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Show Verona and her family continued to maintain the herd of sheep and no one worked harder than they did. But sometimes they had to take time out to play and relax. One July 4th, Verona invited a group of friends from La Sal to the house for some good music and food and conversation. Among the invited guests was Verona’s friend, Jack Stocks, and Jack had decided to bring along his brother Pete. Jack and Verona were both fair fiddle players that and with one significant difference: the proposed national monument would have probably stopped any serious consideration of a dam in Glen Canyon. The size of the proposed monument was staggering—the first version called for the withdrawal of 6,968 square miles, ten times the size of today’s Canyonlands N.P. But local opposition was swift and vocal and the Department of the Interior attempted to placate the and Pete could strum a few tunes on the guitar. But when Jack grew tired of playing and turned the violin over to Verona, Pete looked stunned. Somehow he just could not imagine opposition by scaling back the size, to less than 2,500 square miles. The issue dragged on for years, with Utah officials like Governor Henry Blood fearing a behind-the-scenes a woman playing the fiddle. "I couldn’t play with her," he mumbled and handed the guitar maneuver by the federal government to create the new national monument. As an ironic to someone else... Pete and I were married at La Sal, June 7, 1933 by Bishop Leland Redd. Pete's Father and. Mother and two of his brothers and his sister and my Dad and his five younger children and my two children were there at the wedding. It was a nice day and the sheep were feeding in a big field close by so Felix could be with us too. As soon as the wedding was over Pete and I took the sheep back to Coyote Wash and spent our first few days of married life at the sheep camp. What a way to spend a honeymoon. But then people did a lot of things they would not have done if we had not had that depression. a prelude to the shouts and screams raised by many rural Utahns after President Clinton’s surprise creation of Grand Staircase/Escalante N.M in 1996, Governor Blood warned the Utah congressional delegation in 1939: "Some morning we may wake up and find that the Escalante National Monument has been created...and then it will be too late to forestall what we in Utah think would be a calamity." The proposal finally ran out of steam and head-on into the Second World War. Already in the late 1930s, the threat of war became more of a probability with each passing week. For Verona and Pete Stocks, conflicts in Europe seemed worlds away. They would be able to maintain that illusion for just a few more years... Roakie, Redd’s sheep foreman, sent us word that some of our stray sheep were in their herd. Pete and Felix went after them. They were gone three days. As soon as they came back, Pete and I moved the sheep to Dry Valley. It was there I got really scared on a gentle horse. Now, Navajo sheep are not quiet like other sheep; besides not having as much wool, they don't act the same. Other sheep start grazing slowly toward some place they want to go, but no, not the Navajo sheep. When the lead or boss ewe lets out a blat, the herd is on their feet in a second, and you had better be ready because they are all on the run to get where she has decided to go, which is not always where you think they should go. But when Jack grew tired of playing and turned the violin over to Verona, Pete looked stunned. Somehow he could just not imagine a woman playing the fiddle... T couldn't play with her.” he mumbled and handed his guitar to comeone else. In 1934, Congress enacted the Taylor Grazing Act. It was to profoundly change the way Utahns used much of the public lands in the state. The new law called for the withdrawal of more than 175 million acres of public domain in the West. This land had previously not been subject to any kind of restrictions or regulations. Now these lands would be administered by the Department of the Interior's Grazing Service (Later the Bureau of Land Management). According to Richard Firmage’s A History of Grand County, while much of the western land users opposed the law, the new legislation was met favorably by most Utah cattlemen and endorsed by the Utah Woolgrowers Association. And, according to Firmage, TimesIndependent publisher Bish Taylor helped create the legislation when he served as a consultant to Utah Congressman Don Colton, who helped draft the language for the bill. Ironically, more Utahns probably oppose the BLM today than they did when the Taylor Grazing Law took effect. There was no Sagebrush Rebellion in 1934. What did stir the rural citizens of southern Utah was another proposal by the Roosevelt administration to create a vast 4.5 million acre national monument Paw the dog could run from La Sal to Moab with a car doing 30 miles per hour, but from La Sal Creek to Moab was not so good, so being a smart dog he just went to Brown's Hole and visited the Martin family. That summer of 1936 Pete got a job in Dry Valley across East Canyon. He was the foreman and I cooked for the crew. There were six miners and I did not like that job. Pete and his brother John were very picky eaters, the rest of the crew just wanted plenty of meat, spuds and pie. Josephine stayed with us and helped out most of that summer. I had some chickens and Vee made pets out of some of them. She would take one hen to bed with her, it slept on her pillow. Jo and Vee slept together, Jo kept getting lice in her hair. I would get rid of them but soon they were back. I finally figured out it know chicken lice would get on people but when I would not let bed Jo had no more lice nits in her hair. The lice would not stay her hair. It was very embarrassing to a sixteen year old girl. When school started we rented Uncle Victor Murphy's house the Martin Place. Earl and Neva rented it to send their kids to Pete moved his mining crew to the Water Fall claims. It was a beautiful place, big trees all around and a really nice house. I did not move to Moab with the kids, Pete had quite a crew for me to cook for and Josephine could send kids to school. She was a junior in high school. (I think) On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. Even in the remote corners of America, its citizens took note... When Germany began attacking the small countries in 1939 Pete thought Hitler was going for all of Europe. He began worrying about what the U.S. was going to do. Several miners from Moab were selling their ore to a Jap. When a friend of Petes brought him to our place he saw the 300 sacks of high grade ore. The Jap said "That will fill my order and I will give you a good price." Pete told the friend to get that man off his place because as soon as the Jap ship gets out away from U.S. waters Japan would attack the United States somewhere. Sure enough on Dec. 7, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Philippine Isles and Malaya. The U.S. declared war on Japan, Germany and its allies. In the late 1930s, another mineral was sought in the canyon country of southeast Utah, but not by many. Howard Balsley found a market for the mineral with a company in Pittsburgh called the Vitro Manufacturing Company, which used pigments derived from Balsley’s product in ceramics and pottery. Balsley was the only ore buyer in the region; that same mineral would, in the years and decades ahead, however, transform Moab, the nation, and the world. The mineral was called uranium. Oooo For more on the 1920s and 1930s in Moab: I relied heavily on Richard Firmage’s excellent A History of Grand County and upon the micro-film files of the Moab Times-Independent in compiling this brief description of those very different times. Thanks to the T-I for being there these last one hundred plus years _ and to the Grand County Library for its patient assistance. CONTACT US VIA E MAIL AT: in the heart of the zephyr@lasal.net THE WEB ADDRESS IS: www.canyoncountryzephyr.com straddled the Colorado River for more than 200 miles, from Moab all the way to Lee’s Ferry. Its boundaries would have encompassed all of what is today Canyonlands National Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Glen Canyon Recreation Area--all & HEATING 259-8324 Residential - Commercial - Sales Installation - Drain Cleaning COMPLETE LINE OF PLUMBING FIXTURES Kohler - Grohe - American Standard Ejer - Moen - Delta - Briggs Price Pfister HOT WATER HEATERS - GARBAGE DISPOSALS across the creek from what is now school, later they bought it. The bus stop was by their place and our kids had to walk across the creek to catch the bus. Colorado Plateau. It was to be called "Escalante National Monument" and it would have 366 N. 500 =E RIVERSIDE 4Sy PLUMBING — . oan. was the chicken’s fault. I did not Vee even put that chicken on her on her but they laid their eggs in Let's hope Plumbing in Moab never comes to this... |