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Show FOCUS . 121980 November . Bear Rummer: Bv Nan Chalat Bea Rummer's phone is seldom quiet. When she is home to answer it. there are inquiries about births and deaths 100 years ago. about buildings long gone, about . history, about ancestors and descendants. All questions about Park City's history eventually come down to "Ask Bea." And she channeling rs in- s, quiries to the proper sources in short, acting as a one-wom- - . his- torian and archivist. But one is lucky these days to catch Bea at' home. She - : conducrs more than 150 historic walking tours a year, assists the Chamber of - Commerce in its Community Orientation Workshops, is a Homemaking Leader for the Relief Society, an active member of the' Utah Daughters of the Pioneers, a mother of twelve and grand- mother to several growing families. Over the years. Bea has become the guardian of the spirit of Park City. Her role hasr become even more important in the face of the rapid expansion which has threatened the very identity of the town. Last year in recognition of her contributions. the town unanimously nominated Berneil Kummer, Mother of the Year. Bea placed as one of Utah's eight finalists but according to the Parkites. she was Number One. They took pride in pointing out that lady wrong, but much of the time it was ignored. Tired of ; hefting all of the mistakes, .. Bea set about setting the record straight. In a town whose complete records were burnt in 1898, it wasnt easy. Reassembling the history meant tracking down letters, old photo-- . graphs from personal coilec-tionchecking and cross checking stories told from memory, offen second and third. hand. Bea, and Nol , Newbold put together the- -. book Silver and Snow" after which Beas involve- ' ment snowballed.' She was i ' given several collections of old photographs and began receiving letters from old ; time Parkites now living all over the world. Painstakingly the pieces began to fit together. Pictures were identified, mys- - 3; v teries were solved. One ; which had Bea stumped was 1 solved by Tilda Bausman. The old cast iron clock which once stood on Main Street tumed up on one side of the street and then the other in a series of old photos. Tilda explained that the clock had belonged to her father who ran the jewelry store in Park for many years. When he moved his store to the other side of the street the dock went with him. In this way,' item by item, Bea has been ' able to reconstruct the past. Her scrapbooks now are . tirelessly, consulting her prodigious collection of scrapbooks, . . Bound editions of early Park Records have been preserved by Park Citys archivist. ed - sha-shavi- almost too full to shut. Newspaper clippings, letters and notes spill over the the street in her ' Victorian - dress vividly describing the history of Park City's Main Street. According, to the Chamber "She has become a mother down pages." - Now that the town has quadrupled .in size, its inhabitants are realizing that they came here for some- to all of us. Thousands of individuals have grown and been ever so lovingly nurtured with a greater understanding of Park City." Bea was the daughter of a mining family in Porterville, The family moved to Park Gty in 1930 and many of the stories Bea tells of Chinatown and the Parks pros- thing special which is in danger of disappearing. Many of the oldtimers have already turned their backs on the New Park Gty but Bea hasn't. She: is called on constantly to consult in ,s . perity are firsthand. She recalls delivering SO copies of the Record for a nickel a piece back when the red light district still stood on Heber Avenue. She and her brother Avril used to con miners out of treats from their lunch boxes and rides in empty ore cars. As she grew up and the town grew too she treasured those early memories. . history was cited it was x disputes over the town's ans-we- At first the growth was better skelter and with the alarming influx of outsiders Bea begun to fear for the integrity of her "Treasure Mountain Home". When the projects concerning preservation and her advice is weighed in gold. Due to Bca's efforts the Glcnwood Cemetery, which - had become almost hidden in overgrowth, has been saved. On a daily basis Bea is called upon to act as a Park City encyclopedia. There is' hardly time now to assemble, the book she is planning. But now help is on the way. The town is making provisions for a Historical Society which . Bea conducts more than 200 historic walking tours a year, delighting tourists with colorful stories of the towns past |