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Show Wednesday, March 26, 2008 Vernal Express EARLY PIONEERS: ' '',!-fUvis- Pete Dillman, Wilbur Britt and Finley Britt B8 By Myke Hall Guest Writer Pete Dillman was working for Josh Boyd, who lived in Hilldale, Iowa. This was about 75 miles from Pete's mother's place. Josh Boyd had heard tales of gold from a fellow Mason who had found gold in the Bear Paver country out West. Hedidn't know where it was until he got to California. He couldn't get back to the Bear River because of the Indians being on the warpath, so he went south and around to Iowa. Before he could get back to the West, he died. So, Josh decided to go find the gold. He got his son-in-law , Jim Rodman, Doc Beaver, Pete Dillman, Finley and Wilbur Britt and an old mountaineer who knew how to pan for gold, and they headed west. They traveled on a slow-moving immigrant train west to Evanston, Wyo. There, they hired a team, wagon and driver to take them north through the Sublette cutoff into the Bear River country. They sent the team, wagon and teamster back to Evanston. They didn't want anyone knowing where ? y vilj Andrew Dillman family. Andrew's peorge Washington; unidentified; Simon Peter "Pete" Dillman. Pete Henderson Dillman, is beside him, third from the left. Photo on file History Room. Kindergarten Roundup for Davis Elementary Friday, March 28 1 :30 pm Parents: If you have a child or know a child who will be entering kindergarten at Davis Elementary in the fall of 2008, please plan to attend kindergarten roundup. (Child need not attend.l Please bring the following Birth certificate 'Immunization records 5 DTPDTaPDT 4 Polio 2 Measles 1 Mumps "1 Rubella 3 Hepatitis B 2 Hepatitis A 1 Varicella V; indergarten Roundup ATTENTION: Parents with children that will be entering en-tering Kindergarten in the fall of 2008, please plan to attend Roundup at your neighborhood school. Child must be 5 years old by September I to qualify for Kindergarten attendance. Ashley Elementary April 4, 1:15 3:30 p.m. Davis Elementary Discovery Elementary Lapoint Elementary . Maeser Elementary Naples Elementary Todd Elementary Please bring the following items with you as they are required for students to attend school: Birth certificate Immunization record $ DTPDTaPDT 4 Polio 2 Measles l Humps l Rubella J Hepatitis B 2 Hepatitis A l Varicella i they were going in the event of a big strike. They traveled and prospected for days unsuccessfully. Then they hired another team and wagon from a ranch to haul them into Smith's Fork and Soda Springs. There, they didn't find any color and after a while, gave up their search. . "We must have the wrong Bear River," old Josh said. And perhaps he was right, there were several rivers by that name in the West. When the disappointed and weary prospectors returned to Evanston, Josh, his son-in-law, Doc Beaver and tb? old mountaineer moun-taineer got on the train and headed back to the corn fields of Iowa. Pete got a job in a butcher shop at $35 a month. The Britt boys went to work cutting cord wood near Hilliard, some 20 miles north of Evanston at 75 cents a cord. Pete quit his job and went with them. They were soon making mak-ing three dollars a day. ' One day the foreman told them that the outfit could no longer pay cash, but they could take their pay in store goods. The ::r. ;(.. i.;?: ' v .' x -H wife, Eliza Frances Henderson Dillman; Elizabeth Sybotham; Martha Susan Dillman; Louisa Dillman Thomason; Henry Clay; Dillman is second from (eft. front row: his mother. Eliza Frances items with you: Students must be 5 years old or older by September 1 to qualify for kindergarten attendance. March 28, 1:30 p.m. April 15, 1:30 2:30 p.m. April 30, 9:00 a.m. NOON April 25, 9:00 10:00 a.m. April 16, 10:00 a.m. - NOON During fall registration "4 V L- men decided that wouldn't work for them. They heard stories of a beautiful beauti-ful valley down southeast of there where Pardon Dodds would give each new settler a cow to get their cattle herd started. Captain Pardon Dodds was the former Indian Agent at Whiterocks who had settled in the Ashley Valley. They talked it over with Josh Bennett, who hauled wood for the Hilliard people. "I've heard a lot about that country out there," said Bennett. "And I'd like to see it myself. If you boys will furnish the supplies, sup-plies, I'll furnish my wagon and team." On a Friday morning in August Au-gust of 1877 they headed for the Ashley Valley. They spent their first night at Chalk Creek. The next morning they headed to Coalville, where they saw many flags flying at half-mast. When they asked about them, a resident said, "The president is dead." "What happened to President Hayes?" they asked. They were informed that the president of the Mormon Church Brigham Young had died. at the Uintah County Regional This photograph of Pete Dillman dates to his early arrival in the Ashley Valley, Vernal as it is known today. Dillman arrived in the area with two friends, Finley and Wilbur Britt, in late 1877 making him one of the earliest pioneers to the region. Legislative By Brock Vergakis Associated Press Writer SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Attorney At-torney General Mark Shurtleff said Wednesday state lawmakers lawmak-ers should stop meeting behind closed doors to discuss the public's business. Legislators are exempt from open meetings laws in Utah if they're meeting as a political party to discuss strategy. Some lawmakers say that meeting behind closed doors allows them to be more candid with each other when discussing public policy. 0 7 " ' " j i 'i'r; i" .'Mii:-M-Miif., 4,' 789-7290 ivrrnim'S'" 3 1 9 West 1 00 South f Vernal Chiropractic Physician (Behind Showalter Ford Showroom) Saturday night, they stayed near Silver Creek, between Coalville and Park City. The night was cold, stormy and wet. ( The next day, the storm had cleared out taking the dust with it. They drove through Heber City and started up Daniels Canyon. They hadn't gone very far upstream before they were worn out and camped for the1 third time. Traveling up the canyon the next day was a trial. During the course of the day they crossed the stream 95 times. It finally got so bothersome that they took their socks off so they would only have to remove their shoes each time they crossed the stream. By Monday night, they camped in the Strawberry Valley and by Tuesday night, they were in Currant Creek. Wednesday night they camped at the upper crossing of the Duchesne River. There, they laid over for two nights because the mules were . "jaded" and needed time to rest and graze. Friday, they reached the lower crossing of the Duchesne River and by Saturday they were on to Lake Fork. While traveling along the Blue Bench, north of the present day Duchesne City, they met Billy Gibson along on his wagon. Gibson told them that he had been to Ashley Valley and he had taken out a claim on land. He was going to get his family and return. And return he did, Billy Gibson became the first sheriff and later, the state representative representa-tive from the Ashley Valley. Sunday, they reached the Uintah River. They followed it upstream and then turned up the road that led to the Whiterocks Indian Agency. They followed BLM extends comment period on western U.S. oil shale study The Bureau of Land Management Manage-ment announced last week that it will accept public comment for an additional 30 days on its draft programmatic environmental impact statement concerning the development of oil shale and tar sands resources in the western United States. ,VJJV'iC5 . The agency received several requests for additional time for public comment on the document, docu-ment, which it began developing more than two years ago to meet requirements of the National Environmental PoMcy Act and the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The 90-day public comment period that BLM planning regulations require for environmental environ-mental impact statements was supposed to end last Thursday. Local governments wrote to request additional time to comment com-ment on the proposed allocation of BLM-managed lands for future oil shale or tar sands leasing. "Offering an additional 30 days for interested citizens to comment is another in a series of actions we feel are important in working with states and local communities on developing federal fed-eral oil shale resources while also meeting the direction Congress has provided," said BLM Director : James Caswell, "This includes revisions made last August to the PEIS work schedule and the document itself, which we made in response to comments from federal, state and local govern caucus meetings should be open But in Utah, Republicans control con-trol enough seats in the House and Senate that they can effectively effec-tively decide what laws they'll pass behind closed doors. "That shouldn't be happening," happen-ing," said Shurtleff, a Republican. Republi-can. Shurtleff said these closed caucus meetings should stop so the public isn't kept in the dark about they way government operates. oper-ates. On Wednesday, he said he would encourage lawmakers to consider changing state law. "The people'sbusiness should be done in public," he said. , Portrait of Lillian Britt White, who a young girl after her father had More of her story next week. . Deep Creek to present day Lapoint. There they headed east until they found a meadow with grass for the mules. This area later became the Dodds Twist Road. From there, Pete took off on foot and, along with t he others, made it to the Ashley Valley the next morning. The first social call they made was to Pardon Dodds. He had a ments." In the Energy Policy Act enacted en-acted in August 2005, Congress directed completion of an oil shale-tar sand PEIS "not later than 18 months after enactment." enact-ment." "While recognizing this unusually" un-usually" "specific timet&ble,""th(f Department of the Interior 'ana the BLM also remain committed commit-ted to working closely with the states and local governments to achieve a proper balance in land use allocation and environmental protection," Caswell said. "The states of Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, along with a number of local governments have been working with us from the beginning begin-ning as cooperating agencies to draft the PEIS. We look forward to continuingthis relationship as we plan for responsible oil shale development and to further input from the public as well." Fourteen federal, state and local government agencies - in-. eluding the states of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, and the city of Rifle, Colo., - have cooperating agency status in preparing the PEIS. Under Department of the Interior regulations, cooperating coop-erating agencies participate in drafting NEPA documents and developing the alternatives presented pre-sented for public comment. Prior to publication of the draft PEIS, the BLM gave cooperating agencies agen-cies an additional three weeks to Utah's 45-day legislative session ses-sion ended March 5. Democrats and House Republicans kept their caucuses open. But as in the past, Senate Republicans closed all their caucus meetings to the public and reporters. Sometimes, Senate Sen-ate leaders would come out of meetings and make announcements announce-ments about what their caucuses decided. That made votes taken on the Senate floor mere formalities formali-ties with little or no debate. A message left with Senate Sen-ate President John Valentine, R-Orem, was not immediately returned Wednesday. 4 ft fa traveled to the West by train as established himself in Vernal. farm and some cattle as well as a little Indian Trading Post. He manufactured his own money to be used as a medium of trade. This is part one of a three-part history from the Basin about Pete Dillman and the Britt brothers, Wilbur and Finley. Next week, the story continues with the early years of the Britt's and Dillman's life in the Basin. review the document and begin preparing comments. : In August, the BLM substan-. tially revised a preliminary draft of the oil shale-tar sands PEIS on the basis of input from cooperat-. ing agencies. There is no existing program for; leasing federal, oil shale re-i sources, which are estimated at more than 50 times the country's proven conventional oil reserves and nearly five times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia. Once finalized, the PEIS will guide future management of public pub-lic lands containing oil shale and tar sands resources by identifying identify-ing the BLM-managed lands for which the agency will consider oil shale lease applications. The PEIS will not authorize any leasing or commercial develop; ment of oil shale or tar sand projects. ; For lands determined tq be suitable for oil shale develi opment, the PEIS identifies constraints under which leas ing would be allowed and thatj would end up as stipulations to leases. ; Additional, site-specific NEPA' analysis of lease applications and proposed plans of development will be required at the time individual proposals for alloi cated lands are submitted. These analyses will be completed with' full public involvement, Caswell noted. Shurtleff made the comments about closed caucus meetings during a news conference about National Sunshine Week, an effort to bring greater transparency transpar-ency to government. Shurtleff s office has produced a 27-page booklet for government workers and the public explaining Utah's open records and meetings laws. House Minority Leader Brad King, a Democrat from 'Price who is running for the Senate, said he would be in favor of state lawmakers following the same rules they require of local governments, which can only close meetings for a few specific reasons. "The more open and more transparent government is, the less likely people are to be suspicious suspi-cious of it," King said. "It's not necessarily what happens behind closed doors, but the perception of those decisions being made behind closed doors. I think the public, in general, is skeptical of government, and when we close things it plays into that skepticism." skepti-cism." I; '( v rry Call Tonya at 7X-351 I. 3 |