SALT LAKE CITY — Climber Steven V. Jeffery didn’t know that his search to find new and more challenging bouldering terrain in the 1990s would lead him to a create a home among cowboys and coal miners.
Just like he didn’t know that one small act of kindness would transform an antagonistic relationship between a rural Utah community and climbers from around the world who descend on the tiny town of Orangeville, Emery County, to climb the thousands of boulders in nearby Joe’s Valley.
Jeffery’s decision to join with some friends in the late 1990s and head to “the middle of nowhere” because they heard there were amazing boulders to climb, may in fact change the economic future of Emery County thanks to an unlikely partnership between him and politicians like Castle Dale Mayor Danny Van Wagner.
The unlikely friendship, and now political partnership, of climbers and the rural communities in Emery County is the subject of a new documentary short that debuted Monday night with a second screening Tuesday night at the Jeanne Wagner Theater at 7 p.m. as part of the Reel Rock 14 Film Festival tour. The documentary is not only entertaining, it’s an inspiring look at how much common ground there is, quite literally, between people who may seem to be from completely different planets.
“When we try to find stories that, even if they’re focused on something like a specific ascent attempt, that something about them relates back for a mainstream audience, and this film had that in spades,” said Zachary Barr, executive producer of the Reel Rock Tour, which includes the 20-minute film “United States of Joe’s” — which chronicles what happened when Jeffery and a group of climbers descended on Orangeville (population around 1,500) more than 20 years ago.
When the climbers first started migrating to Joe’s Valley, longtime residents were wary.
“It was easy to tell they (the climbers) were not from the area,” said Castle Dale Mayor Danny Van Wagner in the documentary. “So if something would come up missing, got destroyed, vandalized, it was easy to point fingers. It was an us against them type deal.”
“It was a culture clash. Just a classic culture clash,” added climber Boone Speed. “You have this old town of traditional miners and oil people, and then climbers, which are, you know, on the opposite spectrum.”
Outside the theater Monday night, Jeffery admitted he was a bit nervous to see how their story was interpreted by filmmakers, but added, “I’m not really worried about it because it’s all true.”
Van Wagner was also interested to see how their story was portrayed, and he said even though he’d been mountain biking and climbing the giant rocks of Joe’s Valley for years, none of the locals knew what a valuable asset the wilderness around them was until the other industries they’d relied on started to fail and the economy of these small communities faltered.
“We had ranching, power plants, coal mines, that type of industries,” Van Wagner said before the Salt Lake screening Monday night. “And then we hit this wall, roughly six years ago, when I was elected mayor for the first time. I brought the community and businesses together and said, ‘We’ve got to do something.’ And the bouldering came up.”
Someone knew Jeffery and invited him to give a presentation on the sport. Jeffery proposed a festival that attracted just 12 people in its first year.
“I’ve been in a mountain bike club for 30 years, and it hasn’t grown a lot, so I wasn’t sure it was going to do what we thought it was,” he said, acknowledging that choosing a date in November likely contributed to the poor turnout.
But the next year, they held it in September and it was a massive success. This year, more than 600 people from the towns and climbing community attended. It completely changed the way many view the wilderness that surrounds the towns.
Barr and his colleagues heard about Jeffery and the unique partnership formed with Emery County and the town of Orangeville when writer Frederick Reimers told them about an article he’d written for Outside magazine in July of 2018.
“He’d seen some of our movies, and he said, ‘I think this would be a good film,’” Barr said Friday. “We all read it ... and instantly we all agreed. It just seemed so perfect.”
Barr was a reporter for a public radio station for more than a decade before he began making films seven years ago. He grew up in Boulder, Colorado, where outdoor adventures are almost a requirement, and his films reflect his passion for all things outdoors, especially rock climbing. In this case, however, the timing seemed particularly serendipitous.
“It’s certainly very timely with what’s happening around public land, and just politics in our country,” he said. “We’re always looking for stories that transcend just the climbing world, something even people who aren’t climbers will like. ... This film has that in spades.”
At a time when it is nearly impossible to have a discussion about public lands without it devolving into a screaming match, Barr’s film captures a community that found a way to see past differences to common passions.
The film opens with Jeffery and his climbing crew talking about how they found Joe’s Valley in the late 1990s. Using old footage and interviews today, the film quickly establishes the challenges faced by both the “dirtbag” climbers and the small, rural community that was afraid of the newcomers.
A record-setting event put Joe’s Valley on the radar of bouldering aficionados around the world. This only deepened the fear and questions for the community. Then Jeffery saw a notice about a community cleanup one weekend morning. And instead of going climbing with his friends, he decided to work alongside strangers.
The film makes it clear that the relationship was strained, and possibly at a breaking point, when Jeffery decided to reach out.
“Before it exploded, there was this moment of like, it’s time we should start connecting because we’re out in mass force out there, and they didn’t know who we were or what we were doing,” he said.
“I think the film turns in the moment when Steven decided to chip in and volunteer with the city cleanup,” Barr said. “It’s such a small gesture, but it was perceived by the people of Orangeville as a giant gesture.”
After that, Jeffery was asked to give a presentation to the community’s businesses about the sport and how the thousands of visitors could be better accommodated and welcomed in the small town. From the grocery store carrying chalk, crash pads and kombucha, to a Latter-day Saint couple converting their living room into a coffee shop, complete with free wireless, the film shows how the lives of all involved are improved by learning and understanding the other.
Jeffery actually made Orangeville his home, and every September he hosts a festival with city and county officials that brings the two cultures — and their cooperation — into the spotlight.
The film may be the story of “the collision between these different communities,” but it’s also a reminder of what people can do and be when they embrace each other, in spite of or because of their differences.
“I really hope (viewers) will take Steven’s lead in the film, and make an effort to talk to strangers,” Barr said. “Also, to recognize that we have a duty to be kind and perhaps even giving when we’re on someone else’s turf.”
Jeffery said the solution is pretty simple — and it’s something climbers experience through the sport.
“What it is, everybody needs to get rid of their ego,” he said. “In the climbing world, we keep that in check by our friends. Someone will climb a really hard, significant route, and then someone will come along and do it in a better style, faster, cleaner. And so our egos are always being checked in our sport. But we all need our egos checked in the world, right? ... I never saw this as me leading this charge. I just saw it as, ‘let’s get everyone on this wave and we’ll destroy whatever is in our way because we’re all together.’”
Adds Van Wagner, “My life is enhance, and I think their (lives) are more enhanced, too. It’s brought different ideas together, and it’s just gotten better all the way around. It’s family now. I have a bed and breakfast down there, and it’s nothing to have a dozen people show up. ... It’s kind of a big extended family.”
For more information about Reel Rock Tour 14, go to www.reelrocktour.com where tickets to Tuesday’s screening in Salt Lake City are still available.