Late this afternoon, Mr. Barnes, who owns a small dairy on 1600W between Hwy 56 and 3200 stopped by the Four Country Gals looking for a cow.
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Sometime way early this morning, the Four Country Gals had an unannounced visitor.

Shari was the first to spot the tracks on her way to feed the cows and sheep. What she first thought was a horse wearing shoes, has now been identified as a good sized bull or steer.
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Now that we’ve moved to our own server, watch for updates to follow shortly.

This past month has seen our weather go from much warmer and drier than normal, to cold, snowy and windy for the past three weeks. We even had a White Christmas.

Back later with more news.

Farmers all over the valley have been taking advantage of the mild winter weather. Some of the larger farms have been observed trenching to either replace and/or maintain water lines to the large pivots. There’s a lot of tractor work, sraping drives, and moving dirt around. These are activities that normally have to wait until well after the “spring thaw”.

With little wind, several construction projects have been moving forward, from barn re-roofing to new home building. Normally these activities would now be curtailed due to cold night-time temps, high winds and snow.

What’s in store weather-wise?

Check out the new Weather Underground bug in the right side bar. The closest station is located at the old Beryl Railroad Station. It records everything except rainfall.

Generally thought of as being a “western Iron County” valley, the Escalante Desert Valley stretches the length of both Beaver and Iron Counties and includes a wee bit of Millard and Washington counties.

The acutal watershed extends west into Nevada (Lincoln County) and east nearly to Cedar City. It is estimated to be nearly 100 miles from east to west and over 60 miles from south to north. That is about 3000 square miles.

The Escalante Desert Valley represents the most southerly finger of the ancient Lake Bonneville. It is widely believed the Escalante Desert is part of the Bonneville Bench, a shoreline formed when Lake Bonneville overflowed near Red Rock Pass south of Downy, Idaho some 14,000 years ago. That dropped the lake level some 350 feet and would certainly have drained the water from all but Sevier Lake, which is now a dry lake bed.

At some point in recent (post WWII) history, the area within Iron County has officially changed it’s name to the Escalante Valley, reflecting the lush irrigated alafalfa and potato crops.

To the south of the Beryl, Beryl Junction area is zip code 84725. Enterprise is the largest city in the entire Escalante Desert Valley and resides within this zip code. This zip code is within Washington County, one of at least three counties in the valley.

The Escalante Desert Valley ends just south of Entprise, as you climb into the Bull Valley Mountain range, most of which is part of the Dixie National Forest.

The demographics for zip code 84725 are as follows.

Zip code population in 2000 - 1472… estimated in 2007 at 1779.

There are approximately 50.3% males and 49.7% females.

The land area of this zip code is 239.8 sqare miles with approximately .9 square miles of water. Most of that is contained in the Upper Enterprise Reservoir. The population density is about 7 people per square mile, still lower than the average golf course, and considered very low.

The estimated cost of living is 86.4 with the US average at 100.

The population is predominately Caucasion with the majority of “first ancestries” reported as English.

There are three reported sex offenders living within this zip code as reported on City-Data.com.

Even though the majority of the people live in Enterprise, the entire zip code is considered 100% rural.

The median age is 25.1 years as compared with the Utah average of 27.1 years. Household size is also slightly higher at 3.5 compared to 3.1 people per household for Utah.

The estimated median household income in 2007 was $42,419 below the estimated state average of $55,109.

Estimated real estate property taxes paid in 2007 was $551 compared with $956 for the rest of Utah.

Zip code 84714 encompasses “Beryl and Beryl Junction”. Zip code 84753 covers the area just west of us. The two “settlement” areas are Modena (a real ghost town), and the Hamblin Valley (where you must live “off grid”).

Here’s a closer look, complements of “City-Data.com” who gathers their info from a number of sources, including the US Census Data.

Zip code population in 2000 - 87… estimated in 2007 at 103.

There are approximately 50.6% males and 49.4% females.

The land area of this zip code is 537.4 sq mi with about .1 sq mi covered by water. The population density is less than 1 person per 5 square miles, making this a very low density area.

The estimated cost of living is 71 - very low (US Average is 100).

The population is primarily Caucasion, and notably the majority heritage is Norwegian.

There is one registered sex offender living within this zip code as reported by The Official State of Utah Sex Offender Registry

The entire area is considered “rural”. There are no incorporated towns or cities within this zip code.

The median age is 34.5 years compared to Utah at 27.1 years. The average household size is 2.7 people, considerably lower than the Utah average of 3.1.

The estimated median household for this zip code was $16,572 in 2007. That is well below the poverty level.

Estimated real estate property taxes paid in 2007 - $233 (the Utah average is 956).

Ever wondered about the “real makeup” of the Escalante Desert Valley? Here is some data gleaned from City-Data.com, which has compiled and projected data from the 2000 US Census (long form).

Putting in information for zip code 84714 you’ll discover…

Zip Code population in 2000 - 844… estimated in 2007 at 999.

There are approximately 50.5% male and 49.5% female residents.

The land area of this zip code is 552.5 miles with about .1 square mile covered by water. That makes the population density of about 2 people per square mile. That compares to a state-wide density of 27.2 people per square mile.

The estimated cost of living index is rated at 76.3 - low (US Average is 100)

The population is predominately Caucasian, followed by Hispanic, American Indian, mixed (2 or more) race, and “other”.

The entire area is considered “rural”. There are no incorporated towns, or cities within this zip code.

The median age is 28.5 years, compared with Utah overall median age of 27.1 years.  The average household size is slightly larger at 3.3 people per household in this zip code compared to 3.1 people per household average in Utah.

The estimated median household in this zip code for 2007 was $36,372 as compared with the rest of Utah, estimated at $55,109.

Estimated real estate property taxes paid in 2007 - $429 (the Utah average is 956)

On the Federal level, Barack Obama is now the 44th President-elect of the United States. Jim Matheson has won re-election as the District 2 US Representative.

At the Utah State level, Gov. John Huntsman is returning for another term with a record approval vote. Mark Shurtleff will return as the Utah Attorney General. Auston Johnson has been re-elected as State Auditor. Richard Ellis will serve as Utah State Treasurer.

Evan J Wickers is the new State House (District 72) Representative.

Iron County Commissioner Alma Adams is returning for another term.

For Washington County, Alan Gardner is returning to the County Commission. Wendell Gubler, Craig Seegmiller, and Carole Morse were all running unopposed and elected to School Board Positions.

The Escalante Desert Valley News provides local news gathered from around our remote valley. We are looking for reporting assistance from the commuities of Lund, Modena, Beryl, Newcastle, and Enterprise.

Why this online news source?

At this time, there is NO news coverage of local happenings for this valley. Neither The Spectrum (St George) or the Cedar City Review (Cedar City) covers any local news in the Escalante Desert Valley. So, we’ll create our own news source. For several years, there had been a small local “newspaper” written in Enterprise, but that was discontinued earlier this year.

The Escalante Desert Valley is isolated by mountain ranges and many miles, at least 40, from both St. George (south), and Cedar City (40). The valley lies within the western parts of both Iron and Washington Counties. The only incorporated town is Enterprise, located in Washington County.

Plans call for articles to be published at least weekly. There are news feeds on the right sidebar, which are constantly updated. Coverage will include subjects that matter in our valley, ag news, the weather, local family happenings (as appropriate), governmental issues, local sports, obituaries and opinion/letters to the editor. Eventually, advertising will be offered to help defray the costs.