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Show Sun Advocate SECTION B Tuesday, October 30, 1990 r Ter Where only the ghosts remain 1940s many people from the Price area moved to Standardville to work in the mine. John Juliano and his wife, Mary lived there in a house. Mary is almost 86 now, but she rememyears-ol- d bers those years when she had four small children in two rooms. She recalls bedding her children down on a fold-u- p bed and how they had to pack water from across the street By JAN HALLIDAV Staff writer Standardville, Utah is only a ghost town. There is not much left except a few walls two-roo- and foundations to show a real town once thrived there. ' Whats left lies up Spring Canyon about five miles west of Helper. During its heyday the place was a modem town, with a. hospital, recreation areas, and steam heated apartments. The town was begun in 1912 by F.A. Sweet after he found a rich vein of coal in the hillside nearby. His dream was to make a coal town that would be a standard homes. They would play with the children, or sing songs. They even jumped rope and had a softball team. Mary was the m for bathing, drinking and laundry. It didnt seem so rsf Mary remembers community plays and programs being put on at the big auditorium. One year we had a Christmas program. Someone built a donkey and two of my boys, Ur Franky and Sammy were picked to make it move, Mary explained. Well they got under it and started goofing around pushing and giggling and broke it in two. Mary said the one brother took the front half and ran off the stage and left the other, who was in such shock she had to get up in front of all the people and get him off the stage. ' Almost all of the things a 4 ' Pti t) xizr bad. You get use to a way of life. We didnt suffer there in Standardville," she said, Now looking back I dont think I could make it Im spoiled now. Mary recalls the town being a nice place to live with many different nationalities living there, and that they all made family needed could be found each other understand, even at the company store and with the language barriers. ,once in a blue moon they She had many special friends. would go to Helper to shop or Wherever we went it was to another store in one of the always laughing and teasing," nearby small towns. Mary and her family lived in Standardshe said, It was all love. For entertainment it was ville for about 16 years and common for the women to get liked the area and town so well together at one anothers they hated to see it slowly die. example for other coal towns. Standardville boomed for several years and until 1974, had two families still living there. That was its last year. When everyone left people came and stripped most of the lumber and stones from the buildings. The towns demise probably came about because it was easier for the families to live in Helper and the miners to ride a train up the canyon to work. Back in the 1930s and .at 1 4 Rock wall displays craftmanship of another time and age. '??' rv;,V ti u PlKULr-- VT Story I ' r- - - . , Vt i tA - i" ' ' r- .1 A1- , - '- U , -- ,4 lht'7 ' r iwifiiwr Graffiti '"f ... t ", i rX? 44Vjf I 4 ' tl Mlffit and photos by Jan Halliday 71 , s . A 1 7 t H 4,r splashes the walls of a structure at Standardville in Spring Canyon n f 1 t .. ... f i . '5 Hiv. |