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Show Jan. 30, 1926 I went to get a bucket of water at a community hydrant, there was lots of ice We took our sheep to Dry Valley that summer. It rained almost every day, so the grass was almost to the horses knees and all the animals were fat. The lambs grow fast. There were hundreds of wild horses running back in the country beyond Hatch Wash. While we were camped by Jug Rock and Hatch Rock, we never tired of watching them. around it, I slipped, did some gymnastics trying to regain my balance, caught hold of the hydrant, my feet went up and I sat down hard, but saved myself from a tumble of about 20 feet on the ice to the bottom of the wash. That night my first child was born. My sister Mary was there and I thought she should have been a midwife, she sure could have helped a lot of girls. Bob got the Dr., but Mary told me what to do, so I had my baby girl, a premmy. For the next three months our baby was in a lot of pain because of a hernia due to undeveloped stomach lining, so the Doctor said. Bob We got a better price for our lambs that fall. Bob paid John Jackson $100 on the note, and bought a big black faced buck that was mean. I was scared of him and had to watch him all the time if I was around the sheep unless I was riding. We had some ewés that had some early lambs and I went to the shed of the corral. I couldn't out run him to the fence, so I stood still and watched him. He backed up and made a run at me, but stopped just short of hitting me. The third time I knew he and Mary got her named too, Verona Edna Muir, an odd combination. I had been raised around babies but I sure did not know much about a baby that young. Mary helped Mother with the young babies and the cooking. I preferred to do dishes, sweep floors, make beds, bring in water and wood and best of all tend the garden. Now I sure had a lot to learn. was not going to stop, so I stepped aside and a big ramboulet buck caught him and knocked him for a loop. I ran. Bob made a deal with Roy Larson to pasture our bucks and Lee Larson who lived on La Sal Creek took our mule to pasture. Bob planned on breaking him the coming summer. Things OTE seemed to be going well for us and we hoped by the time Vee started to school we would have enough sheep so we could hire a sheep herder. 3 TO cave We had the sheep camp at Flat Pass. Bob went to the homestead every day to work on the corrals CURTIS VER“ while I cared for the sheep. He had consigned the wool (that is an advance on the wool) - $350. The rest was to be paid when the wool was delivered at Thompson. He bought some lumber to make shearing pens, bought wool sacks, string to tie them, and new sheep shears. We had $300 left in the bank when everything was ready to start the shearing. April 12, 1930 operation Utah's Fut Co LEM on “naBAMBERG COLTO ie ase Ub into offke to ins re atio8 m onious to imae taieed tnia hardly get around. He went on to our place, I kept the kids with me. I headed the sheep for home a little early because I was so worried about him. He had a high fever and was on the bed. I wanted d TLekineoee N Republican a the estes I packed the camp and Bob loaded it on the wagon. I helped him because he was sick and could B PROATTIS to take him to the hospital then. He would not go. I set up the sheep camp outside in the yard and fixed a meal for the kids and me. I put the kids to bed in the camp. They never saw him again. He was so hot and I tried to cool him off by giving him plenty of water to drink. By then I knew he had typhoid fever. The morning of April 13, 1930 Clarence Tangren came riding by and I asked him to get word should ofbe batState Tih Se mn the fullest « Repoblica aa pol un pro HEE ‘Sieet eee oes icies. 0 08: red that tbe eee einirr ae mole wy America® foe = REP ue to my folks that Bob was sick. He checked on the sheep. I never went near them that day. Early next morning one of my uncles came to take over the sheep and soon after the Doctor arrived. He would AN “TICKET cANien have been there sooner but he was out of town. They made a bed in the back of the Doctor’s car to take Bob to the hospital. I followed in our car, a Maxwell Coup. I took the kids to Dad then went on to the hospital. Bob lived until 11 o'clock that night. April 14, 1930. He had walking typhoid pneumonia. a, sy vo carey08: tN AEwest Wa we Cos aWRepeblaas aubMead Restle £0° oO While some tried to exploit the land for its mineral wealth, for the first time, a few began to recognize and appreciate the scenic value of the canyon country. Even then, much of the emphasis was on the economic advantages of tourism versus any heartfelt desire to Tending to the sheep near Dry Valley. protect the land. Still it was a start. Ani d hopeful r namea d Al der Ringhoffer fi Verona found herself a widow with two small children and in the middle of the most severe economic crisis the United States had ever faced. The previous October, the stock lled attention to the beauty of the red rocks when he wandered into the Klondike Bluffs area of what is today Arches National Park (His 1922 graffiti inscription can still be seen on the buttress of market crashed and the country was plunged into the Great Depression. The price of sheep plummetted and the family struggled to survive... Tower Arch.). He mentioned the arches to Frank Wadleigh, an officer with the D&RGW railroad who later passed along his own enthusiastic comments to the director of the National Park Service, Steven Mather. Mather was unable to generate much enthusiasm for national monument designation in the Coolidge administration and bided his time for better political conditions. That moment came in 1929 after the election of Herbert Hoover. Two small parcels of land totalling less that 5000 acres were set aside as Arches National Monument. Ironically, the 1931--The people in southeast Utah were really feeling the depression. The stockmen were having troubles. We had a hard time finding a buyer for our wool. Uncle Felix, Jack Pogue and Tom did the shearing. Tom had taken over Aunt Mame’s sheep but I did pay the others a little as neither Uncle Felix or Jack Pogue would not take a full payment. I paid Annie for the cooking, bought the food, and paid her husband, Tom Hudson for herding the sheep while the shearing was in progress. Tom Murphy did not offer to help out with any of that. Buck (Carl) Murphy, Grandma’s adopted son helped around the shearing pens and with the sheared sheep. Jack, Otho, and Buck stayed with the sheep until most of the lambing was done, then, because Otho's rheumatism was giving him such a bad time, they had to take him home. Jack had to go back Klondike Bluffs, the towering cliffs and arches that first stirred interest were missed by the surveyors and did not actually become part of the park until 1969. Meanwhile, Verona and her new husband Bob Muir turned to raising sheep as a way to make a fair living. It was hard work... continued on next page... 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