OCR Text |
Show But on August 28, 1941, the story ended abruptly when word came that Christensen’s The 1940s: The Decade That Would Change the World By Jim Stiles The Civilian Conservation Corps was the product of Franklin Roosevelt’s genius and vision. In the 1930s, with millions of young men homeless and out of work, Roosevelt was determined to restore faith in the country and in its government--the CCC put these boys to work on conservation projects from Maine to California. In Moab, Utah, CCC camps had become a familiar sight since the mid-1930s. The first camp, at Dalton Wells, was opened in 1935 and its young workers devoted their days to rangeland improvement projects. But in May 1940, a new CCC endeavor, called NP-7, was established near the residence quarters at Arches National Monument. Primary on their list of chores was the construction of a new entrance road that would begin at the base of The Penguins formation above the park "custodian’s" rock home and wind its way over the rim and down into the Courthouse Towers. It would cross Courthouse Wash, and then climb along the base of The Great Wall to Balanced Rock. Enthusiasm for the newly expanded national monument ran high among tourism promoters, with dreams of a lucrative tourist economy in everyone’s head. Grand County was, after all, a growing community with a 1940 official population of 2,063 residents. The Lion’s Club, led by the venerable Doc Williams, was a particularly avid booster. The CCC boys attacked the job with a vengeance and local optimists were convinced it could be finished in a few years, barring the unexpected. The unexpected was just 18 months away, however, and the completion of the new entrance road would have to wait another 18 years. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the U.S. naval facility at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands, destroying much of the American fleet. The nation was stunned by the sudden attack and the following day, Moabites gathered around their radios to hear President Roosevelt ask for a declaration of war from the Congress: "No matter how long it might take us to stop this premeditated invasion, the American People in their righteous might, will see through to absolute victory!" model had been "obliterated" by employees of the Department of the Interior. Special Agent N.F Waddell reported that the carving was illegal and on public land. According to the T-I report, Waddell explained that the department "has certain rules...we don’t give out much information." Locals have been fighting the federal government ever since. While the prospects of war had seemed inescapable in the months preceding Pearl Harbor, life in Moab maintained a certain familiarity that would sound similar even today. The Moab Times-Independent reported one possible "Glory Hole" after another, always hopeful that unbridled prosperity for Grand County lay just beyond the next turned shovel of dirt. In May 1941, the T-I announced that a new road (Later the infamous “Book Cliffs Highway” of the 1990s) would be built over the Book Cliffs from Grand County to Vernal. And in September 1941, publisher Bish Taylor proclaimed that a magnesium processing plant, to be built near Crescent Junction, would provide the world’s magnesium needs "for 3000 years." oe WAR OUR NATION 1S AT ie nation, W. en Ne a ving This peac -e-lo y been is ee Uinmperialir, ee race ngre’ atl rit ng by 8 ind en trolling an that ae ha Crete ofc dominating the & i than hall Ube ‘ oe already 1oye + suffer Our an appa to face ye oases, Out people hal. we Se to com ae te ee bu ae a "way morg = @: ledge te to The December I! 1941 ° +o: edition of the Moab ensome psa he of ghthe etn all a friendly commerce wit No world. will meet the coal This nation re involved, ) hat es nue battle of the ©a Times-Independent en AGEpeL meee carried this pledge of support for the war against Japan. mat States of 3 i curse of Ac, just & rid both hemispheres ea Rote match : i resolve will help to eS mot are now united 2 oe shiMG ple i a ae m een day ic.i Ny ne republ es tue i ie capa take, 10 how long it wt i matter ao ie if ¢ eine ue ie orth UUtah will southeantern, g en throus, Soe Mi ation bon oe ION: of government OE ae ee eat other wea aes pe a ross and ne e thei TT country will alt th cae iat are st men ny ent eo e young foe oo ee will, enlist a of the t nation other parts aa aall atict ? on war ae ecethis wir sevi to | serv : are. ‘ ee ie ee ce a oe es ¢ | But in other ways, the approach of the war did stimulate the mining industry in Grand County. Verona Stocks remembered those times in her wonderful memoirs (published in The Zephyr in the early 1990s): "When Germany began attacking the small countries in 1939, Pete (Stocks) thought that Hitler was going for all of Europe. He began worrying what the U.S. was going to do. Several miners from Moab were selling their ore to a Japanese buyer). When a friend of Pete’s brought him to our place, he saw 300 sacks of high grade ore. The man said, “This will fill my order and I will give you a fair price.’ Pete said to get that man off his place, because as soon as the Japanese ship gets out away from U.S. waters, Japan will attack the United States somewhere...Sure enough, on December 7, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor." The United States needed vanadium, a vital element used in the hardening of steel and Grand County was known to have plenty of it. Verona’s husband, Pete Stocks, and other miners continued to work dawn to dusk to provide vanadium for the war effort. "Pete worked in several different mines...and was still mining the old fashioned way, with a double jack and hand steel. Most miners were buying compressors and jack hammers. "This country needed vanadium. It was Albert Christensen and the ‘Unity Monument. A year earlier, the American voters had returned FDR to the White House for an unprecedented third term. His opponent in that election, Republican Wendell Willkie, was a fair and decent man, who later won the respect and admiration of his Democratic rival. In Utah, sculptor Albert Christensen set out to build a memorial to both candidates. Near his home at Hole "n" the Rock, Albert started work on the model of his Unity Monument, a proposed bas relief carving to Roosevelt and Willkie. The project drew rave reviews from the Times-Independent and Moab residents made the dusty trip ae to check on his progress. ©. Tex's Riverways oe in iron. Pete bought a big cabover Ford truck to haul his ore to the Uravan mill in Colorado. Then he bought the Yellow Cat mine from Tom Kelly, paying $1000 down. His brother Dick had a compressor and wanted to ...when I said ‘I'd never leave you.’ work with Pete. They had a working agreement, each taking 50% of the net earnings until Dick went into the Army; then Pete would take care of their parents." At the end of 1942, the war came home to Moab in a way its citizens had not expected. In the weeks after Pearl Harbor, anti-Japanese sentiments on the west coast of the United States reached levels approaching hysteria, and the federal government ordered American citizens of Japanese descent to be interned at "relocation camps” throughout the desert southwest. It was one of the blackest events in the history of the United States in the 20th century. On December 31, Moabites learned that the Dalton Wells CCC camp would be And you never will... as long as you wear that funky sarong. VWVVVVVVVVVVVY 3-D RIVER VISIONS, INC. Actual P.O. Box 67 Moab, UT 84532 435.259.5101 info@texsriverways.com 691 W. 500 West www.texsriverways.com CANOE OUTFITTING & RENTALS SHUTTLE SERVICE JETBOAT TOURS Cartoon of dramatic . final Re-creation scene from CASABLANCA Played by Dirk & Devin Vaughan |