Show (5 Delta Utah $1800 la & CO XT ) & Serving Utah’s Great Pahvant Valley LABOR DAY KiSEPTEMBER 3 Sb out of month $1000 (In Advance) Senior Citizens Copy 50 (65 and older) $15 00 in county $1800 ott of USPS County 0 Vol 79 No 9 Sept Blackie in 1 1988 Leamarado Day this weekend the stock from town to town In those days there were no bucking chutes like we have now so the horse was snubbed up to another horse and blindfolded and saddled When the rider was mounted and ready to go the blindfold was jerked off and away they went Plans were being made to hold a rodeo in Salt Lake when Pete’s wife Elizabeth was killed in a car accident between Lynndyl and Eureka on May 30 1924 This tragedy ended the rodeoing for Pete and Ollie Ollie and Lena moved to Salt Lake Labor Day is fast approaching and as usual plans are under way for the annual Leamarado Celebration which will be held September 5 in Leamington This event was first held in 1945 to celebrate the end of World War II and has been held yearly on Labor Day since that time This years honored guest is Kenneth (Ollie) Olsen 84 who was born June 25 1904 to Leo Swen and Cora Elizabeth Evans Olsen in Salt Lake City After Ollie was born the family moved to Idaho where they lived for several years They then went to Granger Wyoming where they lived on a ranch Ollie learned to work using horse and man power which was all they had in those days He operated the mowing machine and rake pitched hay by hand and did all the other things associated with ranching and farming He got to be exceptionally good at riding bucking horses The Olsen family also lived for a time in Nevada Later on when Ollie was attending school in Salt Lake City he met Roy Nielson from Leamington When Roy found out that Ollie had lived on a ranch he asked Ollie to come to Leamington during the summer and work on his father’s farm Roy mentioned that he knew a fellow named Pete Nelson who had a bucking horse named Lumpy that had never been ridden and he also had some pretty good looking daughters It all sounded good to Ollie so he said “I’ll come down and work for you and I’ll ride that horse and I’ll get acquainted with the daughters" Ollie did just that He worked during the summer on the August Nielson farm married Lena one of those good looking daughters in 1922 and rode old Lumpy twice out of four tries which was darn good Pete Nelson Ollie’s had come from Hinckley to work as foreman on the Tintic McIntyre Ranch Later on he transferred to the Leamington Ranch He bought the home where Jerald Lovell lives now and a farm now owned by Gordon Nielson but lost them both during the depression Ollie said that Pete owned lots of horses all the way from Canada to Mexico He had some of the best race horses in the country as well as polo ponies He was certainly the man to put on the first rodeo in the State of Utah and Ollie was the man to help him Their first rodeo was a small one put on in Leamington and after that they started acquiring more bucking stock Pete got the word around that if anybody had a horse that could buck Ollie off he’d buy him Old Lumpy had been a work horse on the McIntyre Ranch before Pete bought him and he turned out to be one of the main He was just a common old attractions work horse nice and tame kids could lead him around and pet him but when the harness was taken off and the saddle put on the fireworks started He was very difficult to ride They also had bulls and cows included in the rodeo stock One that drew a lot of attention was an old black milk that was first owned by someone in Leamington She was just about as hard to ride as Lumpy The horses had names like Millard Black Jack Yellow Fever Red Wing and Moonshine Corkscrew Ollie and Pete put on rodeos in Delta Fillmore Cedar City Spanish Fork Scipio Lynndyl Richfield and in many other places around the state THe stock had to be trailed from one place to the next At night a place was found to fence in the animals and the cowboys slept on the ground Ollie was one of the main riders in all of the rodeos Other cowboys participating were Farr Nelson Pete’s son Rod Lou Perkins Matt Cropper Rueben and Red Adams Shields Nelson Pete’s helped drive Ollie Olsen in 1924 where he went to work for the railroad first as fireman and then engineer Ollie said he went from a four legged horse to an iron horse He spent a total of fifty years working for the railroad and saw all the progress from the old steam engines to the efficient modern day trains In the early days of the steam engine the crew consisted of five men: head brakeman fireman engineer Coal and conductor rear brakeman had to be shoveled into the fire box by hand and the water tank behind the engine had to be filled often Coal had to be taken on every fifty to miles and water tanks stood about ten miles apart alongside the tracks Railroad sections were built about every five miles Those early steam engines pulled about forty cars in a large train Now the huge diesels often go roaring by pulling over two hundred cars Where crews were needed in those early days now three men can handle the train Then it took five men to take care of five to ten miles of track and now three men can take care of a hundred miles Ollie told about driving those early steam engines through snow storms and some of the snow plows they used If things got too bad snow could pile up in front of the wheelsand derail the engine He also told about using sand when the rails were so slick the train couldn’t move Each engine had a sand dome on top of the cab where dry sand was stored Pipes ran from the sand come down to each of the driver wheels In winter weather when the trains had difficulty moving sand was released onto the track under the ' wheels Ollie also talked about the “Dinky” which consisted of a train engine a freight car and a passenger car It ran from Salt Lake down through Provo and through Leamington The coalburning engine put out a lot of soot and since open windows were the only air of some the conditioning passengers couldn’t tell if they were black or white when they reached their destination The “Galloping Goose” also ran but it consisted through Leamington car that carried of one passengers freight farm produce and nearly everything Ollie said this car was called a lot of names The first engine it had was gasoline and it had to be hand cranked to get it to go Then they put a diesel engine on the car but it still had to be cranked They finally got it fixed so it would start like a car which evidentally made things more pleasant for the crew Ollie told us that what every engineer worried about the most was hitting a car on a crossing He said lots of cattle and sheep got hit They seemed to want to race the train to the crossing If they lost there was no second chance In all his fifty years of Ollie was never in a train railroading wreck A great many changes have taken place since Ollie first started to work for the railroad He said that now a train can be sent clear across the country by a dispatcher at a desk pushing the right buttons Modem technology tells where each train is where it is goHe ing and all the vital information also said that if it weren’t for highway crossings there would be no need for crews to even ride the trains Ollie Olsen now lives alone in Salt Lake His wife Lena has passed away in the Salt Lake and is buried Cemetery They have one one Ralph and five grandchildren living in r California For his years Ollie is remarkably active and energetic He goes to the Temple two days a week and is also a home teacher We hope that his attendance at this Leamarado Day celebration will bring back many happy memories of his early days Vance Turner Fillmore riding Pepper leading Jerry and Working Pack Class Millard Mule Days are here Here it comes! Millard Mule Rendezvous for 1988 The Corn Creek Mule Assn presents their 3rd Annual Mule Rendezvous Friday Sept 2 and Sat Sept 3 of the We are now members American Mule Assn and expecting entries from all the western states Come join the fun starting Friday at i 10 am at the Fillmore Fair Grounds jReaders say NO fto Lynndyl hazardous waste dump In the Aug 25 issue of the Chronicle Progress readers were asked to respond to the statement: “I want a hazardous waste disposal facility in Millard County” The three options provided in the front page survey were “Yes” “No” and “Undecided” As of noon Tuesday Aug 30 161 ballots had been returned Of those four were “Yes” and one was “Undecided” The rest were “No votes The “No” votes represented the sentiments of 174 readers Some readers marked the “No” box and added “two voters and taxpayers here” One reader wrote “We voted five for no’s kids After cluding our three all the young people should have a vote in all this mess because it’s their future we are talking about That’s my opinion!” One reader checked the “No” box with eight “x’s” another wrote “no no no no no” in the “No” box while another wrote “No a thousand times no” Some comments: is a lot of land and desert out west Is there not room farther out than so close to the tracks and road?” -- “If they would go out in the desert where it would not hurt the water supply or contaminate the air They could go out by the lime plant” it is so darn safe why aren’t they burning it in their own yard and dump over their water supplies?” is enough traffic through Leamington now” Do —“We don’t need this everything you can to prevent it” -- “We’d probably sell our home and move” should Utah be the dumping ground for the nation?” -- “I’m ready to fight it” A comment accompanying one of the four “Yes” votes read: “I’ve changed my mind I’m tired of all the and mass hysteria swirling around us At this point the item from Rollins is more factual Let sanity once more” prevail Hazardous waste meeting scheduled Pete Nelson A meeting has been scheduled for at 7:30 pm in the Thursday Sept Delta High School auditorium to discuss issues involved with the prohazardous a build waste dump to posal in the area Ken Alkema Director of the State Division of Environmental Health and Brent Bradford head of the State Bureau of Hazardous Waste will attend to answer questions concerning the proposal The meeting was arranged by Rep Joseph Moody and Sen Cary Peterson for all with the Mules competing around points Entice your appetite at 2 f with the Dutch Oven pm Mule Races musical tires pack scramble and more Friday night there will be a barbeque and dance at the Paradise Inn Sat morning we invite you to our parade starting at 10 am and beginning at 2nd N and Main and continu ing to 1st South to the Fair Grounds Our Grand Marshall this year is Len Randolph from the Ch 5 weather Plenty of action at the fair grounds all day Sat including the Rocky Mounain doggers and Wild Goose Creek Chuckwagon dinners We invite you to our Mule Auction at 3 pm More Mule Races and fun events through the evening Bond Election is called off The Millard County Commission and the School District have called off a bond election which if passed was designed to save taxpayers money by reducing the impact alleviation debt owed to the Intermountain Power Agency The proposal was rejected by the IPA Board of Directors in Los “We’re out of the water Angeles now” County Administrator Robyn Pearson said “We’re just going to withdraw the proposal” IPP officials announced the decision Tuesday Aug 23 The county had sought a bond issue of $47 million for 15 yeas to retire its debt to IPP incurred in a 1983 agreement The School District wanted to retire its debt incurred in 1982 with an issue of $67 million for 15 years The Utah constitution says governmental entities have to let people vote on any long term obligation of public funds County Commissioner Mike Styler explained the way the money will be paid back is through a tax credit “We’ll say you owe the county so much tax but we’ll forgive this much of it” Styler said the debt amortied out to about $625000 per year for about 10 years “and then a little bit on the 11th year” by Ken Rand Pearson said the current county debt at about 86 percent interest “We felt on the open market that the county could go out and actually borrow money cheaper than that and maybe save a couple of points and refinance that debt up front” he said be Styler said the debt could refinanced at about 73 percent “We went to IPP and offered to pay them off in cash up front instead of giving them a tax break over the years” he said “We asked them to discount what we owed them from $4666000 to $4495000 We showed them that by going from an 86 percent interest rate to 73 we could save over the life of the bonds in the scenario about $400000 for our taxpayers IPP is 85 percent of our taxpayers so we showed them that we could give them a savings of about $200000 today” Styler said another scenario showed a savings of $700000 in dollars and over the life of the bonds about $13 million could be saved in terest payments If the plan had been accepted Pearson said it would have been “kind of a dividend to the county” is Continued on page 3 Cooking school returns to Delta The 1988 Homemakers School will be presented at the Delta South Elementary School Thursday Sept 17 at 7 pm Presented by Homemakers Schools Inc of Madison Wisconsin the event is being sponsored for the cond year by the Chronicle Progress Attenders will be presented with a free gift bag at the door containing brochures and the 1988 coupons a la CARTE HOMEMAKING The Homemakers Schools cookbook will contain all the free cookbook on stage plus recipes demonstrated dozens of other original delicious and economical recipes Door prizes donated by local merchants will be given away plus the food during the show prepared There is no admission charge The school will be conducted by home economist Michelle Lemas of miles Seattle Lemas drives a year to conduct classes in six western states She got her degree in foods and nutrition from Seattle Pacific University “I love cooking” Lemas said “I demonstrate things everybody can do at home And best of all the recipes don’t require any special ingredients” Lemas said the program is especially helpful to “people who don’t want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen” Master of Ceremonies this year will be Terry Hyde of IPSC The school has received rave reviews nationwide The Lebanon (MO) Daily Record wrote "The school offers the ‘something for everyone’ appeal” The Covington (VA) Virginian wrote “We didn’t expect the response to be this great this is awesome” The Decater (IN) Democrat wrote “Our past four shows filled the auditorium and has been a tremendous success” Watch for more information about the upcoming Homemakers school in our next issue |