A History of Beaver County

Prosperity and depression, 1920 - 1950-1

CHAPTER 7 PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 X wo men from Beaver County became national personalities during the period between 1920-1950-Philo T. Farnsworth and Abe Murdock. Both Farnsworth and Murdock had roots that ran deep in the county-their ancestors had been men and women of the found­ing generation. But each lived lives that were anything but ordinary, and made contributions that drew them to the attention of the world outside the county. After receiving his education at the University of Utah, Murdock returned to his home town to set up his law practice in 1922. During the next several decades he served in a number of public roles on the Beaver City Council; as county attorney; and as attorney for the Beaver County School Board. He and his wife, Mary V. Yardley, also of Beaver, raised six children-William Orrice, Abram Riggs, Daniel Beck, Jane Elizabeth, Mary Violet, and Cinda.1 Abe Murdock served as a representative from Utah to the United States House of Representatives between 1933-1945 and a United States Senator between 1941-1947. While in Washington D.C., he served on various committees, including the Committee on Banking 221 222 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY Horse riders parade down Beaver's Main Street in the 1920s. (Utah State Historical Society) and Commerce; judiciary; public lands and surveys; territories and insular affairs; post offices and post toads; and privileges and elec­tions. During his time in office, he participated in numerous special senate investigations into silver production and the effects of cen­tralization on heavy industry. Murdock had earned his reputation locally as a lawyer specializ­ing in irrigation law, helping to negotiate Utah's share of the division of water from the Colorado River. Described in the Congressional Record as "a strong defender of working people and organized labor," he was appointed by President Truman to the National Labor Relations Board in 1949, where he served until 1957. He became a member of the Atomic Energy Labor-Management Relations Board in I960.2 He died in Bethesda, Maryland, on 15 September 1979, and is buried in the Beaver cemetery. Also born and raised in Beaver, Philo T. Farnsworth won his first national contest by age thirteen after the family moved to Frankliln, Idaho, a year earlier. The contest, sponsored by Science and Invention PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 223 magazine, highlighted his invention-a thief-proof lock. At age six­teen he drew a design for his high school chemistry teacher, Justin Tolman, that explained his belief that one could transform electric­ity into pictures by controlling the speed and direction of fast-flying electrons. Philo called his invention an "image dissector"; his teacher kept this drawing. Farnsworth attended Brigham Young University for two years, but learned most of what he knew about physics from correspon­dence classes he took from the University of Utah. Eventually, Farnsworth moved to Salt Lake City and began efforts to raise funds to develop his idea for the "image dissector." He married his longtime sweetheart-Pern Farnsworth-and moved to California. Although he had no training or previous experience in high-vacuum physics, Farnsworth was a quick learner-finding a new way to seal a flat lens end on a dissector camera tube to create a very high vacuum. This new application of this technology led to his demonstration of the first television system in September 1927. Although others were working on the transmission of visual images, his high school design allowed him to establish the claim-that he was the first to conceive of the basic technology of television. In 1936 he attracted the attention of Collier's Weekly which described his work in glowing terms. "One of those amazing facts of modern life that just don't seem possible-namely, electrically scanned television that seems destined to reach your home next year, was largely given to the world by a nineteen year old boy from Utah . . . Today, barely thirty years old he is setting the specialized world of science on its ears."3 Over the next decades, Farnsworth secured two patents to his designs, and his corporation eventually secured over 150. He died in 1971 at the age of sixty-four. Farnsworth never became financially wealthy because of invention, nor did he ever during his lifetime receive the recognition he rightly deserved as the "father of televi­sion." In 1987, however, the Utah legislature passed House Joint Resolution No. 1 sponsored by Donal R. LeBaron and Richard B. Tempest to commission an artist to sculpt a bronze statue of Philo T. Farnsworth, the father of television, for the Utah State Capitol.4 224 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY A 1920s float with dancers and musicians in Beaver. (Utah State Historical Society) Beaver County in the 1920s Because of the advantageous markets created by World War I, Utah's economy experienced a boom during the war years, but dipped into a depression soon after. In the early 1920s, several years before the of the nation entered into the Great Depression, Beaver County's mining and agricultural towns began to experience eco­nomic decline. Nevertheless, it is stunning how little things changed on a local basis with the end of World War I. Business continued as usual. Town government was concerned primarily with providing services that made life easier-improvements on property, fences repaired, water systems improved and maintained, streets and irriga­tion ditches cleared and resurfaced. The county commission included, in the early 1920s, Oren Burke, C.C. Sloan, C.A. Arrington, Homer D. Thompson, C. Frank Harris, and Ross B. Cutler. Beaver City held a bond election in 1940 to raise $130,000 for a new hydro-electrical plant to be located in Beaver Canyon. The plant and new system was built under Mayor Homer D. Thompson. PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 225 Since the late 1920s, Beaver has had a motion picture theater, large dance halls, and various clubs, like the Ladies Home Economic Club of Beaver, lodges, and other social organizations. Mormon church activities staged by wards and auxiliary organizations contin­ued to provide an important forum for community social interac­tion. Evan Patterson remembered these times: I was a teenager during this period. Remember, there was no TV, radios were very few here in Beaver. The dance halls and sports were the entertainment of the day. There were many dance halls in our area. . . . Hanging Rock in Minersville canyon, Brown Derby at Parowan, Utah, Purple Haze and Shadydell over along the Sevier River, Anderson Ranch dance hall located just east of the road where one turns off Interstate 1-15 going to Zions Canyon. Yes, I'll not forget Kenyon Grove, just south of the present-day race tract in Beaver.5 Young people loved to dance, he concluded. High school dances were also mentioned in numerous articles in local papers. The Radium Warm Springs swimming pool opened a half mile east of Minersville in July 1931. These hot springs were undeveloped until Albert and Roy Smith built a swimming pool, a dance pavilion, and a resort nearby and capitalized on this natural resource.6 Besides formal activ­ities, neighbors visited each other often, offering help in times of hardship, but for the most part just socializing. Rabbit hunting was very popular in the 1920s and went a long way in dealing with the problem of rabbit control in the county. Team competitions resulted in the destruction of literally hundreds of rabbits, as reported in a 16 February 1923 article in The Weekly Press. Teams usually consisted of fifteen men, armed with their own ammunition and assigned to a predetermined area. In 1927 a Hollywood film company came to the county and pur-suaded some local residents to invest in a silent film entitled, The Urge Within. Several local people acted in the film, including William A. Firmage and his son Bill, Cy Davis, Howard Fotheringham, Orville Harris, and Faye Jensen Williams. The film was about a town drunk and the efforts to get rid of him and his two children-played by Faye Jensen and Bill Firmage. 226 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY A Scene from the movie The Urge Within, filmed in Beaver in 1927. (Courtesy William Firmage) Orville Harris and Bill Firmage went to Hollywood following the completion of the film to pursue acting careers. Harris found he did not like Hollywood and returned home. Firmage found the depressed economy offered practically no hope for the talented young man. The Urge Within was shown around the county for at least two decades including during World War II during county-wide war bond drives. However, when the highly volatile film caught fire in the Milford theater, the only known copy was lost.7 The 1927 Minersville Basketball Team In 1927 the Minersville High School basketball team defeated B.Y. High for the Utah State Championship and departed by train from Milford for Chicago and the national high school basketball tournament. The town and the entire county were excited. Heber Gillins was so excited that, although he had just come from the fields to say farewell and was dressed in his farm overalls and old hat, he jumped on board the train and went with them-money and a change of clothes to be worried about later. The train slowly pulled away from the platform to the cheers and PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 227 The 1927 Minersville Basketball Team traveled to Chicago for the national high school basketball tournament. (Courtesy Dell Hollingshead) shouts of the crowd of well wishers. The t e am members included DeLose Baker, DeWayne Carter, Marcine Davis, Haratley Eyre, Ty Gillns, H e n r y Hall, Arshel Hollingshead, Newell Marshall, Wallace Osborn, Thel Smith, and coaches Stan McKnight and Melvin Whittwer. There were only ten boys in the eleventh and twelfth grades of Minersville High and all were on the team. When they reached Chicago, they were amazed by the sights, sounds, and smells of the big city. Their country roots were soon apparent. The story is told that when mashed potatoes were scooped onto their plates with a ice cream scoop, they thought that the potatoes were ice cream and saved t h em until last to eat as dessert. The t e am was eliminated from the tournament after losing their first two games. They found that their style of basketball did not meet with favor from the officials. Minersville went on to win the state championship again in 1931, and the w i n n i n g t r a d i t i o n has c o n t i n u e d w i t h t o w n and church teams, although high school students now attend school in Beaver and the old Minersville school n o longer stands.8 228 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY The Four Wheel Drive Auto Company operated by T. E. Parkinson takes on a load of freight and passengers at Milford. (Beaver County Travel Council) Communications The Beaver Press continued to be the best local source of news con­necting the various sections of the county together-noting the deaths of oldtimers and local celebrities, discussing the most current issues of concern, and detailing new business start-ups and changes in the infra­structure. Between 1920 and 1950, The Beaver Press had a series of edi­tor/ publishers. Starting with Timothy Brownhill (1920-1922), Karl S. Carlton (1922-1927), A.C. Saunders (1927-1933), Karl S. Carlton and his son, Walter Carlton (1933-1942), Charles S. Wilkinson (1942-1945), and Aird G. Merkley (1945-1947). Two U.S. highways ran through the county from the north/south and east/west. Highway No. 91 passed through Beaver City's Main Street and connected the town with most other important cities and towns of central Utah to the north and south. Highway No. 21 tra­versed the county east and west, providing a route to Nevada on the west and to Piute County to the east. Highway 21 runs through Milford, Frisco, and near the Indian Peak Indian Reservation and into PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 229 Nevada near the Lehman's Cave area near Baker, Nevada. The Los Angeles and Salt Lake railroads traveled through Milford and pro­vided daily passenger service. Also in Milford was a large freight depot, located on the main line of the Union Pacific. An airport was constructed in Milford during the early 1920s-a simple landing strip scraped out of the sagebrush fields. Used pri­marily as a stopover when the army flew the mail through the area, lights were installed in 1934 making it a twenty-four-hour landing field. Used as a CAA reporting station until 1958, the city of Milford maintained the field which served as a landing field for planes in dis­tress, including many military jets and transports. Like the rest of the United States, Beaver County felt the impact of the 18th Amendment adopted in 1919 which prohibited the con­sumption of alcoholic beverages. Known as Prohibition, the era from 1919 to 1933 gave rise to hidden stills to produce illegal liquor and bootleggers to transport the alcohol to willing customers. Oldtimers remembered a number of stills producing liquor during the days of prohibition, a time they called the "days of Sara Walker."9 At least six distilleries were reportedly operating. Charles Jamison worked with t h e sheriff's office d u r i n g these years and made p e r i o d i c runs through the county to shut the stills down, arrest offending opera­tors and discourage the production and sale of alcohol. Often he met with heated resistance. On one occasion he arrested three men and took t h em to Beaver to be housed in the city jail. He remembered, A few days after that, the U.S. Marshall come down with a couple of deputies and a machine gunner, fresh out of the army, and they got up, they found and located the still, and got upon the hillside, and made a brush front to hide them, and waited until they got down there and lit up the distillery, and got it to working, and they kicked these brush out, and there was this man with this machine gun pointed right at them, and the U.S. Marshall says, put your hands above your heads and come this way, and they hancuffed him and put him in the car and took the distillery.10 The Weekly Press editor, T i m o t h y Brownhill, described the rising problem with bootlegging in a 14 July 1922 editorial. Brownhill, who reminded his readers that he was a non-Mormon suggested that his 230 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY readers remember that Mormon church president Heber J. Grant had spoken out about obedience to the Mormon doctrine the Word of Wisdom, which prohibited the consumption of alcohol, and had specifically addressed the issue in a recent general conference address. He also spoke about of the problems of enforcing the law without the support of the county's people. He said that it had created a serious problem with juveniles who were having to appear before the juve­nile court. Expressing disappointment that the citizens of Beaver were not more attentive in desiring the enforcement of the law, he stated, no self-respecting citizen should want less.11 There is a certain irony in the destruction of 300 gallons of mash produced with gov­ernment wheat by Beaver County sheriffs in June 1932. High above the Wah Wah Valley, about thirty-five miles west of Milford in an abandoned cattlemen's cabin, some boot-leggers were producing ille­gal mash ready for distilling. Spotting the sheriffs long before they arrived, the guilty parties made an easy escape, but nevertheless the officers destroyed the mash and the possibility of their making an illegal profit.12 Prohibition ended in 1933 with the passage of the 21st Amendment which repealed the 18th Amendment. The American Legion and National Guard Veterans of World War I first met on 2 December 1924 for the purpose of organizing a Beaver post of the American Legion. Twenty men originally subscribed for membership, paid their dues, and became charter members. During the next several months, they drafted a constitution and applied for a charter. On 8 January 1925, Beaver Post No. 32 of the American Legion was granted its charter. Three weeks later, on 30 January, a grand ball and banquet initiated the group's activities. From its inception the American Legion has made a substantial contribution to the county's well being as a social and civic organization. Frequent and substantive involvement in 4th of July celebrations and other patriotic activities was traditionally supported by legionaires. Over time the Beaver post sponsored county fairs, and round-ups. The legion veterans also had rodeo grounds near the city park and each year went out into the western ranges and caught wild horses and staged authentic western rodeos. Dances, city beautification projects, patriotic oration contests, and PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 231 Dedication of the Doughboy Statue in Beaver on Memorial Day 1927. (Utah State Historical Society) numerous other types of activities were supported yearly by the Beaver post. In the mid-1920s, the American Legion built a Legion Dance Hall. Today used as a sewing factory run by John Powell, the dance hall was the scene of all kinds of social functions during the Depression years. The American Legion maintained a weekly column in The Weekly Press.13 On Memorial Day 1927, ten years after the United States entered World War I, the Beaver Post of the American Legion dedicated a monument in commemoration of those who served during the Great War. The monument was located in the center of Beaver's Main Street for several years before it was moved to its present location on the lawn of the post office. The American Legion raised $2,000 to pur­chase the monument. In addition, the wives of members of the American Legion joined together since 20 April 1925 to support post activities. Like their hus­bands, the auxiliary raised money for the Doughboy monument, supplies and medical aid for war veteran's children, contributions for school and civic clubs, and help for the needy. These women planned and executed Memorial Day, Independence Day, Washington's 232 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY Downtown Beaver during the dedication of the Doughboy Statue May 1927. (Utah State Historical Society) Birthday, and Armistice Day programs for local schools. Not only a philanthropic organization, but one which placed an emphasis on e d u c a t i o n and American p a t r i o t i c values, the American Legion Auxiliary made an i m p o r t a n t c o n t r i b u t i o n to the life of this com­munity. The Milford American Legion Post was organized on 6 March 1928 with twenty-six charter members. That same year the Milford American Legion Auxiliary was organized with twelve women as charter members. The Milford members were also involved in many patriotic, civic, and humanitarian programs and projects.14 D u r i n g t h e s p r i n g of 1929, Beaver City organized a National Guard unit. When first established in April 1929 as Headquarters Battery, Second Battalion, 222nd Field A r t i l l e ry was led by First Lieutenant S. Taylor Farnsworth as Battery Commander; Second Lieutenant Grant H. Tolton as junior officer; Joseph A. Manzione as first sergeant; E.S. Tattersall as supply sergeant and caretaker. When PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 233 it was first organized, there were thirty enlisted guardsmen. Each year t h e g r o u p m u s t e r e d for a two-week t r a i n i n g camp at t h e Jordan Narrows in June. Occasionally they traveled to California for brigade camps and to other locations in the northwest. Before the United States entered World War II, National Guard units began to mobilize. Mining After World War I, the development of new mines continued at a slower rate than during the b o om times of the late nineteenth cen­tury. For instance, in the 1920s finds in the vicinity of the H o r n Silver Mine indicated that rich veins stretched in several directions. The owners of the King David and Frisco Silver-Lead mines pumped fresh revenue in sinking and drifting the mines. At the King David, six mineralized veins, striking toward the Horn Silver, have been penetrated by a long crosscut to the north on the 750-foot level of the main working shaft. The most promising leads are being developed through a raise. Further west on the same zone, within less than 300 feet of the surface, the Frisco Silver-Lead has opened shoots of high-grade silver-lead ore from which many shipments have been made to the smelters.15 The shear zone, which was 4,200 feet in length and 500 feet wide, led directly i n to the H o r n Silver Mine and contained many veins and deposits of pay ore in its fractures. N o r t h and s o u t h of t h e H o rn Silver Mine finds located on a fault, originally identified in 1878 as the Beaver Carbonate, were called the Quadmetals by 1930. Mining companies continued to prospect for new sites of min­eral deposits. Joe and Bernett Swindlehurst opened the Gold Basin property three miles above the old Rob Roy Mine in the Indian Creek area where they struck a large body of gold-bearing quartz at a depth of twelve feet.16 That same week R. J. Finley of Los Angeles began assessment of a large b o d y of galena- lead ore which also h a d the p o t e n t i a l for yielding good silver a n d copper values in t h e West Mountain Range. Finley, who was raised in Beaver, located this site t h i r t e e n years earlier about four miles west of t h e F o r t u n a Mine. Reportedly, this was one of the largest bodies of ore ever discovered in this section-the outcropping ledge was nearly a thousand feet in length and ran several h u n d r e d feet in depth. Average assays along 234 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY the vein averaged $40 per t o n in lead, in addition to having value in silver a n d copper.17 By 1931 t h e F o r t u n a Mine, first developed in 1914, was yielding significant amounts of lead and renewed interest in mining in the Indian Creek area. "The success at Fortuna this year is giving an impetus to mining on Indian Creek, the west mountains and other mineralized zones, with the result that new discoveries and rock assays are being reported daily," according to the Beaver Press.18 Mine manager John Bestelmeyer stated the Fortuna district "shows undeniable promise. Both in the igneous rocks or in the sedimenta-ries remarkable mineralization can be found. Surface indications are splendid, but not enough work has been done at depth."19 The gold values r a n from 60 cents to $108 a t o n in gold. One boulder yielded $854 a t o n in gold. The company stored ore in a h u n d r e d ton bin at their property.20 Thomas and Fay Harris, who were working a claim just west of the Utah Gold Mining Company's property at Fortuna, were so excited about their claim that they built a log cabin at the site and worked continuously through the winter.21 Besides the work at t h e Fortuna site, work was underway during the same decade at the Oak Leaf property. A tunnel reaching 308 feet produced good quartz that assayed for $20 in gold, and which broke into Buckskin lime with an eight-foot vein of $35 to $40 in gold ore. The manager of the site boasted that nearby they had also opened a three-foot vein of manganese ore six feet under the ground that ran more than $25 in gold to the t o n and promised even better results as the vein widened.22 A g r o u p of m e n in Milford i n c l u d i n g R.E. Ellingsworth, Jim Hemby, Don Workman and Bert Nichols installed a gasoline hoist at the Big Project site in the Bradshaw district, seven miles southeast of Milford. Earlier in 1931 t h e y h a d found a t w o - a n d - o n e half foot ledge of lead-silver-zinc ore which they determined was at least 2,500 feet long and several feet deep.23 Also in 1931 a n ew prospect was developed by the H o r n Silver Company in an area called the Buckhorn Shaft.24 Plans were under way in 1931 to reopen sulphur mines twenty-two miles n o r t h of Beaver.25 Sulphurdale's mines opened in June 1932 and fifteen families moved back into homes nearby.26 The principal product manufactured by the company was PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 235 The Park at Newhouse. (Utah State Historical Society) sulphur dust, used extensively in California for dusting melons, let­tuce, and other vegetable fields to prevent mold. Generally, there was e n t h u s i a sm in the early 1930s about the potential still lying in the county's rich mineral mountains. According to the Press, "There is an apparent optimistic trend in the mining sit­u a t i o n over t h e c o u n t r y that is being noticed in Beaver C o u n t y as well as in other sections. That the price of silver is due to come back to a point where mining of that commodity will again be profitable is not a far distant future is confidently felt by the mining fraternity."27 An editorial in the Press on 21 July 1933 expressed the common sen­timent, that mining was helping to t u r n the tide of b a d times and promised future profits. With metal prices again at a profitable level and moving higher, the west is preparing for a genuine old-fashioned mining revival. Talk of reopening old properties is rife and the prospector and pro­moter is beginning to venture forth again after several years of inactivity in silver, lead, zinc and copper mining. . . . In this transi- 236 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY tion a mine has been turned from a liability into a profitable ven­ture once more. As yet, however, the margin of profit is small and producers feel that it will be better to await the consumption of some of the surplus stocks before reopening their mines and plac­ing production again ahead of consumption. By late summer and early fall this condition should be classified and a number of pro­ducers will undoubtedly see their way clear to reopen properties and thousands of men will be returned to their normal occupa­tions. Reopening of the mines will be followed by the reopening of the smelters. The railroads will again be moving long trains of ore cars, supplies, etc., and the farmer will begin to find a market for more of his products. The start toward all this has been made, now the conclusion is up to the industries themselves. Men must be put to work now to perpetuate the improvement. This is no time for timidity. If consumption is to improve, it must be made to improving placing men back to work.28 Businesses feeding off the revived m i n i n g activities also were organized in the county. A rod mill for handling ore was installed in Beaver in September 1932 by D .W Jeffs, John M. Bestelmeyer, and John M. Broomcamp, among others. The company was formed to handle the ore of the Utah Gold Mining Company out of Fortuna, but milled ore for other mines as well.29 The Forrester Balanced Rod Mill would grind, elevate, a n d classify ore for immediate amalgama­tion, flotation, or concentration, and did so with four to seven horse­power per fifty ton unit.30 The first shipment of ore from the Utah Gold Mining Company at Fortuna was made to the mill company in November 1932. It con­sisted of forty-two tons of ore which yielded $38 per ton.31 Besides benefitting from new mining activity, several mines were sold outright-Edward Schoo sold eighteen mining claims, known as the "Prosper" group, in 1935 for $250,000 to Harry Murtha, a min­ing engineer from South Africa.32 The owners of t h e Sheep Rock Mining and Milling Company leased their p r o p e r t y to E.Bissell of Beaver and Charles A. Sihler of Glendale, California-who antici­pated commencing work before the next month.3 3 By the next fall, they were s h i p p i n g high grade gold a n d silver ore to smelters in n o r t h e r n Utah for processing.34 PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 237 Mining activities stepped up at the Horn Silver Mine as well as at the King David property in April 1935.35 In May 1935 news of a rich new strike in the Horn Silver mine west of Milford was announced. The vein was allegedly eight feet wide and contained gold, silver, and lead.36 By 1935 one newspaper headline described the area as "teem­ing with mining activity."37 The heaviest producing mines were the Lincoln, Moscow, Carbonate, Rob Roy, Shamrock, Beaver Copper, Old Hickory, Montreal, and the Horn Silver, which had produced by 1935 more than $50,000,000. The rising price of silver in part explained the renewed activity-but success in terms of new sites, high yields, and generally optimism about future efforts proved con­tagious and spread through the district. After having been closed for forty years, the Quadmetals Mine in the San Francisco district was leased in 1935 to a group of Chicago investors who planned to bring in new equipment, unwater the mine, and commence work as soon as possible.38 The San Francisco district was described in 1937 as "alive with mining activity." That same year discovery of an extension of the $50 million vein system of the Horn Silver Mine drew the attention of national mining engineers, mine operators, and others who visited the district to examine the find.39 One visitor, lead smelter owner E.R. Phelps, described the claim as being convincingly rich in potential yields. "Conditions south of the Horn Silver are so nearly identical with those in the Horn Silver that I look for conditions to ore deposits for considerable distances."40 The Bonanza Mining Company was driving a tunnel to tap the vein at 110 feet. In what was called the "Lulu" was a 900-foot shaft that had been driven by the American Smelting and Refining Company in 1929. Work on the site had stopped with the stock market crash of 1929 and had not been the scene of further activity until 1937.41 The San Francisco Mines, Inc, company was chartered in 1938 to carry on mining activities near the Horn Silver Mine as well.42 In the 1930s Beaver County mining dis­tricts produced $489,155 worth of ore. Despite the devastation to the mining industry caused by the Depression, higher prices and revived production stimulated new activity. By the mid-1930s, and since the inception of mining activity in 1860, Beaver County had produced 453,422,708 pounds of lead and 23,354,296 ounces of silver. Copper, 238 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY Two automobiles loaded with passengers in front of the Cactus Club in Newhouse. (Utah State Historical Society) next in line with 53,946,296, and zinc, with 42,123,360 pounds, were both important sources of revenue. The Horn Silver Mine had its best year in a decade in 1939-producing 10,590 tons at a gross value of $128,000. This total included 1,470 ounces of gold, 77,330 of silver, 1,444,000 p o u n d s of lead, a n d 139,299 of zinc.43 By t h e 1940s the Horn Silver Mine had produced approximately 190,192 tons of lead, 17,104,544 ounces of silver, 33,000 ounces of gold, 9,177,853 pounds of copper, and 19,192 of zinc. Rich deposits of scheelite or t u n g s t e n were found at t h e Old Hickory Mine in 1940, having an estimated value of $10,000,000.44 Clarence H. Hall, engineer of the U.S. Vanadium, headed the work which included core drilling o n the t u n g s t e n vein, drifting in the McGarry shaft to cross-cut the vein, and working the surface to t ry and determine the width, extent, strike and value of the vein on the leased property.45 A second tungsten claim in the west mountains was operated by M.M. Ward and Edith Ward, who owned one-half inter­est in twenty-four claims known as the Scheelite group. Working for t h em on the project, miner E.A. McCarry was sinking a double com- PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 239 partment shaft to the 200-foot level. They also hired a number of engineers to study the site.46 Tungsten was of particular benefit to the war effort, which increased interest in the thriving mining efforts.47 Used for filiments in electric light globes, and for hardening and toughening steel, tungsten was a vital element in modern industry. In 1943 Lew Lessing discovered a rich tungsten deposit in a tun­nel first dug more than fifty years earlier, in an event described by the Beaver Press as seemingly like an "Arabian Knights Fable; Affects all Beaver County's Future." It describes it with glowing language: "It remained for Lewis Lessing, a comparatively young prospector in his late 30's while prospecting the surface ground for indications of tungsten to enter the old abandoned workings with his Aladis' (fluo­rescent) lamp and discover a veritable enchanted chamber, shim­mering and scintillating with a billion tungsten crystals."48 Beaver County tungsten mines were remarkably productive during the 1940s. On 3 March 1944, Strategic Metals Incorporated shipped three car loads of tungsten ores from the Granite Mining District to U.S. Vanadium Corporation in Salt Lake City.49 Reportedly, this mining district which was under intensive prospecting showed "a tremen­dous granite-lime contact, geologically conducive to the existence of tungsten ores." It was believed at the time that future development would reveal even larger deposits of shipping and milling grades of this particular strategic metal.50 Also important to the county were the number of outside investors attracted by the increased mining success in the west moun­tain district. In 1942 a group out of Chicago leased the Garnett prop­erty owned by A.E. McGarry and James E. Robinson's property-the "Rattler Claims"-was leased as well to outside investors.51 A group of investors from Pennsylvania joined with investors from Utah in the Penn-Utah Mining Company to purchase mining properties and leases, and to begin mining operations in the Frisco district. At the time of their incorporation, they had twenty promising claims to fur­ther investigate.52 Out of California, the Metal-Producers Company acquired a lease on part of the Horn Silver property and cleaned out the King David shaft, repaired it to depth of 800 feet, and extended a lateral from the 800-foot level of the shaft 2,000 feet to the Horn 240 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY Silver ore channel. There they discovered new ore and expected a 200-ton output daily.53 During World War II, seven major mines were under various lev­els of development-the Horn Silver Mine, the Moscow Mine, the Wah Wah Mine, the O.K. Mine, the Harrington Hickory Mine, the Gold Reef Mine, and the Old Hickory Mine. Five other mines were preparing to produce and ninety local men were employed in min­ing activities, for an average monthly payroll of $30,000. The average daily production was between 175 and 200 tons.54 Milford became increasingly central to southern Utah's mining activities during these years.55 A new 400-ton processing plant was charted to begin operation in the fall of 1947 to process low-grade ores from the Horn Silver Mine. Huge quantities of low grade copper, lead, and zinc ores adapt­able for milling were to be charted and blocked out for processing at the new mill. Built by the Metal Producers Company out of California, which had run the old Horn Silver mine in western Beaver County since 1941, the facility would represent an accommodation to the amount of ore that was produced locally.56 But in 1947 a pres­idential veto of the metals subsidy bill broke the mining trend and the Horn Silver Mine closed down altogether.57 Under the management of Jack Lowe, the mine reopened in September and began plans again for the construction of a mill to handle the low-grade ores.58 The mill neared completion in February 1948, and it was generally believed that this $300,000 facility would benefit the entire district. Powered by two large diesel-electric motors, a several thousand gallon reservoir and a sixteen-inch well would supply the mill, which would employ twenty-five local men.59 By July the mill was grinding out ore at the rate of 500 tons per day and producing concentrates which were then shipped to Salt Lake smelters.60 Regardless of increased local mining activity, some rail lines were taken up in 1937 and 1943. After the 1940s there were only thirty-four miles of main track and twenty-one miles of side tracks in the county. Originally laid in 1899, the Utah and Pacific Railroad Company extended the main line southwesterly from Milford to Uvada at the Utah-Nevada state line and the sixteen and one-half PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 241 miles of the old main line between Milford and Frisco became the Frisco Branch. Agriculture Stock raising continued to be important to the county's eco­nomic well-being throughout the period, the shearing season start­ing in April each year and ending a month later. In April 1932, for instance, sheepmen began the process of shearing their sheep at the Newhouse shearing corrals. The Newhouse facility had thirty machines with a capacity of between 2,000 and 3,000 heads per day.61 The Newhouse shearing corral was built in 1913 and was one of the largest in the state. Most of the sheep sheared at the corral were owned by people from outside the county who brought their herds into the area from Sanpete Valley, the Salt Lake Valley, and other loca­tions. Most of the Beaver County sheep were sheared at the Minersville corrals where local men began shearing with hand-oper­ated blades about 1900 with the sheep held in brush corrals. Later corrals were built, machinery installed, and almost every local man worked as a sheep shearer at one time or another. One shearer, Obra Myers, won a shearing contest held in Craig, Colorado, in 1946. The prize was awarded for both speed and the quality of the shearing. Myers sheared five sheep in twelve minutes and thirty-one seconds and was featured in a photograph that appeared in Life Magazine.62 According to county agent Lew Mar Price, 20,000 pounds of turkeys were shipped from Beaver County in November 1932. Killing and processing the birds were done in Beaver before shipping by truck to Los Angeles for the Thanksgiving market. Farmer Fay Hall of Minersville had the largest flock with between 700 and 800 birds, but most farmers in the Milford Valley and in Greenville had between 400 and 500 turkeys. Before they were butchered, the turkeys assisted the farmers in combating a grasshopper invasion. Farmers let their turkeys loose in their fields and they allegedly greatly reduced the pests. The local turkey association made it easier for many local farm­ers to go into the turkey raising business on a large scale.63 Also important to the county's economy was the dairy industry. In 1932 the Brooklawn Creamery began business on the site of the old Beaver Valley Creamery and employed several men and women 242 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY A Fourth of luly parade in Beaver. (Utah State Historical Society) from the county. Despite the Depression economy, the company undertook extensive remodeling of the plant, laying new concrete floors, repairing and plastering walls, and bringing the building up to a much improved condition.64 Before the Depression years, the Shepard Creamery was the sole dairy industry in the valley, but by 1933 Beaver had two modern, well equipped creameries, and pro­duced approximately one-sixth of the state's total cheese, surviving the low prices for butter and cheese during the first years of the Depression.65 The Beaver Dairy Association stressed the importance of the dairy industry to the county, stating in January 1938 that the Brooklawn Creamery alone paid over $175,000 for dairy products. "Beaver is the ideal dairy center of the state," they boasted. "We have the market and pasture. We raise the finest alfalfa hay and corn for silage in the state." The association's objectives were to increase pro­duction by increasing herds and improving feeding and housing of dairy cows and eliminating low producers. "We are going to make a drive for a better quality of milk, giving out in formation as to the best method of caring for same. We plan on dairy excursions thru the PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 243 state to see how others are doing in their locality." All high-minded objectives, through the association's local dairy, farmers found ways to weather bad times and come out on top. To help recruit new mem­bers and popularize their work, the dairy association invited the pub­lic to join them in a celebration. "Don't forget to watch for the Big Dairy Association Supper and Dance soon," they announced in The Beaver Press, "Don't say Beaver is a pretty good place. Or Beaver could be a better place. Say Beaver is the Best place in all the world. Thanks to the cow."66 In 1940 the names of eight local dairymen were added to the national honor roll by the National Dairy Association, recognizing their accomplishment of developing a herd of cows with an average butter fat production in excess of 300 pounds per cow.67 The associa­tion attributed this to attention to "good breeding, good feeding, wise selection of individual cows, and general good management."68 In 1947 the plant processed milk from Beaver and other nearby towns at the rate of 58,000 pounds of milk daily. By 1947 the price of butter fat had increased to $1.00 per pound.69 In 1935 there were 447 farms in Beaver County with a total of 50,127 acres of land of which 9,998 were irrigated. The farms were generally small in size, most between 20 and 99 acres, and the aver­age farm size 112.1 acres. Seven farms totaled more than 1,000 acres.70 In 1941 it was estimated that the county had 6,000 head of beef cattle and 3,000 head of dairy cattle, representing the principal source of agricultural income. Primary crops grown by local farmers were alfalfa, corn, barley, oats, and wheat-some planted potatoes. The county planning board suggested that the county included 6,500 acres of pasture land, ranging from highly productive to water-bogged lands which couldn't be used for grazing. The work of the state agricultural experiment station was particularly critical in plan­ning for the future and attempting to find more efficient ways of using available resources.71 The Potato Marketing Company came to Milford in 1943, and after suffering significant losses in their first year ($32,000), they began making a profit within a few years.72 The Boston Land Company began large scale farming in the Milford Valley in 1944, focusing initially on the conservation and careful management of water resources, and planting 3,000 acres with 244 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY California Mariot Barley, White Rose Potatoes, alfalfa, wheat, and vegetables.73 By the end of World War II, Milford Valley was producing pota­toes, and in 1945 shipped 500 car loads of potatoes from the Milford Union Pacific station to markets in Chicago, Amarillo, Texas, and Detroit, Michigan.74 By 1946, 1,000 acres were planted in potatoes in surrounding fields in anticipation of a harvest that would exceed 1,200 cars of potatoes ready to be shipped out of the county to markets across the U.S. Two storage cellars had been used by the town for several years, but two more were constructed in 1946. Each had a storage capacity of between 25,000 and 35,000 potatoes.75 Managing Water Resources Dams had been built and maintained by Beaver farmers during the nineteenth century who received $2.50 a day for hand labor on the dams and canals. Drivers of wagons and teams received $5.00 for their difficult trek up the canyon. Stockholders joined together to form the Kents Lake Company for joint ventures like the Kents Lake Reservoir. The company organized and began building dams in 1903. Shareholders worked on the site every fall, bringing their plows, rock boats, scrapers and wagons for the work. In 1910 the original dam was enlarged to provide enough space for fish planting. After 1925 the Utah State Engineer took control over the distribution of water. In 1948 the Utah State Engineer questioned if there was enough water to fill this reservoir and required that the Kents Lake Company drill more core drill holes where the dam would sit. Resistance to the project came from those who thought there were already enough dams on Beaver Mountain and didn't want it further altered.76 The district court in Beaver was the scene for numerous battles over water-the key to agricultural development and survival in the area. Ownership of virtually every part of the Beaver River was in constant dispute between 1915 and 1931, with law suits between farmers, county government, and private citizens, and between municipalities. In some ways it seemed like an irreconcilable conflict in which everyone would always be fighting for their own self inter­ests. In 1929 the state engineer's office attempted to adjudicate water PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 245 allotments, but a continuing debate over amounts led to further con­troversy. "The fight by no means was settled, it was only begun. The east end of the county contended that the duty on the water was too high, the west end that it was too low. The filing of 150 protests resulted and were heard by the district court for an entire month in 1931."77 For many, building new reservoirs to store water in peak times and regulate more fairly in dry months for irrigation purposes was the only fair solution to the enduring problem.78 When Utah's Soil Conservation Service was organized, the state offered local farm­ers help in these discouraging efforts. Under their direction, they built dikes, reservoirs, and underground canal systems, controlling better the flow of water from rivers to irrigated farm fields. Organizations like the Minersville Reservoir and Irrigation Company continued these efforts on a local level. A perpetual problem plaguing Beaver County farmers was an inconsistent and unpredictable water supply. On 3 September 1936, Minersville was seriously flooded. Cedar trees flowed down town streets, pigs swam in the water, haystacks scattered through town. Farmers would clear out the irrigation ditches two or three times a year, but eventually they would become blocked. Water was irregular and would flood out fields or dry them up. When washes ran down through the canal, they would "come in and move the shocks of grain out of the field, and just cover rocks and silt over everything. The early settlers back then, they hauled rock and they brought cedar limbs in and piled within the rock, and making a bank to turn the flood. It might be good for one or two years, and then they'd do it all over again, and it was just taking the fields, and it was a failure."79 Using WPA funds, Minersville attempted to resolve its water dilemma by updating its water system and running new six-inch pipes throughout town.80 When D. Low visited the county representing the Utah State Agricultural College in December 1937, he assessed the county's single greatest obstacle to further agricultural development as being limited water resources. "Greater intensification of agricul­ture on the small scale Beaver County is dependent on the develop­ment of added irrigation water and these factors are vitally important to determining the wealth and success of any community."81 Finally in August 1941, Judge Will L. Hoyt of the district court 246 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY decided in the case of Rocky Ford Irrigation Company and Telluride Power Company vs. Kents Lake Reservoir Irrigation Company and T. H. Humphreys, state engineer, in favor of the defendants. The Kents Lake Reservoir Company had applied to transfer their storage rights from the Kents Lake site to Three Creeks. This decision was of signif­icance to the county because it made possible construction of a reser­voir at Three Creeks in Beaver Canyon, providing significant water for Beaver County irrigation on the bench land and would result in an increased production of alfalfa on this land from 3,000 to 5,000 tons.82 Preparation for the Three Creeks dam involved building a road around the northwest side of the proposed site, rerouting a phone line through Three Creeks valley to Puffer Lake, and clearing a sig­nificant amount of land. After the 1920s, reservoir projects in the Tushar Mountains were collaborative efforts. The Utah State Engineer, the local forest service personnel, the electric power com­pany, and the Utah State Road Commission, among other govern­mental entities, all played a role. The Three Creeks Reservoir construction project was bid out at $142,000, begun in the summer of 1948, and completed the next year. The Three Creek Reservoir received little of the spring water run­off, so the tunnel headgate was shut down by the company. The dam started to leak just a few days later, causing them to install ten-inch galvanized pipes to pick up the water spilling over. The company was also involved in legal action with Minersville Reservoir over Beaver River water. The result was that water from the river was stored in both reservoirs. Forestry and Wildlife Management In part the management of water was a matter of regulating spring run-offs in nearby canyons that related to the erosion in the valley caused by long dry periods. In 1931 forest officials anticipated serious flooding because of the erosion that had occurred on ranges throughout the district. H. M. Christensen, forest ranger, suggested that the situation was particularly precarious because of the cumu­lative effect of a series of bad years. Because the county had so many of the conditions that led to flooding, the Fish Lake Forest Service PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 247 The Beaver Game Club Entry in a Beaver Parade. (Courtesy Dell Hollingshead) requested aid from the state authorities. A group of eleven represen­tatives of local organizations-the Lions Club, forest service, Pine Creek Forest Users Association, t h e Fish and Game Commission, county commissioners, among other men, visited various areas of the watershed to access current conditions. They observed that much of t h e range grass was c r o p p e d short a n d h a d an overabundance of weeds, a c o n d i t i o n common to overgrazed land. Few y o u n g trees were growing in any of t h e areas. Depletion of the range was the principal concern of the group, caused in part by the large number of deer grazing in mountainlands which had forced cattle and sheep down into lower areas and overgrazing resulted.83 Success came gradually, but by the mid-1940s it was clear that p l a n n i n g efforts had had positive results. The Fish and Game Commission announced in March 1945 that it was transplanting part of Utah's antelope h e r d in the western desert section of Beaver County. "This range is rapidly coming back u n d e r the intelligent administration of the grazing service which has built water holes and restricted grazing," according to Ross Leonard of the Utah Fish and Game Commission, "as such, it is an ideal habitat for prong horns."84 248 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY The government established the Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, a division of the research arm of the United States Forest Service, in 1929-30. The focus of the station was the study of the range areas of the Intermountain West. A general survey of the ranges was made between 1930-31 to determine a permanent experimental site to study grazing management. Approximately 51,000 acres of winter range fifty miles west of Milford were selected after the preliminary survey. In 1933 the Desert Range Branch Experiment Station was estab­lished about fifty miles west of Milford. Operated by the Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station of the United States Forest Service out of Ogden, the station was established to study the management of sheep and cattle. Of particular interest were grazing capacities and the most effective methods of utilization of the arid semi-desert areas of the west. The area around the station typi­fied much of the 50 million acres of range land in Utah, central Nevada, southwestern Wyoming, southern Idaho, and eastern Oregon. The government revealed plans to establish a reforestation camp employing 200 men in April 1933 at Big Flat, just above Puffer Lake. The plan included building a road on the east side of the mountain to Puffer Lake; the construction of a road to Kents Lake on the west side of the mountain; poisonous weed control in various areas of the Beaver mountains, and erosion control. The 200 workers would be recruited by the labor department but managed by the army. The camp would be run like an army camp in terms of feeding, clothing, and housing. The forest service would regulate their work activities during the daytime. It was rumored that men would be recruited from the ranks of the unemployed in southern Utah, recommended by local relief agencies. Workers had to be at least eighteen years old and, if mar­ried with dependents, would be given first consideration. In May 1933 the government announced plans to build a Government Forest Conservation camp at the Tushar Ranger Station in Beaver Canyon as well as a timber camp in Beaver Canyon. This meant that several roads would be constructed into the area, that 200 PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 249 local men would be employed at the camp, and another 200 at the camp near Ibex, in the western part of the county.85 County officials met periodically with government officials to discuss the conditions of grazing lands, nearby forests and other nat­ural resource development and use. In July 1933 regional, district, and national representatives from forestry agencies met with repre­sentatives of the grazing district, Fish Lake Forest, and the inspector of fish and game in region four. Forester C.E. Fave conducted a dis­cussion about the way land was currently being managed in the area and suggested that "the already greatly depleted areas of the water­shed that serve this beautiful valley may be harmed to such an extend that restoration of undergrowth may be impossible."86 Emphasizing that planning was critical to the preservation and appropriate use of local resources, they described their aim as striking a "happy medium, not sacrificing game, stock or watershed but to maintain a balance that will tend to benefit every one."87 Limited vegetation on these range lands consists of low shrubs and grasses from the salt-desert shrub group. Throughout the region, lands similar to these provide forage for as many as 4.5 million sheep and 250,000 cattle during the winter months. In Beaver County about 1.1 million acres of winter range land, or 65 percent of the total acreage of the county, were used this way. Water was limited. In fact, precipitation was about half that in Beaver itself or about six inches per year. Light snowfall also facilitated winter grazing. The sole sawmill operating in 1947 was run by Walter Mackerell and Robert Draper. Located west of the Beaver Race Track grounds, it was built on the Fort Cameron site. Timber milled there was cut in the high region of "Big John's Flat" and hauled to the mill in an old army truck. Until the 1950s, the district forest ranger had no permanent staff and, except for some fire fighting equipment, had very little equip­ment. Hanmer (Ham) Christensen, who became district ranger in 1930, was the only full-time forest service employee, and at the outset of his service in Beaver he used his own auto. In time he was fur­nished a pickup truck; a horse trailer was added later. Christensen personally tagged all the cattle that were legally permitted on the for­est service land, counted the sheep twice each season, and marked 250 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY with a "U.S." each tree that was permitted to be cut for lumber. His horses were kept in pastures at the ranger stations during the sum­mer and at his home in Beaver during the winter. During the sum­mer he lived with his family at the Big Flat Ranger Station until about 1936 when they started using the Delano Ranger Station which had been recently constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The Great Depression The people of Beaver County may have felt like the stock market crash of October 1929 was a rich people's game in New York City and wouldn't have much of an impact locally. If they did, they were wrong. The cycle of credit, inflated securities investments, and real estate booms fell flat, and created a depression that swept across the country like a devastating tidal wave. Businesses, banks, farms, and mines were all effected and many closed down completely; others struggled to stay in business but could barely pay their bills. Millions of Americans were unemployed, penniless and disoriented, unsure about where to turn for help. Continuing in the laissez-faire tradition of republican govern­ment, President Herbert Hoover believed the market would heal itself and proceeded to confront short-term issues of immediate welfare and relief rather than address the struggling economy in general. The most sweeping of his Depression proposals, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, was presented too late in the game and offered only indirect relief to those individuals and families stricken by the Depression. By the early 1930s, the American people wanted a new leader, someone they believed could save them from the Depression and turn the economy around. Franklin D. Roosevelt and his promise of a New Deal for the American people swept the 1932 election. Because Beaver County was largely agricultural in character, its people did not starve during the Depression. Nevertheless, the county did experience sweeping and devastating economic change. Farmers were able to continue to feed their families but rarely had money in hand with which to purchase new clothes or tools. Professionals and businessmen, on the other hand, frequently had to barter their goods and services for food. Many remembered long years of sacrifice and fighting of belts as local residents struggled financially. PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 251 The Wood family had a "bunch of fine hogs and they was bring­ing such money, we said we'd let them get a little bigger and when they did get a little bigger, the bottom went out so fast, we never got anything, and the cattle the same. We never had no money to buy any. That's why as a kid, I came over here [Beaver] and tried to keep the cattle a long."88 Evan Patterson remembered that the local bank went broke early on and many farmers had to sell their adult animals to the govern­ment for $20 a head, calves for $2.00. Complicating their difficulties even further, Beaver Valley experienced a drastic drought. Direct relief came in a variety of forms. The Red Cross shipped nine cars of feed wheat to Beaver County in May 1932. The wheat was used to feed families as well as cattle. The wheat was apportioned to farmers according to the number of head of cattle they owned. The wheat arrived by rail at Milford but was hauled to local farms by the farmers themselves or for a fee of 15 cents per 100 pounds.89 The Press acknowledged the benefit this would have on local farm condi­tions: "This wheat will be of great help to the hard-pressed farmer and stockmen who have been compelled to run their stock on short rations, and will assist materially in getting the stock back in shape."90 The county commission between 1929 and 1935 included Fred R. Levi, Herbert C. Eyre, Frank D. Williams, James Patterson, Grant H. Tolton, R.E. Ellingsworth, and H.A. Christiansen. Required to address the same concerns as their predecessors: road maintenance and construction, water regulation, local ordinances, as well as the new challenges presented by the Depression, they were responsible for forming committees and agencies to administer the separate pro­grams of the New Deal, manage local projects, and distribute resources and appropriations. County commission minutes indicate that the commissioners believed it was the county's responsibility to provide for the poor and the indigent. In their commission meetings during 1930, they discussed poor relief, provision of care for depen­dent mothers, old age pensions, county and state roads, and distrib­ution of general funds. The county was supporting at the time two young girls at the Children's Service Society of Utah at considerable expense. 252 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY The New Deal When Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt became president in 1932 within 100 days he had initiated several programs that directly addressed the problems suffered by Beaver County residents. Together these programs, called the New Deal, provided relief for the needy, created jobs, encouraged business, and set up government agencies to address special interest groups-farmers, home owners, banking, and business. New Deal programs brought federal money into the county, helping to build the infrastructure, provide jobs for the unemployed, and help the needy to survive in their time of great­est need.T. L. Holman, chair of the governor's central committee for relief, met with the Beaver County commission during the second week of December 1932 to access local needs. After examining the reports of the way the county was distributing relief, he advised that no more money be given to the needy but rather groceries, supplies, clothing, and other resources be provided directly. He gave the com­mission a check for $2,500 to purchase these types of materials for distribution.91 Holman also played a role in the establishment of Civilian Conservation Camps in the county during 1933.92 The Beaver City canning center prepared food for individuals and families on relief rolls. In August 1935, for instance, they canned 919 cans of beans; 263 cans of peas; 839 cans of corn; 147 cans of beets; and 219 cans of tomatoes; or 158 cans a day. This work was originally done in the high school kitchen but moved because of bet­ter facilities to the LDS East Ward Relief Society Hall. Canned corn was apparently in the greatest demand. All the produce used in can­ning was donated by area farmers.93 National Reemployment Office The government established an office of the National Reemployment Service in the county in November 1933, located in the old Post Office building on Beaver's Main Street. As manager, Joseph A. Manzione worked with the Beaver County Relief Committee which consisted of E.A. Griffith, W.W. Farrer, Warren Neilsen, Lew Murr Price, O.F. Hubbell, George Marshall, and WH. Varley. All workers employed on public works projects-highways, municipal and county school district projects-had to be hired PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 253 pas I Neilsen's Garage in Beaver. (Utah State Historical Society) through the service office. While this was one way to begin to deal with the problem of unemployment, the committee emphasized that most of the work needed to be done in the private sector, and that the county should not rely too heavily on federal projects for reem­ployment of its citizens.94 By December, fifty of Beaver's unemployed men were put to work on improvements on the water system and cleaning, improving, and repairing streets, sidewalks, and in the Beaver city park.95 By April, unemployment figures had dropped by 26 percent, largely due to the work of farmers in spring planting.96 The Beaver County Relief Committee attempted to track those indi­viduals who claimed the need for aid but refused employment when offered. "No individual is entitled to relief until they have exhausted all of their resources and are unable to support their families longer."97 The re-employment office was closed in January 1937 because of the limited number of federal projects in the county.98 Banking As was true of banks across the United States, the State Bank of Beaver County suffered with money shortages and closed its doors- declaring a holiday for a two-day period, putting its business in the hands of a state bank examiner.99 The bank then responded with a 254 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY variety of incentives to those who would redeposit their savings. In February 1934 the bank offered a 10 percent dividend to depositors to the bank, an offer that had been cleared by Royal Kimball, exam­iner in charge of the bank's affairs by the Fifth Judicial District judge. The total amount of the bank's obligations at the time was $157,932.60; according to the newspaper, this 10 percent dividend would "put $15,793.26 in circulation, quite a nice amount these hard times."100 At various times over the next two years, the bank issued additional dividends on the liquidation of the State Bank to deposi­tors. In August 1935, for instance, it issued a 7 percent dividend or a total of $9,915.59.101 By October 1936 the bank had issued 64 percent in dividends to depositors.102 A new bank opened in Milford in October 1937-the Milford State Bank. "The opening of this new bank is a big step in the forward progress that is being made by the community," the Press asserted, "and will be a big inducement for outside capital to build a bigger and better Beaver City." By the end of the war, deposits increased dra­matically in both Milford and Beaver County banks, representing a return to economic good health and more predictable sources of income.103 Agriculture The purchase of cattle by the federal government had a signifi­cant impact on the livestock industry in Beaver County. Of an esti­mated 10,000 cattle in the county, 8,500 were made available by their owners for purchase under the government program. Of these, the federal government purchased 4,752 by the end of August 1934. About 25 percent, or 1,134, were slaughtered for local use, while the remainder were shipped out of the county to be canned for relief supplies.104 Beaver County residents benefitted from a number of programs of the New Deal. After years of unchecked use of agricultural lands in the county, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration set up programs locally to monitor soil fertility, and promote the economic use of and conservation of land. In Beaver the chair of the AAA com­mittee was Arnold J. Low. He oversaw the organization of soil erosion and flood control programs among other projects to benefit farmers PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 255 in the area. Also in the interests of agriculturalists, the Farm Security Administration organized rural rehabilitation projects to benefit needy farm families. Utah came under the jurisdiction of Region No. 9 located in Logan, Utah.105 The FSA supervisors in Beaver County were D.D. Bushnell and Arthur B. Smith. The Home Management Supervisor was Hannah H. Wells. Farm produce was regulated by the Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation which purchased goods, managed the exchange and processing of farm products, and worked with farmers in the distribution and transportation of their goods. The purpose of the corporation was to remove surplus agricultural commodities from the normal channels of trade and divert those products to the needy and underfed. Farmer Aubra Cartwright of Beaver City managed such efforts in Beaver County. A.R. Hovey of Cedar City was the field supervisor for the Emergency Crop and Feed Loan Office that provided loans for farmers for fallowing, produc­tion of crops, planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops, and the purchase of supplies for agricultural purposes. The Farm Credit Administration also benefitted local farmers through the creation of funding sources more readily available for farmers. The Federal Land Bank of Berkeley made long-term mortgage loans more easily attain­able for agricultural purposes, for the purchase of equipment, fertil­izer, livestock, or farm buildings. R.H. Billings of Delta processed loans for Beaver County. Furthermore, an extension service of the Utah State Agricultural College was established in Beaver County. Expressing the close relationship between this service and the county, their offices were located in the county courthouse. The purpose of the extension service was to stimulate and maintain the interest of farm families in progressive agriculture. In 1938 the County Agricultural Agent was Hyrum Steffen of Beaver City. Under the state department of public instruction, a Vocational Agriculture Education program managed research projects about field agriculture in the area. S. Melvin Wittwer of Beaver City was the local superintendent of the county schools. And finally H.A. Christensen of Beaver City headed the Beaver County Planning Board which provided proce­dures for the development of sound land use plans, programs, and policies on the county level. The Farm Debt Adjustment Committee assisted the governor's 256 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY committee in assisting farmers who had fallen into debt. The Conciliation Commissioners handled cases in which farm debts had reached the conciliation court. Ray L. Lillywhite, assistant supervisor of the Farm-Debt Adjustment Association, suggested that farm debtors who were confronted with foreclosure or who had difficulty paying off their debt, "FIRST, meet your principal creditors, and try to arrange a settlement with them. SECOND, go to a member of the local Farm-Debt adjustment committee and ask his help and advice, which is recognized by creditors the country over, THIRD AND LAST. If these methods fall, apply for Debtors Relief with the Conciliation Commissioner, who has legal authority and who can enforce decisions."106 In 1937 the Resettlement Administration had received applications for loans from 124 farm families, for a total of $130,761.107 Some attributed Beaver County's farm problems to the low rural income, which was, in 1933, $800 or less. One-fifth of local farmers earned between $800 and $1,000 gross per year, and another one-fifth between $1,000 and $1,500 per year. Also the small average size of farms and the large farm indebtedness contributed to the problems faced by farmers. The large acreage of noxious weeds throughout the county was also a perpetual problem and reduced productivity of farm land.108 Between 1934-1936, drought compounded financial problems already faced by farmers and stockmen.109 Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps provided employment for sev­eral local young men as well as embarked on projects in local recre­ational areas that benefitted the county as a whole. The CCC's principal mission was to conserve and develop natural resources, relieve unemployment, and create a well-ordered program of exten­sive public works.110 Enrollment was limited at first to single unem­ployed men between eighteen and twenty-five years of age whose families were on relief roles.111 Workers from CCC camps in Cedar City (managed by the Division of Grazing), Bryce Canyon (managed by the National Park Service), and at Duck Creek (managed by the forest service) worked on projects in the county. In June 1933, twenty-eight CCC recruits from Salt Lake City and PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 257 Garfield between the ages of nineteen and twenty-five arrived at Milford to be sent to one of the two Beaver CCC camps. The news editor of the Milford News met with the men along with Mayor O.F. Hubbell and J.C. Smith. All three men had played a role in the selec­tion of the camp sites and the organization of the work. Together they visited the "Wah Wah camp Friday of last week and had chow with the camp officers and those of the workers who were not out on work detail at the time."112 The Beaver camp was located originally at Little Reservoir, near the upper Telluride Power Plant, but relocated to the area near the Tushar ranger station, and was called Camp Delano (for Delano Peak). The camp commandant, Captain N.C. Snidow, was quoted in the Beaver Press as speaking "in glowing terms of Milford and the hospitality and friendly help he has had on every hand from Milford townspeople-something which incidentally," according to the newspaper, "has brought our town country-wide notice innumerable times in the past." It further reported that the camps had been relatively sickness free, particularly the desert camp, although the extreme altitude had bothered CCC workers from Virginia living at the camp. Each camp housed about 110 workers. For several summers a CCC camp was located at Britts Meadows between Three Creeks and Puffer Lake in Beaver Canyon. In winter the men were moved to the Milford area. William Oakden of Beaver was the civilian supervisor. Most of the CCC workers were from Kentucky and were under the command of a U.S. Army captain. Each Thursday evening men at the Britts Meadows camp on the Beaver River were entertained with a special program; at one, Congressman Abe Murdock delivered a speech titled, "Your Part in Our National Recovery." He reminded the young men that, when President Theodore Roosevelt helped create the reforestation pro­gram, it had two purposes: conservation and improvement of the nation's forests and "building of better American citizens." Each Thursday at the close of the program, the men sang and danced long into the night.113 In July 1933 Lieutenant WE. Kraus from Fort Sam Houston, Texas, joined Snidow in leading work on a connecting road between Beaver Canyon and the junction road by way of Puffers Lake. It was also announced that the camps would soon each have 200 workers. 258 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY At the same time, the government announced that the national forest camps in Utah would get an additional 1,379 men and that Zion National Park would get forty-nine additional workers. These new recruits were described in the newspaper as being "selected from among those who have had some experience in mountain and forest work and who are fitted to exercise a wholesome leadership among t h e younger enrolled men; they may be m a r r i e d or single a n d the eighteen to twenty-five year age limit does not apply, but the men selected must come from among the unemployed."114 After the spe­cific projects were completed, the men left the camps and returned to their homes. In July 1934, CCC workers came to the Delano Camp again, this time to execute what was called "Drouth Forest and Drouth Relief." A total of 235 men would be lodged at the camp including at least sixteen local men.115 Beaver County welcomed the CCC men with a "homecoming" held at t h e camp, including a dance, and made plans for a n u m b e r of exchange p r o g r a m s between the camp and local organizations, including baseball and football games. In 1935 seven of t h e forty-one new m e n who came to Camp Delano were from Beaver County-Bill Bacon, Vernon Black, Ray Hodges, Ray Hutchings, Ray Orton, Tom Pedigo, and Fred Potter. The camp published its own newspaper-The Mirage, later called the Delano News, which published news about progress on the various projects and personal anecdotal information about the men in the camp.116 The CCC men began immediately to clear sixteen miles of road, clearing the sides of underbrush and debris to minimize fire hazards, and building a n u m b e r of experimental grazing systems. Crews of men were located at camps at Kents Lake and other locations along the construction route. In addition to road construction, the CCC men worked on the Little Beaver resort campsite, building tables, restrooms, cook stoves, a n d other recreational amenities. They built more permanent structures at the Beaver Dam Ponderosa Campgrounds, earlier known as the Boy Scout camp. Other projects included c o n s t r u c t i o n of fences a r o u n d forty acres of land in Bakers Canyon for grazing reconnaissance projects and construction of an experimental grazing station. Timber stand PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 259 improvement would also proceed in the area surrounding the camp itself. The Press reported, "The boys are taking hold nicely and seem to show interest in what they are doing. Many of t h em are interested enough that they plan to go into Forestry as a career."117 By September 1934, ranger stations had been constructed at Big Flat and Delano, six grazing reconnaissance enclosures were completed at Grindstone, and four at Merchant Valley Watershed. The county recognized the tremendous impact CCC projects had on the area and tracked their completion in the local paper. The Press quoted Lt. E.M. Squire, Welfare Officer of Camp Delano, who said: "When one considers that all of these accomplishments are done t h r o u g h the manual labor of the CCC boys and adds to this good food, regular hours, healthy out-of-door life and supervised recre­a t i o n it is small wonder that t h e CCC is r a p i d l y developing over 650,000 clean, strong, healthy, quick-thinking, and fearless young men of w h om the citizens of this country may justifiably be proud."118 Although many of the projects were conducted during the summer months, a winter camp was established fifty miles west of Milford in Pine Valley. Projects at this camp included a nine-hole golf course, a t e n n i s court, h a n d - b a l l court, and i n d o o r basketball court. In November 1935, 190 CCC enrollees arrived in Milford from Kentucky to work on projects under the Taylor Grazing Act. These projects included work on the Parowan Wash Reservoir, the Greenville Hollow Reservoir and other water projects designed to prevent flooding and lead to greater water mangement.119 That same month, the Desert Range Camp and the Beaver River Camp began a variety of projects described in the Beaver Press in its 22 November 1935 issue. Pipe lines, 13,200 feet; Tree Seed collection (conifrers) 1 bu.; Planting grass 4 acres; 7 vehicle bridges; 2 carrals; 4 latrines; 1 Shelter; 1 drinking fountain; Water supply systems 280 Mandays; 26 camp stoves; 2 portals; 18 rods stone walls; 36 table and bench combinations; 34 articles under miscellaneous structure, 15 miles of horse trails; 10 acres of seeding grass; 5 acres soil preparation; 210 feet of rock walks; 1 mile of stream development; 180 cubic yards earth filled dams; 375 cubic yards rock filled dams; 97 miles of fence; 50 miles of telephone lines; 7 reservoirs; 6 cattle guards; 260 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY 4 markers and gates; 1 amphitheatre; truck trails (roads) 107 miles; 64 check dams; 3,000 square feet of riprap, rock; nurseries includ­ing 645 man-days; 113 acres of landscaping; 3,084 trees and shrubs, moved and planted; 58 experimental plots; 62,059 acres surveyed for type and soil; roadside clearing for fire hazard reduc­tion 15 miles; fire fighting 97 man-days; 67 acres of public camp ground development; 3 public camp ground buildings; other cam ground facilities, 27 in number; bank protection and erosion con­trol 2,314 square yds; 40 acres of rodent control; 50 acres larkspur eradication; barns 2; 1 dwelling; 1 garage; 1 woodshed; 1 cellar; 1 office and store room.120 In the c o u n t y CCC men worked on a p r o g r am of reseeding rangeland denuded by rodents, erosion, or overgrazing. In 1937 the CCC built 91 dams throughout the state under the Soil Conservation Service and the Division of Grazing. In April 1938 they completed a reservoir near Granite Peak. A 357-foot pipeline carried water that opened u p a new range area west of the Mineral Mountains between Milford and Beaver.121 The CCC men also built the Delano Ranger S t a t i o n between 3 creeks and Puffer Lake. The s t a t i o n was later moved to Beaver a n d is n ow located on the 400 block of Center Street. It would be very difficult to quantify the benefits Beaver County reaped from the various CCC efforts, but it is evident that they were involved in t h e b u i l d i n g of v i r t u a l ly every aspect of t h e county's infrastructure, recreational and cultural backdrop, and helped move the county forward through the Depression to a point where it was in better shape t h a n it was before. Much of the work of the Desert Range Branch Experiment Station was in range conservation, flood control, public resource management, and conservation through sus­tained yield, all issues of particular interest historically to the county. Other projects were like much of t h e CCC work, simply practical improvements of county resources. In May 1937, for instance, the Desert Range Experiment Station CCC Spike Camp in South Pine Valley cut 10,000 posts to be used at the range for sheep pasture, to enclose plots, and to locate markers of sheep allotments. Furthermore, the station modeled for county farmers and stockmen the advantages of careful range management. The Press noted, "Not PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION 1920-1950 261 only the practical minded stockmen who can see only the forage value of the most beautiful desert flower, but the aesthetic too, are among the guests at the Range. In the 55,000 acres of the Experiment Station, one may see areas of excellent forage, beautiful flowers, and an even green cover, or barren wasted desert with only the misleading green of Russian Thistle showing."122 When the camp was eventually closed down, Milford felt the loss of this significant resource, protest­ing strongly the order.123 As a result, the closure was delayed for a period of time, largely because of the lobbying efforts of the Lions Club, but was eventually closed down with the end of the CCC pro­gram. 124 PWA/WPA and other New Deal Alphabet Agencies The Public Works Administration hired men from Beaver to work on local civic improvement projects. Paul R. Arentz from the PWA visited the county commission on 5 February 1935 to explain the way work was conducted under the agency. He told them the gov­ernment had $4.5 billion for projects over the next eighteen months. He was in Beaver County to survey what particular needs might be met by PWA programs. The principal objective of the program was to build up towns, cities, and counties, and to employ local men and teams, attempting to employ all unemployed persons in the county. Projects proposed by the commission included installation of a power plant, improvement of local streets and sidewalks, landscap­ing, new city halls, courthouses or schools, lining irrigation systems, and preservation of historic landmarks like Cove Fort.125 Men hauled gravel for Beaver City streets and country roads for $3.00 a day throughout winter months. A work crew of local carpenters built "Roosevelt Memorials" or public restroom facilities. WPA recre­ational director for Beaver County, Stan McKnight identified an area near the Telluride plant for the development of a ski course and recreational site. The hill was described as being "not too steep but is an ideal place for the amateur to test his skill. About 7 pairs of skiies [sic] are available and every one will be given an opportunity to try their hand. It is hoped that the introduction of this sport into this section may be the foundation of a real sports program."126 In February 1938 work began on a ski run near the Hi Low Lake