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Show I k ' Scene 75 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1975 -- along the bear river SJPPLEMENT TO THE NEWS EXAMINER. PRESTON CITIZEN. CAl'M! ClllEN GRACE CITIIN ANI! I HE I FADER GARLAND CLASSIFIEDS FFATURES -P- AUL HARVEY WEEK'S TV GUIDE DONALD REAGAN I.ViS An Old Indian Trail Story By Photos Gary Rawlings By Leonard Lund A chapter in the early history of Cache and Bear Lake valleys will be this weekend. At the same time, the dream of three years for a hard-workin- mm behind-the-scen- g, historian will be realized. The old stretching '&vv, VO'A ' WILD FLOWERS GROW abundantly amid the rustic pine near the top of the Indian Trail where it topped the mountains on its way into Bear Ijike Valley from Cache , Valley. Riders the area frequently looking for trail signs. $r criss-crosse- . it. Indian Trail through Cub River Canyon above Franklin to Bear Lake Valley will be marked and cleared of brush thus an historic trail for backpack-er- s and horseback riders. With the reopening of the trail comes a plea for help! opening the trail from the Bear Lake side. He is also in need of volunteers to reopen the trail through St. Charles Canyon. It won't be a big job. It should be ready this fall. Mrs. Beckstead said. I am so thrilled over it. I'll have a good report for Sister Carter. I know she'll be just as thrilled as I am and the Spring Creek DUP. We live among so much history in VOLUNTEER help is needed this Friday and Saturday to get the brush and trees cleared. If anyone wants to have a nice backpacking trip, they can contact the Beck-stead- s, Mrs. Afton Beck-stea- d said. We will meet at Thomas Spring Friday evening and go as far as the Indian Trail water trough up about three miles where well stay overnight. The next day well work all day. Its a job for young people. Ed Hull has been appointed overseer of a group of Young Adults from the Preston North and South stakes who have agreed to help, Mrs. Beckstead said. Although not wanting to take full credit, which she actually d deserves, Mrs. Beckstead and the dream of reopening the trail and stuck with the project over a three-yea- r period to see it through. Mrs. Becksteads husband, Alvin (Big H), is a range rider for the Cub River Cattle Assoc., and has been taken and met by his wife many times in the mountains. MRS. BECKSTEAD said it was one summer three or four years ago that they went up to drive some cattle out of Hillyard Canyon. They stopped and filled their water jug at Thomas Spring because its always so cold and went on up the canyon. When they returned a sign had been placed on the spring telling newcomers not to dring of the water because it was unfit for human consumption. Mrs. Beckstead. who lives with her husband in a modhome in ern 'ranch-styl- e Whitney, said she contacted members of the Franklin County Board of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers because they had fixed the spring and put an historical plaque there. A short time later members of the county DUP group got together, went up and cleaned out the water box above the spring and also the spring in Immigration Canyon above Mink Creek. It was then I thought I had better join them. So I joined the Spring Creek DUP in Whitney, Mrs. Beckstead relates. A SHORT time later we were attending a district convention and national president Kaye Carter who is also a renown historian, was the speaker. She said, Shame to you if you know of an old trail and are letting it go. I felt she was talking straight at me," Mrs. Beckstead said. She said the old Indian Trail, later used as a Pony Express trail, leaves Thomas Spring and goes over the mountain. In the early settlement days of the two valleys, it was the only link between Paris and Bloom- Mrs. Beckstead asked. MRS. BECKSTEAD and Lund, who rode and marked the trail, pointed out interesting sidelights to the trail itself. At the top of the ridge the ice flows dropping into Bloomington Lake can be seen. Telegraph Flat is in the area and Bloomington Peak can be seen. Both valleys can be clearly seen from that point. At one point near the top, Dunford tells of a natural basin where the Indians would keep their horses and cattle. The trail is never steep but has many switch-back- s to avoid steepness. At the Cub River Canyon outlet, there is a place near the old Wickham farm SHE SAID they would be yippeeing as they rode. She recalled there were a lot of pinto ponies and the squaws also rode with papooses on their backs and pinto colts following. They would camp north of Franklin near where the train crosses the old highway. She recalled they would fish and catch squirrels and rock chuck and dry them. Mrs. Cecil (Bertha) Woodward, who now lives in Franklin and is in her 92nd year, said the Dixie Flat was so named because the roses didn't freeze there because of the warm current coming down the bench. She is historian for the Ella Wright Camp of the DUP. We? ington and Franklin. Mrs. Beckstead said she remembers stories of how the Indians would come into Cub River for hunting and trapping and later follow the canyon all the way to Franklin in trade. THEY'RE travoises would dig in the dirt and they made the trail. I used to ask Alvin many times just where the trail went. He said it followed the ridges. We got in touch with the forest ranger to ask if there was money available to clear the trail. They said they would put us on their list and after two years they got on it. Theyve been very nice," Mrs. Beckstead continued. It was in August when trail could be located and blue trail markers placed for those who could come later to open it. THOSE WHO rode that day included Beckstead. Harold Hull, Leonard Lund and Ray Ransbottom. I asked if it could be wide enough for motorized vehicles and they said no, Mrs. Beckstead who doesn't ride anymore said. They said it would mud up' and make deep tracks. They suggested opening it to horseback riders, backpackers and hikers. Hulme Dunford, a board inspector in Bear Lake Valley, has been put in charge of A. Forest Service trailman y seeing the Indians come down the canyon. Leslie Dunckley of Franklin recalls that his mother, who moved with her family as a young girl to .the Wickham farm on the west bench of Cub River north of Franklin, relating seeing the Indians come down the canyon along the east bench to one strung out for one-ha- lf mile. Franklin TELEGRAPH FLAT with Bloomington Peak can be seen in background from the ridge. known as Dixie Flat. It was at this point that early-daFranklin settlers remember County. Don't ki-- yi 4 m Floyd Lewis and Raymond Carling, Forest Ranger from Montpelier met a group of area horse riding historians and relocated the trail. It took many hours of hunting and riding before the ; THE DAUGHTERS OF THE UTAH PIONEERS plaque at Thomas Spring can be seen at left. Horses await riders for the trek up Sheep Dip Trail in background. MRS. AFTON BECKSTEAD pushed the idea of re-opening the Indian Trail for three years. |