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BEAVER COUNTY — The Utah Inland Port Authority Board of Directors recently approved the Mineral Mountains Project Area resolution for Beaver County, creating Utah’s sixth inland port.

The unanimous decision was made during a Utah Inland Port Authority board meeting Oct. 4 in Milford.

Known for its rich history in rail, mining and agriculture, Beaver County is uniquely positioned to harness the potential of the Mineral Mountains Project Area, leveraging its rugged geography and diverse natural resources.

The port authority has been instrumental in facilitating appropriate development within its jurisdictional land and other project areas throughout Utah. As part of this endeavor, Beaver County is set to create a project area that will consist of four distinct zones, each designed to cater to various industries and contribute to the overall economic prosperity of the region.

“Establishing the Mineral Mountains Project Area is a significant milestone in Beaver County’s economic development journey,” said Ben Hart, executive director for the Utah Inland Port Authority. “This project is a testament to our commitment to sustainable growth and harnessing the potential of regional natural resources.”

The four zones within the Mineral Mountains Project Area are as follows:

“These zones possess a unique blend of historical expertise and natural resources that position Beaver County for success in emerging and diverse industries,” said Wade Hollingshead, chairman of the Beaver County Commission. “The collaboration between Beaver County and the Utah Inland Port Authority is a powerful partnership that will fuel generational economic growth through targeted investments and logistics development.”

Fellow Beaver County Commissioner Tammy Pearson added:

“The Inland Port is a project we have had our eye on since its beginning. We understand the wealth and distribution of economic benefit that this project area in Beaver County will create. It will be a significant step forward for Utah’s inland port system as well and will provide businesses with the infrastructure and resources they need to succeed in the local and global marketplace creating job opportunities and generating revenue for the state.”

Jen Wakeland, Beaver County’s strategic development director, told Cedar City News that the partnership makes sense.

“Rural Utah has long been a place of limited growth and development,” she said. “Beaver County, however, has a wide variety of existing infrastructure that when paired with a Port Authority Project Area can change the growth and development for the better.”

Wakeland said pairing with the Inland Port will allow Beaver County to guide growth in sustainable ways that diversify the economic portfolio.

“It will help us keep the heritage and culture we love intact while providing high-quality jobs for residents and future generations to come,” she said.

And while creating employment opportunities, the inland port also will provide economic balance.

“Our county has been resilient through decades of boom-and-bust economics,” Wakeland said. “Bringing in an Inland Port Project Area will allow us to utilize the tools necessary to level out the highs and lows by attracting industry that matches with our culture, our current economic portfolio, and helps us provide infrastructure necessary to support existing industry along with the new growth.”

According to the news release, the expansion of the Mineral Mountains Project Area aligns seamlessly with broader regional growth projections. Beaver County’s population is anticipated to grow and the county’s economy is poised to diversify, with a strong focus on renewable energy resources and enhanced transportation accessibility.

Rail has played a vital role in Beaver County’s history and will continue to do so, with the Union Pacific Railroad’s presence dating back to 1880. Today, Milford serves as an important node in the Union Pacific system, facilitating essential rail traffic between the California Coast and the Intermountain West.

Written by KAITLIN FELSTED, UIPA’s marketing communications director, with additional reporting by Cedar City News reporter JEFF RICHARDS.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have named a newly discovered species of ancient beaver after Buc-ee’s, the chain of convenience stores known for its namesake mascot.

The new species is called "Anchitheriomys buceei," or "A. buceei" for the rest of us.

(UT JACKSON SCHOOL OF GEOSCIENCES)

Research associate Steve May of the UT Jackson School of Geosciences, told UT News the name was inspired by the beaver’s Texas connection and a chance encounter with a Buc-ee’s billboard that read: "This is Beaver Country."

"I thought, ‘Yeah, it is beaver country, and it has been for millions of years,’" May told the outlet.

HAIR COMB MADE FROM PART OF A HUMAN SKULL UNEARTHED IN ENGLAND: ‘TRULY ASTONISHING’

His paper describing the new species – as well as a smaller species of fossil beaver – was published in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica. Bones and archival records suggest the animal lived along the Texas Gulf Coast between 15 and 22 million years ago.

The fossils also show A. buceei that were about 30% larger than modern beavers roaming Texas today – though smaller than the "bear-size" beavers in North America during the Ice Age.

(UT Jackson School of Geosciences)

Most of the fossils have been reconstructed from a partial skull from Burkeville, Texas. It’s a fusion of bone and brain cast created when sediment seeped into the beaver’s brain cavity, creating a rock replica of the brain as the specimen fossilized.

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May and Matthew Brown, the study’s co-author, used high-resolution X-ray images of the skull to bring into view anatomical details that helped confirm it was a new species.

After hearing of the new species’ name, Buc-ee’s CEO and founder Arch "Beaver" Aplin III quipped: "Buc-ee’s was founded in 1982, but we may need to rethink our beginnings."

Buc-ee's has become so deeply enmeshed in Texas culture that even the Alamo gave it a social media shout-out in 2018.

UT researchers name ancient beaver fossil after Buc-ee's

A new species of ancient beaver has been named after Buc-ee's, the popular Texas-based gas station known for its cartoon beaver mascot.

AUSTIN, Texas - The iconic Buc-ee’s beaver is no longer just a cartoon mascot. The popular rest stop chain is now lending its name to a newly-discovered beaver species.

It all began in North Austin, at the University of Texas’ Jackson School Museum of Earth History, where a research associate made a rare discovery.

"When you find those needles in a haystack it can be a lot of fun," said Matthew Brown, director of the museum’s vertebrate paleontology collection.

That collection includes about a million fossils spanning hundreds of millions of years, but, while researchers were going through the collection recently, one skull in particular caught the eye of project lead Steve May.

"He started digging into the history, and he realized it was a new species of beaver, and it had never been published," said Brown.

(UT Jackson School of Geosciences / Matthew Brown)

Based on the fossil, Brown says the team determined the species is extinct, but in its day it lived on the Texas Coastal Plain and was actually 30% bigger than modern-day beavers—a Texas-sized rodent, you might say.

But what to name it?

"Steve was driving back from the field and saw a [Buc-ee’s] billboard that said ‘This is Beaver Country’. And that just lit up in his head. It’s been beaver country for 22 million years," said Brown.

So, they landed on "Anchitheriomys buccei, " or "A. buccei" for short.

(UT Jackson School of Geosciences/ National Center for Health Statistics/ USDA Forest Service)

"We’re excited about it," said Buc-ee’s general counsel Jeff Nadalo.

Nadalo says the company was on board with the namesake beaver right away.

"Buc-ee the Beaver has been our mascot since 1982," said Nadalo. "And obviously we're very proud of the fact that they thought of Buc-ee’s when it came to naming this."

(UT Jackson School of Geosciences)

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Customers we spoke to at the Buc-ee’s in Bastrop agree.

"Oh wow, that’s great. That’s great. It’s perfect," said customer Kathy Dodd.

"I can’t think of anything more appropriate," said David Clark.

Buc-ee’s says they’re even working on a T-shirt featuring the newly-named beaver.

BEAVER, Utah (ABC4) — Over 340 fire personnel are at the scene of the nearly 7,300-acre Thompson Ridge Fire, according to Utah Fire Info.

The lightning-caused fire, located 10 miles southeast of Beaver, Utah, started just over a week ago, on Aug. 4. Officials said that as of today, Aug. 13, the fire is still 0% contained.

Officials said Sunday that a new weather system is bringing winds to the area and may increase fire activity. “Today there will be a new weather system moving in from the southeast, bringing winds from the east. Cooler, damper conditions will remain, but winds may increase fire activity when wind directions and terrain align,” a release states.

According to the release, firefighters have been able to identify areas where they can safely attempt to fight the fire around its perimeter. Officials said monsoonal moisture has helped fire crews in battling the blaze over the last two days. Parts of the fire area have reportedly seen .1″ to .25″ of rain.

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Fire officials will reportedly be hosting community meetings in Junction and Beaver this week. The Junction meeting will be at the local fire house at 6 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 14. The Beaver meeting will be at the City Center at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 15.

Both meetings will be streamed on the Fishlake National Forest Facebook page as well, officials said.

SR-153, Kent’s Lake Road (137), Upper and Lower Kent’s Lake, Little Reservoir Campground, Anderson Meadow, and LeBaron are open at this time. Officials said to use caution in and around these areas as there will be ground and air equipment working to suppress the fire.

There are currently 11 engines, six helicopters, two water tenders, three dozers, nine crews, and 344 personnel working to fight the fire. The area is made up of steep, rugged terrain transitioning into rolling pinyon juniper hills, officials said.

The Thompson Ridge Fire started at just five acres on Aug. 4, and has grown to 7,289 acres. For reference, a football field is about 1.32 acres in size, meaning the fire has blazed over the equivalent of 5,522 football fields.

Activists were trying to talk to Beaver County residents ahead of a high-profile trial over two piglets taken from a Smithfield Foods farm.

(Leo Chia) A screenshot from video recorded by Leo Chia shows Curtis Vollmar being confronted by Beaver County Sheriff’s Sgt. Warren Woolsey, left, and Deputy Lonnie Laws in Beaver, Saturday, July 23, 2022. The county is now paying a $52,000 settlement to Vollmar, two other men and two animal rights groups.

With layoffs predicted in the local pork industry and a looming high-profile trial over the theft — or rescue — of two sickly piglets, a group of animal rights activists spent the 2022 Pioneer Day holiday in Beaver, trying to strike up conversations with passersby.

The Beaver County sheriff and deputies ordered them to stop and to leave, the activists later said in a federal civil rights lawsuit — and the county is now settling that case by paying them $52,000 plus their attorney fees.

The money will be paid to two organizations, Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) SF Bay Area and Utah Animal Rights Coalition, and to three people who claim county officials violated their First Amendment rights.

The settlement is a “tremendous victory for the animals as well as the constitutional rights we all cherish,” Jeremy Beckham, a spokesperson for the Utah coalition, said in a news release Monday.

The lawsuit against the county was filed in August 2022, and the settlement is the latest development in a legal saga centered around Smithfield Foods, then the county’s largest employer.

From a Smithfield pig farm to a Pioneer Day celebration

Members of the two groups were in Beaver in July 2022 to spread awareness about the then-upcoming October 2022 “Smithfield trial,” according to court documents — in which two other animal rights activists were charged for taking two piglets from Smithfield’s Circle Four Farms.

The activists had set up a table on a public sidewalk and confirmed with law enforcement officials that the space was public, according to the lawsuit. Two of the five staffed the table while the others took to public street corners and a nearby park, the complaint said.

Beaver County Sheriff Cameron Noel, plus two deputies, “ordered” the group to stop and cited Curtis Vollmar with trespassing and disorderly conduct, according to the complaint.

The officers threatened to arrest Vollmar and Alexander Taylor, both from Berkley, California, and Salt Lake City resident Max Corwin, if they didn’t leave, the complaint alleges. Protesting the largest employer in the county wasn’t going to make the activists popular — a fact Noel emphasized in his alleged threats. Some of the exchanges between the officers and activists were recorded and compiled in a YouTube video that has since reached more than 3 million views.

In its offer to settle the case, Beaver County said the proposal was in “no way to be construed as an admission of liability,” and it was instead an effort to “expeditiously” resolve the claims “without further costly litigation.”

“The County does not believe it did anything wrong to violate anyone’s rights but wanted to be done with the litigation,” attorney Frank Mylar said in an email.

The two animal welfare groups said the settlement will be donated to nonprofit organizations that help animals, including the sanctuary that took in the two piglets taken from the Smithfield farm.

“I’m glad to see Beaver County paying towards the veterinary and life care expenses for the pigs who suffered at Smithfield, animals the County should have protected from abuse in the first place,” Corwin said in the news release.

Vollmar was found guilty in April of the trespassing count, but he has appealed and his next hearing is scheduled in September.

Where the case started

These activists’ case is an extension of five other activists’ stories, which began in 2017.

Five DxE activists allegedly took the two piglets from Circle Four Farms and captured it on film in March 2017. Their aim was to raise awareness of what they said were cruel conditions.

Three of the five defendants in that case accepted plea deals. Two others took their case to trial and argued that the piglets were rescued, not stolen, because they were in such bad shape they would not have been worth anything.

A Washington County jury found Wayne Hsiung and Paul Picklesimer not guilty on all charges in October 2022.

Shannon Sollitt is a Report for America corps member covering business accountability and sustainability for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.