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Show 0" 18 Discover Dinosaurland Wednesday, June 26, 1991 Parcel Post bank, now Zions, still stands on Main Samuel Roberts Bennion was sent to Vernal on Sept. 24, 1886 by the president of the Mormon Church, to provide a means of money exchange for the pioneers of Ashley Valley. At the time the nearest bank was 120 miles away. The Ashley Valley Cooperative Mercantile Institution was created and was called the Ashley Co-op for short.' It was located on Main Street where Thome Studio is now located. The Co-op associated with banks in Salt Lake City to aid the people of the valley in handling their money; such as lending borrowing and investing. The building was a wooden structure with a bullet proof screen, steel counter and a large vault for valuables. This frontier look was the only means for banking in Ashley Valley. Because of the demand on the bank and the increasing business, the owners, S.M. Browne, president; William P. Colthorp, vice president; Nicholas J. Meagher, cashier; Samuel Bennion, Harden Bennion, and John R. Reader, directors, decided that a new and better bank was needed, the Bank of Vernal. In 1916 William H. Coltharp planned the new building for the south comer of Main Street "Ordinary red bricks were available locally, but Coltharp promised to put up a very classy structure," said Rita Morney, U.S. Postal Service historian in Washington, D.C. So the red brick was used for the interior of the building and the "classy" textured brick were made to face the entire building by the Pressed Brick Company in Salt Lake City. Ordinary shipping by rail, ferry or horse-drawn freight was the only way to ship the bricks to Vernal. But the 175 miles on poor roads would be very expensive, four times as much as the brick itself. But W.H. Coltharp and NJ. Meagher thought of a different way. The Postal Service would carry up to 50 pounds of parcel arid the 80,000 bricks were individually wrapped and sent to Vernal by postal service. Coltharp found out that the bricks could be mailed for 7 cents a piece. Because no more than 5,000 pounds of parcel could be mailed to one person, several different addresses were used to mail the bricks of the bank. Because of the second zone postage the mail traveled 407 miles by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad to Mack, Colo., then by narrow gauge to Watson, Utah and finally to Vernal by wagon. On the way home, W.H. Coltharp was riding to Mack on the train and went to the conductor to make him stop so he could get off. In those days if the freight trains had only a few passengers they train would just slow down and they would jump off. Two weeks early, after ordering his bricks and mailing them, he sXTi ON THE CORNER of Vernal Ave. and Main stands the bank . built with bricks sent a few at a time by US Mail. had come home on the same train and received splinters from jumping. Coltharp said, "If you won't slow this train down enough so that a fellow can get off without getting hurt, I am going on to Denver with you." The conductor said, "Oh, don't you worry about that. Some s-o-b has ordered a whole brickyard full of bricks and we have to unload them right here." Railroad and postal workers were not very happy with the shipment It disrupted schedules; mail and bricks alike backed up in Mack because of the eight day round-trip it took to transport the bricks to Vernal. A worried Postmaster in Salt Lake City called Washington about the condition and a staff Continued on page 19 RRV DINOSAUR QUA INFORMATION ANP B FT LOCATED AT THE ENTRANCE OF DINOSAUR NATDONAL MONUMENT Largest selection of T-shirts, souvenirs, postcards, picnic supplies, sandwiches, iililllW drinKs, cnips. tr |