Show HORIZONS 6E Sunday October 2 1994 Standard-Examin- er (Left) Ray Giles of Lakepoint stocks the Frito-La- y products in Delle's convenience store once a week Delle is known as the unofficial Frito-La- y capital ' of the world Town for sale (Below left) Resident Gary Morris manages Delle 's Got an extra $15 mill? Delle i From IE people who wandered into this tiny oasis in the desert and found a home “We had a couple from North Carolina their car broke down and they ended up staying a few months” said Morris who i manages Delle's businesses for its Salt Lake-base- d owner “Another guy from California was working his way across the country and he stayed for a while” While some arc looking for a I handout Morris said most have been willing to work for fooJ gas repairs or whatever it takes to get them back on the road again “We arc strays” admits Pearl Hale who works as a cook in the Delle Cafe and has lived in a travel trailer at the cast end of town for a little over a year The waitress on duty in the tin cafe on this particular day Cora Carlson is another good example Six months ago Carlson was working as a flagger on a highway project near Delle and staying in the town’s motel She took ill and ended up quitting her job With no transportation no job and no place to stay Carlson was nursed back to health by the residents of Delle “They just sort of kept me" she' says Today Carlson lives in one of the motel rooms and earns her keep by waiting tables and cleaning motel rooms Because she is t without a vehicle Carlson pushes a t shopping cart the few hundred yards from the motel to the truck stop to get ice for the motel Asa result of this ritual and the sort of indigent way they found Carlson ' everyone around town has affectionately started calling her j “the bag lady" A brief history According to John W Van Colt in his “Utah Place Names" book Delle was first established in 1880 as a maintenance camp and dispatch center for the Western Pacific Railroad An early name for the camp was Dalles Spring (“Dalles" is French and refers to “water") but Van Colt reports this was shortened to Delle by railroad personnel for “telegraphic efficiency" The town's rebirth almost 10 years ago came after it was purchased from a troubled thrift and loan by Jerry Boettcher of Sait Lake City In October 1986 Gene’ Jensen and his wife Robin — along with Ron Sandquist — moved to Delle living in a bus converted to a motor home and working to help Boettcher get thej place back on its feet Jensen who like Sandquist still lives in Delle said the place had been abandoned for years and that it had been used as a dumping Town From IE some items at the convenience store says sales of sunglasses are ) belter there than nl nny of his other locations “I’m out here every two weeks restocking most accounts I do monthly" he said Mary Martinez manager of the store says a lot of people see the "Next services 66 miles" sign near their exit and lake advantage of 00-pl- ' ’I ground The next couple of months were spent digging out from under the trash and working to get a service station open Jensen remembers the time and dale of the operation’s fist customer — it was around 8 pm on Jan 27 1987 — the station wasn’t even officially open They were still trying to wire electricity to the pumps and while they had one pump up and running they had no lights to the building That evening a motor home pulled off the freeway its owner desperate for gasoline Jensen says they filled the motor home’s tank $40 or $50 worth by flashlight “That guy said he was never so glad to sec a gas station in his life" Jensen remembers “Which kinda We thought gave us some hope maybe we weren’t making a mistake with this" After all Delle hadn’t been used in years and Interstate 80 between Salt Lake and Wendover is littered with the corpses of filling stations that tried to make a go of it It wasn't until February 1987 that Delle actually reopened at the lime offering customers “one household refrigerator filled with sodec water a few quarts of old oil and gas" according to Jensen The cafe followed opening in the spring of 1987 followed by the motel 1 Life in a small town Today Delle is home to a dozen or so human residents in addition to a couple of dogs and a very large population of cats “If you want about 30 or 40 cats" Jensen tells a visitor “we’ll owner Jerry Boettcher (Below) Jack Grondahl (from left) Jerry Boettcher and resident Ron Sandquist visit in the cafe Grondahl an employee of the Utah Department of Transportaion has been eating his lunch at the Delle Cafe every day since April drive by on the highway and pass judgment on the way she lives — many people would be afraid to live in such an isolated barren spot — but she also says she doesn’t understand why anyone would want to live in the city with all of the violence gangs drugs and other problems "That would be scary to me" she said Not everyone who works in Delle lives there Many of the town’s workers live in Grantsville a town of about 5000 people 25 miles southwest of Delle and elsewhere Mary Martinez manager of the convenience store said she’d never live in Delle “Why?" she says “It’s not a town it’s a pit stop There’s nothing out here nothing to do" Martinez is quick to point out that she loves the people of Delle and her job She just wouldn’t want to live there Cindy DuClos who also works at the convenience store and lives in Grantsville concurs “I would go crazy living out here" she said “I like small towns but this is like too small for me" gladly send them with you" The drawbacks Actually Jensen tries to look on the bright side as he steps over a tiny kitten mewing near a garage “We don’t have no mice" he says Even the residents admit living in the town presents certain problems “When you want a pair of shoes or a gallon of milk it’s miles into Grantsville" Gene Jensen said Residents not only have to go to Grantsville for their shopping and grocery needs but also to pick up their mail The only school-ag- e who youth in Delle a lives with the Jensens travels to Grantsville for high school And most have to haul their laundry into town "The only thing I don’t like is you can’t get cable" Sabin said And he adds because he and his wife live in one of the town’s motel rooms “it gets old doing the dishes in the bathroom sink” Still residents say they love their way of life They enjoy riding motorbikes and dune buggies in the desert surrounding the town They read and write and play cards and horseshoes and make the occasional trip to Wendover And they watch a little television “We get three channels on a Jensen lives in a mobile home in Delle with his wife Robin and their two toy poodles Scooter and Sadie The two dogs are brother and sister Jensen explains that somebody walked off with their parents Mickey and Minnie some time back Mike Sabin who at 27 is one of the younger residents of Delle works in the convenience store and his wife Gloria waitresses at the cafe they have a trailer in Tooele where they spend their days off “Nobody bothers me" Sabin said “I can crank my stereo up at 4 in the morning and nobody calls the cops" Most of the town's other residents echo those sentiments “I like the fact there isn’t a lot of people" Pearl Hale said “You don’t have to deal with a lot of the stuff others have to deal with And if you do wanna deal with it you can always go into town" Hale says she realizes that people this last chance for food and gas The town also supports the Delle Cafe which boasts of “The Best Food in Town" a claim that even made it onto the cafe's menus Believe it Martinez says since it's the only food in town The storcgas station is open 24 d Cafe hours hours a day arc 6 a m to 10 pm daily it's dosed two days a year Boettcher says he put the town up for sale six to eight months ago but that he only did it as a favor to a friend lie says he doesn't really care if it sells or not He believes the town will sec year-roun- real-esta- te for the town 's businesses 70-mi- lc good day" Pearl Hale said “ You make your own fun here" While residents may seem to be wanting to get away from people ironically it’s the people that keep them in Delle “I don’t know why I like it here think it’s those people down there" Cora Carlson says motioning toward the town “I’ve turned down good jobs to stay here and I don’t know why” I Jackie Morris Gary’s wife and the manager of the cafe confirms Carlson’s suspicions saying the dozen townsfolk and other workers in Delle are very close “It’s like a family" she said “In fact it’s more of a family-typ- e relationship than a working relationship” Because most residents have extended family members within driving distance they spend the major holidays with their families — in Salt Lake City Grantsville Tooele and elsewhere Last year Jensen did throw a Halloween party at his mobile home in town docs it take to make a town?" If it has permanent residents which Delle docs it’s a town she says ' Morris also says that she wants Delle to grow but not too much “Like I say we’re like a family here and if the town gets too big we’ll lose that" she said Of course there has been some discussion as to whether Delle really is a town because it’s not incorporated and has no mayor city council or other politicians (yet another advantage residents claim) But residents say Delle is listed on state road maps that it’s treated like a town on the highway signs and — most important — it feels like a town to them “What’s a real live town?" Jackie Morris asks “How many people At the same time residents don’t want the same thing to happen in Delle that has happened to countless other tiny isolated communities along that stretch of highway With a town full of strays there’s always the danger that Delle could one day disappear for good “I’d like to sec Delle continue on so it doesn’t end up just another ghost town" Mike Sabin said Barry From IE Also they made a video It opens with an arty shot of their prototype trebuchet silhouetted against the sky dramatic music is playing in the background A somber voice says: “We have created a weapon of war that the world has not seen in more than 500 years Why?” Then another voice says “I have no idea" This is followed by scenes of the prototype hurling bowling balls an astounding distance Watching it I couldn’t help but think This thing could DEFINITELY bring down a small planed Not that I am suggesting anything 4421 Harrison Blvd Ogden Utah 84403 479-645- 3 (across the street from Dee Events Center Sign) Advertise in TV Preview! Place an ad for your busineti in the publication that customer! read all week long You're tuning in to an open channel with little static growth in the future because it’s on the only highway leading out of Utah to the west and “you can go 70 miles and not sec nothing" Boettcher doesn’t live in Delle rather he trusts it to an on-simanager However Boettcher docs make deliveries of groceries and other necessities twice a week r r te It's "fun" to have your own town Boettcher says “People kid you all the time call you the mayor or the police chief or the dog catcher I tell them ’You just wait until you see the Delle Golf Course out there’ " J Make tha extra atop at our meat market you will be happy about 1 -- 1 " - t'XuIM 4 1 J- L to acaf- - FOOD STAMPS ACCEPTED - PRICES EFFECTIVE OCT ' JJi: mm oqiee It 1994 3-- 8 8ubact to availability and atock on hand A S if - |