Things You Learn About Small Town Utah On Independence Day...

 We have family in living in Central Utah and since I did not work on Independence Day, we decided to load up the van (including the dog...) and head south. There's two ways into the valley in which they live. You can enter from the north, or from the west. 

We chose west.

We chose west because of parades. Since we don't live in the area, we did not know if these small communities were having parades on the morning of July 4th. If you enter the valley from the north, there's a small town before we get to the town where family lives. The last thing we wanted to do was wait for a parade to end before we could continue.

We thought we were so smart.

Nope.

I forgot if you take the western route, there's not one small town, but two. Didn't even think about parades in those towns. The first town we hit, Fountain Green was lovely. In fact, it almost looked like the town was deserted. A few minutes later we found out why.

From Fountain Green it's a short distance to Moroni and as we rounded the corner to hit the main street, we saw people in the street picking up trash, people on the side of the street picking up chairs and blankets. 

Yes. We hit the town only minutes after their patriotic parade ended. We thought, "Great. Parade's over. Now, we just drive through town, then drive straight through to Mt. Pleasant. But, as we cleared Moroni, we noticed cars were backing up heading out of town. I thought that odd. I mean, yes, I'm sure people from one community wanted to check out their neighbor's parade. What I didn't know is the people in the west were about to start their own parade about an hour after the one in Moroni ended and many of the floats and those in the first parade were on their way to the second.

My fear realized. We ended up being behind not one parade, but two. 

In the end, it was no big deal. We eventually made it and had a blast enjoying the holiday with family. Next time, we'll know. It's just one of the things we learned about Small Town Utah on Independence Day.

Holden, Utah...Facts

 Holden, Utah.

Established in 1855 by Mormon Pioneers and originally called Cedar Springs (a name I quite like...) named after the springs located in town. It was later renamed Buttermilk Fort (a name I quite dislike...) because travelers were urged to enjoy a nice glass of buttermilk as they traveled through town. In 1864 the town settled on the name Holden after a Elijah Holden, a Mormon Battalion member and one of the first settlers. Elijah passed away in 1858 from a snowstorm. Holden has an current estimated population of under 500 people.

The above information was gathered from Wikipedia. I'm assuming it's all true, but there's always a chance I could be getting incorrect information especially since I did not donate the requested $2.75 to Wikipedia.

Never donated...probably never will.

The exit to reach Holden is on Interstate 15 at mile marker 174, which means it's 174 miles from the Utah/Nevada border, going north, of course. It's also 226 miles from the Utah/Idaho border (got that from Wikipedia, too and, no--I did not donate...). It's not quite in the middle of the state, but close.

I've never driven through Holden, only passed by at or around the posted interstate speed limit east of the city. A few years ago, I most likely couldn't relate to those who live in small town Utah, even though where we live now has 20 times the population of Holden. I think, however, I can guess the type of people who live there. They're hard-working. They're honest, for the most part. They're caring and giving and humble. 

If anyone in Holden ever reads this, it would be interesting to see if they concur with my estimation of a typical Holden resident.

A week ago today, my family drove north (and a little east...) on I-15 on our way home. We stopped at the Holden exit to change drivers. I glanced southwest and snapped a few pictures. It's not the greatest picture I've ever taken, but I like it. 

Holden, Utah is also a great place to take a photo.

I Can Deny It No More...Our "Little" Town Is No Longer Little

"I noticed when I came home that traffic was building up through town. There must be an accident on the interstate."

These were the words my wife told my daughter as we snarfed down our dinner. We had planned on leaving early for tonight's rehearsal.

Turns out we needed to leave a lot earlier.

Except for three years, I've lived all my fifty-three and a half years in Utah. I think the population of the planet, when I was born, was about half of what it is today. And I know the population of our state has more than quadrupled in that time. When my parents bought a beautiful plot of land on a mountain back in the late 1960s, our little town was just that...little. I think there were only a few thousand people who called Farmington home.

Funny thing--if you provide food, water, jobs to people, they end up marrying and producing kids, which, in turn, produce kids of their own. And those kids want to live where they grew up, many of them anyway. I know our town has been growing. Fields where we once wandered and played as kids are long gone, replaced by homes, schools, stores, and movie theaters Most of the time the growth hasn't affected us too much. I no longer commute and we don't travel very much as a general rule.

So, when times comes to hit the road during rush hour or if there's an accident on the main roads, I keep thinking to myself, "Where did all these people come from?" The truth is, Most have been here a long time and more are joining them every day.

We made to to our destination only a few minutes late, which, considering the circumstances, was amazing. And next time, as I'm sitting in my home, away from busy roads, I need to think--there's more people out there than I realize. Once I hit the road, I end up joining them. I wonder if anyone else asks themselves where I came from?