Show dick squires park cites C itys oldest citizen bv C al BUCK park city 1 the following was written only a few mo months nibs ago dick squires park cites oldest citizen just recently celebrated his birthday he arrived in famous silver lead camp on february 23 1879 more than 51 years ago he walked the entire distance from Wan wanshin wanship ship twenty miles where he spent the night as the guest of bishop young A mountain lion followed him all the way and was killed a few days later it measured eight feet seven inches dick said he never got a glimpse of his pursuer but had he e known a lion was following him he would have beaten all records into park city mr squires whose full name Is richard eneas squires Is always called dick squires by the old timers he was born in new york august 3 1845 the oldest of a family of three boys and one girl he lived at home until hl he was 26 learning the carpenters trade the urge to go west got him in the early seventies and october 15 1871 found him in chicago three days after the disastrous fire that laid waste to the windy city ile he remained in ch chicago I 1 until march 17 1872 st patricks day when he be left for sioux city iowa here he became a chip boat carpenter on the mississippi river steamboat steam boat silver lake no 4 captain massey on the trip up the missouri from sioux city to port fort buford general custer hero of custers Ou last charge was a passenger the general and dick became very good friends he mentioned the general as quite agreeable and entertaining upon his III arrival in park city he went to work at his trade carpenter work there ther abeln be rs no undertakers or ready made craina in camp dick was soon i pressed into service making coffins one ot of the first he made was lor for a man named john nelson possessed of a remarkable memory dick tells many interesting stories of the early days of the famous camp says he the big event of the day was the arrival of the six horse stage with the mall mail from salt lake city it used to get in about 5 in the afternoon and a crowd was always on hand in front of th the apost post office waiting for it fred hayt was postmaster he would lay the mall T a 11 out on a 9 big table and call out your you r name tt if he be found anything for you 1 I remember quite well when there were twenty eight saloons on main street and all doing a slashing business A dance hall musician who played the comet in a dance hall opposite the postoffice post office got drunk one day and tell fell into a sump at one end of the dance hall and lost his cornet on another spree he lost his false teeth and the nex next t day h he e lost his job As he boarded the stage t to 0 leave next day he waved his hand at m me hilariously and said this camp Is surely a losing proposition A narrow guage railroad was in operation aeration in the early eighties between Co coalville alville and park city it had minature nature ml freight and passenger cars and two small locomotives one called the prospector and the other the mary ellen the ontario burned wood when first opened and at one time there were ten thousand cords of wood stacked in ontario canyon tor for the mine ox teams were first used to haul coal from the mines fit at Co coalville Coa lille alville to the ontario in addition to making rough coffins for those who died in the early eighties many with their boots on dick built a number of the best buildings in camp at that time the fisher and mountain view hotels popular landmarks ot of that decade were vere among them women wore the old fashioned sunbonnet in those days and I 1 have to laugh when I 1 think of how they looked then and how bow they look now with the hats they wear once said dick when in a reminiscent mood firearms were used in the eighties and nineties and that reminds me of the following story said dick one evening shortly after the camp was burned out by the fire of 1898 a i carpenter and fitzpatrick were playing a game of draw poker in saloon fitzpatrick see seemed meds a little huffy at the way the play was going and suddenly arose and went behind the bar and brought out a big 45 six shooter which he laid on the table in front of him the carpenter promptly reached in his pocket and produced his 45 which he laid on the table along side of 0 his opponents pone rits with the remark by god ive got as many guns as you have you big irish SUM stiff 1 the town was all shacks when I 1 ar rived and the snow wa was 3 so deep in the winter sometimes you could not see across the street the ontario was the great mine ot of that period and often spoken ot of BS as tte greatest sliver silver mine in the world it worked men and they used to make the pure silver bars at their mill by retorting and amalgamation the bars were eight inches long live five inches wide and two laches inches thick and were worth about each in august 1886 they shipped lorty forty cile cae bars containing over line fine ounces ot of pure silver valued nt at more than silver being worth more than EL dollar an ounce then frid this being the cleanup clean up for or the week dick actually read a paragraph of fine print from the tribune without glasses while the writer was penning his biography this Is surely remarkable remar kible tor for I 1 lone one of hla fais age he said eald he has no rule llor longevity and has always eaten and drank what he wanted at all times dick Is a bachelor and lives quietly by himself in the rear 0 of his carpenter shop on main street lie he says be intends to take a trip back east this tall to visit some of 0 his relatives he has made this trip a number ot of tunes times during the list twenty years 4 |