Once We Were Farmers and Ranchers

By Pamela Palmer and Alan Fuchs

Photographs, interviews and essays on the changing culture of Midway, Utah.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 5, 2011
• ISBN: 9781257382392

Pamela Palmer

When New York Times bestselling author Pamela Palmer's initial career goal of captaining starships didn't pan out, she turned to engineering, satisfying her desire for adventure with books and daydreams, until finally succumbing to the need to create worlds of her own. Pamela lives and writes in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

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The world will come to your town.

—Henry D. Moyle, apostle, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

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Once We Were Farmers and Ranchers

by Pamela Palmer

Photographs by Alan Fuchs

Design and Layout by Kent Bingham

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Preface

A bit of Switzerland sits in the Heber Valley about five miles from the entrance to the Wasatch Mountain State Park. It is Midway, Utah—a small mountain town in a lush valley of sagebrush, rabbit bush, and buffalo grass proportionately chiseled by the Provo River and surrounded by a vast mountain range studded with lodgepole pine, aspen trees, and wildlife. Midway is a small town of 2,500 residents whose majority are descendents of the Church of Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) members who cleared and settled the valley in 1858 to farm and plant gardens, and raise dairy and range cattle and sheep. And then in the 1860s the Mormons, the more common name for LDS members, welcomed hundreds of Swiss proselytes to Midway, reminiscent of their European homeland.

The town remains predominately Mormon, but the Swiss influence colors present-day Midway. Scattered along Main Street are homes and businesses adorned with Swiss paintings: men blowing alpenhorns, young girls with yellow braids and embroidered aprons, and families' coats of arms. Roofs are edged with scalloped eaves and gables, and windows are framed in shutters (some with cutout hearts) and accented in summer with overflowing flower boxes. Much like a blended family, Midway has strived to embrace its dual heritage over the years. As the town matured through the 1990s, a rambling architectural mix evolved—a restored Swiss-styled home sits next door to a modern brick office complex. The mix of businesses has also changed, catering to both residents and tourists: The Edelweiss Gallery, Pandora's Tea Parlor, Memory Box Scrapbooks, a cabinet shop with a red retro gas pump in front, a copy center, a tire dealer, Midway Mercantile Antiques, the Mountain House Grill, and Midway Adventure Company. The Old Swiss Square houses a dental office, physical therapy clinic, acupuncture office, beauty salon, and bakery. Residents are just as diverse: doctors, lawyers, business owners, teachers, homemakers, farmers and ranchers, service industry providers, retirees, full-time residents, and part-time residents. About one third work in the valley and the remaining two-thirds work in Park City, Salt Lake City, or Provo.

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Originally Midway’s Swiss architecture fit harmoniously into the open valley landscape, backdropped by the Wasatch Mountains—a granite citadel with its spire, Mt. Timpanogos, rising 11,750 feet. These huge conical peaks were raised by volcanic force and carved by glacial ice. In winter, hundreds of inches of powdery snow cap the mountain range. Many people worldwide call this the greatest snow on earth and make an annual pilgrimage to the backside of these mountains to Park City Mountain Ski and Deer Valley resorts. A smaller, more provincial group in the Heber Valley prefers to traverse the snowpack on cross country skis, snowshoes, and snowmobiles. In summer, Midway is a mecca for mountain biking, hiking, golfing, and fly-fishing. The town remained relatively unknown, except