Loved to Death: A Valley Boy's Lament

I’m fortunate to have been brought up in Utah's Ogden Valley.

Growing up in Ogden Valley, I never fully appreciated what I had.

The Valley, those small rural communities of Huntsville, Eden, and Liberty, Utah, shaped me in ways I didn't understand until I left. My teachers, my coaches, the Trappist monks down the road, the dairy farmers and bus drivers. Lifelong friendships forged in a K-9 school of barely 300 kids.

And yet, as a boy with an oversized ego and a serious case of FOMO, all I wanted was out. I'd watch airplanes overhead and wonder what magical place lay beyond those mountains.

A few decades later, I became an author. When a WWII historical novel unexpectedly came to me in January 2017, I knew immediately where it had to be set: my hometown of Huntsville. Writing it was an act of love. The Shooting Star Saloon. Pineview Reservoir. The July 4th parade. Familiar Valley names woven into fictional characters. The rest of the world would read it and never know how real it all was.

The book was released with the title, “For Malice and Mercy: A World War II Novel.”

(For a shameless promotion, it’s available online throughout the English speaking world.)

After the book was published, that's when an uncomfortable thought crept in. What if people want to come see this place for themselves?

It turned out to be the wrong worry.

Publicity isn't what's drawing people to the Valley. Three ski resorts, two reservoirs, and endless trails are. The cat, as they say, has been out of the bag for years.

But here's what genuinely concerns me.

In the past twenty years, the Valley's population grew 21%. Its housing stock grew 90%. For the first time, the majority of homes are owned by absentee residents, people who see the Valley as a vacation destination rather than a community. And if Weber County's general plan holds, the number of homes will more than double by 2040. It took 165 years to build the first 5,000 homes. We may build that many again in just twenty years.

Those absentee owners don't know about Leon's Market, or the monastery, or the Valley Tournaments, or any of the hundred small things that made this place extraordinary. They don't need to. They have their vacation.

For years, residents worried that without greater political control over their own destiny, the Valley was powerless to resist that tide. Then something remarkable happened.

On November 5, 2024, Ogden Valley voted to incorporate, with nearly 68% of voters approving the measure. On January 5, 2026, the lieutenant governor issued the certificate of incorporation, and the Valley officially became its own municipality, governed by a six-member council elected by district. The new town covers the unincorporated areas of the valley, including Eden, while Huntsville Town continues as its own independent municipality.

Together with ongoing efforts like the Ogden Valley Land Trust, which recently preserved the Trappist Monastery property, residents now have real tools to shape their own future.

It's not a guarantee. Growth pressures don't disappear with a ballot measure. But for the first time, the people who actually love this place have a real seat at the table.

If you would like to contribute to the efforts made to preserve open space in the Ogden Valley, please consider a generous donation to the Ogden Valley Land Trust here.