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Show Early Area History Essay Wins Utah Cowbells Contest Pearl Baker, formerly . of Ilanksville and well known in Moab, was the 1970 winner of the human interest contest sponsored sponsor-ed annually by the Utah Cowbelles, the women's auxiliary .of the Utah Cattlemen's Cat-tlemen's Association. Mrs. Baker's story tell3 of her mother and father, Joe and Millie Biddle-come's Biddle-come's settlement of the Robber's Roost area near Hanksville. In 1906, Joe and Millie moved to the San Rafael country, recalls Mrs. Baker, Ba-ker, and there found that this harsh land claimed most of the profit with it3 quicksand each year. Joe began to scout the Robber's Rob-ber's Roost area almost a hundred miles from a town of any size and famous fa-mous for its use by Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch. Joe figured that he could develop springs and seeps in the canyons and hold his own with the outlaws if the need arose. So he gathered up his wife and 20 month old baby, ba-by, Pearl, and set out for the desert. Joe found this land very delightful and spent many hours riding and discovering discov-ering the country. Millie, who loved order, named most of the gullys and canyons in the area and those names remain today. The couple finally set up ranch headquarters at a place called Crow Seep, where a ridge on the north sheltered the place from winter storms and the plateau pla-teau was high and cool in the summer. In the fall after Pearl was seven years old, Millie Mil-lie said she would not go to Hanksville for the winter win-ter so Joe built a cabin for the family where they lived liv-ed for several years before moving to Green River where they later bought a home. 1 In 1925 Joe bought all building and equipment at an oil well at French Seep, some 25 miles from thj home ranch. The ranch was later bought by Arthur Arth-ur Ekker and corrals were built to handle horses and cattle. Mrs. Baker credits her mother with the success of the cattle outfit as well as the buildings of the home and even now she visits the old place from time to time. |
