A History of Duchesne County

From settlement to the great depression in one generation-2

246 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY economy reduced the number on direct assistance to 682 people by December 1938. However, despite the drop in direct relief assistance, federal relief programs continued in the county until the outbreak of World War II.118 The Moon Lake Project One of the largest emergency relief and reclamation programs in the county in which various local, state, and federal agencies were involved was the construction of the Moon Lake Dam and the asso­ciated Midview reclamation project. Construction plans and funding proposals for a dam at Moon Lake to store spring snowmelt for sum­mer irrigation had been a major county concern for several years. The earlier Strawberry Valley Reservoir project clearly demonstrated that mountain reservoirs were feasible, but such large reclamation projects required large sums of money, something that was not plen­tiful in the county or in the state. County irrigators had first turned to the Hoover administration to fund the project. President Herbert Hoover was a mining engineer by training and was familiar with such construction schemes. Hoover was defeated, however, in the election of 1932 before any construc­tion began on the project. The new president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and his agricultural secretary, Henry Agard Wallace, a for­mer Iowa farmer and experimenter in corn genetics, opposed plac­ing more land into production. There already existed a nationwide surplus of many agricultural commodities, and to help farmers secure a higher return from their produce farmers were encouraged through various programs to produce less. The county's Moon Lake reclamation project flew in the face of Wallace's concerns. The Uintah Basin Record was one of several county and state voices that still argued for the Moon Lake project. "We need this pro­ject," stated an editorial in the Record, "but it looks like we will have to do a lot of'Hollering' if we [want to] get it."119 All of the hollering seemed to have paid off, however; in December 1933 government officials agreed to provide more than a million dollars for the project. The Moon Lake project proved not only to be an important reclamation project but also an important project to provide jobs for those unemployed locally as well as providing the Civilian FROM SETTLEMENT TO THE GREAT DEPRESSION-IN ONE GENERATION 247 Conservation Corps (CCC) with a significant reclamation project. The Moon Lake project also primed the economic pump in the county through the purchase of building materials, equipment, and supplies. Approximately half of the more than $1 million project was awarded to the T.E. Connelly Construction Company of San Francisco. According to the Bureau of Reclamation contract, Connelly hired a number of local men to work on the project. More than 130 men were hired to work on the dam. Nearly half of the mil­lion dollar price tag was given to the Public Works Administration, which in turn purchased materials for the dam locally and supplied much of the equipment for its construction. The completion of the Moon Lake project came too late to help alleviate the severe drought of 1934. However, local irrigators fully understood that when the dam was completed and its reservoir filled from winter snow there would be water for irrigation during the summer months and they never again would face the severe shortage of water they experienced during the 1934 drought.120 Headlines and stories in the local newspapers captured the enthusiasm for the project and the good news of its approval. One read: Cheer Up, Basin Folks! We should consider ourselves among the more fortunate ones in the entire U.S. . . . Last week was the break­ing point of the depression in the Uintah Basin. When the news broke telling us that the state and government had decided to con­struct the Moon Lake water storage project, which will cost . . . about $1,200,000. It will give hundreds of jobs, bring more land under cultivation, create a chance for a sugar factory with plenty of water.121 Everything associated with the reclamation project was not joy­ous, however. Several serious accidents and two deaths resulted from construction of the reclamation project. Howard Mitchell, a nine­teen- year-old truck driver, spent several weeks in the hospital with a severe skull fracture caused when his truck rolled on the Moon Lake road; Howard Wardle was electrocuted while he was working on a 440-volt power line at the Moon Lake dam site; and Charles F. 248 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY Boreham, a CCC enrollee from Salt Lake City, died from a construc­tion accident at the associated Midview Reservoir being constructed in Arcadia.122 Work progressed rapidly on the Midview Reservoir. It was dedi­cated on 10 September 1937 with much celebration and community activities. Mrs. Charles Boreham, the widowed mother of killed CCC enrollee Charles Boreham, was honored, as was the work of the CCC. Congressman Abe Murdock delivered the main address; it was fol­lowed with a large community lunch, boxing and wrestling matches, a baseball game, and a dance in the evening.123 Work on the Moon Lake Dam progressed more slowly. Severe winter weather closed the project down, and for a time the contractor lacked workers. The dam was sufficiently completed in June 1938 that storage of water from the spring snowmelt began. Within weeks the new reservoir was filled to capacity, and later in the summer water was released to farmers downstream. The Civilian Conservation Corps In addition to the many conservation and other much-needed projects supported or funded in the county by the Public Works Administration (PWA) and the Works Projects Administration (WPA), the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) accomplished a great deal in the county improving roads, building reclamation projects, and helping rehabilitate forest grazing land and recreational sites. Corpsmen also were involved in many other community activities. Run much like the army, the CCC was perhaps the most popu­lar of Roosevelt's New Deal programs. The CCC program operated from 1933 through 1942. Roosevelt hoped that the program would assist two of the nation's best resources-its natural resources and its youth. The president hoped that by providing jobs for young men protecting the natural resources in the nation all would be beneficia­ries. Young men signed up for periods of six months, with the oppor­tunity to reenlist for a maximum period of three years. Pay was thirty dollars a month, of which twenty-five dollars was sent to the youth's family; the remainder was kept as spending money. Many of the young men received training in heavy-equipment operation, as FROM SETTLEMENT TO THE GREAT DEPRESSION-IN ONE GENERATION 249 mechanics, and in other skilled areas which served them the rest of their lives. The CCC program got underway in Utah in the spring of 1933 when it was decided in Washington that conservation work was urgently required in the various national forests in the state. With Utah's high unemployment, local young men with experience work­ing with horses and with outdoor skills were encouraged to sign up in the CCC program.124 Duchesne County's share of the earliest CCC allotment was forty young men. In addition to the acceptance of local men with experience to work on the national forests, another special CCC program under the direction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs rather than the army was organized for unemployed Indians. Nationwide, more than 14,000 CCC positions for Indians were established; Utah's quota was 200 Indians, most from the Uinta Basin.125 The Indian CCC program in the Uinta Basin worked primarily in the field of conservation. During the nine years of the CCC there were over 100 camps established in the state. The first CCC camp in the Uinta Basin was established near Vernal in May 1933 to work on the Ashley National Forest. The company consisted of twenty-five men from Virginia. Men in Company 2910 performed conservation work on the national forest and men of Company 1968 worked on the Midview reclama­tion project. A year later, in October 1934, two CCC companies were established in the county at Moon Lake and at Bridgeland, with four additional temporary or seasonal camps located in Yellowstone Canyon, near Altonah, at Myton, and in Uinta Canyon. The CCC men at the Yellowstone camp worked on mountain trails and other forest projects; men of the Altonah camp built the twenty-mile, cement-lined Highline Canal, which diverts water from the Lake Fork River to the farmland around Neola. The Bridgeland CCC group worked on a canal from the Duchesne River to Arcadia and construction of the Boreham (Midview) Reservoir, the largest of the CCC projects in the county. The first task of the CCC at the Midview Storage Project was to help relocate several families who lived at the reservoir site. Once the families were relocated, work at the Midview Dam progressed rapidly. The CCC also built several feeder canals to supply the new reservoir with water and then built 250 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY distribution canals from the reservoir to the fields in the Red Cap area. The Myton CCC men did road work, graveled Myton and Roosevelt streets, and worked on weed and rodent control. The Uinta Canyon CCC camp worked on bridges, fish dams, and camp­grounds. 126 In addition to providing employment, men of the CCC program were active in the county, participating in various sporting events, writing a weekly column for the Uintah Basin Record, organizing spe­cial activities, and participating in numerous community socials and other activities. Some CCC young men became romantically involved with local girls. Curtis Robertson recalled: I was in the CCC camp when I met my wife. She lived in Roosevelt. I was standing inside the dance hall and she came in with the fel­low that she was engaged to. They had been for a ride, and her hair was all messed up. She asked him if he had a comb, and he said that he didn't. I was standing there and I said, "Well, I have one. Do you want to use mine?" So she borrowed my comb. Then I asked her for a dance. And that was the beginning of our little affair. We have been married thirty-five years.127 Jack Young from Kentucky joined the CCC at the age of eighteen and soon found himself working on various projects in the Uinta Basin. He met and married Bernice Collett in 1937 and settled in Hanna where he went to work at the Fabrizio sawmill. County residents were profoundly appreciative of work done by the CCC program, and when state and federal officials wanted to move the Bridgeland CCC camp to another reclamation project, the county put up a strong argument for the Bridgeland and Myton camps to remain in the county. The Moon Lake CCC camp remained in the county until spring 1935, when it was reassigned elsewhere. The Bridgeland camp stayed in the county until the spring of 1939. Rural Electrification Association And Moon Lake Electric For many isolated farm families in the county, electricity remained a wonder only to be witnessed in the larger communities in the county or on those farms located near transmission lines. Of all the New Deal programs in Duchesne County, perhaps none had FROM SETTLEMENT TO THE GREAT DEPRESSION-IN ONE GENERATION 251 more impact and a longer-lasting effect than the Rural Electrification Administration (REA). The REA was created in 1935 to connect the thousands of isolated farmsteads across America with electric ser­vices. The REA worked closely with the Work Projects Administration to secure manpower to string electrical wire and place thousands of poles, and it worked with the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to provide loans and grants to newly estab­lished rural electricity cooperatives. Walter LeFevre, who had settled in Tabiona in 1915, was hired in 1939 by the Moon Lake Electric Association with funds from the WPA to install electricity in Tabiona. Private electric power companies attempted to limit the activities of the REA; however, public opinion was strongly in favor of the New Deal program, and in 1939 the REA was made a permanent agency within the Department of Agriculture. The REA proved to be very successful in providing inexpensive electricity to rural Americans, including isolated farmers and their families in Duchesne County. Today, even the most remote farmstead in the county has electricity. Prior to the formation of the REA, there was, of course, electric service in many parts of the county. The Uintah Power and Light Company had been started in 1918 and a power plant was built on the Lake Fork River at what was then called Lake Fork. After comple­tion of the power plant, the area was renamed Upalco, a contraction of the company name. This private power company provided the first electric service in Duchesne County, supplying Roosevelt, Myton, Duchesne, and Upalco. In 1937 Shirley K. Daniels of Mt. Emmons, having heard of the new federal program, wrote to the Rural Electrification Association offices in Washington, D.C., to find out how he and his neighbors could get electricity. Daniels, along with Chester Hartman, Edward Holder, and Edward Conklin, formulated a plan to organize an elec­trical cooperative. With the assistance of George Stewart, a young attorney from Roosevelt, and Zella Rust (Bennion), who later worked as bookkeeper for the cooperative, the small group organized a meet­ing in January 1938 to incorporate the Altonah-Bluebell-Mt. Emmons Rural Electrification Association. They worked for the next several months inviting others to join the cooperative for a five-dol­lar fee. Many who paid the fee did so with money they could ill 252 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY afford, but they realized the difference that electricity would make in their lives and on their farms. In September 1938 the REA approved a project for Altonah, Mt. Emmons, and Bluebell; $74,000 was allocated to build sixty-five miles of power lines to 233 homes. Lines needed to be strung, rights-of-way obtained, homes wired, and contracts signed, and a multitude of other tasks needed to be completed for electric service to be possible. The following March another $10,000 was approved to wire each of the homes with electricity. At the suggestion of Zelda Rust, the Altonah-Bluebell-Mt. Emmons Rural Electrification Association changed its name in June 1939 to the simpler Moon Lake Electric Association. Following the example of Altonah, Bluebell, and Mt. Emmons, the residents of Mountain Home, Boneta, Tabiona, Ioka, Hancock Cove, Cedarview, Montwell, Neola, and LaPoint applied to REA offi­cials asking permission to form a similar cooperative electrical asso­ciation. Instead, they were encouraged to join the Moon Lake Electric Association, and, as a result, $285,000 was granted to the Moon Lake Association to expand its services. During the next several years Moon Lake Electric expanded to Dry Fork, northwest of Vernal, buying electricity wholesale from Uintah Power and Light Company. As a small, privately owned com­pany, the Uintah Power and Light Company had neither sufficient power nor the reliability of service to meet the high standards expected by the Moon Lake Electric board of directors. To better ser­vice Moon Lake Electric Association, Uintah Power and Light Company applied for a grant from the REA to construct a dam to generate more electricity. Several hydroelectric sites in the Uinta Mountains were considered, and, in 1940, a place was chosen on the Yellowstone River in Yellowstone Canyon, north of Altonah. Two years later, $200,000 was approved by the REA for the construction of a power plant on the Yellowstone River. A dam with three turbines of 300-kilowatt capacity each was built to augment the power needs of the rapidly growing cooperative. The power plant began generat­ing electricity in September 1941 to meet the needs of 700 new con­sumers and was expanded with an additional unit in 1946 to serve 1,250 consumers. FROM SETTLEMENT TO THE GREAT DEPRESSION-IN ONE GENERATION 253 In 1949 a diesel generating plant was built in Leeton and later moved to Altamont as the cooperative grew. More electric power was needed, and in 1951 Moon Lake Electric Association purchased Rangley Power and Light Company. Nine years later, Moon Lake Electric Association was granted permission from the REA to pur­chase stock in Uintah Power and Light Company. In 1958 Moon Lake contracted with the Flaming Gorge Dam project for additional power. Four years later, a forty-mile transmis­sion line from Meeker, Colorado, to the substation in Rangely was completed to transport power purchased from a Colorado company. In 1975 a contract was signed between Utah Power and Light and Moon Lake Electric to purchase additional power from the Hunter II plant. In 1980 Moon Lake Electric purchased a portion of the Hunter II plant at Bonanza. Presently this plant supplies some 70 percent of Moon Lake's power.128 When Moon Lake Electric began service, its minimum bill was $3.25 a month for 40 kilowatt hours of power. This was thought to be sufficient for all the new modern conveniences. Bringing power to rural Duchesne County radically and permanently changed the lives of those farmers and their families. Dairymen were able to cool their milk, making it more marketable. Electricity greatly eased the labors of women. Heated running water and indoor plumbing were made possible. Electric wringer washers replaced scrub boards. Radios brought the news of the world and entertainment into rural homes. Electric fans cooled hot kitchens during the late summer canning sea­son. Electric service will be the predominant factor in building up the area, excited county residents proclaimed.129 And, in fact, electricity did bring about more and faster changes than any other single devel­opment in rural Duchesne County. By 1961 Moon Lake Electric had purchased all the Uintah Power and Light Company shares and in 1971 had incorporated the service areas. Moon Lake Electric Association presently serves the region from the Strawberry Valley to Rangely, Colorado, making it the tenth-largest REA cooperative in the nation. 254 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY The Toyackers One of the success stories in the county during the Depression was the county's Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter. Chapter members adopted the name Toyack, a Ute word meaning "good enough or okay."130 The Toyack chapter was organized in the late 1920s by Walter E. Atwood, who taught at the Roosevelt High School. Under Atwood's leadership, dozens of boys in grades 7 through 12 were encouraged to take agricultural classes to become better future farmers. Many out-of-school projects were undertaken by the young boys. One of the significant activities was the construction of a chap­ter house in Roosevelt; another was a trip to the Chicago World's Fair in 1933. To lift the spirits of many of the boys during the Depression, Harold Behunin, president of the Toyack chapter in 1932, suggested to Walter Atwood, that he would like to do something big for the chapter, and the trip to the world's fair was planned.131 In December 1932 eighty-seven Duchesne County residents made plans to attend the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, whose theme was a "Century of Progress." For some of the boys, the economic difficulties they and their parents were experiencing was something less than "progress"; nevertheless, the chapter agreed to raise money for the long trip. Most Toyackers had never traveled out of the Uinta Basin. Their dream trip was to be the longest journey and largest project any chapter of the Future Farmers of America had undertaken. "I was a well-traveled man. I had been to Vernal, Salt Lake City, and the high Uintah Mountains," Walt Redmond, a 1933 Toyack member, recalled. "Most of the kids going on the trip had only been to Vernal, if that far from home."132 Money was needed for the dream trip. "On to Chicago" fund­raisers were held. Dances and boxing matches between the boys were among the many activities organized to raise money. Walt Redmond remembered the group made most of their money by boxing each other and charging admission: "The room would always be filled and it cost twenty-five cents to watch."133 The group fund-raising was the easy part; each boy also had to raise $12.50 on his own. Walt Redmond raised two calves as a FFA FROM SETTLEMENT TO THE GREAT DEPRESSION-IN ONE GENERATION 255 project and sold one for the trip. His profit from the sale of the one calf was enough to pay his $12.50, buy clothing for the trip, and have $10.00 for spending money. Victor Brown remembered earning his money by harvesting hay during the summer for his father along with four other Toyackers.134 The $12.50 went for "transportation and grub." Often the meals were meager. Wrote Redmond: "I am so hungry and gaunt that my pants are wearing blisters on my hips from rubbing . . . all Oral and I got for supper was bread and b u t t e r . . . . We got 2 oranges for supper. It was just enough to torment us."135 Each Toyack member was required to buy a "ten gallon" hat as a means of group identification and a symbol of coming from the West. The hats were purchased from the J.C. Penney store in Roosevelt for a reduced price of five dollars. Each boy also had to provide a blanket, a pillow, and a tarp to provide shelter at night. The twenty-one-day journey began on 11 August 1933. The group traveled in two buses and a flatbed truck, which carried their gear and served as a chuck wagon. Albert LaRose and Dwight Copperfield were invited to go on the trip to represent the Ute Indian community. Shortly after leaving Roosevelt for Chicago, Albert LaRose got homesick and returned home. Advisor Walter Atwood was a World War I veteran and ran everything in a military manner. Fred Gagon sounded his bugle every morning at 5:00 A.M. He report­edly only missed one day because "of a fat lip someone gave him."136 Accompanying the boys was Martha Shanks, an army nurse during World War I. Her only medical "emergencies" on the trip were treat­ing sore feet and homesickness. The novelty of a large group of boys and their three-vehicle car­avan grew each day as they traveled farther east. In many of the towns where the American Legion hosted them the seventy-five boys- dressed in overalls, flannel shirts and ten-gallon hats-performed a special march to the sound of the bugle. Walt Redmond noted in his diary, "Boy are we attracting attention. I guess they shore think we are hayseeds."137 During their travel east, the Toyackers visited two state fairs and a rodeo. They were awed by the fat cattle, the likes of which they had 256 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY not seen in the drought-stricken Uinta Basin. Redmond particularly noted the farms he saw: There were rolling fields of corn . . . as far as you can see; not five or ten acres, but five or six miles. It makes one wonder how they ever get it cultivated. . . . Saw some queer sights today; ten or fif­teen stacks of hay in each field with not more than 5 tons in the stack. They put rubber tires on mower machines and truck wheels on rakes.138 Frequently the boys spent the night sleeping in a stockyard filled with the smell of cattle. Advisor Raymond Wiscombe recalled "sleep­ing on soft horse manure at the various fair grounds along the way to and from Chicago."139 The nights were often uncomfortable and cold. Accommodations did get b e t t e r when the caravan reached Chicago. At one camp the Toyackers stayed at Maple Lake, a beautiful resort area twenty-seven miles out of Chicago and formerly owned by the notorious Al Capone. Before being incarcerated for his crimes, Capone gave the lake resort to the American Legion. Walter Atwood, himself a Legionnaire, made arrangements for the hospitality The boys were able to sleep under a roof for three nights at that camp. Several days were spent at the world's fair. Coming from farms, many of the boys were surprised that the fair did not have much in the way of livestock exhibits, although they were impressed by its size. "It would take at least two weeks to cover everything," one Toyacker wrote.1 4 0 They marveled at seeing a Chinese temple a n d Admiral Richard Byrd's airplane. Lights at the world's fair were t u r n e d by the i l l u m i n a t i o n of a d i s t a n t star, a wonder sponsored by an electric company. The Toyackers witnessed an automobile being assembled in the Chrysler exhibit building and saw wonders of the world that were out of reach of their family and friends in Duchesne County. Their journey home was also filled with sights not found in their isolated county. Wrote one: The country over which we traveled was much different that the west. The corn fields of Iowa were a sight to behold. Then there was Kansas with wheat stubble or plowed ground as far as the eye could see. I recall fertile valleys, wooded areas with many trees, FROM SETTLEMENT TO THE GREAT DEPRESSION-IN ONE GENERATION 257 huge rivers, but nothing looked as great as the Rocky Mountains as they appeared on the journey homeward.141 A parade was organized upon their arrival home. Their 3,400- mile journey was over, but a new project-the building of a chapter house-was to involve their youthful energies for the next several years. Atwood had dreamed of the FFA chapter in Roosevelt having its own building; however, the problem was money and commit­ment. Both were solved at the last breakfast before the boys reached Roosevelt. In Craig, Colorado, the boys and their advisors decided to do something special to commemorate their journey-they would build their own chapter house in Roosevelt-the first FFA chapter house in the country. Nearly $300 was saved from the Chicago trip, and, with a similar amount provided by the local American Legion post, sufficient funds were on hand to begin the construction of the chapter house later in the summer of 1933.142 Most of the construction material was collected by FFA club members from different parts of the county. One group cut and hauled 35,000 board feet of timber from the Ashley National Forest, paying for the timber permit and milling of the lumber used in their house. Another group of boys with their fathers gathered stone from Pleasant Valley for the building's foundation; ninety-one loads of rock were hauled to Roosevelt. A third group of boys made 10,000 adobe bricks at an abandoned brickyard to line the interior walls of their building.143 The most outstanding architectural feature of the Toyack House (as the building was known) is its fireplace, in which over forty spe­cial bricks or stones from different FFA chapters were used. Alabama's contribution to the fireplace, for example, was a stone of polished white marble with the state's name carved in it.144 Along with donations from the American Legion and the savings and work done by the boys themselves, aid and labor also came from the CCC and WPA programs. In 1936 the house was completed. Walter E. Atwood said, "Every community and town in the Basin were concerned or involved in the completion of the Toyack Chapter House."145 The construction of the house was a physical symbol of hope in the community. Atwood summed it up well: 258 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY The Depression and drought had found many people leaving the Uintah Basin and many of those who stayed were dismayed and discouraged. The trip to the World Fair attracted a great deal of attention and gave the Basin a hope, an interest, and a belief that conditions would improve.146 The Toyack Chapter House was used by the FFA until 1952, when a new high school was built at the east end of town. The old facilities, including the Toyack House, were taken over by the junior high school. The house served for many years as a classroom for the junior high. The "Century of Progress" trip and the Toyack House were a community's way of showing its American spirit and not giving up to despair when confronted with adverse conditions. Depression But Not Depressed Duchesne County residents, like most of the nation, took the hardship of the Great Depression with stoic determination and dry humor. Woodrow Wilkerson of Neola, a teenager during the time, summed it up: "We didn't miss any meals during the depression- but we sure postponed a lot of them!"147 Meals were sometimes mea­ger; Olive Miles, a mother of several young children during the Depression, recalled, "I can remember when I could have bought a sack of flour for 11 cents-but I didn't have 11 cents."148 Poaching of deer and other wild game occurred occasionally to supplement the diets of county residents. The difficult economic conditions were magnified due to the recent settlement of the county-many residents were deeply in debt. The county's geographical isolation also added to its economic woes. National government programs and the determination of most county residents carried them through the difficult economic condi­tions. Numerous county building projects were started and others were accelerated during the Depression. Schools were improved, roads were graded and graveled, and many miles of asphalt and oil and rock mix were laid and reclamation projects built. The electric-power service area was greatly expanded, reaching virtually every farm and ranch in the county, radically changing the lives of hun­dreds of county families. A group of young men witnessed the mar­vels of the outside world for the first time. A new, modern hospital FROM SETTLEMENT TO THE GREAT DEPRESSION-IN ONE GENERATION 259 was built at Fort Duchesne to serve the Indian population of the Uinta Basin. The Great Depression also changed the political behav­ior of county voters as it did in the state and the nation. The county's population changed during the Depression. The population of the county had dropped by more than 800 in the decade of the 1920s, from 9,093 in 1920 to 8,263 in 1930; but by the end of the 1930s it had increased to 8,958, an 8.41 percent increase, which was slightly larger than the state's increase of 8.36 percent. The communities of Duchesne, Myton, and Roosevelt experienced sig­nificant growth during the Depression decade as well. Myton's popu­lation grew by slightly more than 10 percent, a significant reversal from the previous decade, during which the town dropped in popu­lation from 479 in 1920 to 395 in 1930. The population of the town of Duchesne grew from 590 people in 1930 to more than 900 by 1940. Duchesne's population had declined by 110 people during the previous decade.149 The number of farms declined during the decade of the 1930s- from over 1,200 to less than 1,050. The decline in the number of farms also was true for the state and the nation. County livestockmen raised fewer sheep and there was a smaller wool clip during the decade. In 1930 there were more than 101,000 sheep in the county and the wool clip for 1929 was some 721,700 pounds. Ten years later there were fewer than 35,500 head of sheep in the county and the wool clip was 314,600 pounds. Many stockmen shifted from raising sheep to raising cattle, and others took up dairying during the decade. In 1930 there were 9,616 head of cattle in the county; by 1940 there were more than 13,000 cattle. For the same period, the number of milch cows increased from 5,419 to 6,356. However, milk produc­tion decreased from 3,187,000 gallons in 1929 to 2,939,000 gallons in 1940.150 ENDNOTES 1. Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census of the United States: Utah (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1924), 54; Bureau of the Census, United States Census of Agriculture: 1945, Utah and Nevada, Part 31 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1946), 19. 2. See Report of the Secretary of State (Salt Lake City: State of Utah), var- 260 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY ious years, copies at the Utah State Historical Society; and Wayne Stout, History of Utah, 1896-1929 (Salt Lake City: n.p., 1968) 2:345-46, 367-68, 376, 397-98, 406, 419-20. 3. See Report of the Secretary of State for the years 1911-12, 1913-14, 1915-16, 1917-18, and 1919-20, copies at the Utah State Historical Society Library. 4. Clayton S. Rice, Ambassador to the Saints (Boston: Christopher Publishing House, 1967), 133. 5. Roosevelt Standard, 23 October 1918. 6. Roosevelt Standard, 18 April 1917. 7. Duchesne Record, 16 lune 1917. 8. Duchesne Record, 14 April 1917. A week later the newspaper reported that a dozen of the county's young men had enlisted. 9. Roosevelt Standard, 6 lune 1917. 10. Duchesne Record, 9 lune 1917. 11. See Noble Warrum, Utah in the World War: The Men behind the Guns and the Men and Women Behind the Men behind the Guns (n.p., 1924), Utah State Historical Society Library. 12. Roosevelt Standard, 29 August 1917, Dillman, Early History of Duchesne County, 485. See also Orson Mott, interview with I.P. Tanner, February 1989, Duchesne, Utah, copy in the possession of the author. 13. Roosevelt Standard, 9 May 1917. 14. Andrew L. Neff, World War I Papers, Utah State Historical Society Library. 15. Warrum, Utah in the World War, 99. 16. Vernal Express, 20 November 1914. 17. Max Hartman, interview with lohn D. Barton, Altamont, Utah, 4 November 1994, transcript in possession of the author. 18. Roosevelt Standard, 18 April 1917. 19. Thomas G. Alexander, "The Economic Consequences of the War: Utah and the Depression of the Early 1920s," in A Dependent Commonwealth: Utah's Economy from Statehood to the Great Depression, ed. by Dean L. May, Charles Redd Monographs in Western History No. 4 (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1974), 63. 20. Roosevelt Standard, 9 October 1918, 25 November 1918. 21. Roosevelt Standard, 25 November 1918. See also foreclosure notices posted weekly from November 1919 to February 1920. 22. Mary Beth Norton et al., A People and a Nation: A History of the United States (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991), 417, 418. FROM SETTLEMENT TO THE GREAT DEPRESSION-IN ONE GENERATION 261 23. Roosevelt Standard, 6 September 1916. 24. Eva LaMar Meldrum, The Girl On The Milk-White Horse (New York: Vintage Press, 1975), 26-27. 25. Utah Farmer, 11 February 1922. See also lesse Washburn, "History of lesse Washburn," 17, copy in possession of the author. 26. Roosevelt Standard, 13 September 1916. For more on the closing of Fort Duchesne see Thomas Alexander and Leonard Arrington, "The Utah Military Frontier 1872-1912: Forts Cameron, Thornburg, and Duchesne," The Utah Historical Quarterly 32 (Fall 1964): 330-54. 27. Roosevelt Standard, 25 April 1917. The Bamberger Road is still in use today. It is a paved road linking the Indian Canyon Highway with the Price to Spanish Fork Highway; however, it is only open for summer months and is not plowed when winter snows make it impassable. A mon­ument to Governor Bamberger on the east end of the road is still standing. 28. Roosevelt Standard, 2 October 1918. 29. Duchesne Courier, 22 August 1924. 30. Duchesne Record, 16 November 1918. 31. Leonard J. Arrington, "The Influenza Epidemic of 1918-19 in Utah," Utah Historical Quarterly 58 (Spring 1990): 165-66. 32. Ibid., 167. 33. Roosevelt Standard, 16 October 1918. 34. Roosevelt Standard, 13 November 1918. 35. Roosevelt Standard, 23 October 1918. 36. Roosevelt Standard, 24 November 1918. 37. Roosevelt Standard, 31 October 1918. 38. Emily T. Wilkerson and Lester Bartlett, comp., From Then Until Now: 75 Years in Central Uintah Basin, 1905-1980 (Roosevelt, UT: Ink Spot, 1987), 11. 39. Ibid. 40. Roosevelt Standard, 4 December 1918. 41. Altonah Ward Record Book, 1918-1919, microfilm copy, Church of fesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah. 42. Finley C. Pearce, O My Father, 108. See also Donna Barton, "Pioneer Medical Practices in the Uintah Basin-1905-1945," copy in pos­session of author. 43. A Harvest of Memories, 365. 44. lohn Madsen, "History of lohn Madsen," (1965), copy in posses­sion of the author. 45. Pearce, Oh My Father, 106. 262 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY 46. Madsen, "History of lohn Madsen," 5. 47. Roosevelt Standard, 8 lanuary 1919, 29 lanuary 1919. 48. Barton, "Pioneer Medical Practices," 16, 17. See also A Harvest of Memories, 169. 49. Arrington, "Influenza Epidemic," 176. 50. Roosevelt Standard, 4 October 1916. 51. Duchesne Record, 23 February 1916. 52. "Eleventh Biennial Report of the Secretary of State, 1917-1918," in Utah State Public Documents, 1917-1918, vol. 3, 18-19. 53. Stories told the author by Alfred Potter. The author has heard sto­ries of stills in all parts of the county, including Myton, Tabiona, Fruitland, Hanna, Big Hollow in Boneta, and Hancock Cove. 54. Roosevelt Standard, 18 October 1918. 55. In the struggle of Utahns to obtain statehood and avoid national political quarrels in the early part of the century, the Mormon church did not actively support prohibition, although many of its leading apostles and members did. When prohibition was passed, most of the Mormon popula­tion was pleased. See Larry E. Nelson, "Utah Goes Dry," Utah Historical Quarterly 41 (Fall 1973): 341-57. 56. Uintah Basin Record, 20 October 1933. 57. Uintah Basin Record, 10 November 1933. 58. Ibid. 59. Salt Lake Tribune, 8 November 1933. 60. J. Cecil Alter, "Alfalfa Seed Supremacy in Utah," Improvement Era 22 (November 1918): 58. 61. Ibid., 56. 62. L.J. Sorenson, "Lygus Bugs in Relation to Alfalfa Seed Production," Utah Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 284 (1939), 1; John W. Carlson, "Alfalfa-Seed Investigations in Utah," Utah Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 258 (1935), 1. 63. "Honey Industry in Uintah Basin," The Happy Homeland, compiled for distribution at the 1924 Uintah Basin Industrial Convention, Fort Duchesne, Utah, copy in possession of author. 64. Dillman, Early History of Duchesne County, 308. 65. Roosevelt Standard, 12 April 1922; Dr. Daniel Dennis, interview with lohn D. Barton, 12 lanuary 1996, transcript in possession of the author. 66. "J.G. Peppard Seed Company," The Happy Homeland, pages not numbered. 67. Duchesne Courier, 15 lune 1923. FROM SETTLEMENT TO THE GREAT DEPRESSION-IN ONE GENERATION 263 68. Duchesne Courier, 13 luly 1923. 69. Sorenson, "Lygus Bugs," 1. 70. The census of 1920 indicates that Duchesne County produced "other grains and seed" valued at $187,383; the federal agricultural census for 1940 reported the value of alfalfa and red clover seed harvested in the county to be only $16,625. However, five years later, the value of both seeds harvested topped $72,600. See Fourteenth Census of the United States: Utah, and United States Census of Agriculture, 1945: Utah and Nevada, Part 31 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1946). 71. Dennis, interview. 72. Roosevelt Standard, 10 March 1926. 73. Fourteenth Census of the United States, Utah,57; United States Census of Agriculture: 1935 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1936), 2:891. 74. Roosevelt Standard, 17 luly 1930. 75. Roosevelt Standard, 31 October 1918. 76. Quoted in R. Thomas Quinn, "Out of the Depression's Depths: Henry H. Blood's First Year as Governor," Utah Historical Quarterly 54 (Summer 1986): 217. 77. Thomas G. Alexander, Utah: The Right Place (Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith, 1995), 323; Miriam Murphy, "Henry H. Blood," in Utah History Encyclopedia, ed. Allan Kent Powell, 46; Wayne K. Hinton, "The Economics of Ambivalence: Utah's Depression Experience," Utah Historical Quarterly 54 (Summer 1986): 271. 78. Leonard J. Arrington, "The Changing Economic Structure of the Mountain West, 1850-1950," Utah State University Monograph Series 10 (June 1963): 54-59. 79. Stout, History of Utah, 3:97. 80. Verda Moore, interview with J.P. Tanner, February 1991, Duchesne, Utah, copy in possession of the author. 81. Uintah Basin Record, 11 November 1932. The majority of county voters cast their votes for all Democratic candidates except for Arthur V. Watkins (district court judge) and Merrill H. Larsen (county attorney). 82. Arthur Timothy, interview with lohn D. Barton, 30 September 1994, Altonah, Utah, transcript in possession of author. 83. L.A. Stoddart et al., "Range Conditions in the Uinta Basin Utah," Utah State Agricultural College Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 283 (October 1938): 13. 84. Ibid., 19. 85. Robert Parson, "Prelude to the Taylor Grazing Act: Don B. Colton 264 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY and the Utah Public Domian Committee, 1927-1933," Encyclia 68 (1991): 209-32. 86. Stories told the author by lack D. Barton. 87. Stories told the author by lohn Wills of Roosevelt, Utah. 88. United States Census of Agriculture: 1935, 891; United States Census of Agriculture: 1945; Utah and Nevada, 48-49. 89. Roosevelt Standard, 17 November 1927, 20 November 1930. 90. Utah Agricultural Statistics, 1920-1962, (Logan: Utah State University, 1963), table 132. 91. See Roosevelt Standard, 20 February to 20 March 1941. 92. U.S. Census of Agriculture, 1936, 891; U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, United States Census of Agriculture, 1945, Utah and Nevada, 48-49. 93. Eighth Biennial Report of the Utah State Board of Agriculture, 1934-1936, in Utah Public Documents, 1934-1936 1:77, Utah State Historical Society Library. 94. Roosevelt Standard, 28 lune 1934. 95. Roosevelt Standard, 12 luly 1934, 9 August 1934, 20 September 1934, 18 October 1934, 28 March 1935. 96. Uintah Basin Record, 30 November 1934. 97. Roosevelt Standard, 9 August 1934. 98. Arthur Timothy, interview. 99. Vera Miles Hansen, interview by lohn Barton, 3 October 1994, Roosevelt, Utah, transcript in the possession of the author. 100. Arthur Timothy, interview. 101. Louwana Timothy, interview by lohn Barton, 30 September 1994, Altonah, Utah, transcript in possession of author. 102. Vera Hansen, interview. 103. Roosevelt Standard, 30 May 1940. 104. Uintah Basin Record, 14 December 1934. 105. Uintah Basin Record, 27 lanuary 1933. 106. Vera Hansen, interview. 107. Uintah Basin Record, 26 October 1934. 108. Uintah Basin Record, 1 February 1935, 24 luly 1936; Roosevelt Standard, 25 lanuary 1934; Arthur Timothy, interview. 109. Roosevelt Standard, 1 March 1935. 110. Roosevelt Standard, 8 March 1935. 111. Roosevelt Standard, 17 May 1935. FROM SETTLEMENT TO THE GREAT DEPRESSION-IN ONE GENERATION 265 112. Roosevelt Standard, 20 September 1935. 113. Roosevelt Standard, 6 March 1936, 1 May 1936. 114. Roosevelt Standard, 24 April 1936. 115. Roosevelt Standard, 8 October 1936. 116. "Statistical Summary of Expenditures and Accomplishments" Utah Emergency Relief Program, 1 October 1935-15 February 1936, Utah State Historical Society Library. 117. Uintah Basin Record, 18 October 1935. 118. Utah Department of Public Welfare, "First Biennial Report," (Salt Lake City: State of Utah, 1 luly 1936-30 lune 1938), 148, Table A-10. The only counties that had a greater number of persons on some type of assis­tance were counties with significantly greater population, such as Davis, Box Elder, and Cache. 119. Uintah Basin Record, 6 October 1933. 120. See, for example, the Roosevelt Standard, 27 October 1926. There were several such articles during the next few years. 121. Roosevelt Standard, 2 luly 1931. 122. Roosevelt Standard, 13 February 1936, 16 September 1937. 123. Uintah Basin Record, 17 September 1937. 124. See Kenneth W. Baldridge, "Nine Years of Achievement: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Utah," (Ph.D. diss., Brigham Young University, 1971). 125. Ibid., 30. 126. Arthur Timothy, interview. See also Beth R. Olsen, "Utah's CCCs: The Conservators' Medium For Young Men, Nature, Economy, and Freedom," Utah Historical Quarterly, 62 (Summer 1994): 261-74. 127. Curtis Robertson, interview with Kim Stewart, Southeastern Utah Project, Utah State Historical Society and California State University, Fullerton, 1971, copy at the Utah State Historical Society Library. 128. Roosevelt Standard, 29 September 1938, 23 March 1939, 22 lune 1939, and 23 lanuary 1941. See also Moon Lake Electric Association Minutes from 27 September 1938 to present. 129. FJ. Faherty to Moon Lake Electric Association, 25 September 1945, original in possession of Moon Lake Electric Association. Also see let­ters from Clair Haslem, 14 December 1944; Frank G. Shelley, 26 April 1946; Erna Anderton, 26 May 1941, Files A-32 and A-17 Moon Lake Electric Association offices. 130. Walter E. Atwood, to Duchesne County School District, 10 November 1983. 131. This section on the Toyackers is based on research and writing of 266 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY Michelle Miles of Mountain Home, Utah, and is used with her permission. See also the Roosevelt Standard, 11 lanuary 1984. 132. Walt Mason Redmond, interview with Michelle Miles, 19 May 1987. 133. Ibid. 134. The total cost of the trip was significant when one considers that the average rural American farmer during the Depression made less than $200 a year. See Carl N Degler, The New Deal (New York: New York Times, 1937), 171-79. 135. Walter Mason Redmond, lournal, 15, 19, 27 August 1933. 136. Raymond Wiscombe, lournal, 25 luly 1984. 137. Redmond, Journal, 18 August 1933. 138. Ibid., 11 August 1933. 139. Wiscombe, lournal, 25 luly 1984. 140. Leon lorgensen, lournal, August 1933. 141. lames F. Secome, to Duchesne County School District, 30 luly 1984. 142. United States Department of the Interior Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service, National Register of Historic Places Inventory- Nomination Form, Toyack F.F.A. Chapter House, 2, Utah Historical Records Survey, Works Progress Administration Collection, Utah State Historical Society. 143. Ibid. The Toyack House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 144. Atwood, 10 November 1983. 145. Ibid. 146. Ibid. For approximately the last twenty years, the building has been vacant. Roosevelt City and the Duchesne Historical Society are cur­rently involved in trying to raise funds to restore the building as a local museum. 147. Stories told the author by Woodrow Wilkerson, Neola, Utah. 148. See A Harvest of Memories, 597. 149. Powell, Utah History Encyclopedia, 432-38. 150. United States Census of Agriculture: 1935, 891; United States Census of Agriculture: 1945, Utah & Nevada, 48-49.