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Show 2 - TEN TIMES - NOVEMBER 1992 The Peacefulness, the People—Interview with Joan and Lou Schmidt There are many different reasons that brought each of us to Castle Valley. Joan (pronounced Jo-ann) and Lou came because of the people. Friends with the Ehlers from their mutual Vista, California days, Joan and Lou came down from visiting a daughter at BYU to see for themselves daughter remained alone in the trailer was made difficult by an intensification of his allergies. He was plagued by the wind and dust, the heat and cold. After two to three years Lou found he could through “the worst winter in fifty years.” “I had never lived in snow,” Joan relates. “The snow fell the first of November and never left the ground till April.” Lou returned the first of March. They recall the roads were impassable because of the mud, drivable only in not tolerate the combination of allergies and remoteness. Though he had planned to retire, he found himself spending most of his time in California working in his radiator repair business, now operated by his son. Three years ago when he again retired (and had his allergies treated medically) and moved more permanently to Castle Valley, the early morning and evening when they were frozen. “People (in California) thought I was crazy, “Joan tells me, “but I just loved it here. I just wanted to live here. I liked the people here too. So I just stuck it out.” Joan did go back to California in order for Luanne to have time with her father. this special place Jerry Ehlers had raved about. “When we arrived there were no trees. You could see Lou found himself working for U. everyone’s place, if they were hanging out clothes, walking around their yard, season, stays retired for a few weeks, She attended 8th and 12th grades there. then retums to California and his Now that Luanne is on her own, Joan if they were home,“ they both recall. It was the lack of trees that afforded them radiator shop. Joan laughs saying, spends a few months every winter with “He’s the most retired person. He Lou in California But for the most part a view of the Ehlers white van, then retires every year.” “I’ve got to be busy parked at their “camp” at the Castle Valley Inn’s current site. Joan recalls the Ehlers living in a tent and shed, all the time,” he confides. “I spent a Castle Valley was and is Joan’s home. Joan is a busy woman. Besides her gardens and flower arrangements she has to—do projects filling their home. barely recovering from a flash flood that had just ripped through their makeshift home. “There have been several flash floods in the valley since I’ve been here,” Joan adds, “but I’ve never been here when we had one.” They have seen their effects, though. When the Schmidt’s arrived for their first visit it was July and hot and much more remote than they had imagined. “I didn’t like it,” Lou laughs. “Who could live in this forsaken place! It was so desolate.” Joan adds, “We weren’t terribly impressed with it.” Castle Valley wasn’t even on the map and the dirt road entrance was uninviting to California motor homes. But there was enough allure in the friendships and peaceful quality of the valley that they decided to purchase a lot. The price had been right; if nothing else it was a good investment. This was Wang as maintenance man at the Super 8 Motel. He retires at the end of the couple of winters here and I was going crazy ‘cause I had to do something. I was climbing the walls.” Changing her life style, which had included raising seven children in a suburban community complete with big house and pool, seemed a relatively easy transition for Joan. Both she and Lou had been raised on farms, but it was Joan who took to “pioneering.” Each year she planted trees, beginning her first winter. She put in a row of Russian olives and cottonwoods dug up Lou lovingly teases her about the space filled with her “stuff”. Being a “stuff” person myself, we laugh together. One of Joan’s interesting projects is her job managing the Branch’s Family History Center. She explains how to use the computer and microfilm to track one’s heritage. As an adopted child, Joan has a keen interest in her lineage. Her enthusiasm is conveyed as she recounts searching for her ances- from Ken Johnson’s place. Their trees tors. Salt Lake’s genealogy library is now completely shroud their white house trailer, which they laughingly acknowlegde as “ugly.” As well as her trees, Joan has a garden and profuse flower beds. It is she who does many of the biggest in the world and available to us here through transferring microfiche for a small cost. The library is available to everyone. Joan and Ann La Munyon will be at the Branch on Tuesdays and Thursdays to assist anyone wanting to make a search. Joan and Lou speak well of the Schmidt Cont, Page 4 the lovely flower arrangements found at the LDS Branch suppers. That first winter , however, there was little loveliness. Joan and her eighteen years ago. Joan and Lou came back every summer for a week’s vacation. “The kids loved it,” Joan recalls, despite there being “not a tree on the place.” When they returned home they were increasingly struck by the contrast between Castle Valley’s open peacefulness and Califomia’s smog and Castle Valley '.\ . . Inn congestion, symbolized for both of them by the Cajon Pass. They decided to retire from their radiator repair business and move to Castle Valley. They brought their youngest daughter who was eight at the time. The change of environment worked for mother and daughter. For Lou, however, being here I Fort/1e best rest out west. Eric Thomson & Lynn Forbes Thomson 801-259-6012 CVSR 2602. Moob. Utah 84532 |
