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Show 6 - FUTURE TIMES - MAY 1992 Leave your Ideas Back Home—Interview with Linda Witkopf Linda and I met on a softly raining day, a “perfect day for gardening,” Linda said. Her home sits among flowering pots . ducks. and turkeys,with an uninterrupted view of Round ML and the La Sals. A peaceful less-tamed part of the valley. Linda came to Castle Valley from Tuscon. She was familiar with south- east Utah from numerous family camping trips. But it was her love of gardening that sent her seeking land with adequate water. “It took me a month to get from l-lanksville to Moab,” Linda recalls. After refreshing in Moab Linda decided to explore up the River road. When she came to the Loop Road tum-off she debated which way to go. “That hill looks fascinating," she thought. “I’ll go up that hill. I came over the hill . . . (there was) this huge billboard saying ‘Five Acre Ranchetts.‘ I said, “Oh, this is it! And literally had given them all my money and signed all the papers within about a halfan hour.” Linda laughlingly concedes she was an “easy sell:” The lot she owns is the only one she saw. That was twenty years ago when the Valley was virtually unpopulated. Linda enjoyed the seclusion, freedom from the “little bureaucracies, as well as having neighbors she knew. “I lived in the same house for fifteen years in Tuscon and I didn't even know the people next door.” She recalls the early population comprised mostly of hippies who wanted to live organically. Others who either lived here or soon arrived included Earl and Nettie. the and mining. Used to being hired as a minority, she applied to Atlas (the uranium plant) when she first arrived. “They didn't even take my application. I think they thought I was joking." ' She's glad now that they didn’t hire her. Another illusion Linda recalls is of Castle Valley being a wilderness. “Even a couple of years ago people would come here thinking this was 1890 instead of 1990 and think,"l'm going to make my living being a great on CV Drive. Asked about her means of support, Linda saus, “No one ever ends up doing what they think they’re going to do. I never dreamed I’d be working on the river.” Linda’s been boating for thirteen out of the fifteen years, including a recent two-year stint running the former Soda fountain. Cataract Canyon is her run, usually taking one-boat parties. “I keep trying to come up with some scheme for independent wealth, sol can stay home in my garden and hunter-trapper. They'd set all these traps and catch people‘s dogs. It‘s suburbia, it’s not the wilderness. Linda's special memories include still make a living. So far I haven’t come up with anything.” one person’s confrontation with the “wilderness versus suburbia” attitude. Not wanting signs of civilization such as fences, this person cut holes in the BLM fence bordering the Valley. “Lo and behold, just a few days later Tommy White’s cows came in and ate all this person’s trees. So the next week they were out there repairing the fence. “Live and learn," says Linda, recalling ment, citing a friend who searched for a job in his field, the water department. her bafflement as to why if chickens lay only one egg every day the chicks all hatch at the same time. I don’t know the answer myself: she informs me the eggs don’t start incubating until the hen Linda gives an example of the flexibility in attitude regarding employ— He was determined to get a comparable job. After much effort and all rejections he began working as a bookkeeper for Pack Creek Ranch and as a veterinarian's assistant. Radically different from what he was familiar with, he’s found he’s good at the work and loves it. “You have to be flexible," says Linda, “because you end up doing something you never expected." One of the changes Linda has appreciated over the years is again in Linda also remembers the great rains known as the Thompson Flood attitude. The people moving in now recognize the dangers of development whereas the earlier residents, who had a much less inhabited place to them- which rampaged through Castle Valley. selves, felt they could do anything they sits on them. “It rained five inches overnight,” she reports. The dry wash above which she sits was 12 feet high with water rushing far over it’s banks, inundating her trailer in two feet of water. Coming home she found Buchannan impass— able. so she spent the night in her van Montagues, La Munions. John Groo, wanted and that nothing would ever change here. Those of us coming from cities and towns have seen the effects of unlimited growth and are motivated to limit some of the negative side effects experienced elsewhere. Linda sees a further change coming as Grand County politics are effected by these new attitudes. Deglas, Ann McClannahan, Melody, Valli. Linda also remembers the many who didn’t stay. She quotes a friend saying, “Either they’ll have an attitude adjustment or they’ll move." “Castle Valley does that to you," adds Linda. What are these attitudes that Linda What would she have done differently? “I would have shown up with more money.” But then she realizes she would'nt have moved here as soon, so coming with less was worth believes must change? “You have preconceived ideas when you move out here. Of course nothing is what you imagined it to be. When I first moved here I thought I was going to make a lot of money because I always made a lot of money; I was going to have my in Castle Valley? Not much,” laughs 1!. “What would I like to see happen Linda, though she knows one can’t halt progress. She enjoys the care neighbors have for each other, the sense of community feeling and would want this to continue even as the Valley grows. She recognizes the tendency toward house bulit in two years.” Linda laughs , looking around her well worn trailer. Her work backgroud consisted primarily of“men‘sjobs," such as maintance By Olivia Kulander apathy that has come to plague environmentally sensitive people who fought sucessfully for preservation concepts only to see them erased by 8 years of |
