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Show 6 . EARL'S TIMES ~ JULY 1994 Interview with Earl Hotz setting himself up in business. He proceeded to cutlogs, vigas, and This interview appeared in our second issue ofthe CV Times, March 1992. We met with Earl in his cozy bunker on a windy Sunday. We sat before a limestone hearth surrounded by walls and ceiling ofboard and log aspen—quakey, as Earl calls it. boards, supplying many of the first houses in Castle Valley. Always ready for a good deal, Earl said yes when a fellow from Chicago named Higgins offered to build Earl’s house in trade for the saw mill. Earl cut the boards and Higgins built the house. Higgins later moved the mill to Whit's Ranch, where it languished Remnants of Earl's past as a miner, with little use. logger, and rancher are carefully displayed on the walls. Humorous labels are written beside old miner’s hats, saddles, and other instruments of torture. We had come wanting to hear from a Castle Valley “oldtimer” about the valley’s history and his experiences here. These are some of his Another trade led to Earl’s acquiring a second saw mill. This was soon bought by Jack Powers, then building his house in Castle Valley. Gold Basin timber was stories: Earl and Nettie came to castle Valley in 1972 when Earl was hired by Kendrick Bailey and Curly Powell, scouts for the Carlsberg Company. Earl was to work on the tanchforayearinordertogetafeel for the valley. The owner at that time was Stanley Gordon, an electrician from Denver. Gordon had invested a lot of money in the ranch, but was not able to make a go of it. Looking for an out, he sold it through Bailey to Carlsberg, a 40-year~old trailer park tycoon, an avid hunter, and a fair man. Under his new boss, Earl worked the land, cultivating and harvesting hay, receiving half of the crop. He laid out the roads we drive on today. Along with used farm equipment, Earl was able to profit from recycling five miles of irrigation pipe he dug out of the valley. After a year of working for the Carlsberg Company, earl decided he’d like a piece of land. Earl said to Keno Lazaris, head salesman, “I’d like to buy a piece of land, just a crummy old lot. I don't care what it is, just something to tinker with.” Iamris said he had just the lot for Bad: “Eight acres with a big old arroyo running through it.” Thus began Earl’s and Nettie’s residence on Powell Lane. Earl had spent years as a miner and logger, along the way working in saw mills. When an opportunity presented itself to acquire a saw mill in a trade, Earl grabbed the chance, More about EARL from Page 1 hauled down by Jack, with Earl continuing to run the mill. They supplied logs for Bill Viavant’s, Power’s, and other houses. Recently the old mill was moved to the Seventh Day Adventists’ property, and they will use it for their own construction. As Earl puts it, “I’m 78. At some point you’ve got to slow down, even if you don’t want to.” So now, cozy in his bunker, Earl enjoys some quiet pleasures (though still keeping his hand in at swapping, bartering, and trading vehicles)— reading, writing, and listening to good music. Earl’s advice from his years in Castle Valley: “Have yourself a stake and some means of income when you come here. You need to be a bit of a pioneer, willing to be flexible, willing to change, to give up some of life‘s luxuries to make a go of it here.” Earl has seen too many people come with misguided expectations of nrral life, or not enough money to get past the startup costs of developing raw land. “Most of these couldn’t stay. It was a pity to see. Build a well-insulated home, a good woodshed, and root cellar. Keep the trash and weeds down for ease of access and fire protection.” Earl’s final advice: “Find a good woman.” He obviously thinks he has one in Nettie and hopes others will be as fortunate. Earl has lived here for twenty years. In that time, “I’ve never seen any real animosity between people here in the valley.” Earl sees the valley as continuing to develop in positive ways. “It’s a good place to live.” -—Joan Sangree things—a man of such history, the likes of whom cannot be duplicated or replaced in Castle Valley. He is missed, and for those of you who didn't know Earl or deal with him, please realize that weJrave all lost the real pioneer in this, our Town of Castle Valley. Though Earl worked for Carlsberg Corporation’s Castle Valley River Ranchos as foreman in charge of everything except sales, he sold more property in the ’703 than any of the salespeople, just by talking to people who were looking and showing them around when no salesmen were available, which happened a lot. I don’t know what they paid him, but they were cheapskates to begin with, and whatever it was, it was less than he was worth. He did, as I said, everything except carve up the stupid roads we are still dealing with. He kept the valley from Holyoak to the original cabin green and producing hay. (Green sold better.) He raised the baling wire fix-it to a fine art, since the company wouldn't put out for new or even replacement equipment. He could make anything run again, even if it had been given up for dead. Earl was one of the most generous .. men I've ever met. He did love to barter, but personally I didn't have a lot to trade, except time and too few skills. I wouldn’t have made it my first three years here without Earl's help, and there’s no two ways about it. Here I show up in March of ’74 with a truck, short trailer, three dogs, three horses, a tent, a toothpick model of my house (no plan), and a positive if criminally ignorant attitude. Earl introduced me to his family, who would become my support system and friends, supplied me with water for a year from the hydrant in front of his house, fed me from his garden, set my horses free to eat and run with his, and gave me gas more often than he charged me. He introduced me to the people who would save my bacon and get my house/home off the ground: Dutch the well—driller; Mac McKinny and thus my winter home at Porcupine that first year; Frank and Robert. He was witness at my wedding, gave my first husband a job, and taught him the skills to do it. |