Box Elder County.

• Author: Walker, Elizabeth T.
• Position: An economic appraisal of Box Elder County, Utah

BOX ELDER County

With roosters and rocket boosters, Box Elder County in northern Utah is a study in contrasts. As the state's third-largest county, Box Elder is well-known for its wonderful peaches and apples for which people have been known to drive several hundred miles. It is also the county in which two pivotal pioneering efforts took place less than 100 years and, ironically, just seven miles apart.

In 1869 (ten years after the area's first peach harvest), the driving of the Golden Spike in Promontory, 30 miles west of Brigham City, signified the completion of the nation's first transcontinental railroad. Less than 100 years later, in 1959, a first-stage Minuteman missile motor, the largest solid rocket motor then made, was test-fired seven miles east of that historic site by the Thiokol Chemical Co., as it was then known. That motor was the forerunner for the rocket boosters that today power the Trident and Peacekeeper missiles and NASA's space shuttles.

Yet Box Elder County in the 1990s is much more than the Golden Spike Monument, Thiokol Corp., and the famous Fruit Way. The county offers a casual lifestyle, a strong sense of community, and a firmly ingrained work ethic that have fashioned Box Elder County into an appealing place for families to live, work, and play. Additionally, plans for an increasingly diversified economic base, a steady job growth rate, and increased tourism dollars have also been penciled into that bright future by the countywide economic development task force recently formed to encourage and shape the county's growth.

"Our economic development task force has determined several targets for our efforts," said Robert Valentine, director of Box Elder County Economic Development. "We see real opportunities for high-tech, manufacturing, and other industries in Box Elder County."

Water, Transportation, and People

Valentine said the county offers a number of distinct advantages. For one, Box Elder has the lowest property tax in the state. "We have inexpensive land available and an abundant supply of the necessary services, such as gas, electric facilities, a fiber-optics (telephone) switching office, sewer lines, and water. In fact, we have a water conservancy district working on plans to develop adequate water supplies to take Box Elder County into the year 2015," said Valentine.

Also, Box Elder County lies less than an hour from the Salt Lake International Airport, and it has easy interstate access. Plus, the eastern part of the county is served by rail.

Historically, the Box Elder economy has maintained deep roots in the county's strong agricultural community. But there has been a decided shift in the economy during the past few years, said Tom Shaw, manager of the First Interstate Bank office in Brigham City. Today less than half of the population still relies on farming, ranching, and fruit growing for its livelihood. Increasingly, area farmers have taken on regular eight-to-five jobs and must confine their farming activities to the hours before and after work, according to Shaw. While the farmers may leave the field for the office or the factory, they still bring with them the strong work ethic that sustained the pioneers who settled the area in 1851.

"The people here have a higher work ethic than most," Shaw said. "They still put in a day's work for a day's pay. We're seeing more people working eight-to-five jobs, so there are not as many farming operations. With fewer farming operations, we have seen a change in emphasis in our business from commercial lending to consumer lending. Also, there are companies coming in that are headquartered elsewhere and do not require lending arrangements." Shaw said he is very pleased with the businesses located in Box Elder, saying the bank is healthy and strong. "It reflects the other financial institutions in the county."

Industrial Space

Shopko and K-Mart are two retailers, headquartered elsewhere, that recently opened stores in Box Elder County. Both are located in Brigham City on the site of the former Intermountain Intertribal School. That...