Newcomers, old-timers: All say there's no place like Dixie

ST. GEORGE — Newcomers to Utah's Dixie are learning what the old-timers knew years ago: Once a few grains of that red sand dirt settles between your toes, you're no longer a stranger — you're family.

"We absolutely love it here," says Gail Beer, president of Dixie Newcomers, a social group of more than 600 members dedicated to meeting new people, sharing interests and having a good time. "A lot of our members vacationed here for years before making the move. Weather is a big factor for a lot of us, and so is golf."

When the Dixie Newcomers group first gathered at a member's home 10 years ago, St. George looked far different than it does today. Traffic flowed more smoothly than it does now, and homes didn't dot the hillsides far into the distance.

"I think we're all talking about the traffic," said Beer, who moved here from Florida about a year and a half ago with her husband. "Most of our members are real new in town, within the last couple of years. There are an awful lot from Southern California, but we also have people from all over the United States."

Washington County Sheriff Kirk Smith remembers patrolling I-15 as a Utah Highway Patrol trooper during the 1980s and '90s, back when the streets pretty much cleared out after 8 p.m. during the summer.

"Now there's full traffic up and down I-15 nonstop," said Smith, who moved his family here in 1983. "We have traffic problems all over the place, even on the alternate routes, especially on the weekends.

"Washington County has been discovered, not only by the state of Utah but also by the rest of the nation. We're a much more diverse community now."

Dixie State College history professor Doug Alder, who served as college president from 1983 to 1996, recently finished writing about the county's growth from 1996 to the present to be included in a reprint of his book, "The History of Washington County."

"There are 37 non-Mormon congregations in the St. George area now, and they all have new buildings," Alder said, adding he expects those populations to double or triple over the next 15 years. "There has been an influx of Spanish-speakers. We've never had to absorb a large ethnic group like this before, and it's a double-edged sword."

Some of the original landholders in the county are "very much in the forefront" of the development movement, Alder said.