| OCR Text |
Show CASTLE VALLEY NEWSLETTER FUTURE-TIMES Castle Valley, Utah - Volume I, Number 4 Keeping the Dream . May15, 1992 - Viewing the Valley Looking Ahead I looked for a long time before I found Castle Valley. I had a dream that required much searching. I had in mind a place in a quiet and secluded high desert, one that I c0u1d afford. I wanted it to be beautiful, to seem welcoming— I wanted a community of neighbors. I wanted an uncluttered life within which We can’t choose to go back to the good old days in Castle Valley. We While it will be quite a while before all can’t even have the choice to keep moving steadily in that direction. More and more people who own multiple lots are selling off their extras. Undoubtedly, a number of multiple lot owners will retain their extra lots, but there is still a lot of development coming. Castle Valley the way it is. But we do have the power to choose what direction our growth will take. Of course, one of our choices is to I would strike a balance. I wanted my do nothing and just let things happen. surroundings to add a sense of pleasure Making this choice NOT TO CHOOSE and peace. I wanted to be challenged by is a major choice in itself, with specific consequences. If we decide to choose my work. I flirted with the valley for a long time before moving here almost three years ago. I never imagined it would surpass my dreams. But it did and it does. I’ve gotten used to smiling, by myself at odd moments of the day, and often I‘ll say to no one in particular, unless it’s my cat, “I am a lucky woman. I live here." I couldn’t have designed it better. Little by little, without my realizing it, my life is becoming my dream. I wake up in this sweet valley, I walk with beauty all around me in a place still wild enough that it matters when I walk softly. I live a life now which will still please me when I am very old— thinking of this year’s garden, sniffing flowers, enjoying friends, talking to my cat, doing work I enjoy. There are times, of course, when the pump goes out or the wind won’t stop, or conflicts arise among people. This is part of living too. These are the challenges which come from living with our land and each other. The challenges keep us on our toes. And there are lots of them coming. I’ve read about towns like ours which were wasted because too much happened too soon and no one took time to look ahead. It always seems like there might have been a better way. I don’t like being bossed around— I don’t suppose any of us do—but some agreements are necessary. I'm driving to Salt Lake on Monday, and I don’t like to think how it would be if other drivers didn’t stay on their side of the road. I guess at one time a rule had to be adopted to make sharing the road less troublesome, less confusing. Continued, page 2. too late, we will find that we have created another Spanish Valley or Moab for ourselves. Not that there is anything wrong with either, but some of us like the idea of living in a more rural and uncongested community than either of the above. Some of us like the idea of living in a small community where you don’t that development occurs, we are How will this additional growth affect our roads, our water, our sewage? Will we have schools out here again? What will happen to the huge blocks of State land both inside and outside Town boundaries? How do we begin looking ahead and planning ahead for what is obviously about to happen? Again, we can’t, and most of us really don’t want to, halt the growth that approaches us. Each lot owner has have to worry about crime, or about the right to build at least one house on your children being harmed, and where there’s a good chance that after a few years you will know most of the people living here. A beautiful idea, but one which is threatened by some realities which are waiting to become problems: POPULATION GROWTH: Out of the 448 lots in Castle Valley, about 120 are occupied. That means we have the potential for another 320 houses each lot. But do we really want to being added. That’s a lot of people and a lot of traffic that we don’t have now. subdivide our lots again? Do we want less than our present S-acre minimum lot size? Do we want to go from 400 houses to 800 houses by letting everyone build second dwellings on each lot—the guest houses, the servants quarters, the home for aging parents? These choices will have great bearing on what kind of community we will have in ten years. _ Continued, page 2. To dowse or not to dowse—that is the question!! I am a scientist by training, having worked in the space program on the Manned Orbiting Space Lab power plant, which was at it’s time a real breakthrough in nuclear technology. And as a scientist, I have harbored a healthy skepticism about much having to do With intuitive skills. For years I have been telling friends and potential residents of Castle Valley, “Dowsing or witching for a well is an option you can try, but. . . think about it. Is it something you feel needs to be done? Do you have the funds to spare? Do feel you need the “insurance” a dowser can give you before drilling for water? Do you REALLY believe that this is for real? That this person can walk around with a willow branch (or other type of divining rod: welding rods, cottonwood, outstretched arms, etc.) and find water 200 to 1,000 feet underground?” Well, it has become our turn to look for water. Cindy and I have purchased Lot 130 on Buchanan. and many wells on the bench have either been low quality or low quantity or both. Therefore, the nagging question comes forth: to dowse or not to dowse? The logic of my friends comes into play: “Spending $5.000 or more for a well and $100 for a dowser is like Continued, page 4. |
