Era VIII · 2013 to today
A City on the Lake
From grapevines to steel to a city on the lake.
In a single decade Vineyard went from a farm town of a few hundred to one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. Where the steel mill stood, a downtown is rising. The story is still being written.
2013 to 2020
The fastest growing city in America
Utah Valley University began buying land in Vineyard in 2011 and in 2014 bought 125 acres of the old Geneva site for a West Campus. New neighborhoods rose where farms had stood.
From 2014 to 2015 Vineyard grew 417 percent, faster than any city in America. On March 13, 2015, the Megaplex at Geneva opened on the old mill site with 13 screens and the first IMAX screen in Utah County. In 2016 Vineyard passed 1,000 residents and became a city.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, 139 people became 12,543. No city in Utah grew faster.
August 12, 2022
A train stops in Vineyard
On August 12, 2022, the Vineyard FrontRunner station opened at 130 E. Market Street, the 15th station on the commuter line that runs from Provo to Salt Lake City and Ogden.
A downtown on the mill ground
Utah City
In August 2023 the developers of the old Geneva land announced a name for their 700 acre plan: Utah City, a walkable downtown built around the FrontRunner station. Its Greenline, a chain of parks and public spaces, connects the station to the Utah Lake shore.
Ground was broken for Bella's Market, a local grocery, on February 12, 2025, and it opened in November 2025. Year by year, the barren ground where the furnaces once stood is filling with homes, shops, parks and people.
2020 to 2024
The lake comes back
The June sucker, the fish found only in Utah Lake, had fallen so low that in 2002 only 139 adults were observed spawning in the Provo River. A long recovery effort followed. On January 4, 2021, the fish was moved from endangered to threatened.
In March 2020 work began on the Provo River Delta, a 260 acre project that gave the Provo River a natural mouth again where it meets Utah Lake. The river was turned into its new channels in 2023, and the delta opened to the public in October 2024 with new trails. In 2024, 3,785 tagged June suckers were detected spawning there.
As of 2026
Vineyard today
About 20,000 people now call Vineyard home. Families walk and bike the lakeshore trail, trains stop downtown, and new neighborhoods look out over the same water the Timpanogos Utes fished, the friars described and the pioneers farmed beside.
From grapevines to steel to a city on the lake. The story is still being written.
Era VIII
Key moments.
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Go deeper
Go deeper.
From ruins to a downtown
What rose on the 1,750 acres where Geneva Steel once stood.
The fish of Utah Lake
Giant trout, the carp that replaced them, and the comeback of a fish found nowhere else on Earth.
A town of 151
In 1990 nearly everyone in Vineyard was family. Twenty-five years later, almost everyone was new.
On film
Watch.
Vineyard, Utah downtown area, mid-development
Downtown Vineyard taking shape on the Geneva site.
Front Runner Train FootageHistorical Geneva Steel Ruins Fly Over
A flight over the foundations of the old mill.
Team LouishGeneva Steel Slag Heap Aerial Video
Aerial video of the Geneva slag heap.
James Dalrymple