BINGHAM ADMIRAL of BINGHAM NAVY by WAYNE RAY

The Admiral of the Bingham Navy

By Wayne Ray

 Nicknames stick to people, and the most ridiculous are the most adhesive.  ~Thomas C. Haliburton

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There may have been a Binghamite that attained the rank of Admiral in the US Navy or the Coast Guard.  I have not heard of one.  However, I received the honorary title of Admiral that once bestowed has stuck to this day.  I’ll tell you how it came about but first a little history.  

In some magazine I read when I was about thirteen  years old there was an advertisement for a boys prep school in the east called the Farragut Academy.  I sent away for details and was smitten by the naval emphasis when the brochures arrived.  The brochure described the curriculum the program and most of all the uniforms that would be issued and worn. There was no way that I would ever apply let alone be accepted with my copper miner family income and my sorry Jr. High School grades.  However I  visualized  myself dressed in those sailor suits marching to class.  I dreamed about  bering a part of that school.  I even painted the school’s logo on my basement room floor in our Copperton house.    I was determined to be a sailor some day.

World War II was on and it was patriotic and compelling for any red blooded male to want to be involved.  I was very impressed by Binghamite soldiers, marines and sailors that came home on leave with their stories of their adventures. They were awesome and looked fantastic in uniform.  At age fifteen in 1943, I determined that I had to get in the war - in the Navy.  I talked it over with my friend Kent Stillman who agreed that we should enlist.  The problem of our age was solved when we typed over our birthdate on our birth certificates making a 1928 into a 1926.  It was so obvious I don’t know how we expected anyone to be fooled in retrospect. 

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One day, Kent and I skipped school and hitchhiked to Salt Lake to join the Navy.  Jim Rekoutis came along, but he had no intention of doing what we were trying.  He just wanted a day off from school.  Kent and I passed the physical and other tests.  The Chief Petty Officer in charge said to us, “I know damn well you guys are not old enough, but you’ve got a lot of guts so I’m giving you the ok.  Get your parents to sign these papers and you are in.”  (It didn’t happen because our parents refused to sign and we wisely decided not forge their signatures)

When we got home the day of our enlistment I went to Jr. High basketball practice as innocent as a newborn.  Bailey Santisteven (Sandy) was the coach and as you know was also the truant officer.  He not only knew that we skipped school, but he knew that we went to Salt Lake to join the Navy.  As I entered the gym, “Sandy” confronted me and said loud enough for everyone to hear, “Get the hell out of here.  We don’t want any #$#%&*@#! Admirals on this team.  Every last person on that Bingham Junior High School basketball team heard “Sandy” and my nickname was born.  All the boys teasingly called me “Admiral” that night and the next day.  It spread as a joke and stuck like flypaper. 

The nickname “Admiral”  is so ingrained that some people don’t know my first name.  There have been many instances where people when asked if they know Wayne Ray and they have said, “I don’t know any Wayne Ray, but I know  Admiral Ray”.  We have a group of “Binghamites” that live in the Northwest.  We have socialized many times over the past forty plus years we have lived in Portland, Oregon.  They all call me  Admiral.  Their families and all their friends call me Admiral.  A few years ago I phoned Colleen (Robison) Bailey, a fellow Binghamite who lives nearby.  She asked me who was calling  I said Wayne.  She said loudly and indignantly , “WHO IS THIS.”  I had to answer “this is “Admiral”.  then she recognized me.

As an end note.  Kent Stillman and I along with Bill Thomas, Victor Roblez, Ken Hall and  Chris Apostal did join the Navy together when we graduated from High School.  Kent Stillman became a career Navy man serving over thirty years. 


The Annual Wayne Ray "Binghamite Reunion" held in St. George, Utah in February on Monday closest to Valentines Day every year, for an exact date call Don Gust at Santa Clara, Utah.  The 2012 Dinner at Golden Coral, St. George 13 February 3.00 P.M.  

THE DUMBEST DOG IN FROGTOWN

 Wayne Ray

                        Dogs had it made in the towns of Bingham when I was growing up.  Before the mine dumps had obliterated the whole canyon there was still some hills to roam and some rabbits to chase.  When we moved to Copperton in the late 1930's the dogs there not only had the run of the town, but the surrounding hills had much wildlife to hunt.  As an example, our dog caught a porcupine with a painful mouth full of quills to pay for it.

Unfortunately the freedom also cost some lives.  Three of our dogs in Copperton were hit and killed by cars.  But I digress.

                        We always had a dog as a pet.   The first I remember was given to us by the mailman as a pup.  He did it because I was afraid of dogs at the time.  Most of them were "Mutts" but we did have a couple of pure breeds.  My dad had a Whippet before I was born. When we moved to 99 Main St. in Frogtown my dad bought or obtained an English Pointer probably to help him hunt pheasants.  That dog turned out to be the dumbest dog in Frogtown, or so we thought.  English  Pointers are bred to be active and exercised a lot.  In Frogtown the only way for our dog to get the exercise he needed was to roam the hills by himself. I can't remember if he took off on his own or not.   My dad might have taken him along the abandoned railroad path above our house.  Don't recall that either.  My brother and I did not bother.  In our opinion, this was a dog who couldn't fight his way out of a cardboard box.  As a matter of fact, we would put him in a box and laugh as he would circle and whine because we thought he couldn't figure out how to step, or jump out.  Anyway my brother and I and the neighborhood kids thought he was worthless.  My dad must have come to the same conclusion because he gave him away to a farmer in Sandy.

                        A couple of weeks later we opened our front door and there was this dumb dog sitting there wagging his tail,waiting to be fed.  The Sandy farmer didn't return the dog. He found his way home.  Think about this. We don't know the route he took, but it might have been through Sandy, Midvale, West Jordan, Welby, Copperton and up the canyon to our house.  That is near 20 plus miles.

                        A dog may rely on a mental spatial map to navigate her way home. This theory assumes that dogs draw their own mental maps of their environment using memories of familiar odors and visual landmarks as references. It's as if they have a built-in GPS and know precisely where they are in space and time, explains animal behaviorist Nicholas Dodman. This theory doesn't fully explain how some dogs are capable of finding their way home from far away using routes they never used before. When information from the senses is unavailable and familiar landmarks[1]  are lacking, dogs may utilize more sophisticated methods to find their way home. Biologist Rupert Sheldrake suggests that a dog's brain works as a storehouse of memories and associations that defeats space and time. After conducting several field experiments using a navigationally gifted dog, Sheldrake came to the conclusion that a sense of home must exert some sort of draw that causes a dog to search until he finds his way.*

Gene's English Setter

                        Even though we were amazed at this "homing" fete my dad packed up the dog and returned him to the farm.  This had to be late fall or early winter.  Guess what.  On a morning when the snow had piled up on our porch and it was difficult to open the front door there on the porch was our dumb dog.  We took him in and fed him and back to Sandy he went again[2] .  My mother said, "if he comes back once more, we are keeping him".  He never did come back. We guessed the farmer constructed better security.

*From

Can Dogs Smell Their Way Home?

by Adrienne Farricelli, Demand Media  Google

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BINGHAM A MEMORY of DINKEYVILLE I by JANIE TORRES MONTOYA

Janie Torres Montoya

My Memories of Growing up in Copperfield

By Janie Torres Montoya

Janie

At times, when I remember my childhood in Dinkeyville, I long for the good old days.  I remember the sheriff, Mr. Householder, coming to my house in the dead of winter to quarantine our house for Scarlet Fever; it was the Yellow Sign.  Our neighbors, the Contreases, had the White sign for Measles.  That was the winter of 1935/36 and I must have been nine or ten years old.  The snow covered everything like a  white blanket, and icicles hung from the roof of our house to the ground.  Looking back at those days long ago, with our unheated houses, no running water and outside toilets, I don’t remember being unhappy or feeling deprived.   When we got well, we went out on the trail to play on our cardboards or snow shovels.  A few of the wealthier kids had sleds, but not many.  Halloween was jus over, and I can’t help but remember how the big kids, Paul Garcia, Jay Corona, Edmond McDonald, all good friends, would go around knocking over outhouses, cutting clothes lines, and believe me, we were not singled out for any reason.  Everybody got the same treatment. 

Dinkeyville  top center

When I was in the fourth grade, my Dad bought some cows from Mr. Ivie.  Those were happy times for my brother, Manuel and me.  It was our job to take the cows up into the hills past the Saddle where there was better grazing .  we would take our tortillas , rolled with beans, and we’d pick flowers.  We picked prickly pears too, which my mother used to fix for us.  They were then, and are now, quite a delicacy. 

selling ore to tourists

 Dinkeyville was quite a place to grow up in.  we were like a big happy family, cohesive, loyal and caring.  This is where I grew up and went to school and learned to speak English.  To this day, when I meet friend from the olden days, I make tine to stop and chat.  I’m glad and happy this opportunity has come up so we can reminisce and put down on paper some of our memories,  hoping they bring happiness to others when they read these thoughts.  I know that even in my home, with different brothers and sisters, each one of them will have different things to remember.

Our house just burned

We lived just steps from the Contreras family and down the steps from the Espinosa’s;  none of us had running water in our homes, so we’d borrow several pieces of hose from neighbors, connect them together and fill barrels, and tubs and all our buckets from the community Pump.  My Mom would heat water on top of our stove so she could scrub our clothes: and of course, in the summer she would wash outside, making a fire in the yard.  I’d help Mon stir the clothes, and we would boil till they’d  be shining white. 

Playing in the road  and mine

My Mom also knew how to make soap.  She would save all the grease and we’d help her stir it out-of-doors.    When I remember back to those olden days, I must confess that our mothers must have been pretty smart; they doctored us when we were sick; they all sewed; and Mom even had time to grow a garden, as impossible as that seems to me now.  We carried water from the pump in buckets and actually grew zucchini and string beans in that rock hard-laden soil full of minerals. 

Dinkeyville is gone but not forgotten.  I remember when Chis Bapis used to go early in the morning to git out order so he could deliver it by noon from the Panhellenic.  I remember when the mailman used to deliver mail on horseback and sometimes he’d give us a ride.  I also remember when Ralph Carter would deliver for the Miner’s Mercantile.  I’ll never forget the bunkhouses, Terrace Heights, or Telegraph; and Jap Camp: although if you didn’t live with us in those beautiful long-ago days, you’d never know that’s the way we lived, and loved every minute of it, and made me what I am today.

This is a picture  of my brother, Sam, beside a big rock near Dinkeyville.  It was taken sometime in 1937 or 1938.  The rock was a favorite place to play, because it was on the way to the “Saddle”.  If you lived in Dinkeyville in the thirties, you played on the hills.

To the left of the rock lived a goat-herder who, one day gave me the biggest scare of my life.  Anyway, I was coming down the hill by the big rock one day, and I saw him finish slitting a young goat’s throat, lift his arm high over his head, and drink the kid’s blood.  I had never,  in my young life, seen anything like that.  Even now, I can clearly recall all of it, including the blood spilling down the goat-herders clothes

snow in Dinkeyville

 We’d run outside when the trains were coming and we’d put nails and small objects so the train would flatten them.  Now and again someone would have a penny and we’d have a flat penny, but money was hard to come by so mostly we would put nails…

We lived in Dinkeyville, up the hill from Copperfield.  We walked everywhere, to school, to the store and sometimes even stopped to pick chock-cherries when they were ripe. 

Elderberries grew on the sides of the hills.  I knew friends that made Elderberry wine.  At that time pretty flowers and bushes grew in abundance.  Many of these plants were growing between the levels of the mine.

Our mountain was beautiful when I grew up in Copperfield.  Now the whole mountain has been hauled away.  I have memories I’ll never forget. 

Dinkeyville behind tree

My Dad was a trackman for 20 Years.  It was hard work.  The necessary track-gangs were needed to keep the operation of the mine running smoothly.  A strong back was a definite asset…Manuel labor, pick and shovel…there were miles of railroad track in those old days.  Tamping ties, driving spikes.  During the war the Copper Company needed and willing to give the Junior and Senior boys at the Bingham High School an opportunity to work week-ends and summers.  It was a great help for these young men to go to college.  It required no special skills and generally hard work, these young men were paid the same as the other trackmen that had families, and with the same benefits.   Many women also hired on at this time to tend switches and work at the Precipitation Plant at Lead Mine.  These were exciting times.  The Utah Copper supplied 90 % of the nation’s copper used in the war effort. 

Track Gang

This picture was taken at what we referred to as the “Bingham Central” school.  I wasn’t aware there were musical programs in school.  I remember the one time my father gave me permission to go to this “awesome school”.  My fourth grade teacher was a wise lady, she knew the ways and customs that my dad insisted we adhere too.  Mrs. Richards walked up the hill, got his permission to take me and brought me home while the school bus waited.  She thanked my dad! 

 This is the house I lived in when we went to the grade school in Copperfield.  We walked and run down the trails and steps.  When I was young my mom tried to plant a garden all the way across the front of this house.  The house was 558 Dinkeyville, Utah. 

looking down 

“Wee” (William) Lopez lived in Dinkeyville also.  His brother, Gilbert, was in my grade in Copperfield School.  He grew up with his older sisters, Neva and Mary caring for him, and brothers, Albino and Gilbert.  Jay Corona lived in Dinkeyville, where we lived.  I never knew his mother, but he had an older sister, Delfina, who was one of the Dinkeyville beauties.  She cared for Jay Mary, and Ernie while Mr. Corona worked o the track gang.  Ernie was in my grade also.  Jay was older and quite a fighter.

Janie and the mine

We had lots of tourists coming to town to see the Copper Mine, they came from all over America and the world wanting souvenirs and information.  They got it, each of the kids had their own spiel to offer them.  Each one of them had their own stash of ore samples to sell plus good honest information.  They had true knowledge from their dads.   The observation point was the end of the road right near the Miners Merc.  Bus after bus came, several at a time and many, many cars.  All came somehow through the mile and a quarter narrow tunnel.  This was the area where the youngsters sold their ore samples all summer long.  They made pretty good pocket change. 

The Dinkey engines were the ones who brought water to the residents who were living in Dinkeyville area.  It took a fireman and an engineer  to run these engines.  A dollar a barrel is what they charged.  My friend Billy Harper tells me, his father would let him ride this engine all summer long with Clarence Stringham, engineer. 

Circle

Copperfield

“The Circle”

These homes were on the main street in Copperfield- down the street from the school house.  When I was young my dad would send my sister, and I, here to “ the Circle” where the Anglos lived to find out where to report for work when he’d been off after his two days off.  .  Berzell Bullock lived in the “Circle” .  these Utah Copper homes had running water and inside toilets.  Although many years later, the Utah Copper gave permission to the rest of us to rent there.  The homes were maintained by the Company; painted and repaired regularly. 

Jap Camp

This is where all the Japanese people lived.

We lived across the valley and got together at school.  We as Hispanics, like the Japanese, couldn’t live in Copperfield, which is at the bottom of the hill where we went to school. 

Gemmell Club

Bingham

The Copper Office Tramway took you to the Copper Office to get your payroll check.  This was where the young men had to go early in the morning to “ rustle” for a job.  The bottom was right next to the Gemmell Memorial Club.  Right across the street was the Cyprus Hall maintained by the Company for the single workers.

The R.C. Memorial Club was in Carr Fork on the way to Highland Boy.  This club provided many activities- bowling, dances, and prize-fights.  The bowling pins were set up manually and gave the youngsters an opportunity to make extra change.  My friend Jimmy tells me he took regular showers at the Club when they’d run out of water at home.

Bingham Merc.    Carr Fork

Lewis Brother’s Stages

The depot was right across the street from the Bingham Merc.

In those long ago days, the boarding houses were important, they were close to work.  Very limited transportation made the boarding houses a necessity for the single men that followed the “diggings”.  They were run by the widows.  They were given a breakfast, sent to work with a lunch box, and a supper at night.  Besides the room with a bed, they had a place to clean up in.   the boarding house was the center of the social life with everyone gathered around the pot-bellied stove to discuss the problems of the day.

Company Doctors

Dr. Harold Jenkins took good care of us when we lived in Bingham.  He was a veteran of world War II and was discharged in 1946.  Dr. Wayne Sorenson was also there they were on call 24 hours.  I remember them with fondness.  Doctor Frazier was also there. 

Highland Boy

Janie with Miss Duhigg

The Rev.  Miss Ada Duhigg was Superintendent and Deaconess of the Methodist Church at the Highland Boy Community House.  Miss Mildred May, Methodist Missionary- together ran the house of joy for at least 28 years.  The Community House was open daily with many programs for all ages.  We even had a Gym- Boy Scouts, sewing- Library and cooking classes.  On Sunday we had church services and Sunday school.  Something for everyone.  The road was steep the Community house was one thousand feet above the Bingham Merc.

Nothing is there anymore.  All we have is memories and a few pictures.  The people are scattered everywhere.  But worst of all we can never go back and visit our towns and friends.  They are all gone.  Our  life has been forever changed.  Evert thing is all covered with dirt. 
 Long after the monster trucks and shovels that are still digging away are gone our poor mountain will still be there, to give us an Elderberry or two but it will be hurting as we are hurting.

Copperfield parade 

Dinkyville Back to Those Days of Long Ago

By Janie Torres Montoya

Quarantine Signs

I remember the sheriff, Mr. Householder, coming to our house in the dead of winter to quarantine our house for scarlet fever.  It was the yellow sign.  Our neighbors, the Contrerases, had a white sign, they were quarantined for measles.  It was about 1935-1936, I must have been nine or ten years old, the snow covered everything like a white blanket.  The icicles hung from the roof of our house to the ground.

Sleds and Card-board

When I remember back to those days long ago, with our unheated houses, no running water and outside toilets, I do not remember being unhappy or feeling deprived.  When we got well, we went out on the trail to play on our cardboards or snow shovels.  A few of the wealthier kids had sleds, but not many. 

Halloween was just over last week, and I couldn’t help but remember how the big kids, Paully Garcia, Jay Corona, Edmond McDonald, all good friends, would go around knocking over outhouse, cutting clotheslines, and believe me, we were not singled out for any reason, everybody got the same treatment. 

Saddle Picnic

top-Dinkeyville

When I was in the fourth grade, my Dad bought some cows from Mr. Ivie. Those were happy times for my brother, Manuel and I.   It was our job to take the cows up into the hills past the Saddle where there was better grazing.  We took tortillas rolled with beans, picked flowers and prickly pears, which my mother used to fix for us.  They were then, and are now, quite a delicacy.

Memories

Dinkyville was quite a place to grow up in.  We were like a big happy family, cohesive, loyal, and caring.  To this day, when I meet friends from those olden days, I make time to stop and chat.  I am glad and happy this opportunity has come up, so we can reminisce and put down on paper some of our memories, hoping they bring happiness to others when they read these thoughts.  I know even in my own home with my different brothers and sisters, each one of them will have different things they remember. 

Water Train

1935 Copperfield

When we lived in Dinkeyville, it was before the water line had been put in to furnish water and fire protection to the community.  At that time, the railroad system of the Utah Copper Company was powered by small steam locomotives.  Dinkeyville got its name from the Dinkey Engines.  These engines had a small coal boiler on the back, and the water was carried in a saddle tank that straddled the boiler from the smoke stack to the front of the cab.  The “70’s and 80’s” were larger engines and they had a tank on each side of the boiler to carry their ware. 

One engineer and one fireman would take the job of bringing water to the residences.  The crew would go over to the water tank on “H” Line and fill the water tanks, bring them over to the east side where the residences were.  There the water would be dispensed into barrels.   Each family had one to three barrels.  Sometimes they would have to make three trips to the water-tank.  The people who lived below the tracks piped their barrels to storage barrels in their homes. 

The engine crew could not see how much water was released, they would allow one minute for each barrel they were supposed to fill.  The water crew would do this three times a week.  We would pay $1.00 month for this for each barrel.  My father, Billy Harper, the engineer and Clarence Stringham, fireman had this job.  Of course, I could ride up in the engine. 

Dinkeyville. 

Copperfield Tunnel

Dinkeyville was a good place to live, when you were a kid.  All of those hills to roam around on, without a “Keep-Out or No-Trespassing Sign” anywhere. In the wintertime we could ride a sleigh from Dinkeyville, down the canyon through Copperfield, down the main canyon on a well packed road, almost to the junction with Carr Fork.  Then came the long walk back.  This of course was a long time before the Copperfield tunnel was built.  Also in the winter time we made small sleds out of powder boxes and made a sleigh run along the edge of the dump.  We could stay in the house, until we heard the school bell ring, and not be late for school.

Draper Merc. had an order and delivery service. (was this Tolman?)  Once a week they would deliver groceries and merchandise that had been ordered the previous week.  That was the day when we would get fresh fruits and vegetables that were in short supply, at the Miners Merc. or the Pan-Hellenic grocery in Copperfield. 

a can of “treasure”                                                

Copperfield stores

In school, the children of several nationalities were together in the same room, and they were completely compatible there were competitive gang, but they were not destructive, or belligerent.  I remember a can of “treasure” hi-grade galena ore, the crux of the game was for one group to find where the other group had hidden it.  Then they took and hid it somewhere else, if they found it.  Between spies and informants, they usually found it.

Walks

Venturing into the Custer Tunnel, but only as far as we could go and still see daylight at the mouth of the tunnel.  The gentle hike to the Lark Ridge and the myriad of spring flowers.  A visit along “H” line to the search lights, that were used to illuminate the workings across the canyon.  “H” Level was the highest level cut on the east side at that time.  It was the only waste track used on the east side at that time.  We lived in the red lumber company house, right above the Copperfield school house. 

BINGHAM OBITUARY for MAX SALAZAR II from ADELA S. LUCERO

Obituary         

Maximillian Benjamin Salazar,ll,67

Max B. Salazar II,  passed away 3 January 1996, in a local hospital after a brief illness. 

My friend Max

Max was born 15 December 1928, in Sunrise, Wyoming, to Max B. I and Antonio (Sanchez) Salazar.  He was raised and educated in Bingham Canyon, Utah.

When Max was 13 years old, he lied about his age and enlisted in the Navy.  He was Utah’s youngest veteran in World War II and was honorably discharged when his age was discovered at 15 while recovering from wounds he received at Saipan for saving his commanding officer who was trapped in some burning oil.  For this act of bravery, he was awarded the Presidential Citation.  While in the Pacific Theater, he served in six major campaigns.  Following his discharge, he returned to a hero’s welcome in his home town of Bingham Canyon, Utah and resumed his education.  He later enlisted in the Merchant Marines and Army Transportation Corp where he sailed extensively around the world.  While in the Merchant Marines, Seaman Salazar served aboard the USS Marmac Gull which was hit by a bomb from a Japanese plane about 200 miles from Okinawa.  He was missing in action for one month before he and 41 crew members were found on a remote island and rescued by a Navy transport plane.

Max with President Kennedy

At an early age, he boxed as an amateur in the state of Utah in 1947 to 1848 was the Welter Weight Champion of the Intermountain area.  He later boxed professionally for a brief period.  Max Played youth and American Legion Baseball while in Utah.  He also played for the Miners Union Team of the Copper League here in Butte until he broke his leg at the Belmont Mine and was no longer able to participate in the sport he loved so much.  Max was a Contract Miner and Shift Boss for the Anaconda Company and later served as Vice President  and Financial Secretary of the Butte Miners union Local No I.  after the Union merger with the United Steelworkers of America, Max was their first elected Treasurer under the new Charter.  He resigned that when he was appointed State Mine Inspector.  After serving as Chief Mine Inspector, he took office as Bureau Chief of Safety and Health for the State of Montana.  He was forced into early retirement in 1981 as a result of a car accident that left him with severe  injuries. 

Max was a past member of the Board of Directors of the mine Inspectors Institute of America and Chairman of the National Association of State Mine Inspector Agencies.  He was appointed by the Secretary of Interior to serve on a national advisory committee to promote Safety and Health Rules and Regulations for the metal and non-metal mining industry.  He was also a past member of the Board of Director of Economic Opportunity which is now known as the Human Resource Council. 

Max with President Johnson

In 1978 he was named as Honorary Kentucky Colonel by Kentucky Governor Julian Carroll.  He was also a Commissioner of Baseball in the Industrial League and was an active supporter of American Legion  Baseball.  Max was a member and past Grand Knight of Columbus Council 668 and past Faithful Navigator of John F. Kennedy Assembly, Knights of Columbus Forth Degree.  He was also a member of the McQueen Athletic Club.   Max was a Charter Member of the Rock Mountain Association for the retarded children and was elected its first Treasurer.  Max and Virginia were instrumental in organizing the first Sheltered Workshop in in Montana.  Max was also currently serving on the Butte and Anaconda National Labor History Landmark Program Committee. 

On August, 1952, Max married Virginia C. Jones in Bingham Canyon, Utah, and together they raised 15 children.

He is survived by his devoted wife,  Gin of butte.; his mother, Antonia Lopez of Kearns, Utah; step mother, Margaret Salazar of Butte; his sons, Tony and Tim of Butte; sons and daughters-in-law, Mike and Louana of Butte, Mark and Faye of Fort Bragg, NC, Max III and Melissa of Spokane, WA, daughters, Terry and Jacqueline of Butte,; daughters and sons-in-laws Tracy and Rick Michaelis of Sheridan, WY, Kelly and Chris Ward of Conrad, MT, Jenny and her fiance Dan Fawcett of Anchorage, AK, Pamela and Randy O’Leary, Peggy and Bernie Boyle, Patty and Duane Rigby and Kerry and Greg O’Leary all of Butte.

He is also survived by his sister and brother-in-law, Adela and Moses Lucero of Kearns, UT., brothers, Albert and Charles of Anchorage, AK, sister-in-law, Eileen Hartzog of Spokane, WA,  Ted and Muriel Jones of Arvada CO, also surviving 19 grandchildren 3 great grand children and several aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. 

Adela Salazar
 Copperfield

Max was preceded in death by his father, Max I on November 24 1995; his son, Steven, mother and father-in-laws Ted and Louise  Jones, sisters-in-law Isabella and Betty Salazar.

He enjoyed watching his grandchildren in their various school and sporting activities. 

He will be sadly missed by all his family and many friends, but always remembered for his witty sense of humor, and kind deeds he did for many people.

Max Salazar

Reported missing

Bingham Bulletin

Max Salazar Jr., 16, son of Mr. and Mrs. Salazar Sr.  588, Copperfield is reported missing in action by the War Shipping Administration.  The telegram received by Salazar’s parents stated that the ship USS Mormac Gulf  on which Salazar was serving was reported lost 25 August and five survivors were picked up.  There is a chance that Salazar will be picked up, and if so, his parents will be notified as soon as possible. 

Salazar was born 5 December 1928 at Cheyenne, Wyoming.   Members of his family, includes his parents of Copperfield; two brothers, Albert Salazar of Tooele and Charles Salazar, now serving in the Navy, a sister, Adela Salazar of Copperfield, and an Uncle, Selso Sanchez, now serving on the USS Pursuit.

Salazar joined the Navy in August 1943 and trained at Farragut, Idaho before receiving  amphibious training in California.  

In spite of his extreme youth he was a veteran of 11 months in the Pacific.  Which includes six major campaigns, Kwajalein, Engibe,  Eniwetok, Wake, Guam and Saipan.  In the last named battle after being wounded Max was found by naval authorities to be too young for service, shipped to Honolulu, honorable discharged and sent home.

Salazar was 14 when he received a presidential citation for rescuing his commanding officer, who was trapped in burning oil. 

After discharge from the Navy, Salazar enlisted in the Martine Service in April 1945, and took boot training at Catalina Island, California.  He was home on a 17 day leave the latter part of June.  He left California 15 August.

Salazar’s last letter was dated, V.J. Day.(Victory Japan)  he said, “Happy Day. War’s over.

EASY WHEN YOU KNOW

 by Betty Ann Raymond

Standard Woman’s Editor

Max and Virginia Salazar, 1026 W Granite are the parents of a large size family. 

When rearing 15 children it would appear that it would be necessary to economize on one very thing except patients.

Mrs. Salazar is quite mater-of-fact about her accomplishments. 

“Actually there were never 15 children at home.  Three were not home when Jackie (who is 3) was born,” she said.

THE BROOD climbs to Mike, the eldest who is 24.

Virginia dismisses cooking for the gang with the fact it’s easy because all her pans are large so she just fills them.  “I don’t know what I would do if I had to cook for four people for a month.” she said laughingly.  “There sure would be a lot of leftovers or waste or something.”

She said a nightly ritual is someone in the kitchen boiling up a few potatoes for breakfast hash browns to go with about two dozen eggs. 

Virginia said breakfast used to include ham but high prices have relegated such fare to an occasional treat. 

“We use a lot of turkey---probably two or three a month.  “There’s a lot you can do with turkey, she said.    

The Salazars purchase their beef from a packing house in Roundup.

“We use a lot of pot roasts,” she said.

“I take the leavings from a 12 pound pot roast and make home-made soup often.”

“She said the kids are apt to moan. Not soup again, but they eat every bit it.”

Her beef soup is a nourishing meal containing carrots, onions, celery, macaroni, a little barley, and tomato juice.

Meat loaf is a standby.

She uses frozen bread dough and made into family favorites.  “I’m sure glad I moved to Butte because I learned to make pasties.  They are so good and economical too.  I might not of learned to make them anywhere else,” said Virginia who grew up around Pony and Harrison.

Being married to a fellow by the name of Salazar called for becoming an expert at enchiladas and tortillas during her first year of marriage. 

Dad Salazar is home only on weekends.  Virginia said he is the Chief mine inspector for the State of Montana and that his work takes him all over the country, “wherever there is rock

SHE AND THE CHILDREN laughed at the question whether it was a lack of time or inclination that kept Max from getting too involved with house hold capers.

“He’s always willing to get me all the materials I need,” she said. 

Virginia recently built a large closet in her bedroom. 

She knows there are 1025 bricks in the backyard barbecue because she placed them in concrete last summer. 

Max hauled the used brick for her when the Harrison School was being razed. 

“Oh, and he’s cleaned a lot of bricks for me too”, Virginia said.

Her winter spare time was spent making five patchwork quilts, bedspread size out of pieces from children’s clothing saved for years. 

“I sew most of the kid’s clothes,” she said.  She didn’t learn until about five years ago when two og the kids were to perform in Moods in Music.

“BEFORE MY MOTHER DIED, she did all my sewing.  When they came home and said what they had to have, I decided I had better learn,” she said. 

Though Virginia seems the picture of serenity, she has to have had hectic years.

Nine of her 15 children were premature.

The premature birth of twins, followed by two more preemies gave her four children in 18 months.

Copperfield where Max lived

Virginia Salazar and her children have great rapport.

“If you’re not sure of something, you go right to mom.  That’s the first thing everyone does,” said Peggy who has one more year at Butte High.    

Max is reportedly a no-nonsense father.

“They respect but when he says something, that’s it,” his wife said of her husband’s authority. 

“I get scared up to a point,” said Peg.  But he’s a pretty neat guy.

VIRGINIA SAID her older girls “can get by cooking.” 

“We’ll never be like mom,” Pam predicted. 

“I think we all learned not to have a big family.  Oh, I don’t mind living in a big family but I could not raise one,” she said

House rules decree the three oldest girls may each have four evenings a week away from home but not all three at once.

“That rule isn’t just so I can have a sitter if I need one either,” said Virginia. 

“But young people are apt to be away from home all the time.  Then when they are older they look back and realize they never were in their own home long enough to enjoy it.  I know because I was that way too. 

Virginia said she and Max are charter members of the Rocky Mountain Association for Retarded Children.  

Their Terry, Tim’s twin is mentally retarded and blind.  She has been a resident of Boulder River School for 10 years.  She is 20.

Copperfield "4thJuly"

WHILE SUCH A family presents the unexpected, there are things you can count on: Like, the washer goes all morning: you could iron at any given moment and it’s a rare week that isn’t committed to at least two dental appointments.  

Salazars not mentioned as yet are Tony, Tracy, Pat, Mark Steve, Kerry, Jenny, Kelly and Max III.

Max III is an Evel Knievel worshipper.

When the TV recently showed the injured cyclist in Butte on a stretcher, the little boy sat glued to the newscast.

“Is that really Evel Knievel?” asked Max in disbelief.  His mom said yes it really was. 

“Now they will have to get another guy for his motor bike,” was the small boy’s deposition of his fallen hero’s problem.

Virginia claims her six boys and nine girls have been no more a problem than three or four would have been.

To what does she attribute to that?

“Practice,” Peggy answered for her mother.