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VERNAL: FROM PREHISTORY TO HIGH-TECH OPPORTUNITY by S AVA N N A H K I N G
Red Fleet State Park, Vernal, UT
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Photo cour tesy of Visit Utah
here’s a depth of history in Vernal, Utah. It’s in the thousand-year-old petroglyphs painted on a cliff face at Dry Fork Canyon and has been buried underground for millions of years at Dinosaur National Monument. Vernal, located in Uintah County in the northeast corner of the state some 30 miles from Colorado, is also known by another name — Dinosaurland. Every year, close to a million people visit Uintah County to see the region’s sights. Dinosaur National Monument is 210,000 acres spread across both states and is the only place in the world where visitors can see and touch more than 1,500 dinosaur fossils where they fell some 150 million years ago. Visitors to the area can also view fascinating petroglyphs and pictographs left by the Fremont Indians thousands of years ago. Vernal is also home to three state parks with excellent hiking, biking, boating and fishing opportunities and some of the most unique 40
BUSINE SS IN U TA H
geographical features in the world at parks like Fantasy Canyon and the Moonshine Arch. Joel Brown, executive director of the Vernal Area Chamber of Commerce, says the region’s prehistoric attractions and its outdoor recreation are some of the biggest draws to the area. “There are a lot of great, wonderful things in this community that attract businesses and keep people here,” he says. With so many natural resources in one area, it comes as no surprise that the region has a long history with the oil and gas industry. But when the price of crude oil dropped dramatically in 2014 and 2015, many of the region’s jobs also vanished. “We’ve seen the ups and downs of the economy with the changes in the oil and gas industry,” Brown says. “But our workforce is good, and unemployment is coming down. We were hit a bit harder than the rest of the state, but we’ve got a talented workforce.” With a population of about 10,000, Vernal
