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Show Mapletora. Mouetain A Part of Springville's interesting Setting & with cut nails that cnst 60 cents per pound. Davis Clark should have the credit of introducing the first steam power in our locality. A dinky engine run the Clark sawmill saw-mill at the Oak Springs on what was then known as the Union Bench. It wis no easy task getting get-ting logs from near the top of the Middle Slide. The fierce blizzards of winter would leave the deep ravines full of snow to the depth of from ten feet to forty feet and by April it would be packed so hard that one could run logs down over all the down and dead timber, tim-ber, rocks and general obstructions obstruc-tions and land them a mile below, where they could be reached by horses and snaked to a loadway where they were rolled onto wagons wag-ons and hauled to Clark's sawmill. saw-mill. When I was a "Wee Eairnie" my brother Don C. J. took me up the Middle Slide to cut logs. I went along for company, Mose was a failure as to real work, and my dog Bruno was our mascot, I think. Now to prepare a log to make that dash down the steep hollow, it was this way: the tree when cut down has what is called the buttcut with few knots so the lumber will be clear and worth while after the arduous task of getting if off the Mapleton mountain. moun-tain. Well, the nose is pointed so it will skip over the snow like a Bobsled. The sap starts up the tree early in the spring time and the bark is quite easy to strip 15.V MOSK JOHNSON A globe trotter visiting our high school art exhibit was gazing at our Mapleton Mountain and exclaimed in my presence, "Just " look at that wonderful mountain. Why I have never in all my J travels witnessed such a beauti- ful scene." Iest we lose interest in things ' close by, let me tell you boys and girls what happened on or near our beautiful Mapleton mountain. I Did you know that Father Es-calanie Es-calanie looked upon this glorious I nature's art gallery many years before the "Lion of the Lord" with that gallant band of home seekers trekked into the valley of the mountains? Old Gentleman Collins. Col-lins. Springville's first sheep drover, dro-ver, said that Mexican sheep brouzed or grazed on grass and , Buck brush along the foot of Mapleton mountains before our Pioneer fathers and mothers had arrived in view of this magnificent magnific-ent panorama. Almost the first lumber that went into the construction of our village homes was taken from the Maple Slides. Now there were what was then known as the Big. Middle. Oak Spring or North, and Maple Canyon Slides; so called on account of having to slide the timber tim-ber down the steep hollows. But of course, the very first wood was hauled from near Kelly's Grove and Jerd's Canyon, especially es-pecially swamp cedars and long slim pines to build that first log fort to protect the first settlers from the foray of the blood thirsty savages. Also slim timbers were used in our early abodes for sleepers sleep-ers i or joints), rafters and stud-dings. stud-dings. Moses Childs had an up-and-down sawmill a mile east, of the First" ward L. D. S. church or just north of Emmett Bird's residence. He brought many logs from the Big Slide. The first shingles used on our old school and meeting house were split from Quakenasp logs smoothed with care and made thin on one end like our modern shingles. Then put on the roof on, leaving cne log as suck as an eel, and when it was turned loose, it created a thrill that is hard to describe. Why, even my dog would let out a yelp of delight de-light and rush after that retreating retreat-ing log that leaped over the first rise in the snow and shot into the air like a skyrocket, descending with a tail spin, and plunge its nose into a protruding bank of the beautiful, sending powdered snow into the air, completely obscuring log, dog and all. Aaron Whittamore was chopping chop-ping saw logs in the Big Slide. The sun was extremely warm and loosened a great snow drift near the crest of the mountain. It came thundering down that steep declivity, tearing up rock and laying lay-ing waste everything in its mad dash. The doomed man tried to escape es-cape but was caught by that dreadful avalanche and carried into a yawning gulch and buried fathoms deep in snow, broken timber, tim-ber, and general debris. His body was not recovered until weeks later. So you see, tragedy and romance ro-mance is found even in as peaceful a nature's picture as Mapleton mountain. |
