Oral history interview with Dean Powell by Howard Powell [Transcript]

Oral history interview by Howard Powell with Dean Powell. Topics include: Personal background information including parents, place of birth, a move to Emmett, Idaho, and early childhood memories; Train rides; Equipment transportation; The use of horse and wagons; Roadwork; Canal building; The death of his father; His mother doing Laundry at Fort Duchesne; Descriptions of the Fort and the activities that took place there; His mother remarrying; Homesteading in Duchesne; Building a cabin; Attending school in Desert Lake; The growth of the Stockmore settlement; Mining scandals; A one-room schoolhouse with one teacher for all grades; Taking in an Irish boarder; Forming an orchestra dn playing at dances; His step-father getting a mail contract between Hanna and Duchesne; Driving the mail wagon; Assisting stagecoach drivers going over the mountain; Snow and the use of bobsleds; The switch to automobiles for mail delivery and driving the trucks from Helper to the Uintah Basin; Obtaining four mail contracts and holding the Hanna contract for fifty years; Taking correspondence courses from the University of Applied Science in Chicago; Becoming a fingerprint expert and criminologist; Working for the Sheriff's office; Identifying corpses; A commendation from the Utah Bureau of Identification; Serving on the Ration Board and Price Stabilizations Board during WWII; Serving as Fire Chief for Duchesne volunteer Fire Department for fifteen years; Beign a Red Cross First Aid Instructor; Raising cattle and sheep; Running for and being elected as Justice of the Peace after retirement; the oil boom in Uintah Basin; Serving in the LDS Temple in Provo; LDS Missionary service in the Uintah and Ouray Indian Mission; WWI; A Franklin Touring Car; Living near the Indian Reservation; Native Americans; Incidents between Natives and white settlers; Horse racing; Fort Duchesne soldiers throwing their empty alcohol bottles in Bottle Hollow; Collecting and returning empty glass bottles to a saloon for a little money; Drinking a bottle of sasparilla and believing it was liquor; Other stores and businesses along the strip in Moffat, including a brothel; Fist fights; Buying penny candy; Effects of the Great Depression such as bank closures; and severe drought and U.S. Government payments for killing cows.