A History of Duchesne County

Social life in Duchesne county from W W II to the present

CHAPTER 8 SOCIAL LIFE IN DUCHESNE COUNTY FROM WORLD WAR II TO THE PRESENT I n late September 1940, Myton town baseball team members Frank Adams, Leon Olsen, John Murdock, DeVere Dennis, Alma Murdock, William Sutter, Howard Bingham, Lowell Bingham, Acel Bingham, Clyde Bingham, and Owen Bingham returned from Levan, where the state baseball championship series was played, without having won a game. Although the team was disappointed with the outcome, the Uintah Basin Record of 27 September 1940 reported that Alma Murdock was awarded a special prize for striking out fif­teen batters in their only game played in Levan. On the front page of the same issue of the Uintah Basin Record was another news item, which was smaller than the baseball team's results but of much more importance. The story was about the appointment of county commissioner Lyle Young and county clerk G.A. Goodrich to the newly established county Selective Service board. Two weeks earlier, Congress had passed the Selective Training and Service Act, which required all men in the country to register with their local Selective Service, or military draff, board. The schools in the county were selected as registration locations, and registration 267 268 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY was to begin on 16 October. By the end of the month, 972 Duchesne County men had registered with the county draft board.1 The registration of young men older than eighteen was yet another sign of the nation and the county drawing closer to war. (As the nation became more involved in the war, the selective service age was lowered to eighteen.) For several previous years bloody wars had been fought in China, elsewhere in Asia, and in Europe. Many Americans and most county residents paid little attention to the overseas conflicts, however; people throughout the nation and the county were still very concerned about solving the decade-long eco­nomic problems. During the ensuing months, as the European war expanded, more residents of the county became increasingly concerned about the war overseas. Throughout 1941, as conflict overseas became more widespread, a number of young men from the county volunteered for military duty; others were drafted into the armed forces. By December 1941, after Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan and war was formally declared against the Axis powers, draft quotas were established for each state and county in the nation. World War II During the course of World War II, all men in the county eligi­ble for military service were either drafted or given deferments from serving. In Duchesne County deferments were awarded because of physical conditions or the critical need of that person to raise food for the war effort. Of the 972 men in the county that were registered for the draff, only about fifty were deferred.2 All who served in World War II from the county were war heroes to their grateful contrymen, and some were so honored by receiving medals for their valor. The most-decorated war hero from the county was Harvey Natches, a Ute Indian son of Edward and Vera Loney Natches and a graduate of Roosevelt High School. In 1942, twenty-two- year-old Natches enlisted in the army and was sent to France, where he served in the European theater as a member of the famous U.S. Second Army armored "Hell on Wheels" division. Later, Pfc. Natches was one of the first American soldiers to enter the Russian-held sector of the German capital, where he and other Americans SOCIAL LIFE IN DUCHESNE COUNTY 269 Union High School was completed in 1951 and the new sign was added in 1997. (lohn D. Barton) were warmly greeted by many Berlin residents. Natches drove in the American convoy of jeeps, trucks, and tanks and was accompanied by Associated Press correspondent Daniel De Luce. Natches was given a set of postcards of Berlin by a street vendor who commented, "It is good to see the Americans again." De Luce wrote that Natches, from "the Ute Indian reservation, who wears a silver star, a bronze star and purple heart with oak leaf cluster, was the first American soldier to enter the center of the capital."3 Weeks later, Natches was in Potsdam, Germany, when President Harry Truman ordered the use of the atomic bomb against Japan. Men from Duchesne County were not the only ones to serve their country; eighteen women from the county served in the differ­ent branches of the armed forces. For them, it was a bold move to join the military. Like their male counterparts, military service pro­vided many new opportunities to experience life beyond their com­munities and the Uinta Basin. Some served as nurses; others served in other important positions. Women who served in World War II from Duchesne County included Betty Jo Morrison, Amelia Munz, Thelma De Stephano, Kathleen Jensen, Orba M. Eldredge, Emily 270 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY Madsen, Myra A. Iorg, Maxine Fairbanks, Ruby Jenkins, Alice Eggleston, Helen Huish, Vera Johnson, Boneta LeBean, Marlyn Whitmore, Norma Hancock, Ruth Burgess, Audrey Gardner, and Betty Wimmer. Myra Iorg (Mitchell), for example, v o l u n t e e r e d to serve her c o u n t r y in t h e Marine Corps. W h e n asked why she joined, Myra answered: "All t h e boys were going off to war and I'd had some train­ing as a welder and women were needed in defense at the time. I did­n't want to weld and wanted something more adventuresome so I joined the marines."4 She trained as an electrician in New York City at Hunter College, a womens' college converted during the war to a training facility. In addition to Myra, her family from Upalco pro­vided four sons to the war effort. The War at Home P a t r i o t i sm characterized life on the home front during World War II. O n 2 J a n u a r y 1942, a large front-page headline in the Roosevelt Standard read: FOR A HAPPIER NEW YEAR RESOLUTION I Resolve To Give First Consideration During 1942 To The Defense Effort Of My Country! Five days after Pearl Harbor, the Uintah Basin Record reflected on the feelings and the commitment of the county towards the war: We are at War. It gives us a feeling of sorrow and apprehen­sion indeed, to realize that this, our Christmas edition, must carry on its first page, mingled with news of the approaching Holiday season, the stirring accounts of the entrance of the United States into the war. . . . Of this we can feel sure though; whatever the cost, however long the time, America, united, can and will pay the price and give the time to win. . . . We here in the Basin will probably see no great change; we should not be in danger of air raids or other form of attack, we have no air fields, army posts or munitions factories to take on an increased tempo. But we will be affected just the same. Many of our young men are right now in the thick of the conflict either as fighters or civilian workers; we will be called on without SOCIAL LIFE IN DUCHESNE COUNTY 271 delay to start bearing an increased proportion of the costs, we will have to give up many of the things we would like to have, we must begin to produce and conserve far out of proportion to our own requirements.. . . [W] e will do all this cheerfully and freely, secure in the belief that America is great enough and right enough to win what her people will.5 During the war, at least half the space of every issue of the local newspapers included coverage of the war, keeping county residents abreast of the conditions at home and overseas. War pictures, stories, reports on progress, and even propaganda were commonplace in the Roosevelt Standard. Photos and drawings caricaturing Hitler, Hirohito, and Nazi and Japanese soldiers appeared frequently. Even before Pearl Harbor, farmers and ranchers of the county were asked to become involved in p r o d u c i n g more food. J. Edgar Holder, chairman of the county's agricultural defense board, directed the county's agricultural production effort. In the fall of 1941 Holder urged all farmers to put forth great effort. He conducted a county-wide agricultural survey in which he asked each farmer to prepare a food defense plan, "giving the extent to which his farm can contribute to the county 'Food for Freedom' production goals." In addition, each farmer was asked the number of cows milked the previous year, the number of hogs marketed and slaughtered, the n u m b e r of cattle marketed, and the number of eggs produced. Holder then asked what each farmer could do "to help meet the [production] goals for these commodities in 1942."6 County farmers and ranchers responded to the call to produce more food and fiber for the war effort. For example, on fewer farms (from 1,104 farms in 1940 to 1,044 farms in 1945) more acres were farmed (from some 300,300 acres to over 536,900 acres). Area farm­ers p r o d u c e d more small grains (oats, winter wheat, and spring wheat)-from a total yield of 30,400 bushels in 1940 to more than 44,600 bushels in 1945. Similarly, there was a sizeable increase in the number of cattle raised d u r i n g the period-from 23,449 to more than 33,000 head of cattle. Sheep producers increased the number of sheep from 35,400 to over 53,300. The number of milk cows increased by over 600, from 5,695 in 1940 to 6,356 in 1945, and county milk p r o d u c t i o n increased from 2.9 million gallons to 3.7 272 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY million gallons. There was an increase in the number of chickens and eggs produced as well.7 Throughout the war farmers were continually encouraged to produce more. Local newspaper headlines such as "Farmers Stay On the Farm" and "Fight On The Farm" were common.8 Even with an increase in agricultural production, however, all Americans were required to accept rations of food, fiber, and energy. Women of the county took up the slack on the farms. Working side-by-side with their husbands or fathers and with young children of the family, women milked cows, branded and castrated cattle, and planted, irrigated, and harvested crops. All families were encouraged to plant large gardens for their own use. Like their mothers or older sisters during the Depression years, county women of the 1940s were asked to make continued sacrifices, including making their own clothes. Marvella Bowden Wilkerson recalled living with a small child and without her husband for most of the war. In September 1941, before Pearl Harbor was attacked, she married Woodrow Wilkerson of Neola. Wilkerson provided for his new bride that fall and winter by working at a variety of odd jobs, including topping beets in Axtell, Sanpete County, and hauling coal from Price to the Uinta Basin. The following summer the couple moved to Ogden where he took a job at the newly constructed Hill Field (later renamed Hill Air Force Base). The job only lasted only a few months before he was drafted in December 1942. The next month, while Woodrow was at boot camp, Marvella delivered their first baby. In August 1943 Woodrow was sent to Europe; he served there until November 1945 when he returned to the Uinta Basin. He and his small family then took up residence in a two-room log cabin on a forty-acre homestead in Neola he had purchased from his parents. Their new house was without electricity or running water. Water came from a cement cistern in front of the cabin that was filled with irrigation water from a nearby ditch.9 They raised hay and milked a few cows on their forty-acre farm, just one of the many families of the area who struggled through the war years and their immediate aftermath. SOCIAL LIFE IN DUCHESNE COUNTY 273 Duchesne County Hospital changed its name to Uintah Basin Medical Center in 1984. (lohn D. Barton) Rationing and Other War Measures To control prices, President Roosevelt established the Office of Price Administration in April 1941. After war was declared prices were frozen and various goods were allocated through a system of rationing. County rationing boards were organized to establish and monitor the numerous commodities rationed for agriculture and consumer consumption. For instance, Joseph Moysh, chairman of the Council of Defense for Duchesne County, appointed Lotus Fischer, Tennis Poulson, Hildur W. Johnstun, Ted R. Harmston, Marden Broadbent, Mrs. Letta Robbins, Shirley K. Daniels, Howard Dunn, and Mrs. Joseph Young to the tire-rationing board in January 1942.10 As the war progressed, additional commodities and consumer goods of all kinds were added to the rationing system-gas, meat, sugar, cheese, and nylon hosiery, to mention a few. Ammunition was also rationed; purchasing bullets for hunting required a coupon. Everyone was encouraged to conserve, and rationing stamps were common. Duchesne County farmers and ranchers received proportionally more coupons for gasoline and for rubber tires than did their city 274 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY cousins. It was critical for the war effort that farmers and ranchers across the county continued to be productive. A small black market in ration coupons and stamps emerged in the county, although the vast majority of residents endeavored to contribute to the war effort by their careful and proper use of stamps and coupons.11 Along with rationing came various salvage and recycling efforts. People were encouraged to save grease, rubber, tin, metals, and paper. Labrum's gas station in Roosevelt was the collection center for used tires and other rubber items. In one salvage project the county col­lected twelve tons of paper.12 Children in the county participated in saving and collecting scraps of tinfoil. Emptied tin tubes of tooth­paste had to be exchanged at stores before a new tube could be pur­chased. Salvage bins for small items were found in all stores of the county. Families in the county were encouraged at school and in church to plant "victory gardens" to supplement their food supply and make them less dependant upon national food supplies. Families living in Roosevelt, Myton, and Duchesne were asked to convert some of their lawns to gardens. Articles in the Roosevelt Standard encouraged and informed people how to best utilize some of their yard in gardening. The county Future Farmers of America (FFA) assisted people in the tasks of getting started.13 Young children, Boy Scout troops, 4-H clubs, and others were asked to collect milkweed pods. Fiber from the milkweed pods was used to fill lifejackets of marines and navy personnel. The Roosevelt Standard reminded the children that by collecting the milkweed pods they might be saving the life of their father, older brother, uncle, or friend.14 The government asked a great deal of its citizens, and Duchesne County, for the most part, responded with patriotism and sacrifice both at the battlefront and on the home front. Financing the war in part came from the sale of war bonds, and during the course of the war seven bond drives were held. Quotas were set to encourage the purchase of war bonds. Several of the bond quotas rivaled the annual budget of the county; for instance, the county budget for 1942 was $77,091 and the war-bond quota for the year 1944 was $96,100.15 The SOCIAL LIFE IN DUCHESNE COUNTY 275 county met or exceeded every bond quota except for the last one, which ended after victory was achieved. One of the important domestic concerns of many Americans fol­lowing the attack on Pearl Harbor was the prejudice against Americans of Japanese ancestry A vast majority of these people resided on the Pacific coast, and many government officials saw them as a security risk. As a result, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which set in motion the forced removal of more than 125,000 Japanese-Americans from the west coast. The Topaz Relocation Camp, located in western Millard County a few miles northwest from Delta, was created in the summer of 1942, and by September the first of its 8,232 internees began arriving in the bleak environment. At first, Governor Herbert Maw was opposed to housing the Japanese people in the state, but he soon agreed. In March 1942, Duchesne County offi­cials contacted Governor Maw to offer 2,000 acres south of Myton as a work camp for the evacuees.16 The offer was never accepted by the gov­ernor, but work camps located elsewhere in the state were established by the spring of the following year. Work in the City As a growing number of the county's young men and women went off to war, an increasing number of other county residents began to leave the county for defense work along the Wasatch Front or elsewhere in the West. Several defense installations and defense industries were begun prior to December 1941 or were greatly enlarged shortly thereafter including Lehi Refactory and U.S. Steel Geneva Works in Utah County; Fort Douglas, Eitel McCullough Radio Tube Plant, Remington Small Arms Plant, and Utah Oil Refinery in Salt Lake County; Clearfield Naval Supply Depot, Hill Field, Ogden Arsenal, and Utah General Depot in Weber County; and Wendover Air Field, Tooele Army Depot, Dugway Proving Grounds, and Deseret Chemical Depot in Tooele County. All needed workers, both men and women, and all paid good wages. Edward and Opal Barton, for example, moved from their farm in Boneta to Salt Lake City for the winter of 1943. Edward Barton worked in a meat plant and his wife found employment at the Remington Arms plant. Wilma Iorg (Noakes) left Upalco and became 276 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY a journeyman welder at Hill Air Field.17 For some county residents, the move to the Wasatch Front was a permanent relocation; many found permanent wages and regular work shifts more attractive than the long hours and uncertainty of making a living on a farm in Duchesne County. During the decade of the 1940s, the county's pop­ulation decreased by slightly more than 800-which was about a 9 percent decline-from 8,958 to 8,134. Of all the communities in the county with recorded population figures, only Roosevelt showed an increase of population during the war-from 1,264 in 1940 to 1,628 in 1950, a healthy 28.8 percent increase. Other community population figures showed Tabiona with a 24.2 percent decrease, Mt. Emmons down by 24.7 percent, and Arcadia with a 31.7 percent decrease.18 Victory and the War's Ending The continental United States, for the most part, escaped the bombings that devastated Europe and Japan. One of the few bombs to land in the United States is believed to have done so on Blue Bench north of Duchesne. Near the end of the war, the Japanese launched many balloon bombs, hoping the winds would carry them over the United States, where they would land and detonate, creating fear and havoc in America. Only a few made it to land, however; most fell harmlessly into the ocean. The bomb at Blue Bench hit but did not explode. Several local residents called the sheriff's department to investigate the matter; it in turn called on military experts to remove the unexploded bomb.19 As victory drew closer for the Allies, the several local newspapers provided their readers with personal accounts of the war through let­ters received from the war fronts in Europe and the Pacific. More often than not, good news was reported. In May 1945, a month before victory in Europe, Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Harmston of Roosevelt received the good news that their son, Lt. Howard L. Harmston, had been liberated from a prisoner-of-war camp. In February 1944 his B-17 had been shot down over Germany and he had been captured.20 In June 1945 the Uintah Basin Record was pleased to print that Pfc. Alva Defa, son of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Defa, was also liberated from a German prison camp. He had been missing since December 1944.21 SOCIAL LIFE IN DUCHESNE COUNTY 277 Roosevelt City and Duchesne County Library. (John D. Barton) Pvt. Carl Rhoades of Hanna provided his parents with a report of crops being grown in Italy and Germany: "The days are getting awfully warm now. Some of the grain looks almost ready to cut." Ending on a positive note, he penned, "I hope you have the crops in at home. Don't forget to plant an extra potato, as I may be there to help eat one or two this fall."22 A few months later, in August, after Japan surrendered, the county along with the whole nation wildly celebrated. A number of wartime bans were lifted. Joyous songs like "When The Lights Go On Again All Over The World" were heard on the radio. County residents were glad that blackouts and the time of extreme caution for the use of electricity had ended.23 Those who remained at home also felt a sense of shared victory because of their efforts and sacrifices for the war effort. The return to the county for most soldiers and sailors was still several months off. Sadly, some never returned. The Post-War Period-1945 to 1960 Peace brought new employment and educational opportunities for returning soldiers and their families. The nation showed its grat­itude by providing financial support to veterans who wished to 278 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY attend college, and the government also helped finance home build­ing and strengthened health and hospital benefits for veterans and their wives. Returning soldiers hoped to live the American dream of a family, education, home, and a good job. However, to attend college meant leaving Duchesne County. Also, good-paying employment opportunities were generally only found outside the county and the Uinta Basin. For those who remained in the county after the war, the employ­ment opportunities changed, particularly in the county's main eco­nomic sector of agriculture. There were fewer farms, but the average size of farms grew. In 1940, for instance, there were 1,104 farms in the county, with 300,321 total acres being farmed, for an average of 272 acres per farm. Nineteen years later there were only 743 county farms, but they had an average size of 754 acres, for well over 500,000 acres total.24 War and peace greatly changed the way farmers did their work as well. In 1940 there were only eighty-four tractors in the county; dur­ing the next five years the number increased to 237 tractors. Farm trucks also increased during the same period, from 137 to 344.25 Mechanization of the farm dramatically increased agricultural pro­duction in the county, and it also reduced the need for as much extra labor. According to the U.S. census, in 1950 there were 1,280 agricul­tural jobs in the county. A decade later, the number had shrunk to 967 agricultural jobs.26 As discussed earlier, during the war and for the next several decades there was a decline in the county's population. The trend was reversed beginning in the 1970s; by 1980 the population of the county reached 12,565.27 Agriculture production was mixed during the remainder of the 1940s and 1950s. The average hay yield per acre in the county was near the bottom of the state, only Daggett County's average was smaller. In 1944 county farmers raised 1.6 tons to the acre; that fig­ure increased slightly fifteen years later to 1.95 tons per acre.28 The number of cattle raised in the county continued to increase after World War II, however. During the Depression, after the government cattle buy-out in 1934, there were only 9,663 cattle in the county. By April 1940 there were 23,449, and five years later the number of cattle SOCIAL LIFE IN DUCHESNE COUNTY 279 had increased to 33,037 head. By 1959 there was a total of 35,034 head of cattle in the county.29 Duchesne County dairy farmers ranked sixth in the state in the number of dairy cows-6,356 in 1944; only Cache, Box Elder, Salt Lake, Weber, and Utah counties had more dairy cows. The number of dairy cows had decreased to 5,764 by 1959; however, the total pro­duction of whole milk sold increased from 2,229,000 gallons in 1944 to 4,376,000 gallons in 1959, or about 759 gallons per year per cow.30 Water was critical to the agricultural production of the county. The construction of the Moon Lake reclamation project during the Depression greatly augmented the irrigation water available; however, with more land being farmed, more irrigation water was needed, as will be discussed later. New Business and Economic Trends Thirty-three new businesses opened in Roosevelt alone between 1945 and 1949, including a Sprouse Reitz variety store, the first national-chain store in the county. Perhaps the most important new business was oil. On 12 July 1951 the Uintah Basin Record proudly proclaimed the first oil strike in the county: "Duchesne County's First Oil Well 'Blew in' Last Sunday." Located on Ute tribal land, the Duchesne Ute Tribal No. 1 Well was the fourth oil strike made in the Uinta Basin and the sixth strike in Utah since 1948, when oil was struck in Ashley Valley. The well, a small producer of about 240 bar­rels a day, did not immediately create an oil boom in the county; but it did clearly demonstrate that beneath the surface in the Green River Formation "black gold" was waiting to be tapped. Other oil fields were opened in the Uinta Basin at Red Wash in 1951, Walker Hollow in 1953, and Bluebell in 1955. The discovery also provided new employment for county residents as riggers, roustabouts, truck dri­vers, and welders, among others. The real oil boom in the county occurred in part because of overseas events in the mid-1970s. In 1973 the United States supplied massive aid to Israel during the Yom Kippur War. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)-principally composed of Middle East countries-countered, using oil as a political and eco­nomic weapon against countries, including the United States, that 280 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY supported Israel. The price per barrel of Middle East oil increased by more than 400 percent. Coupled with an oil embargo, American oil producers returned to the United States and locations like Duchesne County and the Uinta Basin in search of domestic oil. The county experienced new construction and expansion of business from 1948 to 1955. The county courthouse in Duchesne was completed in 1953. Union High School was finished in 1951 at a con­struction cost of $515,500, providing improved educational oppor­tunities for 500 students in grades ten through twelve. The new Altamont High School was completed in 1955, and Duchesne High School was added onto and remodeled in 1958. Each of those schools served about 200 students in grades seven through twelve.31 A new state road through Indian Canyon was built and another to Talmage over Blue Bench was paved. The proposal to complete the new road through Indian Canyon was hotly debated. Many in the eastern end of the county wanted the road, linking U.S. Highway 40 with Carbon County, to follow the Nine Mile Route that had been heavily used for over fifty years. After a show of strength by Duchesne City, however, the Indian Canyon route won and the road was com­pleted. Both routes in the late 1950s were passable by truck or a deter­mined auto driver, but not until the work was done on the Indian Canyon route was it considered a good road. Many county residents recalled frightening drives over the Indian Canyon Road, especially during the winters when deep snows made the road nearly impassable and often stranded travelers before the road was improved. In the early 1970s the Indian Canyon road was completely reworked, widened, and at places the old route was aban­doned in favor of better grades and less turns. The Nine Mile Road, although graded and widened, remains unpaved.32 By the early 1960s, of $4,215,295 disbursed in wages and salaries in Duchesne County, $2,992,929 was farm income-about half of the wages and salaries in the county. Most of the farm income came from farmers who were sole proprietors; only about $280,000 was paid in wages to farm laborers. Government employment-at the county, state, and federal levels-made great gains in the county, accounting for the second-highest employment sector, with an average of $1,439,037 paid in wages from 1962 to 1966. Salaries and wages SOCIAL LIFE IN DUCHESNE COUNTY 281 Roosevelt City Building. (lohn D. Barton) earned from the wholesale and retail trades followed, with $816,720 for the same period. Contract construction followed with $410,880. Services ranging from hotels to professionals such as physicians and lawyers accounted for $310,417. Communications and public utili­ties amounted to $192,987, and transportation came to $107,647.33 Even with the decrease in population in the county, the job market adapted to fit the times. The Ute Tribe versus the Federal Government Several other significant events took place in the Uinta Basin which affected a large segment of the county's population. In 1934 Congress passed the Wheeler-Howard (Indian Reorganization) Act, which reversed much of the earlier Dawes General Allotment Act of 1887. The Wheeler-Howard Act provided for the reestablishment of Indian tribes and also provided for Indian self-government. Members of the Ute Tribe in both Duchesne and Uintah counties organized a tribal business committee to govern the affairs of the tribe. Following World War II, however, there was once again renewed interest in the condition of Indians generally. From this concern Congress formulated a new Indian policy, commonly called "termi- 282 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY nation." The new arrangement was to end the special Indian-federal relationship that had been reinstated under the Wheeler-Howard Act a decade earlier. Those supporting termination believed that the Indian population would be better served and more quickly inte­grated into society if special federal government treatment of Indians and tribes was removed and state and local governments provided health, educational, legal, and other public services similar to the those provided non-Indian citizens. Two congressional advocates for termination were Democrat Reva Beck Bosone, elected to the House of Representatives in 1948, where she served for four years, and Republican Arthur V Watkins in the U.S. Senate, where he served for twelve years beginning in 1953. In addition, both were strong advocates for reclamation projects in the West. Senator Watkins also served as chair of the Senate select committee that recommended the censure of Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy. Watkins was educated in Uintah County and later attended law school at New York University. After he graduated from NYU, he returned to establish his legal practice in Vernal before moving to the Wasatch Front. Watkins said of the new Indian program of termina­tion: Unfortunately, the major and continuing congressional movement towards full freedom was delayed for a time by the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. . . . Amid the deep social concern of the depression years, Congress diverted from its accustomed policy under the concept of promoting the general Indian welfare. In the post depression years Congress-realizing this change of policy- sought to return to the historic principles of much earlier decades.34 Termination proceedings began immediately for a group of mixed-blood Ute Indians after a House of Representatives' resolution was passed in 1953. In 1961 the federal government terminated fed­eral supervision of nearly 500 mixed-blood Indians, most living in the Uinta Basin. However, the pace of termination proceedings slowed beginning in 1960. The pattern then shifted to a new policy of self-determination, with Indian tribes receiving assistance and aid SOCIAL LIFE IN DUCHESNE COUNTY 283 from various federal programs, including the Rural Electrification Administration. President Richard Nixon moved the Indian program further away from termination to tribal self-determination and direction. In a campaign speech in 1968 Nixon said, American society can allow many different cultures to flourish in harmony [including Indians who wish] to lead a useful and pros­perous life in an Indian environment. . . . Indian future is deter­mined by Indian acts and Indian decisions.35 Since the 1970s, Ute Indians collectively have taken a stronger hand in directing their own affairs and managing their collective assets-including more than 1 million acres in Duchesne and Uintah counties, fish and game, and water-through their elected Ute Business Committee. A second significant event was the creation of an Indian Claims Commission (ICC) by Congress in 1946. The purpose of the ICC was to hear and settle the numerous tribal claims against the United States. Utah attorney Ernest L. Wilkinson represented the Ute people in one case and won a judgement totaling $1,678 million for the loss of nearly 1 million acres of their former lands that were added to the national forests located in Duchesne, Uintah, and Wasatch counties.36 The dispersal of the judgement was made to the Ute Tribe in three payments over the next few years. In a second judgement, the Uintah and Whiteriver bands were awarded $3.25 million in January 1958. This judgement was for the loss of land taken through the allotment process back to 1903 without the consent of members of the Ute Tribe.37 Ernest Wilkinson later was appointed president of Brigham Young University and in 1964 ran for the United States senate. The court's judgements provided a boost to the county's econ­omy over the next several decades. County businessmen were pleased to have additional business when Ute tribal members purchased goods and services locally. The relationship between the Indian and non-Indian community in Uintah and Duchesne counties was amicable for several decades. But beginning in the 1980s there developed serious differences of opinion over legal jurisdiction and management of fish and game 284 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY laws, land use, water rights, and the enforcement of laws. Hard feel­ings were generated, with many county residents expressing anger towards their Indian neighbors. According to some, the Utes had been paid several times for the land, and they asked why the courts should give them jurisdiction of the land now. In addition, the Utes were paid $1,100 each by the federal government in payment of lands taken as Uintah National Forest. A government report adds: "With the aid of this money, some Indians were able to seek out a living on the farm while others spent the money unwisely and received no per­manent benefit therefrom."38 In a law case filed 14 September 1962, The Confederated Bands of Ute Indians v. The United States of America, the Interlocutory Order explains why the Utes filed several suits against the government, even after they had been paid in earlier judgements: "The consideration of $507,662.84 paid to the petitioner for a cession of its lands having a fair market value of $8,500,000.00 was so grossly inadequate as to make the consideration uncon­scionable." This particular suit was for Uncompahgre Park in Colorado, but the wording sums up the feeling of the Ute people for their loss of lands and the payment they had received for them. Many members of the tribe retaliated for white opposition by economically boycotting their neighbors, refusing to spend their money in Roosevelt. Legal jurisdictional issues, specifically what con­stitutes the Uintah-Ouray Indian Reservation, have gone before the courts. The land jurisdiction issues led to the courts ruling in favor of the Indians and establishing the reservation at some 4.1 million acres in three Utah counties. A similar boycott of Roosevelt mer­chants by Indians in the late 1990s has been centered on jurisdiction for the prosecution of misdemeanors committed by Indians in Roosevelt. Polio Between 1948 and 1953 a serious health crisis-poliomyelitis, or infantile paralysis-swept the nation and the state, crippling and killing young and old alike. In 1951 there were more than 455 cases reported in the state, most victims living in the counties along the Wasatch Front. Dr. George A. Spendlove, state health director, char­acterized the polio outbreak as a "borderline epidemic."39 Warnings SOCIAL LIFE IN DUCHESNE COUNTY 285 about the disease's early symptoms and talk of hoped-for cures for the dreaded virus were common topics of discussion among citizens and in the local newspapers. Dorothy Stevenson (Hicken) of Mountain Home contracted one of the few cases of polio in the county when she was two years old. After several visits to doctors in Vernal, Price, and Salt Lake City, she was admitted to the Shriners Crippled Childrens Hospital in Salt Lake City. She was isolated for over three months in a polio ward for recovery and when she was finally allowed to return home had to wear braces and do exercises to strengthen her legs. Dorothy recalled that she did not like to do the exercises or wear the leg braces. Her family bribed her to wear them. She said: "I was very lucky. I remem­ber kids in iron lungs in the hospital. When kids died they never told us. They just said they had been moved."40 Periodic March of Dimes campaigns were held in the county to raise money for research and to aid those afflicted. Hope through vaccination came in 1953 when a vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk proved to be effective. The county along with the whole nation was hopeful that the disease could be controlled and perhaps eliminated.41 For the next several years immunization clinics located in the county were advertised in the local newspapers. The local public campaign was successful. There were few cases of polio in the county in the 1950s. Duchesne County Hospitals The first hospital in the county was located in Roosevelt and was run by Drs. J.E. Morton and W.J. Browning. Established in June 1914, the hospital's capacity was twelve beds.42 However, the Roosevelt hos­pital, like many others in the state, was private. The activities of the Roosevelt hospital are sketchy over the next several decades. In March 1937 a group of citizens organized themselves to secure funds to build and equip a new hospital. W Russell Todd was appointed to head the building committee. Unable to raise funds locally, Todd and the others turned to the LDS church, which agreed to fund 60 per­cent of the new hospital and equipment; the community agreed to raise the remaining 40 percent. Construction for the new hospital began in April 1939, and in 286 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY December 1941 the hospital was completed. With war breaking out, it was difficult to secure the necessary medical equipment for the hospital until April 1944, at which time it was officially opened. The community raised in cash and labor contributions more than $16,400 for the twenty-one-bed hospital with one operating room. The new hospital was incorporated in April 1944 as a non-profit corporation. Ray E. Dillman, William H. Rupple, Ernest Morrison, Leandrew J. Gilbert, and Edwin L. Murphy were selected as the hos­pital's first board of directors. Mrs. Martha Shanks, formerly the county nurse, was hired as superintendent of the hospital.43 A quarter-century later the Mormon church wanted to divest itself of all its hospitals. At about the same time, the Roosevelt Hospital's board of directors believed it was necessary to build a newer and larger hospital. Alva Snow, newly called stake president of the Roosevelt LDS Stake in 1966, met with county and city officials as well as with LDS church authorities from Salt Lake City to begin talks on a new hospital. LDS stake leaders over the previous twenty years had also served on the hospital board of directors. The doctors in the area were hopeful that a new facility could be built to improve the region's medical care. The Roosevelt LDS Stake owned property on Third West and Third North that all agreed would be an excellent location for a new hospital. With Snow's recommendation, the church-owned land was pledged if the county agreed to raise the necessary funds to build the new hospital. The county held a special bond election held in October 1966, and voters approved a bond for $500,000. In addition to issuing bonds, $350,000 for construction purposes came from the hospital cash reserves and accounts receivable. To save some costs, some of the equipment from the old hospital was moved to the new hospital after it was completed. The planned hospital also qualified for $308,000 in federal assistance. For many years the old Roosevelt hospital had provided 50 percent of the outpatient medical care for Ute people living in Duchesne and Uintah counties.44 Another $100,000 was promised by the federal Public Health Service for con­struction of a wing of the new hospital to serve as an Indian outpa­tient clinic. With the funding flowing in at a rate that surprised and pleased those working on the new hospital project, the dream became SOCIAL LIFE IN DUCHESNE COUNTY 287 a reality and the new thirty-one-bed hospital was completed in 1969.45 In 1984 the Duchesne County Hospital was remodeled and enlarged, bringing it to a forty-two-bed capacity. The name also was changed at that time to the Uintah Basin Medical Center (UBMC). It currently hosts fourteen physicians, up from the three physicians who served the community in the early 1960s. For a rural county hospital, it offers an outstanding record of service. The west end of the county became concerned with the lack of medical care in the area following World War II. Appeals went out for doctors to establish their medical practice in the west end of the county; when this was unsuccessful, it was recognized that a medical facility was needed to attract doctors and provide medical care. In 1951 a group of citizens headed by the Duchesene Lion's Club decided to build a hospital. Financial help was asked from the LDS church as well as from other institutions and organizations. A prob­lem in many people's minds, however, was there were too few resi­dents to support a hospital. Not to be deterred, the citizens of the west end agreed that they would build their own hospital. For the next three years numerous organizations held banquets, organized community fund-raisers, and pitched in to pour concrete, hammer nails, and paint. In 1955, for example, over $1,300 was raised for the community hospital by the Presbyterian church of Myton, the Duchesne Mothers Club, the Duchesne Lions Club, Salt Lake Pipeline Company, Duchesne County Business and Professional Women's Club, the Duchesne American Legion, the Duchesne American Legion Auxiliary, and Hi-Land Dairy. The Duchesne Health Center opened its doors in early January 1956 with much fanfare. "There is nothing but the highest kind of praise due to the men and women of Duchesne and immediate vicinity, who have sweat and worked together over the years . . . to keep their project moving," reported the Uintah Basin Record at the time of the hospital's opening. The first officials of the new medical facilities included George C. Kohl, president; Vernal Bromley, vice-president; Clifton C. Mickelson, secretary-treasurer; and B.A. Jacoby, Walter Nelson, John Munz, and Chester Lyman, directors.46 As part of the grand opening of the much-needed hospital, numerous gifts 288 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY were donated to the first baby born in the facility. Gifts for the new­born, its parents, and its grandparents included a theatre pass, cash, baby supplies; an oil change, car wash and lubricant job, and twenty-five gallons of gasoline, a steak dinner, a hair cut and shave to the father, and a pair of nylon hose to the mother. A few weeks later Mrs. Jean Saddreth of Mountain Home gave birth to the first baby born in the new hospital; days later, twins were born at the medical facility. Shortly after the hospital opened it became a participant hospital in the statewide Blue Cross hospital plan. However, like other small community hospitals in the state, the Duchesne City hospital fell on hard financial times and by the early 1960s had closed its doors. Life in Duchesne County In the latter part of the 1950s television entered the homes of millions of Americans. In 1957 test signals were conducted for tele­vision reception in Duchesne County. The signals were sufficiently strong that some homes were able to receive programs from one of the channels in Salt Lake City. Four years later a new tower was installed at LaPoint Hill that improved reception and provided for a broader coverage of all three major network television stations in Salt Lake City.47 Now county residents could watch the evening news and such programs as Lawrence Welk, Ed Sullivan, and Bonanza. County teens danced to American Bandstand, and the residents of the county became more integrated with the rest of the nation. With nightly television viewing taking place in many homes in the county, many residents of the area took pride in the fact that one of their own had invented television. Philo T. Farnsworth was a leader in conceiving the idea of transmitting moving pictures on air waves. Born in a hamlet in Beaver County, Farnsworth lived in Mountain Home during part of his youth before has family moved to Idaho, where he graduated from high school. Many residents of Mountain Home are related to Farnsworth. The hard times of the Great Depression and World War II encouraged the organization of civic organizations, social clubs, and professional groups in the county, many of which promoted and encouraged new developments and county improvements. The SOCIAL LIFE IN DUCHESNE COUNTY 289 Duchesne County laycees and the Lady laycees, for example, were important supporters of the annual Duchesne County Stampede and accompanying parade. The Duchesne County Lions Club joined with the business organization the Duchesne Gateway Club to promote tourism and summer recreation in the county, including fishing, hik­ing, and hunting. The Gateway Club in 1937 worked hard but unsuc­cessfully to have the Utah State Prison relocated to the county. The Duchesne County Business and Professional Women's Club pro­moted women's business and professional activities. These and other organizations carried their activities into the 1950s and the decades that have followed. One of the most unusual local promotional activities was the horse versus man race held in October 1957 and organized by the Bullberry Boys Booster Club of Duchesne County. The local chapter of the club was organized to bring positive attention to the county and to work with local business and commercial interests to encour­age and build morale and community pride. The planned 157-mile race soon caught the attention of local, state, and national media. Two county residents-seventy-one-year-old rancher Roy Hatch and eighteen-year-old oil-field worker DeRay Hall-were pitted against two Brigham Young University track stars-Shim Bok Suk from Korea and Albert Gray from New York. Suk later was replaced by eighteen-year-old Terry Jensen from Idaho Falls. Hatch rode a thoroughbred quarterhorse and Hall rode a mus­tang that had been caught two years earlier in Wild Horse Canyon. The race began at the Brigham Young Monument in downtown Salt Lake City and went south to Orem, where runners and horsemen turned east through Provo and Daniels canyons and then through Strawberry Valley. The race ended in Roosevelt, where Duchesne County Sheriff Lorin Stevenson and Roosevelt Mayor Paul Murphy judged the winner of the race. Riding and running day and night through rain and some snow, Roy Hatch and DeRay Hall completed the race in 57 hours, 9 min­utes. They were greeted in Roosevelt by a crowd of over 6,000 people. Neither of the long-distance runners finished the race; Al Gray dropped out at Deer Creek and Terry Jensen stopped at Current Creek. Hatch said of the race: "I never had such a thrill as when 290 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY someone from Salt Lake City called me Roy Rogers." Hatch praised his horse by adding: "The only thing is, I don't think Trigger [Roy Rogers's horse] could have made the run."48 Hearing of the race, other runners of national standing chal­lenged the horsemen to a similar race in 1958. The results were the same-the horses finished with ease and none of the runners com­pleted the course. Steward Paulick, winner of the race, covered the distance in 29 hours and 20 minutes. A third race was organized in 1959; this time the race was between men and women horse riders. Dorothy Luck of Neola won the race and a $3,000 cash prize. She covered the 157 miles in just over sixteen hours on a thoroughbred horse. County Political Concerns Between the end of World War II and the 1960s, the majority of voters in the county shifted their political allegiance from the Democratic party to the Republican party. In the presidential elec­tion of 1952, for example, most county voters placed their mark next to World War II general and hero Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower received 1,969 votes and his Democratic challenge Adlai Stevenson received 1,242 votes. Four years earlier, the county and the state had voted to return President Harry Truman to the White House.49 The 1952 election was the first county Republican victory in a national race since Herbert Hoover was elected in 1928. County voters deviated from voting for the Republican party's presidential candidate in 1964 when the majority of them, like most other voters of the state, voted for President Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson garnered 1,320 votes from county voters to Republican pres­idential candidate Barry Goldwater's 1,251 votes. Democratic candi­date for governor Calvin Rampton and Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate Frank Moss both won a majority of the votes in the county as well as receiving a majority of votes from the rest of the state. Elections for local offices generally favored the candidates with the most common-sense answers to the county's problems. The can­didate's integrity and personality counted for much more than party affiliation.50 SOCIAL LIFE IN DUCHESNE COUNTY 291 Numerous articles and political cartoons in the county newspa­pers spoke out strongly against communism and socialism during the Cold War, reflecting the political views of the residents of the county, which echoed national sentiment. This was particularly the case dur­ing the McCarthy era of the early 1950s, but even after the McCarthy era ended in the mid-1950s, these articles continued well into the 1960s. Throughout the nation and in the county there was much concern about the Cold War, which pitted the United States and its allies against the Soviet Union and other communist countries in political battles for global control that often threatened to erupt into full-scale war, which could mean mutual nuclear annihilation. During the early months of 1956, for example, there was much activ­ity in the county related to civilian defense. In March the Uintah Basin Record happily reported that the "Sky Watchers" in Myton had just completed building a civilian defense watchtower on top of the fire station "so they can better carry out" their duties watching the skies for airplanes.51 Concerned because members of the Duchesne City Ground Observation Corps lacked such an observation tower, the newspaper in an editorial urged the community of Duchesne to build such a structure and also issued a plea for volunteers to serve a few hours a week.52 Weeks later, the Uintah Basin Record was pleased to announce that the first all-Indian ground observation corps in the United States had been organized at Whiterocks by T.H. York, Baptist minister at Gusher. Wilson Taveapont was chief observer, with fourteen volun­teers including women and children involved in watching for air­planes. 53 The earliest years of the Cold War prompted extensive prospect­ing and mining of uranium in the county. In the spring of 1954 the national Sandia Mining and Development Company reported open­ing the Canary Bird, Eagle's Nest, and Eureka uranium mining claims in the area and was working on fifteen other claims located on the South Myton Bench. The mining company reported that one of the claims contained a vein thirty-four inches thick, although it thinned considerably. Larger discoveries of uranium ore elsewhere in the state and in the West, however, diverted national attention from the promised uranium mining boom in the county. 292 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY While the rest of the nation moved toward the turbulent decade of the 1960s, marked with rock and roll music, youth protest, and radical hair and clothing styles, Duchesne County remained in the backwaters. News of the race riots in Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and Newark, the growing protest and drug culture of hippies and flower children, and the civil rights protests on the Mall in the nation's cap­ital, in Birmingham, Alabama, and elsewhere came each evening on the nightly television news programs. The music many teenagers lis­tened to gave their parents and church leaders concern, but most local youth continued to embrace the social values of their parents and community. On at least one occasion when a male student's hair was considered too long, several of his peers at Altamont High School gave him a forced haircut. Many in the county grew increasingly concerned with the per­ceived menace of communism in Southeast Asia, Cuba, and else­where. Particularly distressing was the increasing conflict in Vietnam. The more conservative residents of the county believed it was better to fight and stop communism in Southeast Asia than to eventually have to fight communists on the beaches of California. Young men of the country were once again called upon to fight a war overseas. Unlike some of their counterparts elsewhere who resisted the draft by burning their draft cards or fleeing to Canada, most male high school graduates of the county served willingly. Some county residents of draft age received deferments to attend college or to serve LDS missions. Bruce Peatross, a Vietnam veteran from Duchesne who was drafted in 1968, reflected on the local attitude towards the war and the draft: "There were no draft dodgers or real complaints from those who were drafted. It was something we had to do for our country and we went and did it."54 While many were drafted, others like Ronny Dean Roberts from Roosevelt enlisted; Roberts joined the Marine Corps in July 1966. In November 1967 Roberts was sent to Vietnam, where he became the first casualty from the county, killed Thanksgiving Day 1967, when his floating, tracked vehicle used to transport troops from ship to land was sunk. Roberts was credited with saving eighteen of his bud­dies' lives before he drowned. It was later determined that the vehicle had been sabotaged. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart SOCIAL LIFE IN DUCHESNE COUNTY 293 and Medal of Valor. His father and uncles had fought in World War II, and he felt that fighting in Vietnam was necessary for freedom's cause.55 The Roberts family, like most county residents during the Vietnam War, supported the government and the war. The counterculture that sprang up in many parts of the nation during the 1960s had little impact on Duchesne County. The county school district undertook an active prevention program against drug use. Movies and documentaries were shown in health classes, and the program was bolstered by local ecclesiastical leaders and established family standards. Those few teenagers who did use drugs smoked marijuana or popped various pills; hard-core drug use was virtually unknown in the county. Teens who wanted to kick up their heels usually did so by con­suming beer or occasionally hard liquor. Alcohol was difficult to pur­chase by underage consumers, however. Most residents in the small tight-knit communities of Duchesne County felt a shared responsi­bility for the youth of their communities; not only did local store-owners refuse to sell beer to teenagers, there also were few stores in the county or in the Uinta Basin that sold beer. Only state-owned liquor stores in Roosevelt and Duchesne sold packaged beverages. In 1980 there were two state-owned liquor stores and one restaurant licenced to sell alcohol in the county. The annual per capita alcohol sales for 1979 was between twenty and thirty dollars.56 In 1957 the county commission had debated whether they should grant a beer license to a store in Neola. A decade later the same question was raised when a store in Altamont applied for a license to sell beer.57 The rapid increase of population in the late 1970s and the growth of convenience stores in the county later in the decade has made it easier for residents and tourists to purchase beer. Growing Pains In October 1973 the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) declared an embargo on the shipment of crude oil to those countries who had been supporting Israel in its conflict with Egypt. The Arab oil embargo triggered a renewed search for oil in the United States. Late in 1940s the Upper Colorado River Compact was approved 294 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY and Congress approved the Colorado River Storage Project, which authorized the construction of massive reclamation projects on the upper Colorado River. In the mid-1960s project design and engi­neering work was well underway and would be followed with con­struction of elements of the Central Utah Project, Utah's segment of the Colorado River Storage Project. These two events resulted in a rapid increase in population in the county, matched only by the opening of the Uintah Reservation in 1905. In both instances, large numbers of families-not just single men-immigrated into the county. The population of the city of Duchesne, for example, increased 42 percent during the 1960s; it increased even more-53 percent-during the decade of the 1970s.58 The county's experience with the exploding population was mixed. Many LDS churches were remodeled and new ones were built. This was also true of the schools at the onset of the county's increase of population. In Roosevelt, the water and sewer systems were mod­ernized and expanded, new wells dug, and additional water added. New sewage treatment ponds were built south of Roosevelt that more than doubled the city's sewer capacity. Other public services such as law enforcement and health depart­ments scrambled to meet the bulging population needs. Contractors built housing. Total housing units in the county in 1970 numbered 2,348; a decade later the number of housing units jumped by nearly 91 percent to 4,478 units. During the decade of the 1980s total hous­ing units in the county continued to grow-this time to 5,860, an increase of nearly 31 percent over the preceding decade.59 The percentage rate of growth of new housing units placed the county sixth in the state in the decade of the 1970s, exceeded only by Daggett County (140.8 percent), Washington County (121.6 per­cent), Kane County (113.1 percent), Emery County (109.7 percent), and Summit County (103.9 percent). The overall rate of housing growth for the state for the decade was 55.2 percent. The county ranked seventh in the rate of change (30.9 percent) for total housing units during the decade of the 1980s. The average percentage of change for the state for the decade was slightly more than 24 percent. Oil exploration and production figures are hard to determine before the 1980s; but, with the boom, seemingly overnight hundreds SOCIAL LIFE IN DUCHESNE COUNTY 295 of rigs were drilling around the clock, each with a crew of several men, support crews, and services. Motels and restaurants could barely meet customer needs; often they were crowded to capacity and beyond. Traffic reached record volume as hundreds of new residents and oil-related businesses used the roads and highways. When the oil boom began there was not a single traffic light in the county; how­ever, the Utah Department of Transportation soon added stoplights at Roosevelt's main intersections. Enrollment in the schools of the county nearly doubled. Each of the grades in the schools in Altamont and Duchesne, for example, rose from an average of twenty-five students per grade to nearly twice that number. The schools in Roosevelt experienced similar increases in student enrollments. In desperation, the school district bought trailer houses and remodeled them into classrooms to augment the number of available classrooms. The average daily enrollment in the school district for 1959 was 2,140; during the 1972-73 school year the average daily enrollment jumped to 3,124 students. Daily enroll­ment for all grades continued upward, reaching a peak of 4,132 stu­dents during the 1983-84 school year. During the 1990-91 school year the average daily enrollment was 3,865 students.60 For the first time in the county's history, jobs were plentiful and wages were good. New graduates from high school could double their former teachers' salaries by going to work on oil rigs. Support busi­nesses for the oil industry, including construction companies, roustabouts, tool companies, pipeline companies, oil hauling com­panies, and several others, added jobs to the region. The boom times brought sudden and new prosperity along with the growth. In 1962 there were sixty-nine people employed in the mining sector, which also included oil and natural-gas production. Thirteen years later, the number of people employed in mining had increased fifteenfold to 1,059-the peak figure for the period from 1959 to 1990. Reflecting the increases in population and the work being done by the Bureau of Reclamation, government employment in the county jumped from 541 in 1962 to 1,402 in 1985.61 Energy and water-reclamation projects enabled many of the Uinta Basin's high school graduates to remain in the county and find employment; also, 296 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY many former residents returned to reestablish their homes in the county Many local businesses including grocers, builders, auto dealers, retail stores, movie theaters, and drug stores expanded and hired additional help. New stores and businesses sprang up; they included repair shops, tire stores, gas stations, and convenience stores. The explosive population growth in the county as a result of energy exploration and development and the construction and man­agement of reclamation projects brought some change to the county, although many newcomers were from Utah. By 1971 county mem­bership in the LDS church reached more than 6,600.62 Membership in several of the other denominations also grew, and several new con­gregations were formed. Growth continued in the 1980s, and by 1990 there were more than 9,600 local LDS church members.63 The Salt Lake Diocese of the Roman Catholic church sent Bishop Duane Hunt to Vernal to preside over St. John's Parish in 1922. In 1938 Roosevelt was made a mission to the Vernal parish, and in 1940 a rectory hall was built and Father Maurice Fitzgerald was appointed to preside over the new St. Helen's Church. In 1990 there were three Roman Catholic churches in the county and the total number of adherents was 250.64 The Episcopal church has had a long-established presence in the county, although church membership had declined to fourteen by 1971. On 2 July 1944 the Roosevelt Baptist Church was organized with eight members. The group rented the Episcopal church for their Sunday services. They completed their own church in 1947. In 1971 membership in the Southern Baptist Convention numbered 237; in 1990 there were 159 members. Other faiths represented in the county include the Christian Assembly of God, Jehovah's Witnesses, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Harvest Fellowship churches, among others.65 The Indian population have joined various faiths, with many choosing to follow their Native American Religion. The several faiths have for the most part lived harmoniously in the communities of the county. The economic forces driving the growth of population in the county during the last quarter of the twentieth century have been the development of water, energy, and land. Political issues of ownership SOCIAL LIFE IN DUCHESNE COUNTY 297 and management of these resources are sometimes hotly contested. These natural resources not only are important to the county's eco­nomic vitality b u t are increasingly p a r t of the larger state and national economic pictures. Other i m p o r t a n t developments have occurred that also have helped break the county's geographical isolation. These have included improved and new roads, access to information and entertainment, and the development of post-high school educational opportunities. These developments have brought more economic diversity and have generally improved the living conditions of residents of the county. ENDNOTES 1. Roosevelt Standard, 17 October 1940. 2. See Dillman, Early History of Duchesne County, 486-547. 3. Quoted in Salt Lake Tribune, 7 July 1945. See also Roosevelt Standard, 5 luly 1945, and Beehive History 17 (1991): 23. Following the war, Natches returned to Duchesne County and became a cattle rancher. He later served on the Ute Tribal Business Committee and was superintendent of the tribe's water department. He died in 1980 and was buried with full military honors at the Fort Duchesne Cemetery. 4. Myra Iorg Mitchell, interview with lohn Barton, 3 December 1996, Upalco, Utah, transcript in possession of the author. See Early History of Duchesne County, 486 - 547. 5. Uintah Basin Record, 12 December 1941. 6. Uintah Basin Record, 24 October 1941. 7. See United States Census of Agriculture, 1945, Utah and Nevada. 8. Roosevelt Standard, 12 February 1942, 31 December 1942. 9. Marvella Wilkerson, interview with John Barton, 12 November 1994, Duchesne, Utah, transcript in possession of the author. In all the interviews the author has done with women who were on farms during the war years, they share their experiences as commonplace for everyone they knew. 10. Uintah Basin Record, 2 January 1942. 11. Roosevelt Standard, 30 April 1942, 3 December 1942, 18 March 1943, 19 October 1944. Hunters were warned of bullet scalpers who charged excessive prices for hunting ammunition. A price list of what ammunition should cost was printed to protect those who might otherwise be taken advantage of. 12. Roosevelt Standard, 8 March 1945. 298 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY 13. See Roosevelt Standard, 19 March 1942 and 29 April 1943 for two of many such articles. 14. Roosevelt Standard, 16 November 1944. 15. Roosevelt Standard, 1 lanuary 1942, 27 lanuary 1944. 16. Roosevelt Standard, 26 March 1942. 17. Allan Kent Powell, Utah Remembers World War II (Logan: Utah State University Press 1991), 138-39. 18. See 1940 and 1950 United States census records,various pages. 19. lack D. Barton, interview with lohn Barton, 9 December 1994, Altonah, Utah, transcript in possession of author. Mention of this bomb is conspicuously absent from the local paper. The authorities likely did not want to create local fear. 20. Uintah Basin Record, 25 May 1945. 21. Uintah Basin Record, 1 lune 1945. 22.Ibid. 23. Wilkerson, interview. 24. Utah Agricultural Statistics, (Salt Lake City: Utah Department of Agriculture/U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1971), tables 21, 14, 15. 25. United States Census of Agriculture: 1945, Utah and Nevada, 25. 26. Utah Agricultural Statistics, table 36. 27. Allan Kent Powell, ed., Utah History Encyclopedia, 433. 28. Utah Agricultural Statistics, table 83. 29. Roosevelt Standard, 9 August 1934; Utah Agricultural Statistics, table 126. 30. Utah Agricultural Statistics, table 127. 31. Duchesne County School Board, Minutes, 1951-1958, Duchesne County School District Offices, Duchesne, Utah. Union High School is one of the few schools in the state that serves more than one county. It was built by agreement between Uintah and Duchesne County School Districts to serve eastern Uintah and western Duchesne County residents. 32. Roosevelt Standard, 11 August 1949, 1 September 1949, 11 December 1949, 12 July 1951, 13 September 1951, 30 April 1953, 4 February 1954, 10 June 1954, 27 June 1957. 33. J. Whitney Hanks, "Personal Income In Utah Counties: 1962-1966," University of Utah Bureau of Economic and Business Research, 22. 34. Quoted in Lyman Tyler, A History of Indian Policy (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Interior, 1973), 152. 35. Ibid., 217-18. SOCIAL LIFE IN DUCHESNE COUNTY 299 36. Roosevelt Standard, 25 October 1951. 37. The Uintah Ute Indians of Utah v. The United States of America, 14 May 1954. Also see Uintah Basin Standard, 10 lanuary 1958. Note that the Roosevelt Standard changed its name to the Uintah Basin Standard with the first edition of the paper in 1957. 38. See Three Year Report To The Commissioner Of Indian Affairs, Bureau Of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department Of Interior, By The Ute Indian Tribe Of The Uintah And Ouray Reservation, Utah (21 August 1951-21 August 1954), 5. 39. Salt Lake Tribune, 19 luly 1951. 40. Dorothy Stevenson Hicken, interview with lohn Barton, Roosevelt, Utah, 9 lune 1997, transcript in possession of the author. 41. For just a few of many mentions of polio in the local paper see Roosevelt Standard, 18 lanuary 1951, 12 lanuary 1953, 8 October 1953, 31 December 1953. 42. Dillman, Early History of Duchesne County, 369. 43. Ibid., 377-81; Uintah Basin Standard, 25 August 1944; Tom Vitelli, The Story of Intermountain Health Care (Salt Lake City: Intermountain Health Care, 1995), 53-54. 44. Uintah Basin Standard, 6 October 1966; Alva Snow, interview with lohn Barton, 11 November 1994, Roosevelt, Utah, transcript in possession of author. Congress had approved a grant for an Indian clinic in Alaska that could not meet the construction deadline within the fiscal year, so the $308,000 approved funds were given to Duchesne County if they could start soon enough to meet the time conditions for the year. 45. Uintah Basin Standard, 2 lanuary 1969; Snow, interview. Snow played a major role in many areas of the county's development including the Duchesne County Hospital, Utah State University Uintah Basin Campus, Zion's Bank, the Moon Lake Electric building in Roosevelt, and the development and expansion of LDS church facilities in the area. Under his direction, at a time when LDS church members had to put up approxi­mately 40 percent of the funds, three new chapels were built, and every existing church building in the stake was added onto or remodeled. 46. Uintah Basin Record, 19 lanuary 1956, 9 February 1956, 19 April 1956, 17 May 1956. 47. Uintah Basin Standard, 14 February 1957, 28 February 1957, 15 lune 1961. 48. Uintah Basin Standard, 21 November 1957; Salt Lake Tribune, 18 November 1957. 49. The county election results for president in 1948 included 1,588 votes for Truman and 1,266 for Dewey. The state voters voted in like man- 300 HISTORY OF DUCHESNE COUNTY ner-Truman received 149,151 votes to Dewey's 124,402 votes. See Wayne Stout, History of Utah, 1930-1970 (Salt Lake City: n.p., 1971), 3:423. 50. Uintah Basin Standard, 9 November 1950, 6 November 1952. 51. Uintah Basin Record, 29 March 1956. 52. Uintah Basin Record, 26 April 1956. 53. Uintah Basin Record, 10 May 1956. 54. Bruce Peatross, interview with lohn Barton, 25 January 1996, tran­script in possession of the author. Peatross was wounded in the legs while in Vietnam and sent back to the states to recover; he was released from the service in 1970. He was the only one from the area he knew of who was wounded. 55. Terry Roberts, interview with John Barton, 17 December 1996, Roosevelt, Utah, transcript in possession of the author. 56. Atlas of Utah, 234-35. 57. Uintah Basin Standard, 7 February 1957. Despite protest from local residents, the stores were granted beer licenses. 58. Powell, Utah History Encyclopedia, 434-35. 59. Statistical Abstract of Utah, 1993 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Bureau of Economic and Business Research, 1993), 346. 60. See Statistical Abstract of Utah, various years. 61. Ibid. 62. Atlas of Utah, 140. 63. Martin B. Bradley et al., Churches and Church Membership in the United States, 1990 (Atlanta: Glenmary Research Center, 1992), 393. 64. Ibid. 65. Ibid.