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Show Recession, Depression? Not In Booming Escalante Area ESCALANTE - Despite woes of depression and Inflation the town of Escalante in central Garfield County Is btglnnlng the new year on a note of op-tomlsm, Percent of unemployment is presently zero mainly because of extensive oil drilling and coal exploration. And for only the second time since the Skyline Lumber Company began operations at Escalante In 1957, the company will continue sawing lumber throughout the winter months, ays Dale Marsh, office manager. Evidence of faith in future Increase in population is the extension of town boundaries by 330 acres. The greater part of this extension Is on the west border, reaching to and including part of the high ledges that form the horizon above the town. Frank Leak and A G. (Bill) Vidrine own 160 acres of this section. Other owners are U'ah Power and Light Company, Mr, and Mrs. William Kuhn, Mrs. Dvna Chris tensen, and Mr, and Mrs. G rover Reeder, who have built a large dwelling house on their property. Added on the east side of town Is a city block of homes and about 12 other homes most of which have been owned and occupied since the settlement of the town In 1876, but because of a particular circumstance, were not Included in the town when the official survey was made in 1898. Home owners In this section have enjoyed all privileges of other residents except that of voting in municipal elections and bond issues. They have, of course, paid no city taxes. These conditions will henceforth not exist. Of the land owned by Leak and Vidrine, four and a half acres have been deeded to the town for the privilege of having access to the town culinary water. This source of water will be greatly Increased by a gift by the Bureau of Land Management of water from a drilling made north of the Wide Hollow Reservoir. The land given to the town will include that occupied by two head houses of the culinary system and that for another storage head-house yet to be built. It will also include land for a town park to be known as the Escalante Pioneer Memorial Park. A grant of $6,000 was made by the Utah state and the national bicentennial commissions to help in the park development. Mayor W. Mohr Christensen says that additional funds will be sought to add to tne parks area. 'Hie Escalante Petrified Forest State Reserve to be developed on the wsi shore of Wide Hollow Reservoir will t an asset to the town as well as to the surrounding country. The contract for beginning construction at the site will be let in February, says Harold Tip-petts, state director of the Division of Parks and Recreation. The new town hall completed in December fills a long-felt need. Located at 60 North Center street, the building measures 60 by 30 feet and houses the office of the town government with a storage room for records and adequate space for business meetings of municipal interest. There are also two jail cells with sanitary facilities and an office for law-enforcement officers. Construction of a building to house a new bank is n earing completion. Osmer Nielson, manager of the Bank of Iron County, of which the bank at Escalante will be a branch, expects the bank to open its doors for business In February. As elsewhere, the building of new homes has been curtailed by shortage of materials and high Interest rates, but a number of new homes have been built and many cider ones reconstructed during the past year. Many hoises have added fireplaces as a consequence ol the high price of heating fuel. As In other Utah towns many new residents have come from other states, expccially California and Arizona. t |
