Show ECHOES FROM THE PAST I 1 con continuing 0 the excerpts from the book ranger trails by john ris we find more interesting sidelights on the life of this first forest ranger and his experiences with the mormon people perkins and himself his judging from conversations between ben in the perkins home worried the edther of several attract presence ve daughters who were not intended to marry out of their own faith so john riis was advised to seek other lodgings the story continues after much search I 1 found a small one room log cabin in a field opposite the bishops house and rented this 1 for the sum of a month I 1 threw new dirt on the board roof I 1 to keep out the rain built a bunk against the wall covered the I 1 ceiling with cheese cloth tand and moved in this was my headquarters and my home here I 1 sat in the doorway in the evening and smoked until it was time to go to bed one evening jl I was stretched on the bunk reading when I 1 heard the tramp of many feet outside and in thru the door marched parley butts a cattleman from bluff city with four i husky sons in his wake parley carried his winchester some of the rest were armed and their lonc long spurs clanked on the board floor of the cabin they were fine specimens ot ol the bluff city tigers as the cowmen rom that section were called parley too took r ic the only chair the rest squatted around the walls of the cabin sitting on their heels in fashion I 1 knew them by reputation parley butts had taken an active part in more than one brush with the indians and the cowmen he was one of the early settlers they had come lor for trouble or it was a case estl of bluff pure and simple parley opened up with the regular prot protest against the forest service and its policies in general it ran something like this we cowmen came into this country before uncle sam even thought it worth lookin f at when god finished makin the world he had a lot of rocks left over an he threw them down in a little pile in utah but we took this country and settled it we killed off the indians and the rattlesnakes and built roads and bridges to get in here weve put up with all hell and damnation to make j our homes and never a bit of help did we get from uncle sam while we were doin it now when we get the country halfway half way fit to live in you come in here and tell us how much grass we can have and that begot we got to pay for it and we can put our cows on this here mountain for so long and no longer toy by god we will like hell this is our country and we aim to keep it parley butts has seven sons and each of them can use a winchester weve fought the indians and the rattlesnakes and I 1 guess by heck we can fight uncle sam 1 I laugheed laugh ted a little it was a shot below the water line and took them by surprise P parley arley scowled and the squatters aloi along lg the wall scowled in unison then spattered a knothole knot hole six feet away with a volley of tobacco shrapnel what the hell you laughin at demanded parley not at you mr butts I 1 was laughing at the of you and those seven sons starting a war again uncle sam what would that get you you could easily bushwack tous hwack me and perhaps the next ranger and the next but in the end uncle sam would have his way of course the range belongs to you and to your neighbors and to your children and their children abut you have to have some sort of system if the grass that is growing this year is to grow again next summer and the summer after the range can car only ionly stand so much and you cowmen are getting too thick on it you know what the range was when you first came here and look at it now im here to help you and not to rob you and the little money you pay for grazing goes back again into improvements that will mean better trails roads and bridges the tension relaxed for an hour or more w we e discussed the range and its problems and then parley and his tall sons departed the next experience deals with a band of renegade ute indians ini who would not stay on their reservation over the line in colorado and we may also have space to include references to other old timers who will toe be recognized as the grandparents of some of the present day population of monticello since it will be interesting to recall incidents which are truly echoes of the past glancing thru the pages we found the following reference to the first cows put on the mountains the bluff people putt put cows on the mountain in 1881 two years ater coming to bluff al A texas outfit come in 1886 and wanted to run their cattle from road canyon in comb wash south to the san juan river according 1 to kumen jones one of the early pioneers there arwas lots of feed on the mountain in those days |