The areas known as Southern Utah and the Arizona Strip have sustained human life since the earliest people first camped near the Virgin and Colorado Rivers. Over time, the look of the landscape has changed as housing communities and commercial properties have been developed, but the need for both land and water to sustain and help life flourish has remained the same.
As the population has continued to grow, systems have been put into place to manage development and meet water needs. However, the influx of people over the last fifty years has left land resources, water availability, and cultural ideas struggling to keep up.
As you spend time on our site, you will have the opportunity to explore stories that are told by and through the land, water, and structures that define the landscape.
In This Landscape is your Garden, Brett Stanfield explores the many narratives that have helped develop this area. Through an analysis of landscape paintings, family and oral histories, newspaper clippings, and the Ivins City General Plan he maps the complex social and cultural fabric of Southern Utah.
In History of Land and Water in the Arizona Strip, Jesse Cowley focuses on the challenging landscape of the Arizona Strip and the fortitude of the original European settlers as they lived on and worked the land.
In Water and Population, Karen Kidd is particularly concerned with population increase and how water needs are met through the continued development of the Virgin River Infrastructure.
In History of Dixie College, Riley McGreer shares the complicated name history of Utah Tech University and how this process reflects paradigm shifts as both the school and surrounding areas have grown.