Last week, when I made the final turn into the south end of Cache Valley, something felt different.
As a Smithfield native, I’ve taken that bend through Sardine Canyon countless times.
As a kid, it meant the windy and seemingly endless route would finally become straight, and my car sickness and consequential nausea would soon subside.
As a teenager, it meant a sigh of relief that I wouldn’t need to call my parents to tell them my friends and I had spun out or crashed after ignoring their warnings not to brave the weather.
And now, as an adult living along the Wasatch Front, making that final turn normally means coming home.
But as The Salt Lake Tribune’s new Cache Valley reporter working in partnership with Utah Public Radio, it means something else now.
Looking over the valley from the mouth of the canyon, my view of the vast landscape and towering mountains felt almost unimpeded.
I thought of the beginning of my career as a journalist, when, as a Utah State University student, I started covering Cache County Council meetings and scanning social media channels for stories rooted here.
I remembered the Logan woman I had interviewed about living in her car after having nowhere else to turn, the government officials who often shared their worries about the community’s housing shortage and the melancholic stories I’ve heard from farmers who had seen houses encroach on what was once agricultural land.
As I continued north toward Logan, I remembered the first time I bit into a burger at Center Street Grill, the gorgeous sunset that surrounded me as I lost a game of tug-of-war to a fish while kayaking in Newton Reservoir and the heaping scoops of ice cream I would give kids at Casper’s Malt Shoppe in Richmond when I worked there my senior year in high school.
And I thought of the first thing I ever wrote for a newspaper — the obituary for my mom, whose grave I still visit in the Smithfield Cemetery.
I saw then — just as I see now — how readily people in Cache Valley come together to support one another however they can.
When my editors asked if I would want to report on this place, I leapt at the chance. Like many other places in Utah, Cache Valley faces challenges with rapid growth, rising costs of living and balancing preservation with innovation.
But I know that this community is gritty and determined, and I am excited to cover not only the problems it faces, but also the solutions it finds.
If you have tips or stories that you’d like me to check out, drop me a line at bmarchant@sltrib.com. I’d love to hear from you.