Town Naples, Uintah County
A separate city of about 2,490 on the southeast edge of Vernal
Naples, Utah, is its own city with a Vernal mailing address
Naples is a small, mostly residential city of about 2,490 on 6.60 square miles of the eastern Ashley Valley, and it runs its own government, its own police and fire departments, its own justice court and its own property tax rate while every address still reads Vernal, Utah 84078. For a buyer the honest read is that the line between the two cities is where the tax rate, the water utility and the lot size change, and that Naples keeps its public life on one block while the hospital, the stores and the attractions sit three miles up the road in Vernal. Here is the short answer, the story of the names, the civic block, the summer the drought rewrote, and a door into every deeper Naples page.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
Naples is a separate, incorporated city of about 2,490 people on 6.60 square miles of the eastern Ashley Valley, on the southeast edge of Vernal, where Vernal does the heavy lifting. It runs its own government, its own police and fire departments, its own justice court and its own property tax rate, yet every address in the city still reads Vernal, Utah 84078, which is why the school, the golf course and the splash pad all file under a Vernal address.
The honest summary for a buyer: Naples is a quiet residential base with its public life on one block and the hospital, the stores and the attractions three miles up the road, and the line between it and Vernal is where the tax rate, the water utility, the lot size and the zoning change. The pages below cover each of those honestly, from the ranked list of what is actually inside the city limits to the creek, the park, Summerfest, the working ground around the town, and the Naples or Vernal call.
Before it was Naples
Merrill, Riverdale and, for a while, Frogtown
Almost no town in Utah changed its name three times before settling. This one did, and the discarded names are the most honest description of the ground anybody has written.
Bradford R. Bird put the first settlement here in 1878, on the eastern side of a valley that Brigham Young had been advised in 1861 to leave alone. The scouting party he sent reported the whole of northeastern Utah as, in their words, one vast contiguity of waste and measurably valueless, and on that advice no settlers were sent. Ranchers and farmers came anyway over the next two decades, and by 1880 there were enough of them for the territorial legislature to carve Uintah County out of Wasatch County.
The settlement was called Merrill first, for Bishop Porter William Merrill. It was also called Riverdale. And it was called Frogtown, which was not a compliment and was not wrong: this is the low, wet, irrigated eastern end of the Ashley Valley, with a creek running across it and ditches running off the creek, and in a good spring the frogs are the loudest thing in the county. Bishop Merrill was the one who proposed dropping his own name, and the town took Naples instead, after the Italian city, for no reason anybody has recorded beyond liking the sound of it.
It stayed a farming settlement for a century. Incorporation did not come until 13 May 1982, and the general plan is blunt about why: an expanding economy and an increase in the energy sector. Lawrence Kay was the first mayor. After the 2000 census the town had grown enough to be reclassified a city of the fifth class, and it is now the second largest incorporated city in Uintah County. Nothing about that sequence is romantic and all of it is legible on the ground, which is the useful part.
The name that stuck came from Italy. The name that described the place came from the frogs.
The civic block
Nearly everything public sits on two streets
For a city with no downtown, Naples is unusually easy to learn. Six addresses cover the government, the school, the park, the water and the recreation, and four of them are within a few hundred yards of each other.
| What | Where | Who runs it | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| City offices and the police department | 1420 East 2850 South, on 435-789-9090 | Naples City | Council meets the second and fourth Thursday at 19:30 and the public may attend |
| Naples City Park | 1700 East 1900 South | Uintah Special Service District 1 | Roughly 34 acres, which is a great deal of park for about 2,490 people |
| The splash pad | 1701 East 1900 South, on 435-789-1010 | Uintah Special Service District 1 | Closed for the whole of the 2026 season for water shortage |
| Naples School | 1640 East 1900 South | Uintah School District | Kindergarten through fifth grade, on the same block as the park |
| Uintah School District offices | 826 South 1500 East | Uintah School District | The district that runs every school in the Vernal area is headquartered here |
| Dinaland Golf Course | 675 South 2000 East, on 435-781-1428 | Uintah Special Service District 1 | Eighteen holes at par 72, opened 1993, on a Naples address everyone calls Vernal |
The recreation district address for the park reads 1970 South 1700 East and Naples City gives it as 1700 East 1900 South. Both point at the same block; the two agencies simply write the grid in different orders. Ring the number in the row before you build a day around any of it, because the hours and the closures on this list moved twice in 2026.
The parks here are paid for by oil and gas, quite literally. Uintah Special Service District 1 owns and operates Naples City Park, the splash pad, the recreation center, the pool and the golf course, and it is funded through federal mineral lease money. Mineral lease funds are the state and local share of royalties from energy production on federal land. That is why a valley of this size has a 34 acre park with a music park in it and an eighteen hole golf course, and it is also why the recreation budget rides the same cycle as everything else out here.
What changed in 2026
A drought year rewrote the town's whole summer
If you had come here in an ordinary July you would have found the splash pad open six days a week at two dollars a head, aerial fireworks going up all over town for Pioneer Day, and a water bill that nobody thought about. None of those three were true in 2026, and the reason is the same in all three cases.
On 29 April 2026 the board of the Ashley Valley Water and Sewer Improvement District, which is the water utility for Naples and for every part of Uintah County except Vernal City, held a rate hearing on drought, allotments and restrictions and adopted a conservation rate structure. It lowered the base and made heavy outdoor use expensive on purpose: 20.50 dollars for the first 6,000 gallons, 2.50 per 1,000 for the next 10,000, and 22.00 per 1,000 once a household passes 32,000. It was set to lapse on 31 October 2026 if the supply allowed. By late July, households were reporting bills several times the previous summer's for the same water, and district usage was reported down by about a third.
The splash pad did not open at all. The recreation district kept it closed for the whole 2026 season, citing water shortage. And on 21 July 2026 the mayor posted a letter and a map banning aerial fireworks inside the city limits for the season, keeping every other kind at least 200 feet from the high risk zones and making anyone whose fireworks start a fire liable for the damage. The city's own display on the 24th went ahead, with fire trucks parked on the grass.
The calendar
Four real seasons in a high desert basin at 5,187 feet
People hear Utah and picture red rock. The Uinta Basin is a cold, dry, high bowl ringed by mountains, and the year here behaves accordingly. Two of the four seasons carry a caveat that is worth knowing before you sign anything.
| Season | In town | What it does to the calendar | The caveat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring, March to May | The valley greens up along the ditches and the creek runs hard | Park reservations reopen on 1 April after the winter closure | Late frosts arrive later than newcomers plan for at this elevation |
| Summer, June to August | Warm days, nights that cool off properly, the park in constant use | Summerfest on the 24th of July is the one fixed date in the year | Water. In 2026 it closed the splash pad and rewrote the rate card |
| Autumn, September to October | The best walking weather of the year and color up in the Uintas | Pavilion reservations close on 1 October | The good weeks are short and the shoulder ends abruptly |
| Winter, November to February | Snow, hard freezes and a basin that holds cold air in place | Not all park restrooms are open through the winter | Wintertime ozone. On calm, snow covered, sunny stretches the Basin can build ground level ozone above the national standard |
The ozone pattern is seasonal and weather driven rather than an everyday condition, it is tied to the region's oil and gas activity, and Utah State University research reports a measurable decline over the past decade. The state publishes a Uinta Basin forecast. Read it yourself rather than taking anybody's summary, including this one.
The practical shape of the year is that Naples has a very good spring and autumn, a summer that is genuinely pleasant in town because 5,187 feet takes the edge off, and a winter that is longer and colder than most of Utah's more famous addresses. The valley is irrigated, so the green here is a made thing rather than a natural one, and in a dry year you can watch it go.
The civic calendar is short and it is honest about itself. Council on the second and fourth Thursday. Park reservations from 1 April to 1 October. Summerfest on the 24th. School terms through the district. That is more or less the whole of it, and the rest of the year's entertainment is either at the park, at the golf course, or in Vernal three miles away, which is the arrangement this town has run on since it incorporated.
One more thing about winter that nobody puts on a listing. This is a basin, and basins hold their weather. A calm, clear, snow covered week here is beautiful and it is also exactly the setup that produces the Basin's ozone episodes, which is a strange thing to have to say about a place with no traffic. It is not a reason to stay away and it is a real thing to know, so check the state forecast during your first winter rather than after it.
If you only have one day
One version of a good day inside the city limits
Early
Tee off at Dinaland
Eighteen holes at par 72 on a course opened in 1993, on a Naples address that every listing files under Vernal.
The ranked list
Midday
Walk the loop at the park
Thirty four acres, a music park, three softball diamonds and a perimeter trail. Borrow the horse shoes at the counter.
The park page
Afternoon
Find the water
Two miles of Ashley Creek cross the east side of the city, and every ditch in Naples is a branch of it.
The water page
Evening
Or come on the 24th
One day a year the whole town is at the park until eleven at night, and it costs nothing to walk in.
The Summerfest pageThe Naples companion
Every Naples page, in one place
Everything The Local has written about Naples: the honest ranked list of what is actually inside the city limits, the park and the splash pad that did not open, the one day a year the town throws a party, the creek that named it Frogtown, the working ground that pays for all of it, and the choice between this address and the one three miles up the road.
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
Quick answers
Naples, answered
In the eastern Ashley Valley of the Uinta Basin, in Uintah County, on the southeast edge of Vernal along US-40. Naples is its own incorporated city covering 6.60 square miles at about 5,187 feet, with about 2,490 people by the 2025 Census estimate, and it is the second largest incorporated city in the county. The drive from one city office to the other is about three miles and about five minutes. Salt Lake City is roughly 170 miles and about three hours west over the mountains.
No. Every address in Naples is written as Vernal, Utah 84078, which is why the school, the splash pad and the golf course all appear in directories under a Vernal address even though they sit inside the Naples city limits. The city treats that as a problem worth fixing: its general plan lists working toward a Naples specific zip code as an economic development goal. Until that happens, expect any Naples listing to carry a Vernal address line.
Because of the frogs. This is the low, irrigated eastern end of the Ashley Valley, with a creek running across it and ditches running off the creek, so the ground held plenty of them. Before Naples the settlement had been called Merrill, for Bishop Porter William Merrill, and Riverdale. Bishop Merrill himself suggested dropping his own name in favor of Naples, after the Italian city.
Founded in 1878 by Bradford R. Bird, Naples stayed a small farming settlement for about a century. It incorporated on 13 May 1982, with Lawrence Kay as first mayor, and the city's general plan puts the timing down to an expanding economy and a growing energy sector. After the 2000 census the state reclassified it as a city of the fifth class. Uintah County itself was created by the territorial legislature in 1880.
Five things, honestly counted, and all within a couple of miles of each other: Naples City Park at roughly 34 acres, Dinaland Golf Course at eighteen holes and par 72, Naples City Summerfest on the 24th of July, Blacklights Ignite, a locally owned blacklight mini golf, laser tag and escape room center on 1500 East, and the splash pad, which stayed closed for the whole 2026 season for water shortage. Everything else people associate with this area is in Vernal or further out, so the ranked list is short on purpose.
Uintah Special Service District 1, the county recreation district, rather than Naples City. The district owns and operates Naples City Park, the splash pad, the recreation center, the pool and Dinaland Golf Course, and it is guided by a seven member board. It is funded through federal mineral lease money, the state and local share of royalties from energy production on federal land. Pavilion bookings run through the district on 435-781-0982, except the East Pavilion at Naples Park, which Naples City books on 435-789-9090.
Water. The splash pad at Naples City Park stayed closed for the whole 2026 season, with the recreation district's notice citing water shortage. It is part of the same drought that led the Ashley Valley Water and Sewer Improvement District board to adopt conservation rates on 29 April 2026 and Naples City to ban aerial fireworks inside the city limits for Pioneer Day. In an ordinary season the splash pad runs Monday to Saturday from 11:00 to 17:00 at two dollars a participant.
More than most towns this size. Naples runs its own police department, which its general plan put at eight officers including one canine officer, its own fire department of 23 primarily volunteer firefighters, its own justice court, its own road department, a plan commission and a redevelopment agency. Animal control is contracted from the county, and ambulance service is contracted to the private sector. Culinary water and sewer come from the Ashley Valley Water and Sewer Improvement District rather than from the city.
Many buyers find Naples the quieter side of the arrangement: a separate residential city with Vernal three miles away rather than the destination itself. Vernal holds the hospital, the stores, the university campus and the area's attractions, and it is about a five minute drive. Naples instead gives you its own city government, a lower property tax rate than a Vernal address carries, larger lots across much of its ground and a 34 acre park. The Naples or Vernal page walks through which side of the line fits what you want.
Thinking about Naples? Start with which side of the line you want
Naples and Vernal look like one town and are not, and the differences that matter are the ones nobody prints: the tax area, the water utility, the zoning on a specific parcel and where the ground drains. Tell me what you are weighing and I will put you with a Uintah County partner agent who works this valley, and stay on the file for the homework and the financing side.
Or call Scott: (435) 357-4345or send Scott a message
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Eight more doors into Naples, chosen for what this page covers.
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