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Show M'Rf,. ~·.'!ARIH' OGDP:r .AND THE HO~P. O"Fi' TRUTH ~ll Intervi~ with Mrs.110gd.sn, of Monticello, Utahf By Hector Lee, March 5, 1946 (Transcribed from the wire recorder) L~'R: We'd like to hear so:-!Jet hing about the beginnings of yo,:;r organization. How did you get started? Bow did you get t be idea and get it organized? And how did von pic·'· Monticello as a !! lace? MP~. OGD'R:N: Well, our first approach here vas between Moab a1d ?:!onticello~ ..t it wasn't until the spring of 1934 t bat we lccat ed here in Monticello .and bought the Sa.n Juan Record. t'R?.: You began in the East, didn't you? ~lRS. OGDEN: Yes. As far bac~ as 1930 and '31, I becaTe interested in the socalled mysteries of life a.nd ,f/·'-tj¢ t ~e spiritual progression one ca.."l and will n:e.lr.e if they so desire. And at tbat time I began to write.some rather interesting recordings.th~t came rather unexpectedly. They included. not only -t/1 things concerning spiritual J:'rogreseion, but instruction to find a nlace in this western land where we might establish a cooperative comrnronity to carry on the work that we 1m ew should be done. In 1933, at the beginning of the year, I Y!la.d.e a trip to the west, comi!'lg as fa.r as Chicago, and then on to Boise, Iiaho, to meet with peol)le who were then reading some of the rmterial I was writ:i.ng,.~d who were inter~~+:ed in the idea o-r promoting a colony or sett lem9nt where ..... eonle who were of our tho11ght a.ni mind could a.3sociate and. d~~ ... ~lop a nlace to 11ve and begin life anew, so to speak. And alt'I-Jo,_,gh I hadn't any i1ea where it would 'lJe, I had a mental picture of wmt I v-.antei. to ftnd. An:1 on that first trip I located at--I met with friends i.n "Soise, w11o offered lard in IJ.aho, soma in -=al~fc·tr.ia, scrr;e in Oregon. Eutj?(I so·1':ehcv: kne·N that it wasn't the nlace to settle, ::1.nd. I st1.rted back F.a.st again, te~l-1-n.£";t1-)e!f:that I wou1d ccrr:}~ac'1rd11ri..l'lg the sum!'l"er. I vas sure I wo1.1ld ic t'b.at. In Gri.c :~go I fo,,nd so!'re rrail awa.itin~ me, ani I fom d a v ~rv int~rest ins- lett~r frcm a woman in ~!ew Ycr,_.. City who aprar~tly h1~d a dream or vision of the very :,it of land that T wa!6 looking for, although sh9 didn't ~~ow what I ha·i in mind. She described. it, and I 1rnew in:tantly it was the place. An!~l to helr) ne to verify that t'l"_ought, s'he tol'i n:e tb..at she saw over the vision •he had t h':! name' Utah.,. T_JEE: She had never been 01J.t here? ~ms. OGD~r: She never had.been. 5ut she wa~. v~r? cert :1in that it might hel~ me in locating the snot, which it diJ.. I wrote bac'.- to my Boise friends, and ammg that grou~ there Wls a man wbo knew this part of the country. And then I told the description of~· rey own m ~ ~d picture, and he saii he 'kn9 w he co11 ~1 take me to the place. So t~1e next month I made arrangements to return--that w..=ts in rrhy of 1933--and after making a num'-)er of stops on the way I reached Boise again, and then came down to this part of the country with this man and a woman who made the trip with us for the purpose of loc~-.ting the place, which is fc1;rte~n milez from ~.kr.ticello goi!lg north. LEE: What is the theory of comnro.na. ~. life on which you run ycu.r organization? 'MRS. OGD~!: Well. our idsa and plan of living is to pool our resources, vvhich the few of us who have remlined faithful to the work have done. And in t bat way we have managed to build the twenty-five or mere buildings that are located in the settleMent~ ind later branch out in another direction, getting land east of ~.!onti cello for a farm '~.here we produce the needful things and in thAt way sh-3-re in the r~sults. The farrr:,> we bo1;ght in the snring of 1942. Ar..d although we are sti 11 too few in nurvbers to do a great d.es.l ·Nith it, we have accorrnlished a lot in the three years. And we intend to exte!ld tl:e wo-r1r a.s fast a.s possible. The vallev settlerflent will only be us~d a<:-, an e1ucational center, an1 people who ar~ net intereste1 in the |
