This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Partoun • Utah's West Desert can be a land of mirages, a place of surreal images where lonely dirt roads stretch into the horizon and cattle and sheep seek food in empty places.

Haystack Peak in the Deep Creek Mountains towers over a small brown sign at the junction of Pony Express Road and Hawk Lane, two dirt roads.

"West Desert High School," reads the weathered sign. "Home of the Hawks. One mind can think only of its own question."

Reaching West Desert High requires a 45-mile drive from U.S. 50 and 6, the nearest pavement, or a shorter but even lonelier journey west of the Intermountain Power Plant near Delta.

On a Wednesday afternoon, Merit Academy has made the long drive from Utah County, much of it on an icy dirt road, to play a game at West Desert. It is Merit's first-ever trip to this lonely outpost.

To a first-time visitor such as Alessandro Guzzon, an Italian foreign exchange student and star basketball player for Merit, the strange sight of a two-story gym and tiny high school did arouse some curiosity.

"I didn't see any houses," he said. "It was weird."

A remote place

Fielding a team here is not easy.

West Desert High is the smallest high school in the state, with just 13 students in grades seven through 12. Eleven other students attend the elementary school. West Desert has just four boys eligible to play high school basketball, so the Hawks use six players from EskDale High School — which is 45 miles away and has 22 students.

Janille Baker loads up her suburban with the six EskDale players four times a week for the nearly 100-mile round trip drive to practice or games. She said her son Caleb, a junior and one of the stars on West Desert, lived in Delta in the fall so he could play football.

"He really loves to play," said Baker.

The only state championship banner hanging in the gym celebrates West Desert's 1998-99 volleyball team. These days, there are not enough girls in the school to field a volleyball team. The school fields teams in cross-country, track, and boys' basketball, though it didn't have enough runners to have a team big enough to qualify for the team cross-country title this season.

The area is simply too remote.

Though the Border Inn about 50 miles from the school has a small store with the basics, Molly Reil (whose son John plays on the team) said the closest real grocery store is in Delta, about 21/2 hours away.

The closest school West Desert plays is Wendover, 125 miles away. Telos, an Orem school in West Desert's league, recently got lost trying to play the Hawks. The scheduled 5 p.m. game began at 8:45. The hospitable West Desert parents provided dinner before the contest began.

The distances combined with rough roads do not make life easy.

Angie and Eleazor Murphy and their children live in Pleasant Valley, 27 miles one way from the school.

Eleazor drives a postal route to tiny ranching towns such as Partoun, Trout Creek, Gandy, and Callao. Angie displayed photos on her phone of her husband's four-wheel-drive truck stuck in a snowdrift last week.

"If you don't work at the school, are a road grader or a postal service worker, you are probably a rancher," she said. "If you are retired, you are usually still ranching."

When their kids drive to and from school, Angie requires them to call both when they arrive and when they leave. She gives them a half-hour leeway in case they have to change a flat tire. If they don't get home at the required time, she starts to look for them.

The game-day experience

Game day at West Desert is a big deal. Mothers Angie Murphy, Molly Reil and Cindy Timm arrive early to fix a dinner for the nearly 100 fans who come from ranches often miles away. At one recent game, they served 51 adults and 16 kids.

The $5 fee helps make a little extra money to support the team and the school's four cheerleaders. This is the first year West Desert has had cheerleaders. Angie and Eleazor's sophomore twins, Kylah and Morgan Murphy, make up half of the squad.

"It's pretty important," Morgan said about the basketball team. "Games give everybody an excuse to socialize and celebrate what we have at this school."

Game time also means certain traditions are followed.

A hand-lettered sign says "Welcome refs," with the names of the two officials assigned to the game. Renee Alder comes to center court in her wheelchair to deliver the game ball to the officials. Ed Alder, who was the coach and teacher at West Desert for years, runs the scoreboard. Annette Garland, who taught in the tiny elementary school in Callao for years until she retired and it closed, keeps score.

West Desert has a decent team this year with a little height — Cindy's son, 6-foot-3 senior Devin Timm, can dunk, something he accomplishes to the delight of the small crowd. The Hawks could earn a berth in the 1A state tournament, but on this night, against Merit, their limitations are apparent. Of the 10 players on West Desert's team, three are too sick to suit up, and one sub has a broken hand. Diminutive freshman Vincent Palfreyman starts for the Hawks.

Merit, led by the 3-point shooting of Guzzon, quickly takes an insurmountable lead, though West Desert manages to keep it close in the second half.

Still, John Reil said the team enjoys playing basketball. On the long bus rides, he said the players often watch game film.

"This is something that brings us together," said junior power forward Kirk Lewis.

After the game, families line up in the cafeteria (which served as the gym until the new well-lit modern gym opened in 1994) for dinner. On this night, Navajo tacos are the main course. The mothers also baked a maroon-colored cake to honor the Hawks' school colors.

"The thing about a small community is that everybody has to pitch in or it just doesn't work," said Angie Murphy.

A close-knit community

Scott Anderson, the Hawks' coach, is the only full-time high school teacher. He lives in a home owned by the Tintic School District with his wife and four daughters, about 30 steps from the entrance to the modern little school.

Anderson, who played high school basketball at North Sevier and graduated from Southern Utah University, is a quiet, slender man with a close-cropped beard.

He teaches every subject, though his work is supplemented with "distance education" video classes taught by teachers or even college professors from faraway schools via Internet connections. Kids who graduate from here usually go on to college, often being accepted into honors programs.

Anderson laments the time constraints the long distances put on practices, but doesn't seem to mind attending every activity at the high school and adjacent elementary, a school that opened in 1949.

Ed Alder, who spent his professional life working at the school, said West Desert graduated its first class in 1981. This year, three seniors are on track to graduate.

"The school became a family, an extension of your family," he said. "The kids develop relationships I don't think they would find in other places. We have each other, the coach and the kids. We depend on each other."

And so, to the people who inhabit these wide-open spaces, no sacrifice seems too great.

"We've been without a school before," said longtime resident and area historian Marlene Bates. "It is the lifeblood of the community. … In a smaller place, there are more opportunities than you get in a big city. There isn't a whole lot to do out here. You have to make your own fun. If it wasn't for school and church, we'd be in trouble."

That is why, on cold winter afternoons, people from the far-flung lonely West Desert ranches brave the below-zero temperatures and sometimes icy roads to support their Hawks.

Because, in this place, high school basketball is the only game in town.

Twitter: @tribtomwharton —

About West Desert

• West Desert has 13 students in grades seven through 12, and only four boys old enough to play high school basketball.

• Six boys travel 45 miles one way from EskDale High School to practice, allowing West Desert to field a team. There are 22 students at EskDale.

• West Desert's nearest away game is 125 miles and 21/2 hours away at Wendover.

• Families from tiny far-flung towns located on dirt roads gather together on game days to support the Hawks.