Home Care In Milford, UT

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Football fans know they have a pig farmer at quarterback and they’re proud of it. That farmer is Bryson Barnes.

They also know their pig farmer is from a tiny town in Utah called Milford.

But, on College GameDay ahead of Utah’s matchup against Oregon, Barnes shared his journey from the perspective of a story he wrote in elementary school.

You can check out the segment here.

College Football, Meet Utah’s Bryson Barnes

Barnes has been the backup for starting Utah quarterback Cam Rising the past three seasons and while he hasn’t played a ton- he has sparked a lot of curiosity in the college football world with one of those unique, feel-good stories fans love to read about.

Bryson Barnes’ Big Debut At The 2022 Rose Bowl

The college football world first became aware of Barnes during Utah’s first Rose Bowl appearance in 2022 after Rising suffered a concussion against Ohio State.

The game was already entertainment gold to that point with both sides in a shoot-out after the Utes had jumped to a sizable lead early in the contest. Barnes’ entrance into the game pushed it a notch further.

Most teams reel when their leader goes down the way that Rising did, but the Utes under Barnes were undeterred and wasted zero time putting the Buckeyes on notice.

With 1:54 remaining in the fourth quarter, Barnes threw a 15-yard toss to Kincaid tying the game at 45-45 and leaving media scrambling to find out who Utah’s new gunslinger was.

Unfortunately for Barnes and the Utes there was too much time left on the clock and tOSU was able to kick a game-winning field goal to win the game, 48-45, but it didn’t change the fact a legend was born.

Where Is Bryson Barnes From?

Part of what has peaked college football fans’ curiosity about Barnes is the fact he hails from a very small town in Utah called Milford.

Located in the south-west corner of Utah in Beaver County, Milford boasts a population of 1,431 according to the 2020 census. It also mainly boasts farmland which brings us to our next point.

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Constructed by Viziv Technologies, the tower appeared in 2018 and has become as much a part of the landscape as the cornfields

About 50 miles south of downtown Dallas on Interstate 35—when the strip malls of the metroplex give way to cornfields—a strange tower stands sentry over an empty field. Texas travelers familiar with the sight of water towers peppering stretches of highway will have trouble placing this structure: It looks more War of the Worlds than Friday Night Lights.

A rectangular piece of concrete forms the base of the tower, which holds a skinny pillar of metal topped with a silvery disc, the exact shape of the UFO that descends to drop E.T. off in a forest. Far from otherworldly, this tower, perched just outside of the tiny town of Milford, hearkens back to the Wardenclyffe Tower built in the early 20th century.

Erected in 1901-05 by inventor and futurist Nikola Tesla, Wardenclyffe Tower graced the shores of Long Island, New York. Tesla held high hopes for his invention; he intended for it to transmit energy and correspondence from the United States across the ocean to Europe. He wanted it to serve as a rival to the radio-based telegraph system. Sadly, Tesla’s grand plans never came to pass. The project’s primary funder, John Pierpont Morgan, lost interest—or faith—in the tower, and Tesla never found another believer to invest. Wardenclyffe Tower stood abandoned for more than a decade until it was sold for scrap in 1917.

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Milford’s tower shares a similar trajectory. In 2018, Waco-based Viziv Industries tried to harness a phenomenon called Zenneck surface wave to transmit electromagnetic waves through the air. The idea was that this new technology would provide safe, efficient, and inexpensive electrical power without the need for the electric grid. A 2019 Channel 25 KXXV News report viewable on YouTube provides a frankly adorable news clip asking the locals what they think of the new tower looming in their community’s backyard. A woman standing with her daughter asks, “We did think, are we going to be glowing people?” Another local muses about its appearance: “We were thinking we’re going to walk around with tin foil on our head.” A Viziv representative assures the news anchor that tin foil hats were unnecessary, and that the tower is simply a new scientific innovation. But did it work, I wondered, and so began a completely unsuccessful round of phone calls.

A little internet sleuthing informed me that Viziv Technologies filed for bankruptcy in 2021. No luck there. I tried Milford’s City Hall, where a kind woman assured me that she didn’t know much about the tower, other than this was an “Ellis County deal,” not a Milford one. (Milford is in Ellis County, the county seat of which is Waxahachie.) I left a message for the Ellis County communications representative, who didn’t return my call. An article about a partnership with Baylor University spurred a call to Waco that proved equally futile. Perhaps this was something that required an in-person visit.

It’s a testament to the boredom of my octogenarian father that he jumped at the chance to accompany me on the drive to Milford during Dallas’ rush hour on a Monday afternoon in August. He’s a former pharmaceutical executive with a doctorate in analytical chemistry and, for a brief time in the late 1960s, was a high school physics teacher. I figured he could enlighten me on the theory of how, and if, the Milford-Viziv tower might work. We headed south, air conditioning blasting against the triple-digit heat outside. The fields along the highway looked like they’d been air-fried, brown and crisp, but we kept our eyes toward the horizon as we discussed politics and family lore and his time at The University of Texas at Austin.

Milford feels small even to this small-town girl. According to the town’s website, settlers started coming in the 1850s. Men from Cherokee County purchased land from Arvin Wright “at 50 cents an acre,” moving their families to the area just south of Mill Creek. The website’s account of history is scant but evocative. For example, Milford housed a community hall/ schoolhouse/church that burned down during the Civil War. It once boasted a gristmill and even a Presbyterian college before the Great Depression led to a population decline. In more recent news, a Chevron gas station explosion caused the residents to evacuate town in 2013. Driving down Main Street, I’m reminded a bit of my hometown of Mansfield, which used to be tiny and is now a bustling suburb. Here, however, the downtown buildings are beautiful, but mostly empty. There’s a general store offering cold Topo Chico and packed snacks, a seemingly one-room post office, and a few stunning Victorian homes I was desperate to peek inside.

I tried to get someone from Milford to talk to me about the tower. I asked the friendly woman at the general store who looked at me baffled by what I was describing. The next town over, the sweet, middle-aged clerk at the register also apologized for not knowing what I was referring to. Dad and I were disappointed we couldn’t get a local’s take. I was hoping for some great story about teenagers spray painting its concrete base with “Go Milford Bulldogs,” but alas, we heard nothing of the sort. We wanted one last look, so I pulled to the side of I-35 to snap a pic on my phone. “What do you think it looks like?” I asked my dad.

“Maybe a jellyfish on a water tower. It kind of resembles a toilet plunger.”

“I don’t think it looks like a toilet plunger at all,” I replied. My dad shrugged. I asked him if he thought it would work, hypothetically. He said, “It would work if the receiving grid was close enough probably. You could say that would test the performance of inverse square laws. The power of the energy they send out on that thing is reduced by one over the square of the distance away.” An English major, I’m suddenly reminded of why I never asked my dad for help with my math or science homework; his answers went right over my head.

I started the car to head back, then pulled over at a gas station after he insisted I fill up my already half-full tank.

“Look!” my dad elbowed me as we pulled away. A row of Tesla charging stations lined the parking lot. “Tesla both in front and behind us!” And like Nikola Tesla’s dream of airborne electricity, the Milford tower shrank in my rearview mirror.

By Steve Handy | For The Salt Lake Tribune

| Updated: Oct. 9, 2023, 7:05 a.m.

The energy technologies of the future are closer than you think, because in some cases, they are closely connected to the energy technologies of today.

Hydrogen fuels and advanced nuclear reactors are good examples. But arguably the best example is geothermal energy, which involves the very same drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies that fueled a massive boom in U.S. oil and natural gas production.

Utah is about to play a major leadership role in the next phase of geothermal energy production, following the announcement of a large new project in Beaver County.

Northeast of Milford, startup company Fervo Energy has received federal permits to drill 29 geothermal wells that will use heat from deep geological formations to generate electricity. Together, the wells are expected to have a generating capacity of 90 megawatts or more.

Fervo Energy has already secured buyers for the electricity and the geothermal facility is expected to enter commercial operation in 2026. By 2028, the project is expected to grow to 400 megawatts.

The Beaver County project will apply technology that was proven on a pilot scale in northern Nevada. There, Fervo Energy drilled vertically to a depth of around 7,700 feet and then horizontally for 3,250 feet, where underground temperatures exceeded 370 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cold water was pumped down the well and circulated back to the surface hundreds of degrees hotter, where it will be used to drive a turbine that generates electricity without any carbon emissions. Not only that, electricity production from geothermal does not depend on weather conditions like other renewables like wind and solar, which makes it more reliable for utility companies and their customers.

“By applying drilling technology from the oil and gas industry, we have proven that we can produce 24/7 carbon-free energy resources in new geographies across the world,” said Tim Latimer, Fervo Energy’s CEO and co-founder, who was an oil and gas drilling engineer before going to work in geothermal.

Even before Fervo Energy’s Beaver County project, Utah was one of the nation’s pioneering geothermal states.

A major geothermal field laboratory, known as the Utah FORGE, is also located outside of Milford and it operates with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy and the University of Utah’s Energy and Geoscience Institute. And there are currently three operating geothermal power plants in our state, with a combined generating capacity of just over 70 megawatts, according to the Utah Geological Survey.

But the completion of Fervo Energy’s new Utah project would more than double the state’s geothermal generating capacity, and state officials say that could just be the beginning. The state has “enormous geothermal energy potential,” according to the Utah Office of Energy Development.

State officials have projected more than 2,000 megawatts of additional geothermal electricity capacity could be developed in Utah. For scale, that’s the equivalent of two large scale nuclear power plants.

Nationwide, U.S. officials project that geothermal electric capacity could grow by 60,000 megawatts over the next three decades. That’s the equivalent of 60 large scale nuclear plants being built at a pace of more than two per year.

No doubt, a range of different geothermal technologies will be deployed. But if most of them utilize drilling and fracking like Fervo Energy, imagine how this provides additional career prospects for oil and gas workers, who know more about drilling and fracking than anyone else.

This is what most political actors in the energy space — on the left and on the right — get wrong about the so-called energy transition. As we add new sources of energy to the nation’s supply, new energy jobs will come with them, and the people best suited for those jobs are working in the energy sector already.

At the end of the day, the energy business is about building things, whether it’s a geothermal well, a wind farm, a natural gas turbine, or a solar array. The mix of technologies will change over time, as it always has, but the need for people who can build things will not.

The energy business has never been a zero-sum game and in my view it never will be. The geothermal breakthroughs we are seeing in Utah, based on oil and gas sector technologies, shows this to be true.

Steve Handy

Steve Handy is a former state legislator and the Utah director for The Western Way, an organization focused on market-competitive solutions to environmental and conservation challenges.

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.

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

MILFORD, Beaver County — National food company Smithfield Foods announced Tuesday it is ending contracts with 26 hog farms in Utah and laying off up to 70 workers in the state.

A statement from Smithfield Foods said it's ending the 26 contracts in Utah to "optimize its supply chain for more efficient operations in the face of an industry oversupply of pork, weaker consumer demand and high feed prices."

The contract terminations will also result in the elimination of Smithfield Foods positions that support contract farm relationships, the company said. Smithfield Foods said it is offering relocation opportunities for affected employees and will provide transition assistance.

The number of jobs being eliminated may be up to one-third of the 210 people currently employed in Utah hog production operations, the company said.

"Our industry and company are experiencing historically challenging hog production market conditions," said Smithfield Foods CEO Shane Smith. "Smithfield continues to take steps to improve operational efficiency and optimize our hog supply chain. These actions have included rebalancing production with East Coast harvest capacity, reducing our sow herd in Missouri and closing finishing operations in Utah."

"These are difficult decisions, but they are necessary to help our company remain competitive in this operating environment," Smith added.

The company's website says it has 75 company-owned farms, 28 contract farms and a feed mill in Utah.

Utah Farm Bureau Federation CEO Spencer Gibbons said he is disappointed farm families had their contracts canceled and that local Smithfield employees are out of work.

"This decision will have a negative impact on the families and communities in rural Utah that have relied on this business model for decades," he said. "While we understand there are many economic forces at play for Smithfield, it is unfortunate that so many will bear the brunt of these business decisions."

Gibbons said the Utah Farm Bureau will work with other agricultural leaders in the state to see how they can help the families impacted.

In June 2022, Smithfield Foods announced it would close down a majority of its operations in Beaver County. As the largest employer in the county, Smithfield's decision prompted outcry from the community.

The Beaver County Commission declared a state of economic emergency after the announcement last June.

"It impacts a lot of family, friends and all," County Commissioner Mark Whitney told KSL.com last year. "We can truly feel in our hearts and souls how many people this can devastate."

The Smithfield, Virginia-based company employs around 60,000 people across seven countries and partners with thousands of farms across America.