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Show June 1969 UTAH FARM BUREAU marked, branded and separated the cattle and started the long drive around the East end of Boulder Mountain, trailing the beef cattle to market The main herd was pushed south where they wintered in the Circle Cliff area, establishing a pattern that continues with little change to the present Amasa Lyman was the first homesteader in 1889. Others followed and by 1900 there were seven families struggling to build a life for themselves in this rugged chunk of wilderness. By 1930 there were 192 people living in Boulder. Two young men served during the First World War and 28 in the Second World War. Four Boulder men served in the Korean conflict while five have served in Viet Nam. Lenora LeFevere, Boulder's historian, recalls with pride that never has a single family in Boulder asked for welfare help and that whatever they've managed to build in the community has been entirely by their own effort The names on the homesteads and in the graveyard read like the history of early Utah. Haws, Peterson, Moosman, Ormond, Lyman, Alvey, King, Griffin, Hansen, Behunin, Jepsen, LeFevre, Halt Coleman, Coombs, Poulson and Roundy. Most of the people in Boulder are descendents of these early settlers. Typical is Ivan Lyman, a sunburned man with a deeply etched smile. Ivan Lyman, whose Amasa Lyman, built the first home in Boulder, will lose his entire grazing land in the monument addition. Asked what he will do, he spread his big hands and said, "I don't know. Tiiis has always been my home and it's been my family's home for 81 years. If I can find a way, I want great-grandfathe- Page 5 NEWS The Boulder L.D.S. Ward meetinghouse was constructed at a cost of just less than 120 thousand dollars. Half of the money was raised by the Ward members, who make up most of the community of 108 people. r, to stay," he grinned. But staying won't be easy for any of the Boulder residents without the right to graze their cattle on the mountain. The small amount of pasturage won't permit more than a few hundred head of cattle to be fed and they wouldn't provide enough profit to buy Winter feed. "Staying here is something a lot of outsiders wouldn't understand, said Joe Covington as 'we sat in his living room with Richard Griffing and Max Buhanin. Covington, a.former business consultant who was accustomed to earning as much as $1500 a week in Phoenix, returned several years ago to the mountain where he spent his boyhood. ."Out here a man can feel .his roots. . The life is hard but simple and our little community is very closely knit I wouldn't trade it for anything. Richard Griffin shifted in his chair. "Cattle raising is our life; it's what we want to do," he said. Later we stood in the yard outside Covington's. The ranchers shifted their weight, anxious to get back to work but wanting us to understand and perhaps to tell their story. "That road you came in on? That's only been there for a little more'n ten years," said Richard Griffin. "The first cars and trucks we had in here were taken apart and brought in on muleback over the Devil's backbone," he said. "It's really unfair," added Max Buhanin. "We build our business, our homes and then some Easterners move some lines on a map and we're out of business. Sure, this is beautiful scenery and people ought to be able to look at it, but the cows haven't changed the scenery in a hundred years." "Come back later this Summer," said Mrs. Covington. "It's really beautiful then. People always marvel at how green it is here in this little valley surrounded by desert They don't realize that we made it this way through hard work. If they force us out, it'll just go back to desert again." "Yes, come back this Summer," smiled Joe Covington. "I'll show you some good fishing water." "I'll do that," I said. We started off, a little reluctant to leave. We had begun to feel what it was that made them want to stay in their little valley. What set Boulder apart from the ruggedly or Johnson's Folly, beautiful scenery was humanity. Boulder is an oasis of industry, faith and as it may soon be called brotherhood in a desert A desert, not only of rock and sand and scrub brush, but a climate where much of America's understanding and compassion has dried up. Senator Moss hias introduced a bill that would change the boundaries of the expanded monument and make it a National Park, leaving most of the grazing permits intact for the lifetimes of the present holders and the lifetimes of their families. But what of the Several of the Boulder ranchers gathered to explain their situation to the Farm Bureau News. From left are Richard Griffin, Max Buhanin and Joe Covington. The mud in Boulder during the Winter makes traveling difficult for anything but four-whedrive vehicles but residents don't take kindly to the suggestion of moving away. el future? "We didn't build all we've built just to see it die," says Joe Covington. "We want to be able to pass it on to our children." The people of Boulder, ought to be able to do that Not because of the dollar value they've put into their little valley, but because of the way of life they've built That's worth more than money in this ' jaded day-wlive in and the federal government shouldn't : i ' ; ' be able to take it away from them. ' e ' : 5 Boulder School takes local youngsters through the elementary grades. High School students must make the bus ride to Escalante, 23 miles aWay, twice daily. Yet, Boulder residents make no apology for the quality of education in their community. " , " L' 1 |