Not Really Looking to Grow

Story and Photos by Joyce Driggs Edlefsen

Three things stand out when you visit Parker. The place is announced by its name on the water storage tower. A huge, immaculately kept cemetery on a hill is surrounded by a white fence. And all the homes, set way back from the road, have the same manicured appearance of mowed lawns, flowers, and established lilacs and trees.

The town emits pride, as it should. The Parker-Egin area was the first pioneer settlement in Fremont County. Its founders had the foresight to help build the famous Egin Canal and other such waterways to irrigate the sandy soil where potatoes and other crops grow well. Its pioneers worked hard to establish the community, and many of them were rewarded, both financially and personally.

Yet in downtown Parker, signs of business activity are nil. There is evidence of a store long closed, but the town is residential in nature. Though some home businesses do exist, only one private business, a beauty shop, has a sign out front. Almost everyone who holds down a job in Parker is a commuter. And people seem to like it that way.