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Show THE ZEFHYROCTOBER 1993 PAGE 12 My Personal History Life & Times in Southeast Utah By Verona Stocks I was 13 years old April 1, 1918 and a few days later Dad was ready to go after the cattle that had wintered on the White Rim between the Colorado and Green Rivers. We got as far as Seven Mile that first day just before noon and Dad said he wanted to see a man who was helping guard the convicts who were working on the Seven Mile bridge. He left Otho and me back about a mile away to keep the extra horses we had to have on that cattle drive and we had two pack horses. Dad and Otho each had three saddle horses, I had two. Dad did not hurry back so Otho soon followed him and I started driving the horses toward some trees I could see up the canyon. When Dad got bade he was real happy with himself, he had bought me a bridle with braided leather reins and a martingale to put cm little Buck to keep him from tossing his long and head rearing up. It was late and we went up a side canyon toward the knoll. It was dark when we got there, a cowboy was there and he told Dad the coffee was good and hot so Dad cooked a good supper and drank coffee and talked to the cowboy. We went a round about way down the Shafer Trail which was so narrow in spots the would rub against the cliff on one side and you could look about two to three hundred feet sturp ' V Otho took off after him as he had done each cows move faster. As soon as Dad was out of sight I was All afternoon up and down that trail, to get where the day always keeping Dad in sight was supposed to be along that trail I Otho cow had stopped, and start them moving again. Dad asked, what took us so long? I just said never saw either Dad or Otho until after sundown. that" of afraid "I was "Us? It was just ma" He said, We camped ft ere that night at the head of the Murphy trail and Dad rode herd most in the Sky. We had the herd on the all night to keep the herd from scattering aU over Island been two days without water and move at daylight When we reached the Neck the stock had horses. The fourth day the cattle the water and there was barely enough to fill our waterbags whole herd, it was the most pitiful sound had no water there was a low moan coming from the lever heard. Late afternoon of that day we reached the Knoll and the cows smelled water and started moving faster. Dad went with the leaders to stop them at the water in Seven Mile Wash. I stayed with the Otho was leading the pack horse and he followed Dad as fast as he could. drags as I had done all along. We camped at Seven Mile that night The next day we drove almost to the head of Moab Canyon and put the cattle on the bench in a natural carrel The next meaning Dad and Otho went after the cattle, leaving me to keep them bunched dose by. About half the cows were off the bench when a cow fell down in the narrow trail blocking it. Dad and Otho worked to get her up and tried to get her to a place so the rest erf the herd could get by but she got on the fight and they could only get a few cows by before she would fell down again. I Every time they turned a few cows loose they headed for the Arches and had to run it was harder to keep my horse to head them off and bring them to the herd as the herd grew them bunched. 1 had only one horse to ride since part of the horses got away and I had been I riding him every day on the roundup and then on the drive. rode drag. It was hot and dusty to cows those behind and that horse had to trot back and forth keep them moving and now this, it was too much, even for a horse like Little Buck. Dad finally noticed. He shot that cow, and sent Otho to help me. When the cows were all together again we drove them down Moab Canyon toward the river bridge The first mile we picked up what was left of our camp outfit. That pack horse A'w The Portal bridge. old Colorado River Another view of the straight down on the other side. I had to ride Flax down that trial she was short, fat lazy, and very spoiled but safe on a bad trail. All day I rode her which was very tiring. The next day I rode little Buck. We saw some Big Horn Sheep, they are beautiful animals and I chased them right by Otho so he took some pictures. Dad was checking out some cows to see if we had any cows in that bunch, we didn't, when he saw me chasing those sheep he hurried back and he was mad, he really told me off for running a horse in that kind of place. Well Buck jumped a big wash, and over rocks and brush. I le was fast and wasn't long from the wild bunch and he liked to run. When we came to the brush fence between Shafer's range and Murphy's range it had been knocked down and Dad figured by the tracks that about 50 head had gone through. He would have to go back next day to round them up. He had tune before dark to check out the water. There were three springs, (me was tracks there. In the second draw was a soda spring, grass and brush grew around no arsenic, it but it was not fit to drink. The third spring had some alkali in it, not enough to hurt animals, it was running quite a lot of water and there were about a hundred cattle along the stream bed. We came to a little water fall and I wanted to get a drink, the water looked so dear and cold, Dad said no. We rode up the wash and turned a comer and there in the middle of the stream was a dead cow. Dad put a rope around her legs and pulled her out of the stream. On up the wash we came to the spring it came out of a rock ledge and Dad had built a rock wall in front to keep the cows away. At the campsite nearby Dad unpacked the horses and started cooking supper, he told me to take some of the horses to a cove north of camp and hobble them. Otho hobbled the rest. Before daylight Dad went after the cows that had broken through the fence into Shafer's range. Otho went locking for the horses he had hobbled. They were gone up the Murphy Trail I caught my horse and started rounding up cows, and starting them toward the water. Dad came back with about 50 head of cows. Otho told him the horses were gone. Otho was twenty but being the youngest in a big family he had never had to anything he did not want to do and this was his first time to rough it He did not know how to hobble a horse with ropes. He had left them too long between the front feet and had tied the ropes too loose. Dad did not even scold Otho he just went after the horses, he found some of them that still had hobbles on. I was thirteen and was glad none of the horses I had hobbled had got away or Dad would have been pretty cross with me. It took a few days to round up the cattle and cut out those too weak or ready to have calves. Dad would make another trip for them. We had about seven hundred head ready for the drive and started pushing them up the narrow trail about daylight. WjenftefeadcowiMvereoutof just rubbed against a tree until the pack was loose enough to turn underneath him then he kicked it to pieces. The bridge was narrow but traffic was slow, when we got the herd across the river we drove them through the town and up to the Murphy ranch. The valley was fenced off and that was the only way we could go. I missed about ten days of school and had to work hard to catch up so I could take my school I be would first out week the of also tests, had to finish planting the garden. Mary May. and Annie missed the last week of school because Dad needed Mary's help to get the remainder of those cows we could not bring on that first drive. It did not take them as long as it did us because they went straight to the Murphy trail and the cows were feeding closer to the water. There was about 200 head and many of the cows had calves but Mary and Annie working together kept them on the move up the Murphy Trail. Even with the small calves they made it to the Neck on the first day. The excitement of the trip was when a herd of deer almost ran over the girls who were stationed at the mouth of a big canyon. Mary and I helped round up the cows, herding them while the calves were branded then helping to get them on the mountain to the summer range. After that it was back to the hayfields, taking turns being away from home as we had the summer before. We saved the money we earned to buy school dothes. Annie, Neva and I started to school the first day of school but Mary was still working for Aunt Pearl who was cooking for a road crew. Nick was bom Oct. 4, 1918 and I had to stay home. Mother was very sick. Dad stayed with her all day and worked with that baby to get him to come right but Nicklos was cautious about coming into a world he knew nothing about. It was like testing baft water with your toes, that is what Nick did only when Dad saw those toes he grabbed them and Nick had no chance to change his mind he came into tM world screaming mad, feet first There was a Doctor up at Grandmother' s drinking coffee, he was there to help Mother, he never did but he came when he heard the baby and he cut the cord. Dad hired a woman to do the washing, she just brought it all to me, I did it and she got paid. I was a little peeved when I heard Dad had paid her. I did not mind taking care of Mother and the kids but I sure wished Mary would come home and do the cooking. She did come before Mother was up and able to do anything but tend her baby. She was so proud now she had two little boys. I went back to school. Mary started school as soon as Mother was on her feet enough to look after her other little ones. Then they brought the cows off the mountain and I had to ride herd on them until the steers were cut out and taken to Thompson and the others moved from the ranch to the winter range. Well I liked school and it did not take me long to catch up on lessons missed. We were not the only kids that missed school at planting time or harvest and when help was needed with the stock. When the first snow came I helped Dad put about a hundred cows into the hidden valleys on the cliffs across Spanish Valley from the Murphy ranch. There is no living water over there but pot holes in the sUdcrock that fill up when it rains or snows. Most weekends I checked on the cattle to make sure they had water. Dad showed me some hidden trails over the rock fins and in one little valley was a beautiful Arch with a pond under it and lovely flowera all around. owa or rock formation. IfipaWy went 11 |