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Show Early Cowb,oys and their Mess Wagon. From the Wm. R. and Kate I. Palmer Western History Collection. Courtesy SUSC Special Collections Library. Then, she wOllld number and grease her cheeses.. with " got ho~e in time to keep tl!e rigid JUilking schedule. , And what a supper that niight be! Fresh mouqtain butter to help the curing and would then place the,m on the swinging shelf. Every other day throughout the season, trout, caught, cleaned, and popped into .the frying pan the curing cheese had to be greased and turned over on the within 10 minut~s; fluffy buttermilk biscuits with plenty of shelf. , ' mountain butter, little new potatoes grown in the virgin By the end of the summer, the average dairy usually mountain soil, ripe.}Vild raspberries with thick cream, and had produced 60 to 70 cheeses, weighing Crom 30 to 40 good cold milk. , Then, too, it was a joyous occasion when any of the men pounds each, two or three 10-gallon kegs of heavily salted butter for winter keeping, each holdjng about 85 pounds, arrived from town bringing supplies for nearly everyone maybe several crocks with lesser amounts, and would along the line-with ' maybe a special treat of fruit ana have shipped to town throughout the summer molded candy for the children. , _. There was that about the mountains that entered the , _ butter carefully wrapped in damp clotns and wet willow soul of everyone who lived 'there, never to be erased or' " leaves to sell for supplies .. , , 'Keeping what cheese and butter ,the family needed for forgotten. The ' beauty' and peace of the scenery, the its winter use, the dairyman found ready market for the , mingled and pungent odors of the milk house, the morning rest of her output to travelers going to and from California dew, yarrow mint, willOWS, wild roses, pine needdles, the _ corral, and the sound oC the wind soughing through the and particularly, to the roaring mining camps of Pioche pines, the bird calls, the buzzing insects, the bawling and Silver Reef. Often the only ready cash the family had came from the sale of the dairy produce. ' calves and answering cows, and, finally, the soulThough for many years the price of butter was fro,m 20 satisfying rapport that exist-ed between humans and to 25 cents per pound and cheese was 14 'cents per pound, animals in this enterprjse. It was beautiful beyond telling. In later years, the biggest Clairies were those of Robert many a housewife bought her first iron stove from her dairy money ~or built 'the, family's first brick home with and David Bulloch down in the Plains area where ,they ' proceeds from the summer's work. , milked 50 Cows twice a day. Equipped with what was In addition to the che~se and butter, each dairy had known as a cheese factory, each of these large dairies raised a crop of calves, had fattened several pigs on whey, could make two cheeses one day and one the next. In 1870, a corporation law was pass,ed in utah that , buttermilk and acors, and had brought the cows down from the mountain in fine condition to winter in the valley. spawned,co-op$ throughout the state. The,Cedar City Coop Store was organized, which included, besides the , Dairying was period of grueling hard wQrk ~and heavy mercantile store, a cattle herd and a horse h~r~ in which lifting marked by both tragedy and fatigue. E,ach women, citizens bought stock. Henry and Eliza McConnell were ' running her household, in isolation and removed from immediate help, had to be a whole tower of strength the first to manage the r,o-op herd on the mountain and produced its first cheese and butter, sharing the ,dairy within ' herself, ready to meet every emergen,cy witb the produce' and the calf crop with the Co-op Store in town. humans and animals in her charge. These women were Later, others managed the herd, the Bullochs, the the only , doctors available on the ' mountain. They Joneses, 'and,the Leighs among them. During the tillie the delivered babi-es, set arms, and tried aU sorts'oC remedies ' Bullochs managed the Co-op herd, winter .took a fearful for every ailment; and some of them grew very skillful in toll oC 500 head oC the Co-op cows. The Bullochs made good the use ofherbs, roots, and natural products, the loss from their own cattle. , Most patients responded to these remedies, but ocOn~ summer, every family was forced from its casionally real tragedy fell. One little child was drowned mountain place by a sudden invasion of grasshoppers so' in a' rushing 'mountain creek, one fell out of a tree onto vplcanic rocks and was killed, one died from a bite on the thick and voracious that they not only ate up all the green things, including the leaves on the trees, but even lip by an unknown insect, one died from sucking the honey clustered onto the men's felt hats, eating holes in them, from wildflo'!Vers, and one was kicked to death by a wild and chewed at wagon tongues. " ~~ Ninety two years later, no dairying whatever was They pad goo~ times, too, however. The women took pride in' their work and competed in 'friendly manner to pursued in the mountains;' and there is none today. The , see who ,could get her tasks done earliest in, the day. very landscape is completly changed. Over-grazing by cattle and sheep had denuded the hills and valleys of ' Eyerybody rode horses; and, after the dairy work was done, the families often rode to the neighbors to visit, ' ,grass, browse, brush ' and flowers. Erosion and drouth have ravaged the land with ugly scars and gullies. A sad • during-the afternoon. where they ate an early supper, and " ending to a delightful way of life. " We:re all you need to, .know in real estate. , -America's ' original and largest electroni~ realty system. - Home buyers Protection Plan. -Trained real estate · professionals. -The Moving Machine to help - you buy or sell , an~he~e 'in .t he country. . - Home S~Jlers Proctection Plan . NelghborhooCl offices every- ' where., ';:~'." '';..-': • ; '.':' .I.. " .ji' • .,."\ ..:.:;/ I ... I EM REALTY , CENTER 400 So. Main P.O. Box 1509 Ced~r City, Utah 84nO 586-7621 1 A Prospector's Outfit on Main Street in front of ,th~ 'oh,W]TI. ' ~. ~and, .. K~t~ f!. p,aj"i~r, ~'Weste!~~ .History Collection. 'Courtesy s~§g ,~p@~ia! . ~911ections " Knell block, Cedars Hotel, and Mormon Tabernacle (on site of present Post Office Building). From the Library. , Each ,~ ind~~ ~ ~~ operated. " ~: " , ~ . 4· ~~. '0 • ©.J9'78 Ele~ t!oni(/ Realty A"SStX:iates. Inc, ; ,-,~ I '';...-If./. j,' I _ .. -' ~.', ~ |
