Placemakers: Dana Williams

The family moved to Utah in 1978. Dana attended Oregon State and Cal Poly where he graduated with a degree in agriculture. His folks bought land on Weber River between Wanship and Coalville. Dana remembers it as “a beautiful piece of ground”.

Dana fell in love with the state and found land where his father had set down roots. Dana grew into being a kind of sagebrush cowboy—growing alfalfa, understanding soil mix, and speaking codified cowboy with state legislators as needed. All with a degree in horticulture.

His family had ranches in the Coalville area. He also worked over the Wyoming border where he learned about cattle, and sprinkler systems for farms. In 1986, Dana was named, the Farm Bureau “Farmer of the Year” for Summit County.

By 1990, Dana had moved on from selling sprinkler systems to selling real estate in eastern Summit County, selling 45k homes.

Robert helped start the non-profit radio station KPCW with founder Blair Fuelner in the upstairs of the old Memorial building (now The Marquis). Bob’s wife, Joan started performing in many community theater shows with the Park City Performers. They eventually landed at the newly renovated Egyptian Theater.

After hours, The Williams’ boys and other townies asked for the keys to the Memorial building, where they played basketball in the former gym. Hundreds of young people lived in apartments all over The City back then and there was little to do at night.

Robert bought buildings. Sharp Gallery, which became Dolly’s bookstore. The old mortuary. And across the street, the General Store which is now Hilda’s. Ryan’s Bar grew from that purchase.

During that bar time as the clientele in Ryan’s was growing, oil was discovered in some quantities in the Western Wyoming/Overthrust belt. Returning Vietnam vets became the helicopter pilots for oil companies. The bar stayed busy, but in a quaint fashion.

By 1986 Dana was married, running the bar, and the farm. He bought a house in 1990 in Prospector that would be going to court in 24 hours, unless it sold. He bought it when his children (Ryan and Megan) were two and four. Ryan is now manager of Prospect Art Gallery in the old Claimjumper building on Main Street. Megan is an ICU nurse for the VA in Salt Lake City.

In 1994, Dana and local musician Rich Wyman and several other community stakeholders founded CARG (Citizens Allied for Responsible Growth). Some development folks called it CAVE… Citizens Against Virtually Everything. Their efforts were sincere and were targeted against big developments coming into town with out-of-state money. The first big fight was to try and save Empire Pass from being fully developed. It was proposed those 1500 acres would have 30 pods of development. It took 10 years for approval, but the result was impressive, just three pods for development and 1350 acres of conservation easement.

Finally, after all the years in the trenches, Dana wanted to help shape the future of the small town, so he ran straight for Mayor, bypassing the more conventional route of starting out as a council person.

It was his activism that appealed to the voters. He supported Wendy Fisher, a former singer in his band, to start Utah Open Lands. Later, he worked with Cheryl Fox to help form the Summit Land Conservancy.

Dana won the election and became mayor 11 days before the Olympics. He served for 12 years from 2002-2014. He remembers the Olympics as wild, organized chaos. And his band played 16 nights in a row.

For his second term, he ran unopposed. And eventually, won three separate terms.

With the new City Manager Tom Bakely hired in 2002, they created a new vision. Bakely had worked in the Bush administration in Washington D.C. Dana remembers the two would argue over who was boss, but they created a working relationship based on trust and mutual respect.

Dana was one of the first to suggest a new era -where Park City viewed Open Space as an economic driver -where you could make money by NOT building on.

He says he is proud of the fact that, “every open space bond we have ever floated has always passed.”

For 12 years, twice a year, he traveled to Washington D.C. with “Budgy,” (the nickname for that city manager who drilled down on all the budgets). They often traveled with then Congressman Bishop, and they all seriously understood the role Park City was playing/might be playing in the future of the West.

Senator Orin Hatch bonded with Dana over both being songwriters. And Governor John Huntsman and Dana played in rock bands. Dana even opened for Huntsman’s band in SLC.

Early in 2004, Dana pushed for the affordable housing project behind the police station, the first such project proposed to keep workers in Park City. Three years prior, the Marsac building had been condemned, and Dana set about to bring it to code, He remembers that City Council members were exceedingly aligned during this time. As the community grew, a domestic violence shelter was created and the IHC hospital opened in Quinns Junction.

Shortly after the Olympics, Dana attended a conference where nine term Mayor Joe Riley of Charleston South Carolina spoke. Mayor Riley was asked how he judged his success and

responded, “It was based on how well he improved the lives of the lives of the people having the roughest time in his town.” Williams said that became the basis of his leadership style

Dana stayed involved in city issues but less at the forefront. He has been a barista, a landlord, a bartender, and Rotary Citizen of the Year in 1999.

Dana is one of those original Californians who couldn’t ever imagine moving back. He is known to play music in bars all over the Wasatch Front and even a cantina or two south of the border.

And sometimes, a set will include that old song he wrote with Evan, at their bar, Ryan’s.

“There is a place in the old part of town…third street lamp on the right.

We talked of life and we dreamed of love. We knew we’d all go so far. And we never thought we’d never grow old, here…down at Ryan’s Bar.”