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Show Feature Aufthor Its SOUTHERN UTAH NEWS WEDNESDAY APRIL 12, 1995 Centennial Flashbacks Express age had started. By Barbara Pyle On April 3, 1860, the first Pony Writers Note: On January 4, 1996, Utah will proudly cel- Express left St. Joseph, Missouri ebrate her 100th birthday. In for Sacramento, California. And the following months, I will be the cry California, Here I Come! writing a series of articles about echoed through the streets. On April 9, the Pony Express people in Utahs past. This article is about Elijah Nicholas galloped into Salt Lake City, Uncle Nick Wilson and his role Utah. The Utahns could now get news from Washington in a week in the Pony Express. instead of months. IlliThe first Pony Express from Uncle Nick was born in nois in 1842, and moved to Sacramento, California had arGrantsville, Utah with his fam- rived two days earlier. It soon ily in 1850. He spent many hours became the custom of the Deseret guarding his familys sheep with News to put out extras called By Barbara Pyle a long way from Atlanta, Georgia to Kanab, Utah. Yet, Danell Lewis Wudarski manages to make the trip twice a year to visit family, friends and her home town. Since moving from Kanab, this talented lady has added playwright to the titles daughter sister wife and motherMn addition to having two plays produced, she has a works-in-progres- Playwright Danell Lewis Wudarski was visiting in her hometown of Kanab recently. She is currently working on her third play Going Home". Photo by Barbara Pyles. ing Arts, in Washington, D.C. Although the play was not produced at the center, it placed in the top six from plays all over the country. Wudarski started her writing she didnt get serious about her writing until after she raised her family. Wudarski is currently working on her third play Going Home a family story set on the for school career by writing the Hopi Reservation. Wudarski paper. Later she wrote a column brought the play home with her Pages of the Past for the South- and a Poet Group in Fredonia ern Utah News. She was pub- gave her a cold reading. This lished in the St. George Maga- group has beeft my sounding zine and the Texas State The- board for the last three years, ater Magazine. Wudarski says and I appreciate their help, she says. Wudarski says writing is lonely work, but that it makes her feel good to see what was in her mind on paper. You feel like you accomplished something, she says. It is something you did. Oasis Express to Mesquite If you have an idea for a feature story, call Barbara Pyles at PageKanab Page May 17 16 One Night Package Two Night Package Per Person Double Occupancy n (t s frfip an an 644-564- 8. adopted him as his brother. were way stations along the route where riders could stop for a fresh horse, a drink of water and a chunk of bread. Like other riders, he faced danger every day. The route through Utah and Nevada was the most dangerous part of the ride. The hostile Paiute Indians considered the Pony Express riders fair game, and N ick had his share of trouble with them. One day Nick arrived at the Spring Valley relay station. The ft s 00 n s &XiVi before tax. Single rates are Utes are based on double occupancy be 21 years of age or older. Must 3irii(,klT ft Starvations are requited. ing with the Indians in Utah, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. He became very skillful in riding and breaking horses. Although Nick wanted to remain with his Indian family, the elders worried that the whites would attack the tribe to reclaim the boy. His Indian brother sent him home, but Nick didnt stay home long. His courageous adventures would make him a part of Utahs exciting history. In 1860, half a million Americans lived west of the Rocky Mountains. There were 300,000 people in California alone, and miles of mountains, grasslands, and deserts isolated them from the rest of the United States. Many people in California kept in touch with their families in the East, but they disliked waiting weeks for mail delivery. Adventurous businessmen would soon link the East to the West. The following ad appeared tant news arrived. impor- Nick hired on as a Pony Express rider and often spent more than 70 hours in the saddle, miles an hour. There keeper had disappeared, but there were some horses grazing nearby. Nick jumped off his horse, removed the saddle, and mail pouch, and headed towards the corral to get a fresh animal. Suddenly, he heard a bloodcurdling war whoop. He turned and saw two Indians leading the relay horses away. The frightened rider pulled out his Colt and started firing. As he ran after the Indians, another Indian lunged from behind a tree. A d arrow hit Nick above the left eye and more than half the arrowhead entered his stone-tippe- in a San Francisco paper: Wanted young skinny, wiry fellows, not over 18. Must be skull. Nick lay unconscious. Several hours later, two men expert riders, willing to risk Nick. The men tried to found death daily. Orphans preferred. Wages $25 a week. The Pony pull out the arrow, but they loosened the shaft from the stone tip and the arrowhead became firmly imbedded. The men rode to the next relay station for help; When two Pony Express men arrived, Nick was still alive. The couldnt stand the thought of men tied the unconscious boy eating it. So, if you could sell across a saddle and brought him that butter to someone else, and back to the Ruby Valley Station. if you dont tell them about it Nick eventually recovered, but what they dont know wont hurt he always wore a hat over his them. left eye to hide the ghastly hole He took the butter back into made by the arrowhead. his cool room and shortly came After the Pony Express era of handed her a back; ended, Uncle Nick worked as pound butter and she went away an Overland Stage driver and a happy. freighter in Utah and Nevada. Later a friend asked him how He later settled in the Jackson he handled such a situation. Hole area, and founded the town His answer, I took that but- of Wilson. Since people loved ter back in my cool room, his vivid stories, he wrote about wrapped it in a different paper his life in a book published in and gave it back to her. What 1910. Uncle Nick died in Wil-soshe dont know wont hurt her! in 1915. Theres more than one way to skin a cat! By Allen M. Cox Years ago there was a merchant in a southern Utah town who would trade groceries to the local people for their surplus produce such as eggs, butter, vegetables, nuts and fruit. One day a lady came to his store with a pound of butter and asked if he would trade her another pound of butter for it. Package Includes $100.00 Fun Book Transportation Lodging For individual or group reservations please call 7 a.m. - 7 p.m. PST daily the Pony Dispatch when Nick spent two years travel- Hop Aboard The May 15 a Gosiute Indian named Pantsuk. After Pantsuk died, a group of Shoshones promised the lonely boy a pinto pony if he would join them. Later, the Shoshone chief, Washakie, s. Her first play, Fragments was produced at Amarillo College in Amarillo, Texas in the early 80s. Wudarski uses a computer as a tool for her profession, but first writes her plays by hand. Its more personal that way, she says. Wudarski is an award-winnin- g author whose second play Ruin received a Critic Choice Award as a student written play. The play, about southern Utah, was produced at the American College Theater Festival in Texas. Ruin went on to be recognized at the American College Theater Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Perform- - 12 Thinking this was rather strange he asked her why? Her response was, I found a mouse in my cream, But I didnt think it had hurt anything so I took it out and churned the cream into butter. But I just i) |