Sheila Probst Siggard’s big, red barn on nearly 8 acres in Midway has been in her family for as long as she can remember. All that time, it has been a muse for artists across the Heber Valley. 

During the Midway Art Association’s annual plein air contest, painters flock to the public roads surrounding her property to set up easels. There seems to be at least one artistic depiction of its two silos and Park City pine logs for each of the four seasons. 

“With all the development coming in Midway, I’ve thought about leaving, but I said, ‘I can’t leave my barn,’” Siggard said. 

The 73-year-old owner even considered having the barn moved to a new location, possibly by dismantling and reconstructing it. But Siggard has found another solution to preserve her barn: by establishing a conservation easement on her and her neighbors’ properties. 

The conservation easement, referred to as the Heart of Midway Project, encompasses more than 17 acres from four neighboring properties north of 250 N. and west of N. Center St.

Siggard’s idea originated when the city passed its first $5 million open space bond in 2018. It wasn’t difficult, she said, to convince her three neighbors to collaborate on the project.

“We’ve seen so many pieces of property get developed, and then there’s all the traffic and the ugliness of houses instead of a beautiful, open field,” she said. “We’re kind of old timers. We just love agriculture and hate to see Midway be destroyed. So, we want to help preserve it.”

The combined land value is appraised at about $5 million, according to Wendy Fisher, executive director of Utah Open Lands. The landowners are donating a combined $1.8 million of the cost. Three landowners are donating 25% of the cost of their land. Andrew Larson is contributing the full value of his 3-plus acres. 

“We’re not in it for the money. We’re in it for the preservation of the land,” said Phyllis Shelton, one of the landowners and Siggard’s cousin.

Shelton has been on board with her cousin’s plan since the start, agreeing before she’d even told her husband. She hasn’t had to do too much work, either. The effort has been “Sheila-driven,” she joked.

Siggard said she was the first to apply for funds for Midway’s first open space bond. In 2023, the Midway City Council committed $250,000 of those funds to the project.

Since then, the community Volksmarch fundraiser in September raised an additional $85,000. 

Midway passed its second $5 million open space bond in 2024. Fisher and the landowners approached the City Council on Tuesday, seeking $750,000 more for the Heart of Midway Project. The City Council unanimously approved the funding. 

“It’s pretty outstanding for a piece like this to be contiguous through this agreement of owners,” said City Councilor JC Simonsen.

The land is being preserved for its use by livestock and as an essential winter foraging ground for wildlife like deer. It is also being preserved for its open field views and the potential establishment of a public trail easement on Siggard’s property. The mapping of that trail will occur at a later date.

The landowners, with the assistance of Utah Open Lands, have to raise funds for the remaining $2.1 million value of the conservation easement. That could come from various federal, state and local sources, as well as private foundations. 

Fisher added that Utah Open Lands recently received approval for a Regional Conservation Partnership Program through the National Resources Conservation Service, which would have provided federal funding for projects including the Heart of Midway, but “claw(ing) back of funding” by the federal government has stalled the program.

Once the Heart of Midway conservation easement is established, the landowners will have the ability to continue to occupy and farm their land. Larson was also approved to construct a new home on his property, the details of which are to be determined.

For Siggard, finally establishing the conservation easement would mean everything. 

Her family was Swiss immigrants who lived in Midway for at least four generations. Her father raised beef cattle, and she has plenty of fond memories being his assistant, filling syringes for vaccinations and keeping the fire hot for the branding irons. 

“I remember one time there was an Angus cow. They’re very good mothers. … My dad got too close to the calf, and the cow started to chase him. My sister and I were in the barn, yelling, ‘Run, Daddy! Run!’ And he made it,” she remembered with a laugh. “Lots of good memories.”

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Midway farmer Randy Lundin’s great-grandfather established himself in the Heber Valley on just 7 acres in 1892. Today, 27 head of cows and calves, a handful of horses, foxes, coyotes, raccoons and the occasional mountain lion roam the now 119-acre property, which the Lundin family has fought to preserve through a conservation easement for the past four years. 

The process has been about as strenuous as the backbreaking labor the Lundins have performed for generations. But the project achieved a significant milestone on July 1, when the Wasatch County Council unanimously finalized a purchase agreement funding $2 million of the land’s purchase price from the county open space bond fund.

The Midway City Council in December also voted for funding its portion of the conservation easement, $1 million, coming from its open space bond fund.

The purchase can now go forward as soon as all conditions of the agreement are met.

The final condition is that the Lundin siblings settle a struggle over the property that has been in litigation since 2021. The siblings entered into a settlement agreement in May 2024 and have since been in negotiations to finalize it.

The next status hearing on the case overseen by a Fourth District judge is scheduled for Aug. 14.

The exact terms of the settlement agreement do not matter as long as they protect Wasatch County, Midway and Utah Open Lands, allowing the purchase agreement to go forward, said Wasatch County Deputy Attorney Jon Woodard.

As soon as the purchase agreement goes into effect, the Lundins will have three years to secure funding of the $4.5 million that constitutes the rest of the purchase price. They will be assisted by Utah Open Lands. 

Executive Director Wendy Fisher expected most of that funding to come from the National Resource Conservation Service. Utah Open Lands is also looking at other federal, state and local sources and private foundations, and is accepting donations.

“This was the first hurdle in what is still a long journey, so it’s been amazing to see the Lundins stay at the table,” Fisher said. “We’ll need every oar in the river to get this one done.”

If the Lundins cannot raise the $4.5 million after the three-year period ends, Wasatch County and Midway’s combined $3 million will be returned with interest, Woodard said. 

If established, the conservation easement would allow the Lundin family to continue farming the land while preserving it for future generations. 

“Development’s going on all around this, so there is a threat of imminent loss of the existing open space,” Woodard said.

The land is visible from Main Street in Heber City, Wasatch Mountain State Park and much of Midway, justifying its aesthetic importance, Woodard said.

Midway would transform a ditch running across the Lundin property into a public trail that would also serve as an emergency access and wildfire evacuation route.

Public access would also be allowed for educational tours, allowing residents to take in the echoes of the past found on the Lundin property, from a plum orchard the siblings’ great-grandfather planted over a century ago to the 10-by-10-foot brick homestead the siblings were raised in.

“It was warm in the winter. Cozy,” Randy joked.

He said establishing the conservation easement has taken longer than expected, but that he will be happy when it is finally established.

“This has been a long process. It has been emotional, and it has been trying, I think, for everyone involved,” Fisher said.

She added that the Lundin family is selling the land for less than it has been appraised for.

“This isn’t something they’re doing to make money. They’re actually going to be making a sizable contribution to the value of the conservation easement,” she said. “I think that needs to be recognized. All of these projects that we work on, really, they don’t happen unless the landowners love their land, and the Lundins love their land.”

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When Midway City put a $5 million open space bond on their 2018 election ballot, the question wasn’t whether the community wanted to conserve open lands, agricultural properties and the like.

The general question was this: How far can $5 million actually go? 

Further than you’d think.

Brad Winegar, Preserve Midway board member, said that, with efforts from that nonprofit, Midway City and Utah Open Lands, that $5 million bond was put on the ballot in 2018 to make strides toward preserving as much open space as possible. With a community wary of developments popping up in and around Midway, the concept of more land protection and conservation easements was a welcome one. 

The cost for open space boils down to about $8.23. That’s the increase in resident taxes per $100,000 for a primary residence. Double that, approximately, for those with a second home or commercial property.

That’s a cost the Midway community was willing to pay. In 2018, the bond was voted in with 54% in favor. 

And, with that $5 million bond, hundreds of acres of conservation easements followed over the next five years. 

“The leveraging we’ve seen has been unbelievable,” Midway City Planner Katie Villani said. 

With a ratio of 7:1, the bond was stretched to buy more than 400 acres of conservation easements. Plus, acreage from donors like Kem Garner, who freely gifted his 100-plus-acre property.

In this election year, Midway voted to do it all again. 

“A new open space bond would help save even more,” a Preserve Midway Instagram post said ahead of the Nov. 5 vote. “There is more land to save forever and a new open space bond would be needed to make this happen again.” 

Once the ballots were counted, the 2024 bond passed with a 3-to-1 margin.

“I think it confirms what every survey says and every time we’ve gotten feedback from the public. One of the things that has been prioritized the most are trails and open spaces,” Villani said. “And just the importance to the community of keeping the feel of Midway, which has always been what they find makes it special.” 

Midway, according to Villani, is historically agricultural, rural with a European sensibility, and a generally small town. 

“Somehow it kept its small feel despite having a resort mix,” Villani said. “And we’ve got development that people feel is threatening to take that away. So I think there’s this push and pull to try and preserve that feel as much as possible. Not only for the people who live here, but also for those who are coming in.” 

Villani said that a main concern in the community is if longstanding properties and residents with Midway history going back generations get priced out of Midway’s housing and cost-of-living because of new developments popping up in the area. 

“We’re willing to put money toward helping people who have been here for a long time to be able to stay here,” Villani said. 

By preserving these hundreds of acres and more, Villani said that they preserve the history of Midway. Once they’re gone, she said, they’re gone forever. 

Prosperous preservation over 5 years

Of the 400-plus acres secured with the 2018 open space bond, approximately 182 acres have been finalized. These conservation easements, including all 102 acres of the Kohler Dairy property and what’s described as “a gem” by Preserve Midway: Mountain Spa. 

At Mountain Spa, what could have been a housing development with more than 60 homes is now designated as a passive public park. It’s what Villani describes as hybrid preservation. Some of the land is dedicated solely to untouched open space. Some is designed to benefit the public with a local trail system. 

That kind of hybrid conservation, Villani said, is another tool for saving pieces of open land that the public is in favor of. 

“That was really thinking outside the box because that was using both county and city open space funds toward a project that included some development but also preserved about 48 acres of some very important viewsheds.” 

Having a local buy-in also benefited the leveraging of funds, which stretched that $5 million bond from 2018. Landowners, typically, contribute about 25 percent. Winegar said that open space is something local landowners believe in, which makes for more generous contributions. 

“Midway is a town that really valued their open space and was on a mission to preserve it,” Winegar said. 

Another deal, called the Heart of Midway, involves multiple landowners who committed enough acreage to have a scenic conservation corridor coming in and out of Midway. 

Winegar compared that win to the Swaner Preserve outside of Kimball Junction. As drivers head toward Park City, they drive along a stretch of open land that won’t be developed.

“It won’t get turned into subdivisions,” Winegar said. 

Preserve Midway also featured the Kohler Dairy Legacy Farm on their Instagram, where a total of 102 acres were preserved. 

“This 4th generation family farm is central to Midway’s identity,” the post read. 

Three parcels of land, including the Lundin property recently discussed by Midway City Council, are committed but not yet finalized. 

Winegar and Villani are both confident that bond funds will be effectively utilized from the $5 million voted in this November. 

“The good news is, when we passed this bond five years ago, it was all in theory. We weren’t quite sure how it would play out,” Winegar said. “And now we’ve had five years of experience.”

Looking forward

When Cathleen White’s late husband passed away, she said that, for a time, it was just her and her llamas. White lives on approximately 40 acres of land in Wasatch County, just south of Midway City. 

It’s primarily grazing land for her small herd of llamas, but the history of her property goes back to 1962, when her late husband’s family acquired the sizable parcel of land. 

“I’ve been fortunate to enjoy that property for many, many years, and I want to see it stay that way,” White said at a Wasatch County Open Lands board meeting Monday. 

In her time on the property, White said it’s been home to more than just her and her herd. Deer make their way through to enjoy the massive amount of sagebrush, raptors fly overhead, and White says there’s also a red fox den that’s been there longer than she has. 

“Those are unique items that are on our property, and we would hate to see those torn down for a mega-mansion,” White said. 

While White’s property has been home to plenty of flora and fauna, there have been new developments popping up alongside her land. One house, White says, features a basketball court. Another is about 7,000 square feet in total. 

“That is what we look at and what we will see more of if our property has to be developed, and we don’t want to see that happen,” White said. 

That’s why she’s working with Wendy Fisher, Utah Open Lands executive director, to turn her acreage into conservation easement. Along with plenty of open land, White’s property also includes about 25 shares of water rights.

“And they’re damn good shares,” White’s now-husband Gerald said. 

“It’s my understanding that Midway would like to have a number of projects almost ready to go before they let that bond,” Fisher said. 

White’s property, which Fisher is calling Pear Tree Llamas Ranch, is one of two that were discussed at the Dec. 9 meeting. Both parcels would use a fraction of the $5 million open space bond funds from 2024.

The other property, called Holmes Dairy, features more than 52 acres in Midway. If you count the additional parcels in the North Fields, it’s about 86 acres. 

The Holmes family has owned the land since 1946. Along with croplands, it supports more than 250 dairy cows. Plus, a few donkeys and horses. Two Holmes brothers, George and Glenn, attended the meeting Monday. 

They said that, when their dad was alive, he told them they shouldn’t be the first to sell, but definitely not the last.

“And by golly, we are,” Glenn said. 

“This is one of those landowning families that is really making the commitment and stepping up for open space preservation in Wasatch County,” Fisher said. “You have some next-generation folks within the Holmes family that do care deeply about this property and want to continue to have that close connection with the land and remain there and have that legacy.”

While there was some contention at the meeting and questioning from Heber City Mayor Heidi Franco whether the addition of the North Fields parcels could be incorporated smoothly, there was general support for both the Holmes family property and the Pear Tree Llamas Ranch land. 

There will be a public hearing to discuss both proposals in early January, 2025.

These are just two properties that have a head start on utilizing the 2024 bond funds. Villani said that, in addition, they can look forward to somewhat smaller contributions by local landowners.

“It’s been really wonderful to be able to be a part of these discussions,” Fisher said. “It’s really amazing to see how these landowners as a family have come together to make a lot of different decisions. It’s not an easy thing to do.”

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