Show price to Vernal ve mal was tough trip but freight got goi thru u when the got tou thon lhnn gusij during the earby days ay of freight by team and wagon on between price ond and vernal vetnal C T W wardie wardle had a simple philosophy oso phy he lib ex expresses presse s it this way syo you u knew cw you had to get through so you kept going until you did N now ow of salt lake city 14 mr r wordie wardle is modest when asked to recount his ills experiences but he lir just enough incidents lent of f jumping from wagons before they toppled into canyons cloudbursts and of plowing gil gli leep deep snow or mud to there were many times tim wili whon when 11 ile had lini to brush off and use uso lils tillit le philosophy to keep going tt at 62 ile he s as active as many younger men although lie he admits lie lle ile lle lInt want to tackle same rame of tile ventures early days ili lii his liue eyes eves have that look fot rot found lili iril arning men who have spent split sp spilt lit much time in the open as 1 tricy ley were scanning far desert igi horizons only when rends reads des lie produce a pair of nut but his determination is 1111 lyli gel cel cei mining has 1 r always al 1 leen been len ien llila hi and with two ier ivr hv h now tiow is on the trail of ili ill lead lend ani nna silver between ani nd ely nev nov knowing mr air wordle the 1 chances 1 are arc good that if theres ore there heli I 1 find it to start nt at the beginning at least ns as far as mr wardle is concerned lie was born in heber hebor in his grandfather george heber W wardle weirdie had come to 1 utah rah with brigham young as a wheelwright and was among tile the first settlers of salt lake while a child mr wardle amov to vernal with his parents mr and mrs lieber heber wardle and as a 1 bov boy of 11 made his first freighting trip to price though everyone started young in those days he got an ally early start because his brother john was stricken with appendicitis a short distance out of vernal so the younger lad iad hitched up a team made the 25 mile mlle trip himself to meet his brother george and together they pushed through the remain ing miles to price A year later he began ing his fathers freight loutfi out I 1 four horses and two wagons his freighting career by wagon and horses spanned the period from 1897 to 1926 interspersed by periods of working at sheep shearl shearing ng and some mining in 1926 he switched over to using trucks he operated five of these two of which were driven by his sons over nearly the same route he followed in the early days the year 1811 wrote another colorful chapter in his career when lie drove a stagecoach be tween vernal and price inato accept any credit not due he described the life of a stage driver as just work it ra rarely assumed the careering romance bestowed by motion pictures the horses traveled at a jog trot the driver was unarmed and he was never held up the way stages are driven in the movies they make the turns mr wardle explained the only times he went l fast wa on slick hills in the winter 1 time when it was dangerous to slow down the from the vernal end of the stage coach run was to leave vernal at 8 am stop ping at a place then known as IV offit and now as gusher the first post office at ft duchesne continued on page 16 i freight got through despite rigor rigon Contin Co nUnu tied 1 l froni from raw law pug puk 9 velt 11 ll uil ull and nil maton NI t it at a point knave V I 1 is if tin r W hils ells if in ate the titi lenert desert Ip neit spit ulu ilu stu met 1 nii nil other coach couch froni from priar tiu tin III pass passengers engers engerg and drivers uial ulvi Ui vl d lit tit the wells then th n tilt 1 trans transferred tr ferrod d tind continued t n aed the trip next rit tit biorn rn C in liu iru U on it the th that returned to their starting point points the tri trip tot from front vernal virn il to the toz took abut 12 hour this scorns ilko a i slow trip trig today I 1 it t wa w t mi im im over owr til tit the freigh liatis li lui aul journeys lour joburn v them theu took front from if IK to to 20 dayn days dt pending upon tipon tiu heathi l and und tit the luck tilt th freight ers orn had in tit getting through tinh tigh on oil oll one ill started trip mr wardie wardle twice hod had to return to t price to have hive broken wheels reni repaired ired d lii lil Ili dint it tilt time the 12 mile litell ili iii ill took 21 da his ys lia lla tiling to pounds of freight its milly or gilsonite ore orv tit the freighters could count on oil el earing clearing about almut 50 per trip th aliat it doer doos nt seem like mm much it for J JG 6 to 20 d lay ayi lyt of hn hard hara h rl work but mr wardie wardle explained 50 itt tit those days dayn would no go farther than thao lyo tio today for vor biscom discomfort fort travel tr ivel in tit the portly partly beert desert le ert umit counti itry v wis was ns as laa bad liia in ile hie tile lie narner nm iter ler ier n is in win in ter lilt but for idl nil round around hardships til tit the winter trips were M re tit the wo worst sometimes it wot vot as is ola oid old is as 40 10 degrees below zero zuro und and tit the liow snow flow would le be five or six nix nix six feet deep deen mr wardle wardie W irdle said naia nd we wed often have to hitch 20 horses to one ont wagin wilton to open ii I 1 trail trall tile driver had to keep walking most of the wix wax wiy to keep from freezing to death nature siw saw to it tile tiie freighter frem liter ilter had few pleasure trips if it heat in the summer or snow in the winter it was wah deep deet mud in the spring and f fall all asked what lie did when a cloudburst hit lilt mr wardle wardie replied P lied all you could do was to mke lake for the high ground and stay there tile the most hazardous p part art of the journey lay between myton and the bad land cliffs there the sweating teams and drivers negotiated nine mile canyon gate canyon and finally the summit occasionally a wagon would get off the dim trail and plunge into the canyon all the driver could do was jump free and then go down and cut free the horses that had not broken away from the traces although mr wardle never lost a horse many drivers were less fortunate dunate lie he was particularly prou brou proud d of one team of Perc herons that served him faithfully for nine years one weighed 1780 pounds the other 1710 and never step step p pulling until I 1 told them to lie he added although tile the ute indians even then clothed themselves in scalps of early settlers for their three day scalp dance and feast they rarely bothered the freighters during dunn durn eliat era on one occasion a renegade red man bolstered by firewater rode up to camp one night and told mr wardle and his brother he was going to shoot you white men As he leveled a six shoot er mr brother in law steve ross banged him on the head with a rock then they lowered him to the bot bottom tonti of a gilsonite shaft with a rope and removed him the next morning the same way aside from a bump on the head and a liang hangover the much sobered indian was none the worse for his up raising mr wardle rae referred r red to this and other such incidents as an occasional fuss with the indians 1 0 the pioneer freighter patched the gradual change from the days of lonely travel until later when there would be as many as 50 freight outfits camped in one place for the night then the trails became dirt roads and I 1 ater later improved highway this thia marked the day that in one of his five t truck rucks he could spin over the price to vernal route in three hours houra instead of the cho 10 16 to 20 days thre were even time times when bad weather slowed the trip to four miles in four days there was one thing though observed mr wardle reminia we just had pork arid and beans tomatoes carn corn or bacon if we were lucky in those lays days after walking all dax day it used to tast better than tiie tile fancies fanciest t dish w would ouid now itly llly illy bif after ter driving it in ill ti truck so wc we had tod lod ind our compensations compe compo nUon |