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Show Wednesday, May Dragon By George Long Guest Writer The Railway Company tried to have a doctor available at Dragon and as a result there were several sev-eral different ones through the years. There was Dr. Needles, Dr. Montgomery, Dr. Casper and Dr. Monroe and others. Their job was indeed one of unique circumstances, as they were so for out in such a remote area. The closet town was more than 25 miles away at Rangely, Colo., which back then was a small place just getting started. The one thing in their favor was the train, which could transport those who had very serious problems prob-lems to Fruita, Colo. Jewell Lee Wall tells of a time that she cut her foot very seriously seri-ously when they were living out at Bitter Creek and Dr. Needles took care of it, that he had to put in several stitches to correct the deep cut and that he had no chloroform chlo-roform to deaden the pain. She had to grit her teeth and stand it. She was only 9 years old and it was an ordeal she never forgot, but he did a good job considering the circumstances. These were rough times, but the people for the most part were up to it and as she said, you had no other choice. During Dragon's early existence exis-tence and even down through the years until it ceased to be, there were a lot of people who lived there and made it their home. Here was a place in one of the most remote areas in the west, but it had most of those things which people needed back at a time when the West was still young: jobs, schools, a store, a place where you could get some medical needs and a doctor. Most of their needs came from Colorado by train and when they needed to go to a large town, they usually went out by train to Fruita or Grand Junction in Colorado, rather then ride the long 60-mile trip by stage coach to Vernal over roads that in many cases were dusty and somewhat rough, to say the least. Dragon was proud of its school and the fine job the teachers did. The first teacher was Mr. Jake Olsen. The district paid one half of his salary and the parents par-ents paid the rest, but later this would change, with the district paying the full amount. Other teachers were Mrs. Lou Hill Havens, Mrs. GladyaPhilips, Mrs. WinJder, Miss Stagg, Miss Nellie Rodabach, Mrs. Haws, Mrs. Perry, Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Horrocks, among others. The fine job these teachers did certainly showed when children that had been in the Dragon school transferred to others and in many cases it was found that they were considerably farther ahead of their new peers. 3 EASa STEPS TO QUAUFyFcmyouzi OWII I10MS GET PRE-APPROVED O LOCATION O HOME Clayton Homes 3768 So Redwood Rd West Valley Utah Fax: 801-975-7782 Phone: 801-975-7781 DON'T MISS THIS A10 L I 30 People Who Have Difficulty Hearing Especially in Noisy Situations, To Evaluate New Digital, Noise Reduction Hearing Aids! We will perform comprehensive Hearing Evaluation AT NO CHARGE for the first JO qualified callers to determine If you are a canrmwe for this program Applicants that are wimed win be asked to evaluate the latest Hearing Aid Tec nnoloov fo 3C daw due toPtheir ?ampatlonke!P th" mstrumems tan a so at tremendous savings, ' Candidates will be seen Wednesday May 21 Those Interested need to Call for An Appointment RSVP Toll Free 1-877-568-6300 Mountain States Hearing Weston Plaza Hotel 1 684 W.Hwy 40, VERNAL 14, 2008 residents pulled Shirley Wilson Hatch, daughter daugh-ter of Art and Iva Anderson Wilson Wil-son tells of the fond memories she has of her childhood in the area and other special school days at Dragon. Not much remains now of the once active and bustling town of which Dragon once was. If you look close a person can see where some of the buildings once existed, including the broken ruins of its fine hotel. Sagebrush and grease would have all but taken over. There are a couple of items that still relate to this once great community, like the cemetery and two outdoor baking ovens nearby, which need to be preserved. The cemetery located near the Black Dragon mine has been cleaned up and a nice fence constructed along with a very attractive sign by Myke Hall. It is believed that there are nine people interred here, but only two have distinguishable markers. mark-ers. Another grave, as mentioned earlier, is that of the little Hoffman Hof-fman boy and it too is being taken care of. As to the baking ovens it is hoped that these will be protected as they relate to a time when its believed Greek immigrants used them to bake items such as bread, rolls and even pies and sell them to those who were working in the mines and boarding themselves, as was a common practice. There were a lot of people who worked and lived at Dragon . There were several that lived on ranches nearby or were in the process of proving upon a homestead. Many of these either had a home in the town or else made some sort of means for their children to attend school there. It would be impossible to try and mention them all, but some had rather interesting backgrounds back-grounds and helped in compiling this information, of which some have already been mentioned. Most people living in Dragon worked in the mines, but some worked on the roads and in the shops, while others were involved with the railroad, as was Capt. M.W. Cooley and later Lucian C. Sprague and Vie Earp who were in charge of the railway company. Another man having an important im-portant position on this line was Homer Phillips. His son Homer Jr. spent most of his life working for the gilsonite companies in . their offices and his wife Gladys, taught school at Dragon and " Bonanza for years. She was a daughter of William Price who for a long time was in charge of much of the gilsonite mining in the Dragon area. Their son Homer III (Sonny), would later work at Big Bonanza well over 40 years, setting a record of working work-ing there longer than any other person. Mr. Price had a grandson. Bud Price that spent most of his young years at Dragon and he told me about some of his early experiences out there. Another man who worked out there for the railroad many years and doing such a fine job, was John L.(Slim) Beaslin, and the father to one of Vernal's well noted attorneys, at-torneys, John C. Beaslin. Besides the Hen Lee family there was a younger brother whose name was Roy Lee, who with his family lived out there OPPORTUNITY! Vernal several years. Roy was a very talented man when it came to things like the telegraph and the new phone system that was just getting started. Its believed he helped with the electric lights when they were first-being installed in-stalled in some of the places at Dragon. Another family of interest that lived out there was that of William "Bill" Havens. Bill also had a ranch jn the area, but he worked for many years for the gilsonite company, even holding the job as mine foreman. They had two daughters, Pansy and Marie that spent their childhood at Dragon. Marie would later teach school and marry a man by the name of Kaczmarek. In her later years she moved to Vernal and opened up a book store which she so appropriately called Bitter Creek Books. Marie was very well versed about Dragon and hopefully has written down much concerning it. , Another family of interest that lived in Dragon and later Rector was that of Walter Anderson and his wife Phidelia. Many members of this family worked for years in the gilsonite operations, even holding positions of supervision. Some worked at Rector, Rainbow and at Little and Big Bonanza. Eve mentioned Melvin (Duff), whose help has been great in putting this article together. Duff also had a brother-in-law named Art Wilson who was well noted for his expertise about gilsonite gil-sonite and he spent many years Emerson Alcott won't By Lacey McMurry Uintah Basin News Service Instead of beginning the school year in a new, $2 million facility as planned, students at Emerson Alcott Academy are expected to begin attending classes temporarily in modular buildings. Construction on the new charter school has yet to begin because private investors, who are funding the facility's startup start-up costs, have come across some unexpected delays in obtaining loans. "With the way the economy has been, lenders hay e-. been tightening -down on tiwmjoMM "process," said Deb RicKSfdhf president of Emerson Alcott Academy's governing board. "It's harder to get financing everywhere right now. It's not just our investors who are having problems.'' Richards said investors have assured board members they are still planning on financing th.e project and the funding is going to come through so that construction can begin in the near future. With the delay in construction construc-tion though, some parents have been left to wonder if the school will really be opening in August. Emerson-Alcott Director Bobby Drake said board members are doing everything they can to dispel any unfounded rumors to the contrary. "The main message we want people to hear is that we're going to get the money we need and we're going to be starting school fully-staffed and on-time," Drake said. "We're prepared with plans and contingency plans." The modular units will be able to fully accommodate all of the 192 students who have enrolled A ieabtas( See-tire and rescue m ; eauiDment Enter Express together to build a town working at nearly evorv operation opera-tion out there. Somethins else of interest that Lola Anderson told me was of a tune when they were living in Rector and Homer Phillips Jr. was brinijinji the school kids home front Pra-on which included her and a sister Verlie and a brother Hud. Wlulo The Uintah Railway Company believed in having the best in accommodations for those traveling on their train and the stage coach line. Shown here is their splendid hotel that was considered the finest and most modern hotel at that time in all of eastern Utah. in the school and are being leased from a company in Salt Lake City, Richards said. The company will move the units to Ballard on Aug. 1 and they should be ready for occupancy by Aug. 15. Although board members had hoped students would be able to start school in a new facility, Richards said one good thing about the modular units is that school officials may actually end up saving some money. That's because lease payments on the temporary structures are significantly sig-nificantly cheaper than the payments pay-ments will be on the completed, permanent building. Richards said officials are now expecting the new school build-' ing to be completed sometime between October and December 2008. And, if the fates cooperate, Richards said it just might be possible for the new building to be completed soon than that. "It's one of those things that if absolutely everything falls into place, we could still be in our new building by August," Richards said. "But we're not counting on it and we're ready to lean on our contingency plan." Richards said board members are looking at the possibility of acquiring a bridge loan to speed up the road bumps they have come across. A bridge loan is interim financing for an individual individ-ual or business until permanent financing can be obtained. Acquiring a bridge loan means that construction on the new school could begin right away, Richards said. However convenient they may be, bridge loans can be fiscally fis-cally risky. According to several Internet databases, bridge loans are usually more expensive than conventional financing because of higher interest rates charged due to concerns about borrowers 0 omnium IMe&Mast , Drawings for piiiu; up Hector Canyon to their home, t hey had an accident when t hey hit aiiot her car head on at a sharp curve in which throe of her other sisters were riding. Those youttft women were Iva Wilson, bode Anderson and Iioonu Phillips, Phil-lips, How very strange and odd t his was, but outside of some bad .tu . J; ' ' " - rt arpriro fTt- " - ' " i i m"i - -,j - - open in new building defaulting on the loan. For charter school founders across the nation though, there simply aren't that many options op-tions when it comes to securing financing for school construction. construc-tion. Charter schools receive weighted-pupil-unit money from the state based on the number of students who have enrolled in classes. However, none of that money is available until the schools have officially opened and can prove their enrollment numbers. Additionally, there are few public financing programs or state and federal grants that , prptfide.cftaj;lr schools with,,, start-up funds. The majority C' charter schools have gone the same route as Emerson Alcott, relying on private investors to supply the money for school construction. "The investors are willing Fill in the Gaps Parents with any questions about changes at Emerson AlcottAcademy are invited to attend a meeting on May 22 at 6 p.m. at the Utah State University-Uintah Basin multipurpose room in Roosevelt. X--, ,i nl "-m. H VERNAL appreciation Saturday, May 17th 7:00 a.m. 10:00 a.m. Vernal Fire Station 500 East and Main Presented By: Vernal City Firefighters bruises, no one was seriously hurt. Editor's note: this is part three of four in a series by Long about the ghost town of Dragon. Long anticipates a two-part series later this summer on the town of Watson near Dragon. to provide the building and we will have a lease agreement with them until we get to the point we can purchase the building," Richards said. In the long-term, it might be possible for local board members to receive a lower-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which sets aside a limited amount of funding for charter schools in rural areas. If that loan were to come through, Richards said, board members could buy out their contract with the private investors at any point. However the situation plays .out, Drake, said charter school ,tfficig!e' are:being ag smart) 4s they can when it comes to money matters. "Every change we've made, we've done it because we're trying try-ing to be fiscally responsible and save money," he said. Wow! 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