As busy as the construction business is, Gardens City's main industry is still tourism, Carver said. Witness the fast-food restaurants that lure tourists with signs advertising milkshakes made from Bear Lake's famous raspberries.

These aren't McDonald'ses or Burger Kings. These are locally owned drive-ins with names like La Beau's and Merlin's.

"Garden City is primarily flipping burgers, making hotel beds and renting jet-skis," Carver said. "They all try to make a living on three months out of the year."

Although it's hard to determine exactly how many visitors Garden City has each year, the Bear Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates 400,000 people take advantage of the Utah and Idaho state parks on the lake and another 100,000 find their way to the lake without paying park fees. The visitors center at the Bear Lake Overlook on U.S. Highway 89 southwest of Garden City figures more than 45,800 people, including over 100 tour buses, have stopped there so far this year.

Ironically, recreation has nearly supplanted the crop that helped make Garden City famous. Land that was once covered with raspberry bushes has been sold for development, said Ned Calder, the only raspberry grower left in Garden City.

"There's not much farming left in Garden City," said Calder. "It's all recreation now, basically."

He said adverse weather and a plant virus have combined with land-use changes to decimate Garden City's raspberry farms. Calder, who farms about four acres, still sells some of his berries locally at a fruit stand on Bear Lake Boulevard and to La Beau's Drive-In. But he makes more money excavating for basements and foundations. Despite the boom, Garden City residents complain the area lacks a few amenities. Although there is an automatic teller machine at the Texaco gas station-convenience store, Garden City has no bank.

And the closest thing the town has to a grocery store is the small Lake View Market at the KOA campground.

Garden City residents often shop 25 miles to the northeast in Montpelier, Idaho, or drive 40 winding miles through Logan Canyon to Cache Valley — a sometimes treacherous journey in the winter. But Garden City now has a medical clinic, and a restaurant at Bear Lake Motor Lodge serves as an impromptu gathering place.

Dorothy Stringham, 83, said Garden City used to be a tightly knit town, and young people found things to do despite the area's isolation. Stringham works at the town's small library, which is open three afternoons a week during the summer and two afternoons a week the rest of the year.

She and her late husband built a modest home 48 years ago near the lake. Now, old houses like hers abide among upscale vacation homes, condominiums and quaint cabins.

"I don't like it," Stringham said. "But I guess if you're going to have progress and good things, it needs to be."

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E-mail: mikewennergren@desnews.com