Business with a southern accent.

• Author: Hafen, Lyman
• Position: St. George, Washington County, nicknamed 'Utah's Dixie' witnesses 86.3% growth rate in 1980's and becomes booming business climate due to tourism, recreation and retirement industries

BUSINESS WITH A SOUTHERN ACCENT

Along I-15: From Hell to Heaven

St. George's original Mormon settlers were part of Brigham Young's "Cotton Mission," an effort begun in 1861 to produce warm-climate commodities to sustain the Latter-day Saints as the eastern states became mired in civil war. The nickname, "Utah's Dixie," was a natural outgrowth of the times and came to denote the entire area that would become Washington County. From Springdale at the mouth of Zion Canyon, to the winding tree-lined streets of Santa Clara, Utah's Dixie has undergone an amazing transformation. Once a place where nobody wanted to live, it is now the place where everyone wants to live.

Even the man St. George is named for, George A. Smith, had a difficult time envisioning a future here. Smith is said to have uttered words to the effect that if he had a lot in St. George and one in Hell, he'd sell the one in St. George.

It was the heat, the stark, rugged landscape, the isolation, which caused the early settlers' despair. Yet, decades later, those very elements would ironically become the key to Dixie's success. Old Brigham must have seen the light from the beginning: he was the first northern Utahn to build a winter home in St. George.

Growth has become a way of life in modern-day Dixie. St. George's population doubled in the 1980s, from 13,146 in 1980, to 28,502 in 1990--the largest percentage increase of any city over 5,000 population in the state. Washington County itself has nearly reached the 50,000 mark. "The rich tradition of struggle to build the town and the close feeling of community created by those trials provide us a great heritage," said Mayor Karl Brooks, who led the city through the 1980s. "People who consider making their home here seem to catch that spirit," he said. "They're looking for something, and they find it here."

In fact, people are finding what they're looking for in Utah's Dixie at a bewildering rate. Washington County grew by 86.3 percent in the 1980s, while the state as a whole grew 18 percent.

Reasons for Growth

It wasn't until the early 1960s that tourism and recreation began to upstage agri-business in Dixie. The city's location smack on Highway 91, which later became Interstate 15, was a definite advantage. The highway ran through St. George like a life-giving artery. Motels and restaurants lined what is now St. George Boulevard as the place became a popular rest stop between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. In the mid 1960s, city fathers finally succumbed to the idea of building a golf course. "When the Dixie Red Hills Golf Course opened 25 years ago, it was not just the opening of a new recreational facility," said Mayor Brooks, "it was the opening of a new era in St. George." One golf course became two, and within 25 years, the Dixie area boasted eight excellent courses.

Yet it would take much more than golf courses to propel St. George into one of the most popular places to live in America. In the late 1960s, a company called Terracor developed the resort community of Bloomington. The project, which transformed a nearly dead farming community south of downtown St. George into a captivating, modern country club, literally put St. George on the map. At the beginning of the 1980s, another development, Green Valley, ushered in a new decade of growth. Condominium projects by the score popped up in southwestern Utah. During the mid '80s, in fact, there were more than 80 condo projects on the market at one time in the St. George area.

By the latter part of the '80s the condo craze eased off, but St. George continued to grow. Rankings such as Rand McNally's "Retirement Places Rated," Prentice Hall, Money, and the American Association of Retired People, rated the St. George-Zion area among the best places to retire in America. The retirement boom catapulted Utah's Dixie into the 1990s as new single-home developments like Fairway Hills, Kayenta, and Crystal Lakes became the latest chapter in a continuing real estate saga.

Health and Fitness

Now in their fifth year, the Huntsman Chemical World Senior Games bring athletes 50 and older to Utah's Dixie for two weeks in October to compete in more than a dozen events--from track and field, to cycling, tennis and swimming. John and Daisy Morgan of the St. George Hilton Inn are the founders...