Show an interesting personality by barb barbara a ekker one of the most fascinating persons in this uranium area is a man by the name of claude simonds he resides at woodruff springs which is 45 miles south of hanksville Hanks ville he does n nt t exactly live alone his time is occupied with two horses two mules and a six week old chasa peak his spare time that is otherwise he is prospecting for uranium and promoting sales claude has had a more interesting life than has been glimpsed at by this person and one can listen to him for hours as he spins tales of his life once in a while when he is re calling a date or a name to make his story more interesting he tilts his head back and runs his leathery hands thru his long beard hes he s really a true specimen ciman of what a man can be when he depends upon nature for his livelihood his camp at woodruff s is surrounded by a garden which he planted and en closed with a cedar post fence in order to keep his out he has piped the spring to his cabins and all in all has a very attractive camp miners from miles around bring their water trucks there to be filled claude was born in jersey county ill november 18 1900 he is the youngest son of mr air and mrs john riley simonds in 1906 his father moved the family to the red river valley between olustee and quan ah texas where they homestead the family included ernest simonds who now resides at new plymouth idaho john simonds kansas city missouri mark simonds green river utah alta waltz jerseyville Jerse III bell gates cates tacoma wash ida garrett anadarko Ana darko okia okla and ethel woods cement okia claude began a baseball career in oklahoma in 1924 and continued un til 1940 when he pitched a game in bicknell he pitched for the texas oklahoma and new mexico league between 1932 and 1935 and continued on with the grand collie league until 1938 1933 in november 14 1944 he came to hite where he did some trapping and made trips from hite to leei lee a ferry taking tourists sightseeing ha he had several boats which were of ply wood construction then in 1843 he was asked to come to the cat ranch owned by hugh king and to trap coyotes he remained there until 1947 until he went to work f for or the government trapping beaver during the winters during the recent years his inter est has been uranium he has staked large areas in red canyon and be low two mile and woodruff springs where he lives now he built the first road into red canyon when he was employed by the standard mining co in missouri |