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.