A History of Garfield County

Garfield county Ushers in a new century

CHAPTER 9 GARFIELD COUNTY USHERS IN A NEW CENTURY vJarfield County experienced widespread progress during the decade of the 1890s and the beginning of the new century. The Mormon church's Manifesto in 1890 officially discouraging polygamy among members of the LDS faith aided in this progress and was important in the territory's drive to achieve statehood. But gains also came about because of improvements in the county's infra­structure, communications networks, and economic base, as well as population growth from both natural increase and inmigration. With this came the establishment of Garfield's last enduring township in the early 1890s, the moving of an already established community, and the creation of another that experienced a rather brief history. The transition from one century to another initiated needed changes to the livestock industry. As it did throughout the American West, the federal government involved itself in protecting county rangeland and watersheds by creating forest reserves. Ranching also contributed its share of interesting characters who influenced county development and history, perhaps the most notorious being the out­law Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch. 197 198 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY Cabin at Eagle City in the Henry Mountains. This mining camp operated from about 1891 to 1911. (Utah State Historical Society) Gold Mining in the Henry Mountains Stories of gold discoveries in the remote Henry Mountains stirred some interest. Local lore says that a man named John Angrove first struck gold in Bromide Basin near the head of Crescent Creek "and was murdered for the wealth he found there." In 1889 Jack Butler and Jack Sumner located the gold seam that would become the Bromide Mine. A year later, two other men discovered another vein that became the Oro Mine. These two mines soon led to the devel­opment of mills on Crescent Creek that were processing gold ore worth $300 a ton. Other miners soon came, and the Ida and Alda mines sprung into existence, as did Eagle City.1 Eagle City boasted a saloon, store, hotel, and doctor's office. Riders from Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch reportedly would visit the saloon, adding to the wild reputation of the town. As a young man, Charley Hanks delivered mail by pack horse a hundred miles across the San Rafael Desert from Green River to Eagle City. He then "car- GARFIELD COUNTY USHERS IN A NEW CENTURY 199 ried gold bricks from the mills back to Green River. Although he remembered several close calls, he never lost a letter or a gold ship­ment to the outlaws who holed up there," according to one historian.2 As the miners sank mine shafts farther into the earth, water began seeping into the shafts at depths of about 300 feet. Mine own­ers decided to build a 3,000-foot-long drain tunnel, but they ran out of money before they got halfway through the project. Then, in 1911, the Bromide Mill burned down. This disaster combined with the flooded shafts and a shortage of labor to bring an end to the mining excitement in the Henry Mountains and Eagle City. The boom had lasted just over twenty years. One lone miner stayed in the area, how­ever. Frank Lawler remained at Eagle City for sixty more years, dig­ging and searching for the elusive wealth.3 The Founding of Tropic The first community east of Bryce Canyon along Utah Highway 12 is Tropic. The town's residents considered a number of possibili­ties for its name. Jesse W Crosby suggested Erastus-for LDS church leader Erastus Snow; someone else proposed the biblical name Ur; still another wanted it called Hansen, after Tropic's first bishop, Andrew James Hansen, but Hansen himself objected to that idea and suggested the name of Tropic because the area's climate, while not tropical, was at least warmer than that of Panguitch. Even Panguitch was not as cold as the high meadow country along the East Fork of the Sevier River between the two towns. Through the years Bishop Hansen would often be quoted as saying, "The coldest night I ever spent was sleeping between my two wives on the East Fork"; one was in Tropic, the other in Panguitch.4 The actual founding of the town of Tropic came about as a direct result of two water projects. First, John Hatch sold the water rights to Spring Creek and some springs west of the future town in 1889.5 This was followed by construction of a canal about ten miles long that would take water from the East Fork of the Sevier River over the east rim of the Paunsaugunt Plateau and drop it 1,500 feet down to the upper Paria Valley. Several earlier attempts to divert this water from the Great Basin drainage area to the Colorado River drainage system had failed. 200 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY One of the first stores in Tropic, also used as a cafe. (Courtesy June Shakespear) William Lewman (Luman) and others revived interest in such a pro­ject in 1889. They formed the East Fork Irrigation Company of Cannonville, with Andrew J. Hansen as president, Abe Workman as vice-president, William Jasper Henderson as secretary, and K.A. Fletcher and William Lewman as directors. The company incorpo­rated on 5 May 1889. It used revenue received from stock purchases to buy simple survey equipment and tools with which to dig the canal. Lewman, Henderson, Henry Mecham, Emery Mecham, and GARFIELD COUNTY USHERS IN A NEW CENTURY 201 Ole Ahlstrom completed the survey of the canal by early July 1889. The actual digging began in September of that year. Anticipating the benefits of a reliable source of irrigation water, James Ahlstrom and Ole Ahlstrom built homes in the area in 1890 and 1891, respectively. They were followed by Charles W Snyder and G J . Simonds, but the actual organization of the community had begun when William Lewman, Andrew Hansen, and James Ahlstrom surveyed the townsite in the spring of 1889, shortly after the Cannonville meeting. It included sixteen blocks of four lots per block, each lot measuring about one and a quarter acres. The lots sold for $7.50, and this low price attracted additional settlers. William, John E, and Dan Pollock; John Ahlstrom; Joseph and James Robert Ott; Will Chatwin; George Shakespear; William and John Spendlove; Levison Hancock; Henry and William B. Mecham; John F. Manwill; Orin Mangum; Seth Alvin; Sena Schow Johnson; and Andrew Perkins all came to make their homes in Tropic. Ole Ahlstrom listed thirty-nine men who worked on the canal. The builders, most of whom were or became residents of the new town, completed the canal by the spring of 1892, a remarkable accomplishment considering the tools they had to work with. Hansen recalled finding a group of people camped on the East Fork about the time the workers were ready to send water down the canal. He explained to them that water would be coming down near their campsite and suggested they move to higher ground. They didn't believe him, and he reported that he enjoyed hearing them shout expletives in the night when their camp flooded. In modern-day vernacular, Garfield residents often refer to Tropic as being located "under the dump," meaning it is below "where the East Fork water was 'dumped' into the channel of Water Canyon, falling about 1,000 feet in less than two miles."6 Others maintain that stockmen called the area the dump as they drove their livestock over the rim of the Paunsaugunt Plateau to take them to their winter range. As the water began to flow into the valley on 23 May 1892, res­idents of Tropic and other already established communities that would benefit from this new lifegiving water celebrated at the home of Caroline Hansen, A.J.'s second wife, with a feast of barbecued beef, veal, and mutton. One participant in the gala event recalled: "A coun- 202 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY try, they said, had been born, and so they sang out praises and proph­esied great things about our future We danced all night til broad daylight and went home with the girls in the morning."7 The next year, 1893, the two water systems, Spring Creek and East Fork, came under the administration of the newly organized Tropic and East Fork Irrigation Company. Residents used the Spring Creek water for culinary purposes and for irrigating town lots from ditches dug along the streets. The water that came over the dump from the East Fork of the Sevier River irrigated the fields. For several years Seth Alvin Johnson served as watermaster for the company; he also served for a term as president.8 As had been the case with other communities in the Paria Valley, newcomers brought cattle and sheep herds with them as they estab­lished their new homes. Tropic was well situated between summer and winter ranges. These suitable conditions attracted Hyrum and Joseph Hilton and the Hintons from the Dixie area and brothers William and Henry Jolley from Long Valley. The depression of 1893 hurt the stockmen, but their animals could be traded for other com­modities and thus they survived the hard times. Despite the depression, 1893 saw the beginnings of a new enter­prise in Tropic. A man from Iowa brought a load of fruit trees to the settlement and traded them for horses. These trees became the nucleus for fine orchards established within the community, espe­cially the apple and plum orchards. Also, the Jolley brothers brought in several wagonloads of trees from Long Valley, and most of the townspeople planted some of them on their land. Residents also grew grains, alfalfa, and corn. Tropic did not always live up to its name, however. Some years killing frosts in the last part of May or first part of June would ruin the gardens and fruit crops that year. Animals were also vulnerable. During the early spring of 1900, for example, when John Johnson and Maurice Cope were herding sheep for Ole Ahlstrom, it turned very cold and began to snow. By the next morning the snow was three feet deep and 300 sheep lay dead. In early May, men from Tropic arrived with teams and, by dragging trees behind them to make a path, got the remaining sheep out of the snow.9 A number of Tropic citizens including Thomas McClellan, GARFIELD COUNTY USHERS IN A NEW CENTURY 203 George William, a n d Joe Shakespear had homesteads in nearby mountains. Whole families would spend the summer months tend­ing their dairy herds, milking the cows, a n d making cheese and but­ter to sell or trade. The James Robert and Janet M. Johnson Ott family purchased the Yellow Creek Ranch, located about two miles from Georgetown, t h e village where Janet's parents resided. Their son, James A. Ott, fondly recalled spending most of his summers on the mountain with the family. He experienced adventures common to other children of t h a t era a n d c i r c u m s t a n c e - e n d u r i n g scary p r a n k s of an older brother, getting bit by a rattlesnake, climbing boulder-strewn hills, searching for arrowheads, helping to milk cows and irrigate the fields, hunting small animals with a "flipper," or slingshot, and enjoying the bountiful yield from summer gardens-especially the watermelons and muskmelons, about which he wrote: We went often during the day and stuffed ourselves to the fill. . . . It was astonishing the amount of these things we could "put out of sight." Our clothes became so stiff with watermelon juice and dirt that about all we needed to do was to stand them in the middle of the floor at night and then run and jump into them in the morn­ing. 10 During these summers away from Tropic, the Ott children relied on one another for playmates; occasionally cousins visited. The iso­lation of Yellow Creek allowed their imaginations to flourish. Ott described other playtime activities: In the shade of the old cottonwood trees in front of the house we used spools to make wagon tracks over roadways and dugroads we constructed. We sometimes used onion tops put together and buried in the ground as pipe lines through which we ran water. We built corral and pasture fences out of little sticks and had shiny hard rocks for the cows and horses. Sometimes we built little rock houses and log cabins.11 Neither isolation nor hard economic times d a m p e n e d the settlers' enthusiasm for recreation. Afternoon dances for the youth and evening dances for the adults furnished plenty of social interac­t i o n in t h e town of Tropic. John Pollock a n d David B. Ott played 204 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY First meeting house built in Tropic in 1895 for religious, educational, and social activities. (Courtesy June Shakespear) their fiddles. A later dance "orchestra" included Jack Pollock on the violin, William Pollock on the accordion, Lizzie Pollock Reynolds on the drums, and Lizzie Mecham Barton and Hortense Cope Munson on the organ or piano. They even played some popular LDS hymns to which the participants danced. Horse races, wrestling and boxing matches, footraces, rabbit drives, and, when the snow was deep, sleigh rides, all provided needed diversion. Groups of young people would sing together on street corners. Newlyweds were given "bundle show­ers," social occasions when friends and family would gather together things they could spare and present the "bundles" to the newly mar­ried couples to help them set up housekeeping. Theatrical produc­tions came under the direction of Alvin Seth Johnson and Charley Pinney. Most of these early events, along with church meetings and school, took place in the Johnson home. Nineteen children received an elementary school education beginning in 1892 from Phoebe Cox. Murray E. King and Sabina Chidester succeeded her as local teachers. The county organized the Tropic School District on 8 June 1893; John A. Spendlove, Levison Hancock, and William W. Pollock became its trustees. GARFIELD COUNTY USHERS IN A NEW CENTURY 205 At first, members of the LDS church in Tropic constituted a branch of the Cannonville Ward. By 1895, thirty-five families lived in the area, so on 23 May, when the town celebrated its birthday, Panguitch LDS Stake officers joined in the festivities and organized the Tropic Ward. Unlike present-day practice, the townspeople cast votes for their first bishop. They chose Andrew Hansen for the posi­tion, with William J. Jolley and Hyrum Hilton as his counselors. The members also laid the cornerstone for their first meetinghouse that day. This event stimulated the purchase of a sawmill near Flake Meadows by the Ahlstroms, George Bybee, and Andrew Hansen. Their first order for lumber was for the proposed meetinghouse. When the men went out to cut logs for the mill, Louisa Bybee went along to cook for them. Under C.W Snyder's direction, nearly every­one in town helped in one way or another to construct the building, which was made up mainly of two-by-six planks. When completed, as with other settlements in the county, the finished structure served multiple functions for the community. With all the tourists flocking to Bryce Canyon today it is hard to believe that for a long time Tropic remained a fairly isolated com­munity. An early road, built in 1893 into the valley, extended from King Springs and down through Little Henderson Canyon. One of the county commissioners, however, Allen Miller from Panguitch, refused to grant needed maintenance money for this steep road. According to a lifelong resident of Tropic, Wallace Ott, the commis­sioner looked grudgingly on those who left Panguitch to settle in Tropic because of the "climate." As far as he was concerned, the people there would just have to climb through the canyon. Among the those who had moved from Panguitch to Tropic in order to raise gardens and fruit trees were the William, Joseph, Richard, and George Shakespear families, the William Marshall family, and Heber and Frank Riding.12 Finally, in 1898, the state granted road funds, and Mahonri M. Steele, Jr., received the contract to lay out a road from the top of the dump down Tropic Canyon. Tropic resident John Ahlstrom, then serving as commissioner, secured additional funds to improve the existing road. 206 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY As Tropic grew and attracted more families, a rivalry of sorts developed between it and what remained of the east valley settlement of Clifton, where the mail for Tropic was sent. On 5 June 1893 Tropic's citizens asked the probate court in Panguitch to designate their community as a polling precinct. In spite of a protest by Clifton residents, after hearing testimony on both sides the court granted Tropic's petition. It appointed the following officers: Joseph Hilton, justice of the peace; John F. Pollock, constable; John A. Steele, road supervisor; and John A. Spendlove, Levison Hancock, and William W Pollock as trustees for the new school district. Ira C. Schow became the first postmaster for Tropic. According to the 1900 census, the population of Tropic had grown to 379. The residents felt they needed to devise further means of protecting their rights; they therefore decided to incorporate their town. They presented their petition of incorporation with ninety-six signatures to the court on 24 June 1902. After the request was granted, the following individuals acted as the town board: Andrew Hansen, president; William J. Jolley, Jr., Ole Ahlstrom, John Ahlstrom, and Hyrum H. Hilton as trustees; Joseph A. Tippets as town marshal and pound keeper, and Thomas R. Cope as justice of the peace. Early business conducted by the board included the adoption of policies and regulations and the improvement of the town's infra­structure. By 1904 town officials even adopted a curfew policy that by today's standards seems rather strict: between 15 October and 15 March anyone under the age of sixteen had to be off the streets by 8:00 P.M. unless accompanied by an adult. During the warmer months the curfew hour was relaxed to 9:00 P.M. In October 1910 the town board addressed the problem of unsafe water conditions-they passed an ordinance prohibiting the watering of any horse or mule in town ditches if the animal suffered from distemper, glanders, or other diseases that could taint the culinary water. The board also began to plan toward installing a new water system, which they accomplished a few years later. In 1893 Tropic had its own militia company, organized as part of the National Guard of the Territory of Utah. Company L, First Infantry, had a roster of seventy-five men, with John M. Dunning serving as captain, Andrew Hansen as first lieutenant, and George W GARFIELD COUNTY USHERS IN A NEW CENTURY 207 Johnson as second lieutenant. This organization lasted only three years, however, being discontinued in 1896. Residents of Tropic experienced a particularly devastating diph­theria epidemic during the winter of 1902-03. Before the disease ran its course, it had claimed the lives of fourteen children. Then, in early winter 1905, a scarlet fever epidemic broke out, taking the lives of other Tropic children. How many actually succumbed to the disease is unknown, but James Alvin Ott recorded that four children in his family, including himself, contracted scarlet fever, and two of his older sisters died as a result.13 Twenty years after its founding, the population of Tropic had sta­bilized and the community progressed along with its neighbors in the upper Paria Valley, remaining the largest of the three towns. Along with the businesses already mentioned, Ole Ahlstrom and Jedediah Adair operated early stores. Tropic also had a general merchandise store established by Seth Johnson. Later, another store was owned by Seth's son George and C.D. White. Two Johnson half-sisters, Janet Matilda Johnson Ott and Lydia Ann Johnson Jolley, were among the clerks at these establishments.14 Such enterprises strengthened famil­ial ties that remained important as the village grew. Although life could be precarious for its settlers, Tropic offered a close-knit com­munity and peaceful atmosphere in the midst of scenic beauty. Utah Statehood and Community Growth After a half-century of petitioning the federal government, state­hood became a reality for the citizens of Utah Territory on 4 January 1896. Residents throughout the county celebrated the occasion. Panguitch folks characterized their festivities as "the never forgotten celebrations," with flags flying and bands playing. They had a parade, attended a patriotic meeting, and danced into the night. Despite the day being the "coldest day of the year," people were proud and happy with high spirits.15 Residents of Cannonville, Henrieville, and Tropic came together for a statehood celebration at the newly completed meetinghouse/ community center in Tropic. Company L of the First Infantry of the Utah National Guard took charge of the festivities. One can assume that other villages within the county also celebrated the occasion. 208 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY Panguitch Main Street in the mid 1890s. As the county seat, advances in all areas of society seemed more pronounced in Panguitch. For example, the first newspaper in the county began there. John M. Dunning's small four-page publication, The Cactus (later named The Register), came into being during the mid-1880s. It was short-lived, however, keeping the public informed for only about six months. Around the year 1895 Fred E. Eldredge arrived in the community and started publishing the Panguitch Progress. When he moved away in 1899, first M.M. Steele, Jr., and later Billy J. Peters took over the paper. Subsequent owners and editors included Elizabeth Worthen, Hans P. Ipson, Gladys and Winnie DeLong, and Fred M. Gavin. In 1908 Fred Eldredge retired to Panguitch and resumed ownership of the newspaper. When the Garfield County News under the editorship of Billy J. Peters, who also had recently returned to town, competed for readership in 1920, Eldredge sold out and moved to Marysvale, where he started another paper.16 The results of the November 1898 county elections also indicated political advances were being made-a woman won the position of county recorder. Mamie Foy holds the distinction of being the first woman to hold elective office in the county. It seems that she estab­lished a precedent, for thereafter women held that particular office GARFIELD COUNTY USHERS IN A NEW CENTURY 209 term after term. In June 1902 Panguitch was split into two voter precincts, another sign of its growth. The building of the Garfield County Courthouse in Panguitch represented another sign of progress. An imposing structure even today, the brick-and-rock edifice began serving the public in 1908. The county paid $425 for the lot and spent almost $11,400 to build the structure. The building committee that oversaw the project was comprised of John N. Henrie, James B. Heywood, and John Houston.17 Before the end of the 1890s Panguitch, like hundreds of small towns across America, had a fine brick library financed by million­aire Andrew Carnegie, with the usual agreement that the city would maintain and staff it. Lovisa Miller served the community as librarian for many years. Some said that not only did children go to the facility to borrow books but also "to have Mrs. Miller charm their warts off."18 At this point in its history, Panguitch could boast of having more than thirty lovely brick homes, a brick LDS tabernacle, and other sound buildings for commercial and farming purposes. Widtsoe (Adairville, Houston, Winder) The history of Widtsoe could easily be characterized as a July Fourth skyrocket: in the beginning it produced no more than a sput­ter of promise; it then soared upward to become a spectacular display of growth and progress. Within two decades, however, its energy spent, it sank back to earth. Located in John's Valley northeast of Bryce Canyon and along the East Fork of the Sevier River at the mouth of Sweetwater Creek, Widtsoe began as an area for local cattlemen to seasonally run their stock. According to Garfield County tax records of 1876, Mrs. John D. Lee, one of the wives of the recently captured Mormon leader (who was executed in 1877 for his part in the Mountain Meadows Massacre twenty years before), owned some of the land at Sweetwater Creek. Isaac Riddle, who in the course of his career seems to have ranched and run cattle throughout southern Utah, also established a ranch in the area. The location served as a regrouping place for the Hole-in-the-Rock pioneers in 1879. The 1890s county tax records list the area inhabitants as being "transients from Orderville."19 210 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY By the early 1900s John R. Campbell owned a ranch and had a large herd of sheep in the area. He sold some of his property to Jedediah Adair, who brought one of his wives, Julia Ann, to the area. They cultivated the land and successfully raised a variety of grains. This attracted other settlers, and by 1908 the Adairs had numerous neighbors who comprised the community of Adairville. It became the Tropic LDS ward's "Sweetwater Branch." Carl H. Mangum served as the presiding elder, with Orson Adair and John Tippetts as his counselors and John Campbell as Sunday School superintendent. After the arrival of still more settlers, the name of the community changed to Houston, in honor of the president of Panguitch LDS Stake, John Houston. In 1910 Julia Adair donated forty acres toward developing a townsite in the midst of the ranches and farms. Following her speci­fications, the settlers surveyed the town to have streets five rods wide, blocks twenty rods square, with four lots to a block and all out-build­ings to be located 100 feet from the streets. The newly surveyed town once again underwent a name change; this time it was called Winder to honor a counselor in the general presidency of the LDS church, John R. Winder. The settlement had moved beyond the "sputter" stage and was about to propel itself forward. In the meantime, there were also developments elsewhere in the county. From Hatchtown to Hatch Upon recommendation of the United States Geological Survey, the people of Hatchtown and Panguitch began excavation of a reser­voir in the summer of 1894 or 1895. The site was a place called Flake Meadow, located on the Sevier River. (This is not the same Flake Meadow used by Tropic residents to acquire timber.) The citizens bought the Neils Peterson Clove homestead located above the dam-site to use for water storage. Before they could complete the dam, however, high waters from the melting snowpack destroyed it. The need for water storage continued, and leaders of Piute and Sevier counties decided on a joint venture to construct a second reservoir at the same site. This time they used a concrete culvert, but once again the Sevier River refused to be harnessed. In late 1899 or the spring of GARFIELD COUNTY USHERS IN A NEW CENTURY 211 1900 the dam failed. Structures in the path of a possible flood were moved to higher ground. Even after this second failure, the state continued to show interest in developing a water-storage facility in the area. Given the failure rate of the previous dams, however, such plans alarmed Hatchtown residents. In 1901 they made the decision to move their community to higher ground, away from the river channel. Their ecclesiastical leaders acted as their agents to buy just under 100 acres of land on which to locate the town. The land had originally been homesteaded by Thomas B. and Margaret Sawyer. According to a descendant of one of these citizens: "The local men laid the town off in streets and blocks. They used a homemade transit . . . and a chain was used for the marking process."20 They surveyed ten blocks, each containing four lots. According to the sales agreement, the Sawyers had the first choice of a lot for their own house. They also selected the lot for the new church. When apportioning the remaining lots, the citizens used the following procedure: "After the survey, the blocks and lots were numbered and corresponding numbers placed in a hat. The citizens drew their lot numbers. Some trading went on due to price of lots and preference of location."21 The first home transferred to the new townsite belonged to Mary Ann Clove. Little by little, other structures followed. During the mov­ing of the town, the residents experienced a remarkable display of cooperation and unity, which bolstered community solidarity and pride. They decided to drop "Town" from the name and call their new settlement simply Hatch. The move also inspired a petition to change the name of the post office from Asay to Hatch. The federal government granted this request on 23 January 1904. The post office became part of Abram Workman's store, another structure moved to the new site, and Workman served as postmaster. He had previously converted a little house he bought in the "old town" into his store- probably the first one in the community. On the new site he contin­ued to stock some hardware items, kitchen ware, a limited selection of fabrics and groceries, including soda crackers and lemon biscuits, to meet the residents' basic needs. In addition, he had a dealership for a line of harnesses, wagons, and farm machinery. One example of ingenuity and resourcefulness among the pio- 212 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY neers involved the relocation of Meltair Hatch's unique double log barn. The two barns h a d a drive-through area between them, with one roof covering the entire building. Each side matched the other perfectly in the length and n o t c h i n g of its logs. Hay could be unloaded on either side of t h e drive, a n d each building had stalls positioned on the east. By the time the town moved, Meltair Hatch had passed away, having died in 1895. Levi Sawyer, one of his sons-in- law, took charge of moving the structure. He numbered the poles from b o t t om to top, and "every section was labeled north, south, east or west. They were placed on a wagon in order and t h e b a r n was reconstructed to look as it did in the former location."22 All did not go smoothly as they moved the town, but the settlers t r i e d to keep a sense of h u m o r in t h e process. Thomas B. Sawyer recalled one incident: One day as we started up Alger Hill, things got on a bind; the logs in the house came apart. Everyone began to laugh as the logs, one after another, went rolling down the hill, leaving the roof settled securely on the wagon wheels. At first it looked like a lot of wasted effort, but the laugh was refreshing and we just pried the roof off our wagons and went out and got another log cabin.23 As m o n u m e n t a l an enterprise as moving t h e town had been, cooperative effort for the benefit of all in the community was not new to Hatch residents. Beginning in the late 1890s a week or ten days was set aside each early spring to clean out irrigation ditches. All water users cooperated to clear weed growth, sand bars, and beaver dams from the channels in order to maximize water flow. After the r e l o c a t i o n of t h e town, t h e residents formed the Hatch Farmers Improvement Association, a civic organization that u n d e r t o o k the betterment and upkeep of the community. Members donated time and resources to such projects as t h e creation and maintenance of roads and irrigation ditches. During threshing season farmers also worked together, all shar­ing one threshing machine as well as the needed labor. Farm wives prepared ample meals of potatoes, meat, biscuits, rice pudding, and pies to feed the h u n g r y t h r e s h i n g crews. As with almost every endeavor undertaken by settlers to b r i n g civilized comfort to their GARFIELD COUNTY USHERS IN A NEW CENTURY 213 communities, such tasks required the efforts of both men and women. One woman in particular rendered great service to the people of Hatch. Like many relatively isolated communities, Hatch had no doc­tor, and the residents turned to midwives for their medical needs. Sarah Ann Asay became the first midwife in the Hatch area. She had remained in Salt Lake City to study midwifery from local doctors in 1867 when her husband Joseph and their sons were called to the Muddy Mission in present-day Nevada. A granddaughter wrote that the settlers recognized the "healing touch of her hands" and that she delivered 1,800 babies before she died in 1900.24 Other midwives in the Hatch area around the turn of the century included Anna Marie Barnhurst, Julia Hatch Workman, Sarah D. Anderson, and Julia Huntington. Soon after the town's relocation, a Dr. Garn also served the residents of Hatch for a time. But it wasn't until after 1911, when a Dr. Bigelow arranged a private hospital in Panguitch, that the people of Hatch had other regular medical options. Sawmills and shingle mills played a major role in the early devel­opment of Hatchtown and continued to do so after relocation. The mills were located on Mammoth and Wilson creeks, and the Camerons, Hatchs, Wilsons, and Workmans operated these early enterprises. The Hatchtown women did not have a LDS Relief Society orga­nization until 1894, when they went to Asay to establish their associ­ation. Organizing other Mormon church auxiliaries eventually followed. Before the move, but after Hatchtown was organized into its own LDS ward, church members built a new chapel, finishing it in 1895. That same year, townspeople also began building a tithing office; they completed it the following year. In addition to religious services, the church building housed local dramatic productions, silent movies, and traveling troupes. For a time it became the school-house as well, and residents installed a bell to call young people to classes and townspeople to other public gatherings. Local citizens moved both the church and tithing office buildings to the new town location. The two buildings were later sold and used for other pur­poses. 214 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY Hatch residents began to stake out dimensions for a new church building at their new location in January 1903, with a foot of snow on the ground. Members held meetings in the new structure by the end of the year, but work continued on the building over the next few years. In the process, Hatch church members sustained a new bishop in 1906, James B. Burrow. By 1908 the plastering was complete, and in 1910 the members added the chapel vestibule and bell tower. All the money and labor used in the chapel's construction came from Hatch residents. By the end of the first decade of the 1900s the community of Hatch was securely established at its present location. Its citizens had managed to create enduring homes and institutional organizations to better ensure that their future needs and goals could be realized. Stock Raising in the National Forests As mentioned in previous chapters, many early settlers came into Garfield County in search of rangeland for their cattle herds. Others turned to stock raising when they realized that local climatic condi­tions precluded the growing of many crops. In the early years Garfield rangeland produced grasses and other forage in abundance. As a result, ranching became a profitable industry throughout the county, bringing moderate wealth to some and employment to many. But the business could also be fraught with hazards, both natural and manmade, and susceptible to the vagaries of nature and the market­place. The first substantial cattle herds, particularly in the eastern por­tion of the county, were brought in by members of cattle coopera­tives. In time these gave way to individually owned herds. Some Garfield County men got into the stock business by working for those with established herds or by renting stock belonging to others. Edward Wilcock brought a leased herd of cattle from Parowan into the Escalante area; after three years he had a herd of his own from the natural increase.25 Joseph Henry Linford began by herding sheep for James Showalter, a prominent stockman from Panguitch. During the winter the Linfords remained in town so their children could go to school; however, in the summer the family lived in a little house out at Showalter's summer range near Hunt Creek and the East Fork of GARFIELD COUNTY USHERS IN A NEW CENTURY 215 the Sevier River, about twenty miles north of Bryce Canyon. Linford nicknamed the place "Poverty." His wife, Luella Rowena Orton, pieced many a quilt while out tending the herd in the relatively iso­lated region. After working for Showalter a number of years, Linford left Showalter's employ with 350 head of sheep and some grazing rights of his own, the basis of his livelihood until he sold out and retired years later.26 Until the first two decades of the twentieth century there was a ready market for wool.27 Until around 1915 sheep shearers used hand clippers; a good shearer could shear about twenty head a day, but it was a back-breaking process. When gasoline-powered clippers were developed the operation became much more efficient. Professional shearers in the Escalante area included Albert Griffin, Dan Pollock, Frank Barney, Andrew (Bish) Schow, Mike Schow, and Will Alvey. The men began shearing in the early spring in the Dixie area to the south, then moved northward as the season progressed, finally ending up sometimes as far north as Idaho and Montana. These shearers took pride in the speed with which they worked. According to one local resident, Ronald Schow held the record, shearing 120 head in a day.28 For Cannonville residents, "shearing season lasted about a month and it was given about the same priority as a national holiday; even an excused absence from school." During this time, according to one local historian, men could find temporary employment as "shearers, wranglers, an equipment operator, tool sharpener, fleece tyers, carri­ers or trompers (usually school boys, sixth to eighth graders)."29 Garfield sheepmen had to take their wool to Marysvale to be shipped by rail. The magnitude of this operation was described by one author: The wool went by team and wagon . . . over nearly 100 miles of rough, partly mountainous road. The trip took ten days. Twenty to twenty-five wagons would travel together. . . . For the return trip wagons would be loaded with freight largely for Escalante merchants. Children were sometimes allowed to accompany their fathers. "Going with the wool" was considered a privilege by youngsters who otherwise never saw beyond the mountain, but they had to 216 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY endure being parched by the June sun that beat upon the smelly load of wool sacks.30 Stockmen made the trip to the railhead at Marysvale in the fall to sell their cattle. One resident of Escalante, David M. Woolsey, recalled seeing cattle herds stretched out as far as ten miles along the trail. For a time the cattle business prospered.31 During the winter, stockmen moved their herds to lower, warmer areas until spring. Many in the western part of the county used the west deserts of Utah for grazing. Those in the Boulder area brought their stock from the summer ranges on Boulder Mountain to the eastern desert areas near the Henry Mountains. Tropic herders brought their stock from the mountains to the north and ranged them as far south as the Wahweap, in southern Kane County and northern Arizona.32 This necessitated the herders being separated from their families for extended periods of time and often entailed great physical hardship. But sometimes the monotony of staying with the herd involved unexpected adventure. Escalante resident and his­torian Marilyn Jackson related one such incident: In 1909, a stranger walked into the sheep camp of Hyrum Gates on the Escalante Desert. Word had reached the camp of a fugitive who had alluded [sic] Wayne county authorities and was being sought by a posse from Boulder. The man had killed a calf and ransacked a house, taking various things. The man was invited to eat with the sheep herders and was in the process of getting his plate filled, when the posse approached. The man grabbed his gun and ran, whereupon the officers called for him to stop. As he continued to flee, the officer fired his gun and the man dropped. [They took him] to Escalante where he died shortly afterward without identi­fying himself.33 A Garfield youth had an adventure of a different sort. Sixteen-year- old Vee Linford left Panguitch in the early spring to meet his family's incoming herd from the west desert, a trip of about twenty-five miles. On a lovely morning, with only wispy white clouds over­head, he began his journey. Provisioned with a lunch, a bag of oats for his horse, a warm coat, and a yellow slicker, he rode north of Panguitch about ten miles and then headed west towards Bear Valley. GARFIELD COUNTY USHERS IN A NEW CENTURY 217 As he gained elevation, s t o rm clouds gathered, producing a cold rain, then "plastering sleet" which caused his wet clothes to freeze to his body. Unable to find shelter, he pressed on and climbed higher as an icy snow began to fall. He became lost and disoriented. Linford decided to let his horse use her natural instincts and gave her free rein. Almost frozen, the young man dismounted, "hoping to walk some c i r c u l a t i o n i n t o [his] n u m b body." He held o n t o his horse's tail, allowing the animal to guide h im and break a trail t h r o u g h the snow. The animal wisely decided to head back home. Several times, suffering from fatigue, Linford longed to stop and rest. Becoming terribly sleepy, he squatted down from time to t i m e in snow-covered sagebrush along the treacherous, downward trail. His horse seemed to sense the danger that her master could freeze to death, so she kept pushing h im with her nose to topple h im from his perch and get h im walking again. Thus, they slowly made their way out of the canyon; finally, at 2:00 A.M., they reached a farmhouse at the m o u t h of the canyon and safety.34 While elements often conspired against the stockmen in their efforts to make a living, the amount of stock in the county increased faster than the range vegetation was able to recover. By the summer of 1903, after a period of drought, it was evident that the once rich meadows on the [Boulder] mountain had turned to dust beds. Herds of sheep were bedding by the streams and dying along the banks. Bones of cattle bleached on the dry benches. The cattle lingered around the mud holes. Those in a weakened condi­tion would flounder in the mud and die. Poison weeds that grew after the better feed was gone added to the death toll of the starving cattle.35 By late fall the rains began to fall, washing precious topsoil away, but a good winter ended the drought. Stockmen, however, clearly needed to rethink their use of the land. The stressed condition of ranges t h r o u g h o u t the West helped cause the federal government to take steps to protect t h em along with the remaining forests and watersheds. In 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt created by proclamation numerous forest reserves, follow­ing precedents established in t h e 1880s a n d 1890s. These reserves 218 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY later became known as national forests. Among the areas so desig­nated were the Aquarius, the Powell, the Sevier, and the Dixie national forests in Garfield County.36 The officers (later called rangers) assigned to the various reserves took charge of regulating activities there beginning in 1904. At various times since the forests' organization the supervisors' offices have been located at either Panguitch, Widstoe, Escalante, or at Cedar City in Iron County. At a much later date, in 1944, all of the forest reserves in Garfield County would be consolidated into the Dixie National Forest. Many Garfield County citizens found employment administer­ing these reserves, becoming supervisors, rangers, clerks, and admin­istrative assistants. George H. Barney became the first supervisor of the five districts of the Aquarius Reserve in 1903. He continued in this position when the Aquarius became a part of the Powell Forest. In 1905-06 Beaugard Kenner worked as the first supervisor of the five districts of the Sevier Forest. Sylvans Collett supervised the Dixie Reserve beginning in 1905. With the creation of the forest reserves came the beginnings of government control of grazing within these areas. At first such con­trol proceeded slowly. In order to make an approximate count of ani­mals using the forests, officials asked stock owners to apply for grazing permits for as many head as they owned. For instance, in January 1904 the Aquarius District granted permits for 75,000 head of sheep and 12,500 head of cattle to graze on forest lands. This num­ber decreased each year until the United States entered World War I and the demand for meat and wool increased. Following the war the numbers again declined and continued to do so. During the early years of forest organization personnel created some pasturage areas, ranger stations, telephone lines, trails, and roads. Although early attempts at reseeding programs did not work well, continued research and experimentation brought greater suc­cess to the practice in later decades. Reforestation also contributed to the revitalization of the reserves. Periodic surveys of the forests that assessed the quantity and health of the trees and the grazing potential of the various areas helped forest officials plan the best use of avail­able natural resources. Such studies eventually had an impact on the number of stock-grazing permits the Forest Service granted and on GARFIELD COUNTY USHERS IN A NEW CENTURY 219 the times when the animals could be turned out onto forest lands. The studies also determined how much timber could be harvested and on what scale recreational facilities could be introduced. Much later, with the passage of the Taylor Grazing Act in 1934, rangeland deemed to be part of the public domain outside of national forests came under grazing control regulations as well. This land came under control of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) after its organi­zation in the 1940s. To confront the issues dealing with new government controls, and in part because of their own personal economic interest in restoring the health of rangeland, Garfield residents formed several stockmen organizations. Among the first of these was the Escalante Cattle and Horse Growers Association, organized in 1907, with William V. Lay as president, Rufus H. Liston as vice-president, and Harry N. Cowles as secretary/treasurer. Its objective was to "promote and protect the business of raising cattle and horses upon and adja­cent to the Powell National Forest," and members sought to cooper­ate with government officials of both the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Grazing Service. Its members handled such matters as "salting, vaccination and other treatment of disease in cattle . . . brand inspec­tion, handling strays . . . watering places on [the] range, with reseed­ing," among other activities.37 The early 1920s saw similar organizations formed, including the Boulder Grazing Association and the Hatch-Hillsdale Cattlemen's Association. It is interesting to note that as the number of stock raised in the county began to decline so too did the population of Garfield County. Of course, stock reduction was necessary because the land could no longer sustain so many large herds; but the correlation also demonstrates how tied to the stock industry local people and busi­nesses were until recent decades. When the stockmen suffered finan­cially, so did the local economy, and this is what caused many families to move elsewhere. As an example, in 1922 there were 8,550 cattle and horses and 23,200 sheep in Escalante. The 1920 census shows the community with 3,608 residents. In 1963 there were 2,452 grazing permits issued for cattle and horses, none for sheep. The 1960 census records 702 residents in Escalante. The rapid decline in ranching in the county can be attributed to 220 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY many things, including inclement weather, severe late winters and early springs which took a toll on newborn stock, drought years, tough economic times such as those following World War I and dur­ing the Great Depression, government restrictions on grazing and increased grazing fees, predators, and, in more recent decades, com­petition in the marketplace from other states and abroad. These forces effectively eliminated the wool industry in the county by 1960 and threatened to bring about the demise of the cattle industry as well. Clearly, what enticed so many to settle in Garfield during its early period also led many to leave in later years. Residents could only hope that others would find alternative reasons to stay or to relocate to the county in the future. Trees, Telephones, and Towns In 1906 several Panguitch citizens formed the Garfield Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company. M.M. Steel, Jr., became president; Thomas Sevy, secretary; and Guernsey Spencer, manager of the company. Spencer came from Kanab and put in the poles, hung the telephone lines, and installed the switchboard in the Cameron home on the corner of Main and Center streets. Sadie Cameron became the county's first telephone operator. Officers cho­sen later included Thomas Sevy, S.O. Henrie, J.B. Showalter, JJ. Page, R.G. Clark, Dr. R.G. Clark, Jr., Benjamin Cameron, Sr., John Houston, John L. Sevy, and James Smith. Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph supplied the local company's customers with long-distance service. During this early period Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph (MST&T) often cooperated with rural communities when they formed their own telephone companies in providing long-dis­tance service. It also offered technical assistance to the local entities and had a small equity interest in them. If after a period of time these local enterprises proved economically viable, MST&T would buy out the original investors and bring the local entities into its system. The Garfield company built an office of its own in 1910, and after several more years it became a part of the Bell Telephone Company and then joined with Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph.38 In May 1907 the Hatch Farmers Improvement Association nego­tiated a contract with the Garfield telephone company in Panguitch GARFIELD COUNTY USHERS IN A NEW CENTURY 221 United States Forest Service Employees using the first phone on the Dixie National Forest about 1908. (USDA Forest Service) 222 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY to deliver phone service to Hatch residents. The association supplied 1,000 poles to bring the line south to the ranches beyond the sum­mit, and by 1908 Hatch had a single telephone line to serve the com­munity. Each time someone had a phone call, every telephone in the town rang. Effel Riggs described how the system worked: Each home had its own ring. James B. Burrow had a short, long and a short. A. S. Workman was given two shorts and a long. W. R. Riggs ring was three shorts. . . . It was often hard to get the line for an important message. Some folks, anxious to learn what was going on in the area, could not refrain from eavesdropping.39 Telephone communication for many other Garfield County res­idents paralleled the creation of national forests in southern Utah and the employment of personnel to administer them. In 1908 United States Forest Service employees completed a telephone line from Escalante to Teasdale in present Wayne County. By 1910 they com­pleted the line to Boulder, then continued through the upper valley and on to Panguitch in 1912. An additional line went through Main Canyon and over the mountain to Antimony. The forest rangers who did most of the installation of the lines included Joseph and Hyrum Porter, R.F. Hall, R.H. Liston, and Josiah and Ambrose Shurtz. Individuals in the various communities served could connect to the Forest Service lines if they supplied their own poles, wire, insulators, and telephones. Only three telephones existed in Escalante when Leander Shurtz, blind since birth, became the town's first telephone operator in 1913. Forest supervisor Henry Barney had one phone at his home, another served the Forest Service office, and Riddle's store had the third tele­phone. For twenty-six years Shurtz operated the Escalante system as it slowly expanded. He had a keen sense of hearing and in the days when subscribers were not assigned telephone numbers he could immediately recognize their voices. According to one resident, "you just took down the receiver, rang the bell, and said, 'Hello, Leander, give me my folks, please.' He knew who you were and what 'folks' you wanted."40 Through his position Shurtz became acquainted with Gwen Partridge, a telephone operator at Panguitch. The two later married and operated the switchboard together in Escalante. Though GARFIELD COUNTY USHERS IN A NEW CENTURY 223 Leige Moore (left) and Myron Willis riding the range. (Courtesy Teora Willis) the system seems primitive today, it was wonderful for these isolated communities to have access to the outside world. Colorful Characters of the County- Law-abiding and Otherwise Since many of the settlers in southern Utah made a livelihood running cattle or sheep, they seemed to acquire characteristics usu­ally associated with the Old West of the resourceful, rugged individ­ualist who spent extended periods of time with the herds, isolated from the crush of humanity. One such individual was Elige (Lige) M. Moore, longtime resident of Henrieville. Moore came from southwest Missouri, having been born there in 1850.41 His family lived near the infamous James family there and the children from both families often played together. But later in life Lige Moore took a different path from that of his friends Frank and Jesse James. As a youth he witnessed a Civil War battle that took place in the family's fields in which his father was killed. Two of Lige's brothers also died during the Civil War, reportedly while 224 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY fighting for the Confederacy at Gettysburg under General Robert E. Lee. After the war, still in his mid-teens, Moore gravitated to Texas, where he spent some time involved in various enterprises with his brother Thomas. Later, in Two Gun, Arizona, he rounded up a large herd of horses and drove them to Utah. He crossed the Colorado River at Lees Ferry and then went to the Paria area, where he traded his horses for cattle. At first he located at Georgetown. He later moved to Henrieville, where he spent most of the remainder of his life. He and his wife, Amelia, had four sons and one daughter. Many Mormons considered "Uncle Lige" to be one of the best "members" of the LDS church who had not been baptized. He did not indulge in some of the excesses normally associated with those who rode the range. He was known for his generosity and earned the respect of his associates. In later years, during the Great Depression, Wallace Ott recalled Moore passing around his ten-gallon cowboy hat, one of his hallmarks, at local horse races to gather money for a local departing LDS missionary. He became the choice of his neighbors to represent them on the advisory board of the local public domain land after the passing of the Taylor Grazing Act in 1934. At age eighty-four he was the oldest person in the United States to serve in that capacity. Moore usually carried six-shooters and reportedly was a crack shot. A Panguitch resident recalled that whenever Lige rode through town he made quite a spectacle with his guns strapped on each side, not a common sight in early twentieth-century southern Utah.42 Moore seldom wore his false teeth, however; he kept them in a leather pouch tied to his saddle and declared, "Yes, that's just as close to my mouth as I want to get them."43 Besides raising cattle, he had a con­suming interest in horse racing and was a racing judge at many of the contests in and around the county. Tall in the saddle at six feet two inches, Lige Moore appeared as the prototypical American cowboy, even if he was not entirely representative of southern Utah stockmen. Aside from the James brothers, Moore was said to have known all of the notorious Robbers' Roost gang, including Butch Cassidy, Matt Warner, Silver Tip Morgan, Blue John Evens, Tom McCarty, and others.44 Robert LeRoy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy, certainly had many Garfield County connections. Born in Beaver in 1866, he was the first GARFIELD COUNTY USHERS IN A NEW CENTURY 225 Childhood home of Robert LeRoy Parker, known as Butch Cassidy, located in northern Garfield County south of Circleville. (Utah State Historical Society) child of Maximillian and Ann Gillies Parker. The Parker family moved to Circle Valley in 1879 after Parker's father bought a home­stead there. Although the closest town was Circleville, the property and the small two-room cabin that the family of eight occupied was actually in Garfield County.45 The family experienced some economic reverses, and, to help out, Ann Parker contracted to run a dairy for local rancher Jim Marshall about twelve miles south of the Parker farm. For two sea­sons Ann took her children and lived at the dairy, where they milked the cows and made butter and cheese. Marshall hired Roy, as Robert LeRoy was known, a fully grown and responsible youth, to work as a ranch hand. In this capacity the young man met Mike Cassidy, an older drifter who came to work on the ranch. Cassidy taught the young man how to handle guns, horses, and cattle. It wasn't long before Roy developed a hero worship for the older ranch hand and 226 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY wanted to emulate his exciting life. Roy also learned the rudiments of rustling cattle and horses, an activity that Cassidy had apparently engaged in for some time. When the law got too close, Cassidy left the area. Whether it was before or after Mike Cassidy's departure- sources differ-Roy Parker engaged with two other local men in putting their own brand on some maverick stock. In the end, all blame for the operation fell on Parker. He left the territory in 1884 when he was eighteen, never to live with his family again. His route took him through the Robbers' Roost area, an infa­mous hideout of sorts composed of a maze of twisting canyons in the badlands of the San Rafael Swell area that straddles Garfield and Wayne counties located between the Dirty Devil River and the Green River's confluence with the Colorado River. Later on in his career outside the law Parker would come frequently with his gang and stolen stock to Robbers' Roost to hide from authorities. For some time after leaving Utah he worked at hauling ore for some mines around Telluride, Colorado. Eventually he met up with Tom McCarty and Matt Warner and the three men robbed the Telluride bank. Bank president and hydroelectric power entrepreneur L.L. Nunn headed a posse in pursuit. Nunn, who was a particularly good rider and had a fast horse, soon outdistanced the rest of the posse and caught up with the bandits. They reportedly quickly surrounded the diminutive bank president, disarmed him, stole his horse, and left him in their dust. Roy Parker gave himself the name George Cassidy after his men­tor Mike Cassidy and later dropped the George for "Butch" after working in Wyoming for a short period in a butcher shop. The tar­gets of his depredations throughout the West (although never again in Garfield County, Utah) included large cattle operations, railroads, and banks-all of which he believed took advantage of the struggling homesteader. A sort of Robin Hood aura accrued to Cassidy, who was reportedly warned many times by residents throughout the region when law officers approached. Only once did Butch serve time in prison. Ironically, he was falsely accused and found guilty of stealing horses in Wyoming. He was later pardoned after serving only seven months of a two-year sentence in the territorial prison at Laramie in 1894-95. Despite the GARFIELD COUNTY USHERS IN A NEW CENTURY 227 Robert LeRoy Parker, better known as Butch Cassidy, was Garfield County's most famous outlaw. (Utah State Historical Society) relentless pursuit of various law agencies, including the famous Pinkerton detectives, he was never again incarcerated. So many myths and legends surround the life and demise of Butch Cassidy that it is difficult to sort fact from fiction. Charles Kelly related the story of sixteen-year-old Harry Ogden from Escalante, who spent his savings to purchase a good horse and a sixty-dollar 228 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY saddle. When out riding along the border of Robbers Roost in 1898, an outlaw on a jaded mount forced young Ogden off his horse, gave the boy a quick kick in the pants, then rode off on Ogden's animal. About three weeks later, Ogden received visitors at his home in Escalante. One of the men was Butch Cassidy, another was the out­law who had stolen Ogden's horse and was still riding it. When Cassidy asked Ogden if he had lost a horse, the boy quickly identified it. Butch Cassidy then ordered the outlaw off the horse and told him "to start walking toward a distant gap in the hills and keep on going." He then said, "We don't have any room in this country for a man who will mistreat a young boy."46 Most who knew him described Butch Cassidy as an agreeable fel­low with a sense of humor, generous with his associates, and quick to make friends with children. He also liked the ladies, and many appar­ently returned his affections. There is no documentation that he ever killed anyone, although some members of his loosely formed gang, called "The Wild Bunch," could not make that claim. One of the pre­vailing beliefs, and one perpetuated by the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, is that Cassidy and the Sundance Kid met their deaths in Bolivia when they were involved in a shoot-out with the local military in 1912. There is no question that the two went with Etta Place to Argentina and later were in Bolivia. However, many individuals claim that Cassidy returned to the United States-some say to California, others claim to the Pacific Northwest-and lived the rest of his life within the law under an assumed identity.47 Among those making the claim were members of his own family; his sister Lula Parker Betenson claimed that Cassidy came for a visit in the fall of 1925. On that occasion he told members of his family that a friend, Percy Seibert, from the Concordia Tin Mines near San Vicente, Bolivia, identified the two bodies as being those of him and Sundance. Cassidy figured Seibert did this so he could make a new start for himself without being chased by the law, either in the United States or in South America. Apparently he had expressed just such a desire to Seibert on several occasions.48 In addition to his family's claims, many former associates in Wyoming insisted that Butch Cassidy returned there for a visit in the 1930s. Some residents of Garfield County also claim that they saw Butch GARFIELD COUNTY USHERS IN A NEW CENTURY 229 Cassidy during the 1930s. In her autobiography, Emma Allene Savage Riddle recalled her experience: One day I went with Dad to visit Elijah Moore. There were several other men at his home when we arrived. Elijah introduced us to them and one of them was an outlaw by the name of Leroy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy. This was after Butch had been reported killed in Bolivia, South America. I was in awe of the man, thinking I had met a real honest-to-goodness outlaw.49 Wallace Ott told that Lige Moore invited him to come over to his home to meet Butch in 1937 or 1938.50 Ott said Kenneth Goulding, Sr., was also present. Reportedly Butch rehearsed for those gathered how he came to lead his life. He told Ott that while attending a dance in Panguitch he got into a fight with the boyfriend of one of the girls he danced with. At first everyone thought Butch had killed the guy, rather than just knocking him out. He quickly fled town, followed by a posse. In Red Canyon he eluded his pursuers by detouring up a gulch in the dark; the posse rode on past him. Cassidy eventually made his way back to Circleville, where he packed up and headed for Colorado.51 A draw in Red Canyon today bears Cassidy's name.52 The sequence of his exploits as he reportedly related them to those gath­ered in the Moore home does not agree with what has been written by others, and so the stories and speculation continue. Meanwhile, the fortunes for the Parker family in Circleville improved and the younger children and their parents moved to a brick home in town. Ann Parker, a devout and prayerful mother of eleven children, grieved for her eldest son and the life he led. Her daughter Lula believed this contributed to her mother's frequent "sick spells." One day in 1905 Ann became very ill. With no doctors in Circleville, her husband took her to Panguitch where one was avail­able, although there was still no hospital in the town. Ann stayed in a hotel run by a Mrs. Crosby in order for the doctor to better monitor her condition. Her husband and daughter Lula helped care for her, but her illness, believed to be a heart condition, worsened; three weeks later she died. Her daughter wrote, "The people in Panguitch made her burial clothes. They were all so kind to us. We took her body home to Circleville in a buggy on a chilly, windy day."53 230 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY Garfield County can thus claim a legendary outlaw of its own. Little did county citizens realize at the t u r n of the century that a new medium of entertainment soon would come along to help perpetuate the legends and myths of the American West. Some of the county's breathtaking scenery would provide a backdrop for the filming of some of these p o p u l a r dramas. In t h e meantime, other concerns occupied the people as America went to war and suffered through a devastating influenza epidemic. But all was not negative-the next two decades provided for many an affirmation of their hopes and dreams. ENDNOTES 1. George A. Thompson, Some Dreams Die (Salt Lake City: Dream Garden Press, 1982), 77. 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid. 4. Ida Chidester and Eleanor Bruhn, Golden Nuggets of Pioneer Days: A History of Garfield County, 160. 5. Unless otherwise noted, information on the founding and early his­tory of Tropic came from June Shakespear, "Tropic," copy in possession of authors. 6. Shakespear, "Tropic," 4. 7. As quoted in a chronology produced for Tropic's birthday celebra­tion on 23 May 1979 by Michael Ferrin, copy in possession of authors. 8. Seth Alvin Johnson, "A Sketch of the Life of Seth Alvin Johnson," 1933, copy in possession of authors. 9. Shakespeare, "Tropic," 6. 10. James A. Ott and Virginia S. Ott, "A History of the James Alvin and Virginia Spencer Ott Family," 1966, 12, copy in possession of authors. Ott's account of his boyhood experiences is exceptional in content and style. 11. Ibid., 10-11. 12. Wallace Ott, interview with Linda K. Newell, Tropic, Utah, July 1993, tape in possession of authors. 13. See Ott, "History of the Ott Family," 2. 14. Janet Matilda Johnson Ott, "A Sketch of the Life of Janet Matilda (Johnson) Ott," 1933; Udell Jolley, "Life Story of Lydia Ann Johnson Jolley," c. 1933, copy in possession of authors. 15. Chidester and Bruhn, Golden Nuggets, 195. GARFIELD COUNTY USHERS IN A NEW CENTURY 231 16. Ibid., 210-11. 17. Fern H. Crawford, Red Brick Homes and Other Buildings of Panguitch, Utah (n.p., 1997), 8. 18. Ibid., 62. 19. See Stephen L. Carr, A Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns, 122; and Karl C. Sandberg, "Telling the Tales and Telling the Truth: Writing the History of Widtsoe," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26 (Winter 1993): 93-105. There are some discrepancies as to the order and time period when events took place in the settling and changing the name of Widtsoe among the sources named above and in Chidester and Bruhn's Golden Nuggets. 20. Effel Harmon Burrow, in Riggs, History of Hatch, 100. 21. Ibid., 101. 22. Ibid., 110. 23. Ibid., 105-6. 24. Ibid., 282. 25. Nethella Griffin Woolsey, The Escalante Story: 1875-1964, 128. 26. Robert H. Linford, "Biography of Joseph H. Linford," 2, copy obtained from the author. 27. See George W. Thompson, "Cannonville History," 23-24, unpub­lished manuscript, copy in possession of authors; and Woolsey, Escalante Story, 134-37. 28. Information provided by Marilyn Jackson. 29. Thompson, "Cannonville History," 24. 30. Woolsey, Escalante Story, 135-37. 31. Ibid., 137. 32. Shakespear, "Tropic," 8; Lenora Hall LeFevre, The Boulder Country and Its People, 237. 33. Material obtained from Marilyn Jackson, Escalante, Utah. 34. Vetta Linford, Memoirs, 1974, 6-9, copy in possession of the authors. 35. LeFevre, Boulder Country, 237. 36. For information on the national forests and livestock grazing activ­ities in Garfield County see Chidester and Bruhn, Golden Nuggets, 250-61; LeFevre, Boulder Country, 236-42; Woolsey, Escalante Story, 137-246. 37. Woolsey, Escalante Story, 148-49. 38. Chidester and Bruhn, Golden Nuggets, 314. 39. Riggs, History of Hatch, 316-17. 40. Woolsey, Escalante Story, 209. 232 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY 41. See "Still a Cowboy at 88 Years," Tribune Intermountain Service, 1938, 70-72, copy in possession of authors; and Ott, interview, 1993. 42. Recollections of Russell H. Talbot as told to his son Grant R. Talbot and subsequently related to the authors. 43. Ott, interview, 1993. 44. "Still a Cowboy," 71. 45. See Pearl Baker, The Wild Bunch at Robbers Roost (New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1965); Lula Parker Betenson as told to Dora Flack, Butch Cassidy, My Brother (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1975); Charles Kelly, The Outlaw Trail, A History of Butch Cassidy and His Wild Bunch (New York: Bonanza Books, 1959); Larry Pointer, In Search of Butch Cassidy (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977). Pointer's is the most scholarly of these four volumes, providing complete citations, bibli­ography, and evaluation of evidence. 46. Kelly, Outlaw Trail, 168-69. 47. Charles Kelly believes the two died in Bolivia, but Pointer presents some compelling evidence disputing that theory. 48. Betenson, Butch Cassidy, 184-85. 49. Emma Allene Savage Riddle, autobiography, undated typescript, 1. The authors thank Nancy Twitchell for providing them a copy of this. 50. Wallace Ott, interview with Linda King Newell, 4 July 1995, tran­script in possession of authors. 51. Ott, interview, 1993. 52. Butch Cassidy Draw is the first major drainage area east of the two tunnels that motorists on Utah Highway 12 pass through today. 53. Bettenson, Butch Cassidy, 164-67.