When Susan Johnston graduated from cosmetology school in Grand Junction, she wanted to get as far from her hometown of Craig as possible.

She moved with friends to a suburb of Tampa, Fla., where she worked for a year. But something didn’t feel quite right.

“I really didn’t think I would move back here,” Johnston said. “But from six weeks on, I wanted to come back home.”

Florida is nice for a vacation, but it wasn’t someplace she could imagine herself spending a great deal of time.

“I missed the mountains. I missed the scenery,” she said. “The Yampa Valley really is a beautiful place. I always felt like I need some solid earth under my feet.”

She met her husband, Bill, who was raised in Denver, in Craig, and they raised their family here.

“He always said he would move to a small town,” Johnston said. “He moved over to the Yampa Valley in ’78 and never looked back.”

The Johnstons certainly aren’t the only ones who have returned to Craig after being away. Some relate the town to a magnet that seems to reel people back in.

Courtney Jenison was born and raised in Craig, attended Colorado State University and then had big plans. She and her husband, Justin, wanted to join the Peace Corps and serve people in need in a country far away.

But she ended up getting a job offer with the Moffat County School District, and the couple returned to Courtney’s hometown.

“We decided Craig was the place we wanted to settle down, and why not go there and help people where we’re at?” she said. “Why not go there and help people in a place I love?”

There’s a quote she keeps close to her heart that inspired her decision to return to Craig: “Be what you can with what you have where you are.”

Since, the couple has become involved in Young Life, a Christ-centered mentoring program for teenagers, and they couldn’t be happier.

“(Craig) has it’s problems,” Courtney said. “But really, when you get down to it, it’s a place where everybody loves and takes care of each other.”

That’s one of the reasons Jim and Ann Dodd and their children returned to Craig after a 3 1/2-year stay in Australia. Jim was transferred there for work and came back to start his own consulting business here.

“We enjoy the small-town atmosphere,” he said. “I just have a lot of friends, and it’s an easy transition for the kids.”

He’s not sure he’ll stay here through retirement, because the couple has family back East. He thinks he’ll go someplace warmer when his children have grown up.

But Johnston plans to live in her same house — right around the corner from the home she grew up in — for the rest of her life. She has memories from her childhood, and has seen her family raised here.

Dr. Andre Huffmire delivered both Johnston’s daughter and granddaughter in the same room at The Memorial Hospital, and that’s something she’ll always hold dear.

“It’s pretty neat to have grown up in the town and raise your kids in the same town,” she said, “and to have a doctor bring your daughter into the world, and then her daughter.”

She said this is something that likely will attract those who leave Craig to their hometown again, and keep them here. Courtney Jenison couldn’t agree more.

“There’s nothing pushing us away from Craig. We still love this place,” she said. “Even if you move, you’ll think about Craig and think, ‘Wow, that place had some cool things.'”