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Show Tropic Lies Below Bryce Canyon Rim most work at their farms part-timer while holding down a full-time job elsewhere since thewlay -of the money-making small farm appears to t a thing of the past. The town has three stores, service stations, cafe, sandwich shops, garage and lots of friendly people to guide you to the most scenic and interesting places to see ia the county. w -7: -xz , .- -.1) S1' - "'-"'' f ' - ' bloom in late spring or laden with fruit in the summer and fall. Some of the first fruit trees in town were planted in the spring of 1893 when residents were able to trade horses for fruit trees which had been hauled in by the wagon-load for the small towns .in the area. Recently, residents have supported sup-ported a seedling tree planting project to replace some of the trees which have long since died, renewing their ancestors' love of trees. A beautiful new park in the center of town with its bright green lawn and hunreds-of trees and bushes further shows the love of Tropic's people for growing things. Visitors in August will be aized at the lush gardens and pretty flowers throughout town. Bbenezer Bryce's old cabin stands at the south end of town alongside -the highway. The early Tropic resident, for whom the jewel-like national park which dominates the western skyline was named, is remembered best for his pragamatic description of the mazelike maze-like canyon "a hell of a place to lose a cow!" About 350 people live in Tropic where the primary occupaton is still farming and ranching, although the canyon. His quaint old cabin stands at south end of town along highway. then as residents partied until daylight. It is cause for celebratoin now and residents remember "the day the water came" with an annual day of festivities in gratitude for the life-giving water to which the town owes its very existence. . Some local Mormons, many of whom are descended from polygamous marriages of the early LDS Church, love to tell the'story of their polygamous great grandfather who spent the coldest night of his life between his two wives one winter one wife was in Tropic, the other 30 miles away in Panguitch and he was stuck in between up on the East Fork where he "darned near froze to death!" The LDS Church is the center of activities in these largely Mormon-dominated Mormon-dominated communities. In Tropic, as in many similar small towns, the church is the most prominent building in town. It has shed its peaceful influence on the lives of the people and their families. Sundays are always quiet and uncommercial compared with big cities. Visitors are always welcome into their churches.' With a name Wte Vropie,"it's not surprising to see the fruit trees in "A hell of a place to lose a cow," the description early Tropic resident Ebenezer Bryce gave (A( TROPIC Picture this little-town little-town as it was in 1887 when it was called West Valley. Bunch grass, white sage and white greasewood covered its floor and a solitary log cabin stood on the south side of a small knoll near its center. The cabin belonged to William Pollock and not only his namesake, but descendants in the area of many other founders still bear the family names today the Ahlstroms, Meachams, Shakespeare, Hendersons, Hen-dersons, Fletchers, Willises, LeFevres, and others. They're more than names to those ho live in this little town where heritage means so much and where people today are not so far removed in time from those early pioneers that the memory of their fortitude, hardships and determination deter-mination to carve out a suitable habitatoin in which to rear their families is not still honored and respected. A. J. Hansen was the founder of Tropic anoVits first LDS bishop. It was he, together with many others whose names are still heard in the community, who engineered and built the canal that brought water from the East Fork of the Sevier River (which is part of the Great Basin system) over the precipice of Bryce into Tropic valley where it ultimately became a part of the Colorado River drainage system. It was no small feat then, and it is the same water today which provides irrigation for the crops and .gardens grown where they have been growing since that day 90 years ago when water from the canal first flowed into some of the same ditches -still in use today. It was cause for great celebraton |