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Show Moab Scene Ever-Changing, Only Mountains Same It Is even hard to get a hotel room in Moab for an over-night stay. Things are that bad. There are Just two many people in Moab for the accommodations available. Visitors find it is difficult to find motel compartment, a hotel room or even a hospital bed If they are ill. The atomic-born boom took care, of that. There are signs In hotels advising: "No sleeping in this lobby overnight." The Moab scene Is a constantly changing one. What today Is a small novelty store may tomorrow be the offices of a geologist and engineer. Trailer courts replace back-yard gardens overnight. Trailer parks have sprung up all over town In efforts of townspeople to make living room for the hundreds of people moving In. The older residents had to make room lor new people in the community and they did, reaping a handsome profit from space rentals. Old-time residents of Moab have a little trouble trying to live by the new standards established by merchants and banks to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the confusion to further their own personal gains. For example, a woman who had lived in Moab for many years went to a bank to cash a check made out to her husband, signing it with her name and her own beneath. She was told that "We can't do that any. more." It didn't matter that the woman had been doing it for several years the teller had been told to comply with the new regulations. The bank refused to honor the check and the woman went to a store to get it cashed. Once quiet streets are now busy thoroughfares as concrete trucks dash about delivering "mud" to the many construction jobs in progress. There are painters, carpenters, bricklayers and others in the building trades, hustling to and from work, or from Job to job as work progresses. Just walking through Moab's stores and along its streets Is an education in Itself, For seldom does one see such a heterogeneous crowd; the big city seems to have come to the small town and the comingling of peoples has worked out very well. There are men in expensively tailored suits walking with miners In hard hats and dusty overalls. Career girls in trim suits and high heels walk along with housewives and girls in denim Jeans and low-heel loafers. There is no class distinction in Moab, so far as can be observed. These are the people who live In the log cabins with sod roofs, the trailer houses, the tents on the edge of town, or perhaps la the latest modern and moderne homes. They are the people who are complaining about telephone service, prices at the grocery store, rents they must pay, things in general and about the hustle and bustle that has transformed Moab from the little cow town of a few short 126,869-TONS of uranium ore are piled near Moab awaiting transportation to processing mills. These huge piles, containing ore from Charles Steen's properties and others in the rich uranium mining belt, represent many thousands of dollars to mine owners, having an average value of approximately $50 per ton. In the foreground are dumping bins which feed ore into the sew sampling plant opened Just after the first of the year. years ago into the biggest little city in eastern Utah. These are the people of Moab . . , the engineer and geologist, usually bareheaded and wearing sports shirts, unbuttoned jackets regardless of weather, denim trousers, and engineer boots ... cowboys with faded denim outfits that wouldn't fit into the movie version of westerners . waitresses with their usual white uniforms . . and boys and girls with as many variations of clothing as their parents. And then there are the tourists with their cameras, snapping pictures at every turn, soon becoming "shutter happy" because of all this unexpected picture material. Although everyone right now is unhappy with telephone service. Midland Telephone Co. is engaged In an expansion program that includes a new and larger dial system and several more toll lines going to Provo, Utah, Instead of to rand Junction. The Moab dial equipment now in operation will go to Dove Creek, Colo. Installation will require several months of tedious, expensive work. Until it Is finished, the griping will continue but there is nothing that can be done about it. What does the future hold for Moab? Some say It will bring growth, new industries, new schools and hospitals, prosperity. Jobs for everyone. Others shrug their shoulders qucstioningly, fearful that greater and more serious confusion will follow any further upsurge In population and demand for workers. If one desires solitude, there Is the unchanged scenic beauty of the Moab valley, the mountains in all directions. The sunsets are still as spectacular as in pre-atom days. Uut be careful when you look toward the sunset or the mountains. You're liable to be looking at a uranium mine. |