OCR Text |
Show The Gateway Cafe in 1 948 gave the beginnings of a front. Continued previous page Vernal Theatre-194- 6 The Vernal Theatre, located at 40 East Main Street, opened for business on March 29, 1946. Brothers Deward and Alson Shiner owned and operated the new and plush theater, and it has remained in the Shiner family ever since. The first advertisement ran in the Vernal Express on March 28, 1946. The ad called it a moving picture theater. In 1960 Deward bought Alson s share of the business and operated it until his death in 1973. During that time it was closed only twice: once to repair the water pipes and once for a one week vacation in 1972. As a family business, all of the Shiner children worked there as teenagers. In 1974 the business was incorporated. Today it is a struggle to keep the theater open because single screen theaters are a thing of the past. The Shiners have remodeled the theater over the years but have tried to keep as much of the original theater as they can. They want people to have a pleasant experience at the movies and be able to enjoy the atmosphere and nostalgia of a single screen theater. RussellsMr. Russell Holley opened a stylish menswear business which ran for 10 years, located in the old Hotel Vernal. In 1956 Sam Snyder and brother Herb Snyder Jr purchased Russell's, and in 1967 Sam added a store in In 1971 the business moved to its present Rangeley. location following several other downtown locations. Womens and childrens clothing were added to the inventory in 1971. Mr. S is now a part of the Vemal business landscape. Sams son, Jon, took over the business in Sam says of his Vemal business venture, We made a fairly good living, educated our kids Jon, Karen and we can still keep our Rakelle, and the grandkids-a- nd heads above water. He says the business has always enjoyed handling a good brand name clothing line. 19. ' Lamplighter-19- 46 i Actual construction Of the Hotel Vemal began early in March 1946. Previous to this date the old tourist home had been razed and the site cleared for what has today become a realization of a long dreamed of community undertaking a commodious and modemly equipped hotel. The Weston Lamplighter is owned by Roscoe Weston. Uintah Packing Company-19- 48 LaRell Anderson opened his Uintah Packing Company in 1948, and his sons Eton, Gary, Court, Brent and Kent became the staff of this family-owne- d business. Son Don and his w ife Elja ran the business now. Uintah packs meat for both retail and wholesale customers, does custom cutting, catering and cooking for large groups. Etons meat has become a benchmark for groups to entice higher attendance. Don says hes 60 and hes going to stay in the meat business until hes 70. Turner Building Supply-19- 49 Turner Building Supply began in Heber City before World War II. After the war, two brothers came to the Uintah Basin, the first in 1948 and built a store and yard in Roosevelt. The second brother built the Vemal store and yard in 1949. The names of the Uintah Basin Stores were changed in 1974 to Turner Lumber, when the Turner Building Supply partnership was split In the early days in the Uintah Basin, besides selling building materials. Turner Building Supply sold and delivered oilfield drilling mud to Redwash and Rangely oilfields. Today, Turner Lumber is still in Vemal and Roosevelt and has a location in Moab. 7-- Restaurant-194- 9 Warren Fat Belcher opened his hot dog stand after selling a cow. He located this business venture on south Vemal Avenue, which was later moved to Main Street Belcher and partner Bud Markey created Vernal's first restaurant at the Main Street location. When Markey ended the partnership, Belchers wife Daisey drive-i- n Vernal business. became his partner in The Grab Box, which became known as the Pig Stand because of a pig sign out Businesses... " ' The cafe closed for a year and a fruit stand operated there until the new cafe was built in 1949. The Belchers named it the 1 cafe, and cement signs dotted Highway 40 enticing hungry travelers to its doors. Belchers daughter, Connie, and husband, Jerry Pope, own and operate the popular eating attraction today. Vernal Mortuary-194- 9 Joseph Aiben Jolley opened the Vemal Mortuary April 13, 1949, on the comer of 100 North and Vemal Avenue, in the McAndrews home. Jolley recalled that the most memorable service that he had ever had was the eight men who were killed in the 1945 gilsonite explosion. Frank and Sheral Thomson purchased the mortuary in 1972, and during the years they have made significant changes in the structure of the mortuary which still serves the community. Current owner of the mortuary are Mitchell and TyAnn Blackburn. Vernal Chamber of Commerce-194- 9 The present Vemal Area Chamber of Commerce held its first Board of Directors meeting on Sept. 14, 1949, in the Utah Field House of Natural History. In the past 54 years the Chamber has been actively involved in many of the events and activities that have made Vemal and the Ashley Valley a thriving, beautiful area in which to live and work. Now, as in the past, it is the committees of the Chamber that accomplishes the work undertaken by the Chamber. Following are some of the successful, and some not so successful, undertakings of these commit- Hotel Vemal was remodeled and renamed The Lamplighter. tees. Echo Park Dam-- 90 of Chambers time per-cedevoted to the project in the first few years of the Chamber. This committee dovetailed in the Central Utah Water Project and also worked on securing the Annual Report Flaming Gorge Dam. In the 1955-5- 6 C.D. Dudley reported, We didnt win the battle, i.e. Echo Park, but as a direct result of our fight for Echo Paric the ' following: Dam; we accomplished Commitment for spending of $4. 179, 000... from 1956 to 1966.' A large part of thiJ amount will be spent' at Dinosaur Monument headquarters reliefmg (sic) the fossils and building a visitor center. The visitors center, or museum, will cost $176,000. Also provided at the quarry will be parking facilities next to the quarry, eliminating the walk up the hill. Employee housing and facilities for water and sewer. In the canyon area roads and trails will be built to permit the average tourist to drive to the canyon section of the monument. Remember, all these things as a result of Echo Park Dam. goal was an Highway 40 and Road Committees-T- he early completion of the Vemal to Manila Highway. The two committees worked on several road issues including roads throughout the county, into the Book Cliffs and the Bonanza Highway. National Guard CommitteeThe committee is now devoting its efforts toward securing an armory in Vemal. The National Guard of Utah approved a $135,000 building for Vemal in 1952. found and purGolf Course Committee-Locatio- n chased. Field House Committee-Raise- d funds and purchased fossils found locally from the Carnegie Institute. in 1950, the Chamber Housing Committee-Beginnin- g was on the forefront of encouraging home and apartment construction in the valley. The Chamber acted as a resource for individuals looking for housing throughout its early years. Recreation, Tourism and Convention Committees-Pri- or to the establishment of separate departments for these endeavors, the Chamber of Commerce directed these activities. for the dediDinosaur Gardens Committee-Arrange- d cation of the Gardens in 1978 and continues with providing plants, flowers and helping to secure dinosaur replicas. Agriculture-Onc- e upon a time assisted with loans to 4-and Jr. livestock. The Vemal Area Chamber of Commerce is proud to organize or assist in the organization of the following: the Main Street Flower Planting, the Main Street kiosk, the Lighting of the Dinosaur Gardens, the Trees for Charity, Water Conference, Business symposium, HealthBeat Health Fair, Turkey Day Give-awathe nt project, recycling, and a host of other Buds has live bands on weekends with local artists, and is open Sundays for football. Lazy K Motel-195- 3 Glen Knight built the Lazy K in about 1952. The present owner is Albert Baese, and he has owned it since 1953. There were six units when he bought it and now there are eight. Halliburton-195- 3 The serious advent of petroleum energy related businesses brought Halliburton to the Vernal area. The world-wid- e business specializes in exploration, development, operations, maintenance, conversion and refining petroleum locations and products. Locally, Halliburton employs between 50 and 60. 1 1 Intermountain Concrete-195- 3 Cecil Murray and Bill Gurr opened this Vemal concrete business. Joe bought Bill Gurr out and following Joes death his wife Glenna became the owner, with son and manager Jody Murray and stockholder daughter Jane Guffey. They find it hard to remember what things were like back when the business began. We just went to work, Glenna recalls. The work paid off, because now the company boasts six mixers, five end dump trucks, five belly dump trucks and one water truck at its 625 East Main location. friend and office manager, Clifta Corless, long-tim- e recalls Intermountain worked on both Red Fleet and Steinaker dams, the JensenGreen River Bridge, the sewer lagoons, the new Super Wal Mart, helped supply aggregate for the Main Street job, and probably 90 per cent of the concrete for city jobs. "Uoran Reynolds Barber Shop-19- 53 Loran Reynolds has been an independent barber for countless men in Vemal since 1953. Now 81 years old, Loran says that people tell you how to cut their hair, and then, you always end up cutting it the way you want! Loran worked uptown with other barbers, particularly Bob Morrison for 14 years, but then opened his own shop about 40 years ago next to his home, at 409 East 100 South. He has found that having barber, Mark Helco, join him on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays gives him time to go fishing, or play with the grandkids. He still works full time Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Im happy here cutting hair, he admits. He also admits to having better tools than he had in 1953, and that by now he has learned more, too. H y, UBTA-195- 3 Uintah Basin Telephone Association, now known as UBTA-UBECommunications, had its humble beginnings in 1948 when residents outside the boundaries of Roosevelt and Duchesne were told they could not receive telephone service because construction charges were too prohibitive. E. Floyd Ross, an entrepreneur in the Basin at the time, was determined to provide telephone service to these communities. With the help of ranchers and farmers in the area, a Board of Directors was organized with each representing a different locality in the Basin. June 1, 1953, the Uintah Basin Telephone Association turned up service to about 750 customers. Now UBTA-UBECommunications has about 30,000 cistomers including cellular, PCS, paging, DSS long distance. is 150, UBTA-UBEbest possible service and technologies as 50 years ago. T T Buds Sportsmans Lounge-195A.L. Bud Hacking and his wife 3, n sawfrtKW," FwiTr Trff fc has just celebrated 50 years of business Vemal Mortuary began COPY in C3 Wednesday, September 24, 2003 Vernal Express a former stately home on North Venial Avenue. Avenue. It April 19. Warren kempton operated a pool hall at the location in i 931.The building had also housed the Brown Derby, owned by Lonnie McCarrel. T To be continued in next weeks paper |