in a year.

These childlike fascinations could result in a career. During Grand County High School’s Career Week, BLM representatives talked to a 9th grade math class about finding jobs through USAJobs.com. One of those positions is the job of paleontologist. Through a visit to the lab, one can earn their Junior Paleontologist badge, a stepping

stone into a lifetime of learning.

For Willow Nichols, now a senior at Grand County High School, who took many field trips here, this experience was educational and life-changing. She reflects on how crazy it is to have such a facility in her hometown. She also has explored the other dinosaur tracks, like those at the Mill Canyon dinosaur bone trail up the road, where fossils are exposed in the cliff face, and reports that being able to see it in real-sized dimensions helped her get a better understanding of what the prehistoric world looked like.

As I left the gift store, a seven-yearold from Ogden beamed with excitement about getting to learn about the “first dinosaur to have landed here.” She has much to learn about the history of these ancient ancestors to birds, but she’s in the right place!

Visitors can learn more about the area and the dinosaurs found there at the live paleontology lab.

Rosa’s cafÉ

Faced With A Devastating Loss, One

Ogden Restaurant Owner Persisted

By Laurel Dudley

OGDEN, Utah — When Luis Hernandez came home one evening, he greeted his wife, Rosa, with the usual kiss and big smile. What was unusual, however, was the folder he pushed into her hand. It was a signed lease. “I have a building and you need to be the cook!” Rosa recalls him saying.

At first, Rosa said no. She remembers crying. Although she loved to cook and always received compliments on the dishes she made, she was nervous about cooking for so many people. Luis, in his charming, big-dreamer way, persuaded her to try.

Life changed for the Hernandez family, and also for community members who say Rosa’s Café feels like home. This May, despite the pandemic and one devastating loss, the restaurant marks its eighth anniversary.

Rosa, now 63, grew up in Juarez, Mexico, where she first learned to cook from her grandmother and where she met and married Luis. They moved to

PHOTOS BY KAELYN KORTE

Luis Hernandez started Rosa’s Cafe with his wife in Ogden, May 2015.

Photo courtesy of Rosa Hernanadez.

the US in their 20s and raised two girls. Ida, the youngest, now 33, recalls how they often talked about what they’d serve if they opened a restaurant, but not with any sense of urgency or plan of action. It was a daydream, a what-if, until Luis came home with the signed lease.

They learned that the building on Washington Boulevard was considered historic, which meant they had to keep the sign out front. It said CAFÉ in big white letters against a red backdrop. So, Luis added the cook’s name. Rosa’s Café opened in May 2015.

It took a few months before Ida decided to work there. “I was shy,” Ida says. But she overcame that quickly, becoming what one long-time customer endearingly calls “the sass queen.”

Initially, Luis, Ida, Ida’s sister, and her sister’s husband took turns making the daily batch of tortillas. “The most challenging part is trying to get them round,” Ida says. “My dad would try, but he was so bad at it that my mom would kick him out of the kitchen.”

They eventually hired a woman to help (she still works there). Most days, she rolls and cooks 65 tortillas. On weekends, she makes more than 90.

Papa Luis, as he became known, focused on customers and took orders. Sometimes, Rosa would jokingly tell

him not to talk so much.

“He was funny,” says Carla Taylor, 61, a customer known as CT. “We’d always banter back and forth.” CT says she feels so at home at Rosa’s Café that she buses her own dishes, as well as those nearby, and she always goes in the back to give Mama Rosa, as she’s now known, a big hug.

In late 2020, despite their best precautions, COVID-19 left them all sick, and they were forced to close the restaurant. Papa Luis got the sickest. During a visit to California to see his eldest daughter, Luis went to the hospital. Visitors weren’t allowed. “We never got to see him,” Ida says. Several days after his sixty-fourth birthday, Luis died. “It was so sudden. We were devastated.”

Although Rosa wanted to reopen the café, Ida couldn’t bear the thought. Months passed before Ida finally went back inside, at her mother’s urging, in order to meet someone from the health department for a routine inspection. Behind the counter where she used to spend nearly every day with her dad, grief pummeled her with renewed force. She left crying and didn’t want to return.

Gradually though, Ida’s mindset shifted. Messages poured in via Facebook and Instagram from customers sending condolences.

Rosa, with her daughter Ida, who helps run the cafe.

“They were so supportive,” Ida says. “It was like my father’s way of trying to push me, I guess. So, I was like, you know what? I at least have to try.”

Rosa’s Café reopened in October 2021, just shy of one year since closing. “We were pretty sure people were waiting for us,” Ida says. “And holy crap were they waiting for us!” Day after day, the restaurant, which has a dozen stools and four small tables, quickly filled to standing-room only. Ida sometimes felt overwhelmed and occasionally cried. But she also felt grateful that her dad had touched so many people’s lives.

“That’s what kept me going — how much people loved him.” The love keeps Rosa going too, although the memory of the man she loved and describes as her right hand still brings waves of tears. Cooking for customers helps. “The people fill me, my heart, my soul,” she says.

Kye Hallows, 33, is one long-time regular who was there when Rosa’s

Café reopened. When he heard about Luis’s passing, Kye started a fundraiser, which raised $2,500. It was less about the money, Kye says, and more about showing the family that people cared. “It’s like you’re getting a small hug from a whole bunch of community members.”

Today, Rosa and Ida employ five people, including Ida’s uncle. They dropped from six days a week down to five, and Rosa is better at making sure she gets home to rest.

One thing they haven’t changed is the spice, and Ida warns newcomers. Every month, Rosa goes through about 25 pounds of red chilis, which she buys from a supplier in New Mexico.

Most days, Rosa arrives at work at 6:30am to cook large batches of chili verde and chili Colorado, her specialties, which get mixed with shredded pork and, upon orders, made into foot-long burritos. The other special ingredient? Rosa says it’s love.

BUDGET BUSting brews

Sampling

Utah’s Priciest Beers

By Ted Scheffler

Until recently, I thought that the unique Samuel Adams Utopias beer from Massachusetts was the world’s most expensive brew. It’s packed in a gorgeous, ornate canister and sells for $240 SRP per bottle and weighs in at 28 percent alcohol.

But that’s not even close to the most expensive beer out there. That prize would go to a Belgian blonde ale made

from juniper berries and nettles from the Scottish Highlands called BrewDog’s The End of History, which comes in a bottle made from taxidermied animals which were once roadkills (I’m not kidding). The price tag for one of the 12 bottles made is $20,000, which was used to raise funds to open a BrewDog brewery in Ohio.

By comparison, Utah’s most ex-

PHOTOS BY GOLDA HUKIC-MARKOSIAN

pensive beers are a mere pittance. I recently set out to sample some of the priciest beers I could find in the Beehive State, which was admittedly a very unscientific and random affair. I simply strolled the aisles of a few DABS stores and local breweries/beer stores and snagged a bunch of beers brewed in Utah that were priced in the three bucks and higher range, since the average 12 oz. can of beer seems to sell for closer to $2. The brews I included here are considered “high priced” in terms of the price per ounce. Obviously, a wine bottle size large format beer that sells for $19.99 may be “cheaper” than a 12 oz. can for $9.99.

I would say that Epic Brewing has the largest volume of pricy beers, but none more costly per ounce than Epic Oak and Orchard Ale ($9.99/375ml) and Epic Sextuple Barrel Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout ($19.99/650m). Maybe it’s the wax bottle closure on the Oak and Orchard Ale that drives the price up on the super sour ale which is aged in oak barrels and flavored with scrumptious boysenberry and blueberry — a very nicely balanced sour beer from Epic.

Proper Brewing’s Gruit ($6.02/473ml) was said by the brewers to be “an homage” to herb-infused ales brewed during the Middle Ages, some of which were thought to have spiritual and healing properties. Brewed with yarrow, sweet gale and Labrador tea, Proper’s Gruit is a taste of the Middle Ages — right here in Utah!

One of Red Rock Brewery’s most popular brews is their Elephino Double IPA, which is strong and hoppy with seductive citrus and pine notes — very good with a big, intense flavor

($4.04/500ml).

Speaking of Double IPAs, RoHa Brewing Project’s Big Green Couch ($3.59/473ml) is a double dry-hopped double IPA. According to the folks at RoHa, “Our brewmaster couch-surfed his way from Michigan to find magic on a Big Green Couch in SLC. Aromatic Azacca hops make this Double Dry Hopped Double IPA a brewing ode to life’s serendipitous twists.” This can of beer is a

Shades Brewing won a Gold Medal at the Great American Beer Festival for their Kveik 1 Golden Sour Ale ($3.55/355ml), an American-style sour ale which, according to the brewers, “was developed using an ancient strain of Scandinavian yeast called Kveik which we purified in our lab and grew in our yeast propagation tanks. The beer is light in color and body, slightly tart, super fruity and dry hopped with Nelson Sauvin.” It’s a superb sour.

Speaking Terpanese Triple IPA ($6.50/473ml) from Templin Family Brewing is big, boozy, fruity and dark — the latter coming from OG Kush and Dar Star Terpenes, according to the brewers. It’s a brooding, malty, mother of a beer.

For reasons that aren’t clear to me, IPAs tend to be among the priciest beers in general. That’s true of .50 Caliber IPA ($9.34/1000ml) from Vernal Brewing Company — a dry, somewhat bitter brew with tropical aromas and unexpected sweetness. A very interest-

ing effort from the folks in Vernal.

Bewilder Brewing’s Imperial Mole Porter ($7/355ml) is one of their most popular beers — an imperial strength English style porter with hints of Mexican mole — flavors of dark chocolate, vanilla, pasilla peppers, and cinnamon. The Mole Porter is aged in mezcal and tequila barrels for eight months — a very unique brew, to say the least. Ole!

SaltFire Brewing Co. is well-known for its limited release brews such as their Füry Kölsch ($3.55/500ml), a crisp and clean Kölsch-style ale that is cold-lagered with a hop blend that includes Palisade, Loral, Simcoe, Citra, and Mosaic, plus Kölsch yeast and Kölsch malt. It’s a killer Kölsch. In the “is it wine or is it beer?” category, SaltFire Serafina-Syrah ($17) is sold in a wine-type bottle and is made by adding wine grapes (Syrah, presumably) to the wort, which according to the brewers “allows the beer to spontaneously ferment naturally using only the yeasts found on the grapes themselves.”

State liquor stores offer a variety of local brews at an average price of $3.00. Good quality does not have to be expensive.

THE CONTENDER

SLC Man Has His Eye On Championship Belt

By Al Sacharov

“Everybody has a plan until they get hit in the face.”

—Mike Tyson

For Brandon Douglas of Salt Lake City, those words ring true. Brandon, at age 30, is a contender in the World Boxing Commission (WBC) featherweight division (127 pounds). He turned pro six years ago, has a 9-1 record, and after a qualifying match on May 13 in the Bahamas, he seeks to win the WBC Latin Championship Belt later this year in Mexico.

Boxing has grabbed our attention for 3,000 years, beginning with the ancient

Olympians and continuing through to the recent Rocky/Creed movie franchise. It is simple enough for anyone to understand. There are no fancy plays. “You want to hit and not get hit. That’s the formula,” Brandon says.

But it resonates on a deeper level because boxing strips away any semblance of a comfort zone. A glaring spotlight shines on the 18x22 foot canvas ring.

“There is nowhere to hide. You cannot lie. Every one of your strengths and weaknesses will show. You have no excuses whatsoever. It is a chance for a man to free himself,” Brandon explains.

PHOTO BY DUNG HOANG

Brandon has accepted this brutal freedom for 15 years. As a teen in Oklahoma, he set his sights on becoming a professional athlete. He originally pursued football until fate intervened. “I was in a fight and got kicked off the high school team. The next day, my mother drove me to the gym and I never looked back.”

After amateur bouts that included Golden Gloves and the quarter-final tryouts for the 2016 Olympics, he decided to turn pro. But it was not an easy transition. “I could not get a fight,” Brandon recalls. “The day I was going to join the military I got a call from Eddie. ‘You’ve got a fight,’ he said.”

Eddie “Flash” Newman, himself a four-time world kickboxing champion, owns the Flash Academy in Holladay and trains Brandon for his pro bouts. Promoters arrange matchups and Brandon has received between $4,000 and $30,000 for a fight. This equates to $4,000 for a three-minute round, or more realistically, 37 cents per hour when factoring in the training schedule.

Brandon’s day begins at 8am. Breakfast consists of two eggs. Chicken and rice are lunch and a salad is dinner. A morning five-mile run is followed by 200 pushups, 240 squats, 400 sit ups and 80 pull ups. The evening workout includes shadowboxing, pummeling the light and heavy bags, jumping rope and actual sparring. Six days a week. Fifty-two weeks a year. As for how he spends his afternoons? Brandon just completed an HVAC degree from Fortis College.

This intense self-discipline creates the will to win. “It is really lonely,” he says. “I have to 100 percent believe in my own ability and become my own

best friend.”

Brandon’s quiet demeanor belies a competitor’s heart. When he enters the ring he sizes up his opponent. “If I see someone acting tough, I know I have him. A true fighter knows this will not work.”

His two corner men, retired fighters themselves, analyze every round. During the one-minute break between rounds, they coach him on the strategy to follow.

But for those three minutes, Brandon fights alone. The square circle warps time. If a boxer lands on the ropes, those three minutes stretch into eternity. “The fundamentals of jabbing, head feints and footwork will carry you through to the end. I train so much so as to not tire. About the fifth round I get a second wind.”

He likens a round to speed chess with fists. “You have to act and react instantly.” Hit and not get hit. Brandon has nine KOs in his pro career. A moment of fatigue, a missed feint, and an opponent lies on the canvas not hearing a referee’s 10-count. “It’s exhilarating and I get caught up in the adrenaline rush of ‘I won!’ But you want the other boxer to be okay.”

Some boxers are not okay. They do not get up. They die in the ring. “You can’t play at boxing,” Brandon says.

Brandon has strong backing from his friends and family and is devoting his prize purses to getting his mother a house. But there is more to it than money. “Nobody can make you do this. You have to love it and make the journey beautiful.” He is climbing a mountain that has a name — The Champ. “A lot of people have called me this,” he says. “Now I’m out to earn it.”

GENE FUlLMER

“The MoRmON Mauler”

A Boxing Champ From Utah

By Al Sacharov

Now THAT was a moniker which struck fear into an opponent, and it referred to West Jordan native Lawrence “Gene” Fullmer who was world middleweight champion (160 pounds) during the 1950s and 60s.

Fullmer is a high point of a long boxing tradition in SLC which included Pete Suazo from the West Side of the city. Before his death in 2001, the respected state senator also served as a boxing referee.

Fullmer was born in 1931 and started his adult life working at

Kennecott Copper. He discovered boxing and won the middleweight belt with a 1957 upset win over the legendary Sugar Ray Robinson. He lost in a rematch later that year, but regained the title in 1959, and held it until 1963 before surrendering it to Dick Tiger. Fullmer’s record was 55 and 6 with 24 KOs.

Known as a strong bull of a fighter, he fought many bouts here in Utah. Fullmer died in 2015, and the Gene Fullmer Recreation Center in West Jordan is named in his honor.

CAFFEINATE & RECREATE CAFFEINATE & RECREATE

LOCATIONS IN OGDEN, LAYTON, AND PARK CITY

FIND US EVERY SATURDAY FROM 8AM-1PM AT THE OGDEN FARMERS MARKET STARTING MAY 26TH!

#dailyrisecoffee

SUGAR HOUSE BOUNCING

BACK

Sweeter Times Lie Ahead

By Lynne Olson

Last month, Sugar House passed the 169th anniversary of its founding. There wasn’t a lot to celebrate in the SH town center. Many of the historic sites and cultural traditions that previous residents cherished have been forgotten or were never passed on to the hundreds of newcomers in the district.

Covid-19 put a stop to “Sugar Days” celebrations. Retail businesses and service providers had to limit interactions with the public, and some changed their business models to comply with public health directives. Offices with clients that arrived by appointment adjusted their schedules to avoid exposing employees and patrons to infection, but the shops that depended on walk-in customers were especially hard hit. Restaurants began offering take-out services and home delivery to stay in business.

The relentless tumult of demolition and new building in the Business

District caused more difficulties by blocking streets and sidewalks and using surface parking lots to stage construction work. Even the most loyal customers complained about traffic and the shortage of parking places and began taking their business elsewhere. Another blow fell last October when a massive fire ignited the center of the Monument block and destroyed a partially built 8-story apartment building called Sugar Alley. Occupants of two neighboring buildings were promptly evacuated. Most residents were allowed to return to their units within a few days.

Businesses on the block had a different experience. Whitney Murdock

PHOTO BY RICHARD MARKOSIAN

of SLC Med Spa said she was notified the next morning that her office was in a “red-zone” and she wouldn’t be able to get in to access their appointment files or to notify their clients that they were shut down. Their doors were closed for two weeks.

Firefighters climbed to the top of the Vue apartment building to put water on the fire. Real Advantage Title at the southwest end of the Vue building suffered water damage. Becca Harrison from Mochinut said her shop was closed for a month, so in addition to losing business during that time, they had to throw spoiled food away.

Shere Brunje, Sugar House Sports Clips, said her store wasn’t damaged,

but they were closed for 34 days to protect their clients and employees from smoke and ash, falling debris, and broken glass. When the barricades came down, returning customers didn’t know where to park or how to access the shop.

As tough as this has been, Brunjes said, there has been a silver lining. “It’s good to see people back in the area. YogaSix is doing yoga on the plaza; people are going to spin classes. This is how we will make it.”

Other merchants largely agree. While several operators were frustrated by the lack of transparency and cooperation from property owners/ managers, everyone agreed that the

Fire Department was great at bringing the business tenants together and communicating with them. Previously, Brunjes said, they hardly knew each other; now they are talking and collaborating. The City Mayor’s office, City Councilmember Amy Fowler, the Sugar House Chamber of Commerce and the Community Council were all looking for ways to help. Collectively, they have organized a variety of promotions to bring people back into the Business District and amplify the message that Sugar House is open for business.

Erika Wiggins is co-chair of the Sugar House Chamber and Community Alliance. For two years, she has produced #SugarHouseStrong, a series of videos that helps Sugar House entrepreneurs to tell their own stories. The Chamber is partnering with the Sugar House Community Council to encourage new residents to come out and meet their neighbors on the Monument Plaza (1100 East/2100 South.) Starting May 19th and continuing on the 3rd Friday of every month, “Sugar House Rocks” will present live music, free entertainment, and a variety of local vendors’ products to Plaza visitors. But there are more hard times coming for downtown Sugar House. In 2023, Highland Drive will be reconstructed using money from the Funding Our Future street reconstruction bond to replace and upgrade antiquated sewer, water and storm drains. (Note: The SLC Department of Economic Development

has funding for construction mitigation to help those impacted by the Highland Drive project, and will help business owners to complete the application.)

Also in 2023, City Transportation will begin reconstructing 2100 South from 700 East to 1300 East to replace the aging/failing roadway pavement. Simultaneously, they will consider possible improvements for transit, pedestrian, and bicycle facilities. And work will soon begin on the McClelland Shared Street Plan for traffic-calming features between 2100 South and Fairmont Park. These will include wider spaces for outdoor dining, more landscaping, and treatments to ease conflicts along the McClelland Trail.

And if that’s not enough — unless ongoing legal disputes interfere with their plans, owners of the Sugar Alley property reportedly intend to restart construction on their building this summer. Sugarhouse Dixon still has a vested right to proceed under the laws in effect when the building permit was issued in June 2019. The permit remains open while work to remove and rebuild the fire-damaged structure continues.

Business tenants and residents of the Vue and the Sugarmont Apartments, as well as occupants of the Rockwood Studios and 2100 Sugarhouse can anticipate another three or four years of construction mayhem. But, as Chad Hopkins of Hopkins Brewing Co. said, “The construction will hurt a bit. But we are doing pretty well. We will bounce back.”

Sugarhouse can anticipate another three or four years of construction mayhem.

UTah: A PRETTY, WET STATE

But Record Snowpack Won’t Help Great Salt Lake

By David E. Jensen

SALT LAKE CITY — With snowpack levels at near record highs, and 800 inches (almost 67 feet) of inevitable snowmelt looking for a way out of the Wasatch Mountains, should Salt Lakers wear hip waders or should they consider building arks?

After years of below average precipitation, anticipated long-term drought, increased fire danger, a dying Great Salt Lake, and widespread water conservation measures, Mother Nature threw Utahns a curve ball in the 2022-23 winter season, delivering 220 percent of average annual snowfall and alleviating concerns of a prolonged drought, at least for now.

As the saying goes, “If you don’t like the weather here, just wait five minutes and it’ll change.” In typical Utah fashion, we went from drought to deluge in a very short time.

Brian McInerney is a former chief hydrologist for the State of Utah. He has

come out of retirement to consult for Salt Lake County concerning how to best handle the massive runoff we are about to receive. McInerney appeared as a guest on a Utah Stories podcast where he offered several insights. The unprecedented nature of this year’s snow pack is due to a few factors. Usually there are just two major atmospheric rivers which might dominate the weather pattern in January, but this winter saw around 30. These “rivers” have dumped more than 900 inches of snow. Why now? Is this due to climate change?

“It could be,” McInerney says. “For every degree centigrade you raise the atmospheric temperature, you get a seven percent increase in atmospheric moisture.” Heat has a compounding impact on the amount of moisture clouds can draw from the Pacific.

“It’s literally ten times the carrying capacity of the Mississippi River in one PHOTO BY RICHARD

MARKOSIAN

band, in one atmospheric river,” he explains. “And it’s low-level moisture and it takes just a little bit of a bump for it to go up, and that is usually the mountains of California, and then it precipitates out a phenomenal amount.”

There is a good way our mountain snowmelt can flow down, which would be with gradually warming temperatures so water can flow normally to the Great Salt Lake. An ideal melt rate would be 1-2 inches per day. The worst case scenario would be If temperatures were to rise suddenly, such as reaching ninety degrees in the first week of May. If a temperature spike were to result in 4-5 inches of snow melt per day over several days, it could cause runoff that could exceed riverbank and infrastructure capacity, causing most rivers to flood.

What is the likelihood of the worst case scenario? McInerney believes that Salt Lake City Utilities is prepared, and their engineers are ready to deal with most contingencies. Backhoes are already in place at junctures where clogging or debris could prevent proper runoff.

On Tuesday, April 18 of this year, Utah Governor Spencer Cox issued a state of emergency due to the potential for flooding, avalanches, rockslides and mudslides, and granted access to the State’s Disaster Recovery Restricted Account for flood mitigation.

By mid-April, dozens of east bench residents were evacuated due to an overflowing Emigration Creek as neighbors and volunteers pitched in to fill and haul sandbags. In a broader community effort, valley residents are encouraged to “Adopt a Storm Drain” by finding the storm drain nearest to them and keeping it unobstructed. Municipal teams are working around the clock to unclog drainage systems and clear debris from local waterways, and the Utah Division

of Emergency Management and UDOT have sent nearly 1.5 million sandbags to other affected localities across the state.

In the Governor’s words, “We’re incredibly grateful for the moisture we’ve received this winter, but the extra rain and hefty snowpack present increasing flood risks as the snow melts. By declaring a state of emergency, the state will be better able to tap into reserve funds to support flood response and mitigation efforts. In short, we’ll be better prepared for what lies ahead this spring.”

The big question on everyone’s mind is, “What does all this excess water mean for a severely diminished Great Salt Lake?”

Utah’s briny inland sea saw a rise of nearly three feet so far this year, but hydrologists say that a single year of unprecedented snowpack won’t return the thirsty lake to normal levels and that the lake is still in danger of disappearing entirely. This is because much of the water that would naturally flow to the lake will be diverted to fill the state’s reservoirs to satiate excessive consumption, and also because that same amount of water is expected to evaporate from the lake’s large surface area under Utah’s summer sun, returning it once again to dangerously low levels. McInerney believes that the Great Salt Lake will still likely dry up, and he doesn’t believe this weather pattern will persist.

A state assessment concluded that if the lake continues to disappear, economic losses could range from $1.7 billion to $2.2 billion each year, and that toxic dust from the lakebed will become a hazard to human health. Anthropomorphic climate change will continue to decimate the lake, requiring better water conservation measures by residents, and we’ll need many more winters like the last one before the Great Salt Lake can be healthy once again.

Gardening with nature

By Dan Potts

yard, and as a longtime gardener, I have learned a few techniques to garden with, not against, nature.

I find that one of the biggest challenges for gardeners is their perception of what living things they consider good and which are bad.

Most spiders in your garden eat insects they trap in webs, although garden spiders and roving wolf spiders literally catch them. They can consume problematic oriental cockroaches and/or the prolific house or hobo spiders that bite more Utahns every year than any other spider. I like to know where my spiders are and reassure myself that they are helping out.

Snakes too are valuable garden buddies. A garter snake or two in your yard will consume the rodents that want to eat the fruits of your labors, along with grubs, slugs, caterpillars and other soft-bodied and aquatic insects. Snakes are nature’s best form of vermin control, and by eating rodents, they also reduce the likelihood of disease transmission from rodents to humans. Snakes enter rodent nests and consume the young before they can produce the next generation of mice or rats.

Ladybugs are not bugs, but rather beetles that fly into your garden to lay eggs that hatch into little, voracious, larval aphid-eating machines. Be nice to ladybugs!

Most gardens have egg masses left by praying mantises from the previous year. Instead of discarding these ‘brown Styrofoam-like’ eggs with other garden debris in the fall,

every insect they can catch.

Most gardeners malign European starlings, yet I have utilized them for many years to help consume many of our garden pests in their effort to feed their young. The same pair has nested in the corner of our house for many years and typically produces two clutches of hungry chicks each year. That is a lot of bugs, and because starlings are predatory birds, they do not feed upon your veggies and flowers like English sparrows do.

Large nightcrawler worms reside in everyone’s yard by the thousands. Fortunately, they do not eat live plants. Unfortunately, they do ‘plug’ their holes with anything that has a pointy end every night after they feed. In that effort they might pull up your small, valuable germinating seedlings. I often catch them at night and transplant them somewhere else where there is plenty of dead leaf food, and where I can harvest them later as fishing bait.

Many gardeners have heard about the insect repelling qualities of marigold flowers. However, it turns out that it is only the smaller French marigolds, not the larger California marigolds that have an insect-repelling odor. And do we really want to repel all insects anyway? We don’t want to offend those valuable praying mantis or ladybug beetles that can be a huge help in controlling problematic insects like grasshoppers and aphids.

Everything in nature has a purpose. Live and let live!

PHOTO BY DAVID CLODE | UNSPLASH

BEST OF LOCAL UTAH Food & Drink

Your neighborhood sports pub: spectacular food, drinks, sports, music, and a fabulous rooftop patio.

Perfect Spot with Delicious Food, Unique Beers, Craft Cocktails, Music, and Dance.

Farm-inspired California cuisine.

Elevated Southern comfort food with a massive wine list.

Great Food! Great People! Vegan Diner, Breakfast All Day, Full Bar, All Made from Scratch.

KiiTOS BREWING

SALTLAKE CITY,UTAH

Tavern - Can Shop - Pinball 608 West 700 South

SALT LAKE CITY

Italian cuisine and wine in an upscale-casual environment.

Exceptional cookie bakery with innovative flavor combinations.

SALT LAKE CITY

DOWNTOWN–SLC

DOWNTOWN–SLC

DOWNTOWN–SLC

DOWNTOWN–SLC

SALT LAKE CITY

The finest beef on the most luscious brioche bun.

DOWNTOWN–SLC

DOWNTOWN–SLC

SALT LAKE CITY

Fresh authentic and fast. SALT

Casual eatery featuring specialty salads, pizzas, and fresh pasta.

Join us to share laughs and enjoy award-winning beers & pizza!

Rustic-chic cafe. Serving traditional Jewish deli.

Dive in deep with Utah’s finest craft beer. SOUTH SALT

Funky, laid-back co eeshop o ering sweet & savory crepes, plus outdoor seating.

Handcrafted, Small Batch Spirits.

Sugar House’s most famous burger joint.

Historic diner in a trolley car serving American fare in a scenic locale with canyon views. EMIGRATION CANYON

Bringing the spirits of the past alive in your glass. EDEN

LAKE CITY

LAKE

SOUTH SALT LAKE

SUGAR HOUSE

AUTHENTIC JEWISH CUISINE

MILLCREEK

MILLCREEK

SUGAR HOUSE

SOUTH SALT LAKE