Kenneth R. Madsen, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Winston Erickson, February 5 - 8, 2001: Saving the legacy tape no. 178 to 182

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ETH R. MADSEN handcart companies. WIN: That was your father's mother? ru 2 KEN: My father's mother, correct. She was with one of the original handcart companies and when she got here from Norway she married with my grandfather. Frankly, I've forgotten how many children they had. They had at least three girls and four boys that I can remember. My father would tell us many stories about life in polygamy. He said, as far as their family was concerned, it was a wonderful thing, but he said, "I wouldn't want it to be restored." He had nothing but very happy, pleasant memories of his childhood with his many brothers and sisters and his many aunts and the "Old Mother." WIN: Utah Lake was one of the great trout fisheries of the West before it became polluted and your story really verifies that. KEN: Yes, my father can remember going out on the lake and seeing the green grass (water grass )on the bottom of the lake and nothing but trout, bass and other kinds of fresh water fish in the lake. Unfortunately, it's my grandfather's fault that it was polluted as far as the environment was concerned. He had many Jewish clients, or customers, in the San Francisco area who wanted carp, so he imported some beige(?) carp and built two big ponds on his property. He was being very careful to keep them confined so that they wouldn't get into the lake, but, unfortunately, the lake went into one of its high cycles and it flooded out the two ponds. So, carp were introduced into Utah Lake and it soon turned into the muddy bottom lake that it is now. My father could remember all of that. They felt very bad that the lake had been completely changed. The water, my father says, was just as crystal clear as you could want it to 3