OCR Text |
Show Ioiievnoon Trail Stories recounting the journey by Toni Wharton Tribune Staff Writer EDITORS NOTE: This is the of a two part series detailing the people, places and events of Tribune Staff Writer Tom conclusion covered-wagoWharton's four-datrip across the Arizona Strip. y n THE ARIZONA STRIP The cowboys stood around the campfire, their n hands stuck in the pockets of levis, remembering stories of past journeys, of outlaws, Indians, well-wor- sheepherders, bears and homes- teaders. And of the Arizona Strip, the place they call home. There was old Joe Bolander, Owen and Adeline Johnson, and Mel Heaton, the organizer of the fourth annual trip. The trek takes modern-da- y pioneers from Pipe Spring, Arizona, to St. George, along the Honeymoon Trail. These people, and their sons and daughters who stood near them around the warm fire, know the history of this sparsley populated area well, because they are the ones who settled it. THEY MAKE their living to this day in the rugged desert. Its easy to recount the stories of the e long Honeymoon Trail which, from 1871 until the Arizona temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-da- y Saints was completed in Mesa in 1928, was traveled by hundreds of Mormon couples who wished to have their marriages sealed in the St. George temple. Its less easy to get a feel for what a like the one recently staged on a stretch of the trail must mean. The sense of history, and of personal heritage, is strong among these people. And rightly so. Take, for example, Owen and Adeline 280-mil- Brigham Johnson repairs wagon wheel before continuing the trek across the Arizona Strip. Below : Travelers prepare for evening activities after a long day s ride. Iake Salt The H 8 I Johnson of Moccasin, Ariz Owen was bom at Lees Ferry in the early 1900s, where he spent much of his youth. I can remember living there in the 1920s when people were still crossing Lees Ferry with horses, he relates. "There were also cattle rustlers and horse thief s around in those days. They felt like this was kind of the last frontier, where they could still carry on their kind of life. This was a place that was out of the way, and they could still hide from the law. ADELINES parents took the trek across the Honeymoon Trail, which was moved to a different location from the original path, to be married. Mrs. Johnson now works for the National Park Service at Pipe Spring National Monument where, dressed in pioneer costume, she tells tourists of the areas history, bakes bread and cookies in a wood-firestove, quilts, makes cheese, and passes on hundreds of different tidbits of pioneer history. Few can cook dinner in a dutch oven over an open campfire like Adeline. d People started using the trail in she relates, and it was given its title in 1877 when the St. George temple was completed. The route we took was used until about 1900. Then the road was changed to near the present highway. There wouldnt be many weeks without a group going through on the trail. People on the Strip would often gather a large group more than just one couple and travel together. They experienced many of the same things we have experienced on our wagon train trips broken wagons, rain, mud and balky horses. Sometimes, trips were delayed a day or two because the horses would stray. 1871, |