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Show Volume II, Issue IX THE OGDEN VALLEY NEWS Page 7 1 May 2000 VANISHING BREED? Ogden Valley Braces for the Boom By Lori Buttars THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE HUNTSVILLE — As Tracy Woolsey combs the sloping hillside in his John Deere tractor, seagulls converge in his wake to scavenge the freshly tilled earth. The birds aren’t the only ones waiting to pounce on this prime property that sits in the shadow of Snowbasin Ski Area, 10 miles east of Ogden. Since the announcement of the 2002 Winter Games, and Snowbasin as host of the premier ski events, land prospectors have turned out in droves. “Every day I’m out here, I know there are developers who drive by, licking their lips and wishing it was theirs,” Woolsey says. “Some of them have stopped to tell me they want to buy it, and when I tell them I don’t own it, they want to know who does so they can go make them an offer. “Can you believe the nerve? I’m not just scratching around in the dirt out here for the fun of it. This is how I make my living.” Unlike many of the new generation Ogden Valley residents, Woolsey didn’t abandon the agrarian lifestyle that once dominated the towns of Eden, Liberty, Huntsville and other unincorporated areas in this portion of Weber County. But the march toward 2002 puts the spotlight on Snowbasin—and brings economic forces to bear on Ogden Valley—which could compel the 30-year-old farmer to practice his craft somewhere else. “There won’t be farming in the valley in 10 years,” Woolsey predicts. “Maybe that would have happened anyway, but the Olympics have really sped things up.” Land that Woolsey leases, in some cases for as low as $15 an acre per year, sells for $80,000 an acre and up. “If the Olympics bring more tourists to the area, great. I can live with that,” he says. “It’s the people who come here with their little 10-acre plot and put a sign over their driveway that says ‘The Such and Such Ranch’ that bother me. They have no respect for what that really means.” Still, he doesn’t blame the landowners, his friends and neighbors who, over the years, have either given up or moved their farming operations when real estate developers came calling. “It’s hard to say no to that kind of money,” says Woolsey, who grew up on the other side of the mountain in Morgan County. “I would buy it if I could.” Tourism isn’t new to Ogden Valley. The area is home to three ski resorts, Pineview Reservoir that beckons water-skiers, golf courses and a host of campgrounds and hiking and snowmobile trails that make it a year-round playground. Huntsville’s famed watering hole and hamburger joint, the Shooting Star Saloon, caters to a clientele of recreation seekers and locals alike. The Eden General Store has found new life as a western-themed novelty store, soda fountain and lunch counter. In the late 1800s, storekeepers kept tabs for residents in need of flour, sugar and other staples until they could sell their herd or the crops came in and they could make good on the bill. After several incarnations, the store closed. Ben Toone, a longtime Ogden Valley resident, purchased it and an adjacent home in 1969 for $16,200. He operated it as a convenience store and gas station, but struggled to keep it open during the off tourist seasons until 1998 when he remodeled into a lunch counter and mercantile. “I’m just trying to roll with the punches when it comes to this growth issue,” says Toone, who also dabbles in real estate. “I’ve lived on a farm, ran the campgrounds. But it seems to me that the concept of people being able to live, work and recreate all in the same place is really starting to take hold here.” For one group—a Catholic order of Trappist Monks—life has remained the same for more than 50 years. The monks have worked, prayed and made their home on 1,900 acres of farmland east of Huntsville. The monastery’s gift shop, which features the monk’s trademark honey, is a popular tourist attraction. But the monastery’s aging population—the youngest monk is 52—has some residents wondering if the Catholic Church will be able to withstand the temptation to sell the land. Father Patrick Boyle, who staffs the gift shop each afternoon, says the order has no plans to abandon the monastery. Church officials have hired a Salt Lake City architecture firm to design some new housing and a new church to replace the existing quonset buildings left over from World War II. “We haven’t really talked much about the Olympics, but I suppose it’s something we should start thinking about,” Boyle says. “There could be quite a few visitors coming over to get our honey.” Olympic organizers expect some 30,000 spectators to attend each day of the men’s and women’s downhill ski races and the Super G races at Snowbasin in 2002. The population of the entire valley hovers around 6,000. Events are tentatively set to take place at Snowbasin for six days during the Olympics and eight days of competition for the Paralympics that follow in March 2002. It might be wishful thinking on the part of the residents, but most say the valley will feel little impact during the actual 17-day run of the Games. A controversial new road that leads off State Road 167, also known as Trappers Loop, will take spectators coming from the Wasatch Front directly up to Snowbasin without coming down into Huntsville. “What’s going to happen is that people are going to get up on that mountain and look down and see what we’ve got and they’re going to want to come back [to live],” says Ron Gault, who serves on the Huntsville Planning Commission and represents Huntsville on the Salt Lake Organizing Committee’s venue city advisory board. Residents are not going out of their way to extend the welcome mat, either. When officials proposed an Olympic festival down in the valley at a public meeting a few years ago, the idea was shot down in a show-of-hands vote. Most residents seem resigned to the fact that growth is coming to Ogden Valley and there is a movement afoot to manage it. But getting all the parties involved to agree on how to do that has been difficult. There are four planning commissions—Huntsville, East Huntsville, Nordic/Liberty and Weber County— that can offer suggestions. But they have begun meeting together only recently. In the end, the Weber County Commission has the final say. “It’s imperative that we get some kind of master plan in place that can set the rules for everybody,” says Kim Wheatley, a computer software engineer who moved to the area five years ago. “Until then, the people with enough money and influence can just come in and build whenever and wherever they want” Several years ago, the county spent nearly $100,000 on a master plan that set a limit of one house per five acres. The plan was never officially adopted by the county commission and the current rule is down to one house per three acres of land. That plan troubles longtime residents who had hopes of parceling off one-acre plots so their children could live next to them. And yet, they are happy that it keeps developers from building too many condominiums. Earl Holding, the oil and hotel magnate who owns Snowbasin Ski Area, is both reviled and revered by the locals. Some see him as the man with the vision and the money to set the tone for the inevitable growth in Ogden Valley. Others are still steamed about the way he is going about obtaining 1,377 acres at the mountain’s base in a land swap with the U.S. Forest Service. Holding plans to spend an estimated $100 million to turn Snowbasin into a world-class ski resort. The first phase of the development is already under way on the mountain with new lifts, snow making equipment, parking and visitor services. New lodges and restaurants will follow, with homes, condominiums and a golf course planned for after the Olympics, transforming Snowbasin into a world-class four-season destination resort similar to the one in Sun Valley, Idaho, that Holding also owns. “He’s done a top-drawer job building a ski facility,” says Wheatley, who also serves on the East Huntsville Planning Commission. “On the other hand, this is pretty peaceful valley that is about to be discovered and I don’t know that we are quite ready for that.” Not everyone is of the opinion that population in the area is going to skyrocket. After the Olympic announcement in 1995, land prices increased and nearly 50 new homes were built in each of the ensuing years. “We’ll have some growth, but that’s always been tied to interest rates and such that have been down in recent years,” says Weber County Commissioner Glen Burton, noting there currently are 94 homes for sale in the Ogden Valley area. One of the most common cries among Ogden Valley residents is that they don’t want their hometown to turn into another Park City. “It’s a sea of roofs,” says Robert Fuller, a fifth-generation Huntsville native who now lives in Roy. “I don’t think anyone wants that, but growth is inevitable. We’ve just got to get a handle on it so it doesn’t overtake what makes that valley so special.” As a youngster Fuller says he could go down to the irrigation stream on his family’s farm and fish with a 5-gallon bucket. “But you get too many 10-year-old boys with too many 5-gallon buckets,” Fuller says, “and the charm is gone.” Note: This article is being reprinted courtesy of the Salt Lake Tribune. The article was originally printed on April 17, 2000. |
