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Show Escalante's Heritage Festival Deemed A Rousing Success By Jerry Roundy ESCALANTE - The Escalante Heritage Festival began Friday evening, May 28, in the Escalante High School auditorium, with an entertaining musical evening that began with music by Lynn and Mike Griffin from the Lone , Hawk band, assisted by Brace Griffin on the "Washtub Bass." They were followed by Clayton Carter who entertained the crowd with his singing, cowboy poetry, and yodeling. Clayton was followed by Steve Downs and his wife and grandson from Cedar City. Steve is the former lead singer of the Bar G Wranglers and entertained the audience with favorite western songs. It was an evening of great musical entertainment. Saturday morning activities began at 8 with ground-breaking ceremonies for the proposed Escalante-Boulder Veterans' Memorial. Participating in the ground-breaking were Escalante's Mayor, members of the Escalante City Council, members of the fire department, representatives from Boulder, Veterans' Memorial Committee members, veterans, and anyone else who wanted to put a shovel into the ground. The large number num-ber in attendance at the groundbreaking ground-breaking ceremonies was evidence evi-dence of broad support for the project. On that day donations brought the total amount of money donated to $40,000. Work on the project will begin this week and the dedication of the Memorial is still scheduled for July 24, at 2 in the afternoon, as part of the Pioneer Day Celebration. Following the ground-breaking ceremonies, breakfast of hotcakes, eggs and bacon was served in the City Park by the Hole-In-The-Rock chapter of . the Sons of the Utah Pioneers. The Craft Fair, coordinated by Sue Mosier, was held this year in the City Park instead of the Old Gym. Despite the wind and cool weather, attendance was good throughout the day and continuous entertainment coordinated by Emily Lott Woolsey was enjoyed by Craft Fair participants. At 6 p.m., a roast beef dinner was served by the Potato Valley Lions Club. The dinner in the park was followed at 8 by an evening of unique entertainment in the high school auditorium. An original play, "From Hell's Backbone to Calf Creek: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Escalante", written by Kay Cook and Jerry Roundy, was presented. Escalante was privileged privi-leged to have four CCC camps in the city from 1933 to 1942 which contributed greatly to its heritage. The workers in the camps built campgrounds, stock trails, water conservation projects, proj-ects, mountain roads and flood control dams, but the projects that stand out are the two roads between Escalante and Boulder. In 1933, the camp on Blue Spring Ridge built the Hell's Backbone Bridge and pushed a road on through Salt Gulch to Boulder. From 1935 to 1940 the camp east of Escalante built the (See FESTIVAL on page 6A) ' I ; ' . " w'"'r'' ' ') . ....... .. ... J'. , . , W- ... .: ' ' .,- ; .' J , . . .. - -. ... . n"v .. f. '.-...vr' ....... . v ; -- .... ' j . :. ..- ... . ... ' ' ' " -" -r"-;'. ,..."-; . I " " ' ':' " ' " ' - . " ' '. . . . . -'' '-"!:,,..-.''' '"" I ' . - .-.- .:,-. . f - -'.' -, 'i W - ... ... . -4- ' . i . :? . -r-" ' ; " . . . ' ( - A ' . i , ' - . ' l - t- " .'" "i;- -- --', .J . ' :'-. ... " " - - . I ' , ' - ' ' " J. T. ".' " " Photo by Matt Tiittaker-"- Kerry Dalton and Mike Dalton were among firefighters who responded to the scene where a sudden downdraft caused the fiery crash of this cropdusting plane at Circleville. Its pilot, Mike Thornton 41, of Parowan, nar- rowly escaped death, emerging from the wreckage with burns to his hands and right arm. He was treated by EMTs in Circleville and transported by ambulance to the hospital hospi-tal in Panguitch where he was released by late afternoon Festival From Front Page road through Calf Creek to Boulder that became known as the "Million Dollar Highway". Each year the Escalante Heritage Center honors two Escalante individuals who have made lasting contribution to the community, one posthumously and one living. This year the posthumous award went to Reid Wooley, who served as Marshal for Escalante for 38 years and was the Marshal during the time when the CCC camps were in Escalante. The living award went to Karen Munson for her work on Main Street project. The lighting and planting along today's Main Street are due largely to Karen's persistence and tenacity in pushing the project proj-ect along. The Escalante Heritage Center expressed appreciation to everyone who helped in any way to make the day a success. |