THE LAND OF THE
SLEEPING RAINBOW
AN EARLY HISTORY OF
BOULDER,
UTAH
1878 TO 1930
RESEARCHED AND WRITTEN
BY IRENE WILSON K.I.
 |
| Blind Lake with Pear Lake far right |
My
story begins in the year of 1878.
Nicoll Johnson and August Nelson
had explored the top of the flat-topped mountain, so early spring they came
with 500 head of cows from the Richfield area in Sevier County. During that summer, they discovered an old
coral which they were curious about. Who
could have camped there long enough to need a corral?
 |
| going down to Boulder |
A few years later the work of Major
Powell and company wrote about making corrals.
Then people realized that these were the men who must have made the corral. Today there is scarcely a trace of the
corral. But the flat is still known as
“The August Corral Flat.”The next year of 1879, the word had
spread about the good feed on the mountain top.
So A.K. Thurber who lived in a little town named after him, and Beeson
Lewis of Richfield came with another 500 cows.
These were co-op cattle belong to the LDS Church. Usually called “tithing cattle” by the
cowboys. By the next year George Baker
came, so he and Lewis leased the co-op cattle.
By the following year, Lewis had cattle of his own which George Baker
leased to run on the Boulder Mountain. Frank
Haws came and leased the Johnson cattle.
In 1886 Willard Brinkerhoff, will Meeks and August Nelson came to the
mountain with cattle. The next year in
1887, John King and Wise Cropper of Filmore and Mack Webb of Oak City brought
300 head of horses. Alma Durfey of Wayne
County brought 40 horses. Amasy Lyman
and Seth Taft brought 60 horses and Will Bowns 150 head. There was a total of 550 horses grazing the
mountain.
 |
| Rafting on Donkey Lake |
The most important event that
happened this year of 1887 was the discovery of a little valley on the south
slope of the mountain with four streams of water running through it, “Boulder
Valley”. George Baker and Willard
Brinkerhoff went to explore. They found traces of old ditches they decided
must have made years ago by Indians. Why
the Indians had left the area, they couldn’t imagine.
Everyone went home in the fall, but
spring of 1888 found them all coming back to the valley. George Baker and Willard Brinkerhoff made application
for homesteading 640 acres each on a desert entry. Promptly making use of the old ditches. Brinkerhoff took 640 acres in the south
valley, and George Baker took his on the west and south side of alongside the
largest creek.
This same year Amasy Lyman living
in Thurber, heard of the valley, so he came to look. He loved hunting and fishing so now he found
both. He filed for a 160 acre homestead
and was happy. The three homesteaders
went home for the winter and returned in the spring to work. So much work had to be done each year to keep
the claims current.
 |
| Max Robison at Fruita |
Rosanna was a large woman, very
handsome with dark curly hair and hazel eyes.
She was ambitious, big hearted and motherly. Her children were raised in poverty as far as
money was concerned, but they had much gaiety, song and laughter in their
home. Many people stopped to visit
because of so much fun happening around them.
The year of 1889 was a busy one in
the valley. Besides Frank Haws, Nicoll
Johnson came. He took up a homestead
just north of the Haws- right up to the ledges on each side of the boulder
Creek. Two men also came to homestead in
a little valley seven or eight miles the west of the other homesteads. Mack McGraff and a Dutchman called Jlbaeurs,
who soon called Joe Bowers. They named
the place Salt Gulch because of the alkaline water. McGraff filed on 160 acres but Joe went
across the road and filed on 29 acres only.
He explained to people, “I don’t want all the work and land.”
 |
| Frank Haws Jack Smith |
Joe was a big tall man with a grey
shaggy beard, but he was a gentleman who impressed everyone. He was noticeable among the people because of
his clothes were always neat and very clean.
He loved to laugh and joke with people.
He liked Gene Baker. When he
heard Gene was about to marry Roda Cotton of Escalante, he quipped, “Oh too
bad, too bad, Shene was a hell of a nice fellow.” Joe also loved tobacco. When George Baker brought some for him, Joe
said, “When I have tobacco in mine pocket, I don’t need it much, but if I don’t
have it, I need it all the time.”
Benjamin Mack McGraff was almost an
opposite of Joe. He was a very small
man, very reserved, and didn’t make friends with anyone. Many people thought, from the comments the
two had made, that they were deserters from the army, but no one knew for
sure.
Also during the year of 1890 two
men came with cattle and horses and took up homesteads on the Escalante River
and up along the trail to Escalante. They
were Sam Boyington and a man everyone called Phipps. They were building a cabin and the word went
out that they had an Indian girl living with them. But if so, she never did go any place with
the two men. That fall everyone left for
winter again except for Boyington and Phipps.
Early next spring, 1890, the Lymans
got ready to move to their own homestead to stay. They loaded their household goods on a wagon,
put seven children on top of the load, and started out. The team was very thin and weak from the long
winter without much food, so they soon “gave out”, and couldn’t pull the
wagon. Amasy was forced to leave about
half their load at Oak Creek. There were
no roads or trails to follow. It was a
slow, hard trip just finding ways to go forward. They jolted over rocks, through lava beds,
across a big flat, and through Aspen Groves.
Then they went down through big ponderosa pines and more rock. When they finally arrived at the wonderful
homestead Amasy had filled on the year before, Rosanna was astonished. It was a high cold rock bench covered with
black boulders, oak brush, scrub pine, cedars and sage brush. She could hardly believe her husband had
filed on this land, especially after she got on a horse and went south to see
some of the other homesteads.
 |
| over the mountain |
They built a cabin of logs—14 feet
wide 18 feet long. The roof was three
long ridge poles 18 feet long, covered with dirt. There was two windows and one door. At the other end, Rosanna built a big rock
fireplace. Rosanna was a big woman with
a big belly. As she built the fireplace,
she used her belly as they set the rock and mud. When it was completed, the fireplace was the
shape of her body, pushed back, but it was also the best for drawing and giving
heat. So the whole family was very proud
of their mother and her fireplace.
 |
| Boulder road |
This winter was the first year
anyone spent the winter in the valley.
They ran out of flour and had very little money, so Amasy went to
Escalante on horseback to get flour.
After waiting many days for his return, Rosanna sent her son, Vern to go
and see if his father was there and get some flour. Vern was 12 years old and very
dependable. He left very early in the
morning and walked via the horse trail to the Escalante River, up through Phipps
Pasture and on to Escalante. He had
walked the thirty miles in one day. As
he went to the center of the town, he could hear his father’s fiddle, so he
went to the music, where people were dancing.
His father danced as he played the fiddle. He turned, saw Vern, and rushed over to
him. “This is a hell of a way to treat
your family!” Vern wouldn’t listen to
his father trying to explain he got paid to play the fiddle and also had a day
job, so he was doing fine. Vern simply
walked away and went to Riddles Store on the same street. He went in, nodded to Sam Sheffield and asked
Mr. Riddle, “Will you let me have a sack of flour and get your money from my
pa, Amasy Lyman.?”
If you were to take this same trip
in your car as you can now, you would be amazed and your heart touched too that
a twelve-year-old boy could make such a trip on foot carrying 50 pounds of
flour.
 |
| Hatti, Clay, Elis Robinson |
Spring came again and the loaded
wagons came early moving more supplies to the homes in Boulder. It was a very rugged trip from Escalante to
the new homes. After they made the last
climb up and over the hogback and on to the Home Bench, the wagons stopped for
a rest. Mrs. Baker called to everyone as
they started to travel again, “Here we go to Boulder.” All the children were delighted with the
name. So, Boulder was soon the name of
the valley everyone called home.
At this time, Gil McNelly decided
he would like to have a homestead in Boulder, but he was sure he could find an
easier way to travel. If he went by Pine
Creek road and around the mountain.
After a few days, he came to the road from Wayne County to boulder. He never recommended to anyone that they go
around the mountain to reach Boulder.
 |
| Minnie Smith Haws Frank Haws |
Gil went south until he came to the
sandy homestead of Sam Sheffield. Sam
offered his homestead, so Gil took it and started to build a cabin of
logs. Sam went north almost to the Lyman
ranch and homesteaded 160 acres. There
was a lot of rocks and black boulders, so Sam started making rock fences. He built a rock coral on the west side of
Deer Creek. Then west of the coral, he
built a very neat rock cabin to live in.
Gil started clearing the deep sand
on his homestead, and there all alone he decided he didn’t like the sand or the
location or anything about Boulder. So he just packed up and left for home.
Although Claud Haws was born 4
April 1891 in Thurber to Frank and Minnie Smith Haws, they decided to move to
Boulder for good that spring. They
bundled their baby, moved to Boulder and started building as soon as they
arrived. They moved into a log cabin on
the baker place while they were building their own cabins.
Frank was a “Dandy”, he had a
mustache, a lot of hair and was dressed just perfect. He never, never left his bedroom until he was
dressed in a white shirt, and pants in his boots. His children never once saw their father
without a tie. He always wore a tie, even
when branding calves. It didn’t matter
what he was doing, he was always dressed up.
He was a “dandy” through and through.
A very colorful person- always laughing and joking.
He played the banjo and the
violin. He had the finest banjo that
money could buy. They always had a lot
of things going on in their home, and of course they were pretty well-to-do by
this time.
 |
| Frank Haws |
In 1894, Willis and Louie Thompson
moved to Boulder and went north to homestead, just north of Sam Sheffield and
south of Lyman’s. This is now the Niel
Jepson Ranch. The Thompson’s brought a
rug loom with them which Willis used to make rugs from rags. This loom is still in Boulder in active use,
now owned and operated by Doyle Mooseman.
Doyle’s mother, Mary Mooseman, for many years ran this loom. At one time she told me that as near as she
had been able to count since she started keeping track, she had woven 3,500
rugs.
This year of 1894, John Safely, who
had married the widowed mother of Frank Haws, and his son-in-law, Fred Simmons,
came to Boulder and took up homesteads directly west of the Lyman homestead,
over a little hill about a mile away.
The homesteaded the area which is now called the Ormand Ranch.
On October 1894, Rosanna Lyman gave
birth to a tiny 2 ½ pound son. Her
husband Amasy, had gone to drive a band of horses to Green River. Rosanna was all alone. She sent one of the children to get Louie
Thompson to help her. Louie had a bunch
of children of her husbands. She had
never had a child of her own, or had ever seen a birth. She was very frightened and ineffectual, but
she did her best under the direction of Rosanna and cared for the baby while
Rosanna lay and almost lost her life from hemorrhaging. The baby was named Amasy, after his
father. They felt, of course, that he
would die because he only weighed the 2 ½ pounds, but he surprised everyone,
was very vigorous, and survived to become the first living white child to be
born in Boulder.
 |
| Haws Ranch House |
In the year 1895, the Caleb Gresham
family moved to Boulder. They camped all
summer by the little lake in the middle of Boulder. In the fall, Mr. Gresham bought the Jlbaeurs
place in Salt Creek Gulch and Joe left the country. Gresham’s wife, Josie was the sister of Sam
Sheffield.
All through the years after Sam
came, there was speculation as to why he came to Boulder. No one ever found out. He would never say. He would just laugh and pass it off or joke
about it.
The year of 1895 was the first year
hay was raised in Boulder. Henry Baker
put up hay on the Henry Baker Ranch. In
the fall of this year, Henry Baker’s family moved back to Richfield. Henry Baker had come to live on George
Baker’s ranch on a partnership basis to help him run the ranch.
 |
| Sarah Sariah Durfey Smith Jack Smith |
These were the main ones who built
who built the school house. It was
agreed that each man would furnish a desk or a table and a chair for each of
his children. All during the year, the
work was done on the schoolhouse so that it would be complete and ready for
school by next fall. It was a one room
log house with a big potbellied, black heater in the middle of the room. The stove pipe went through the very
top.
Frank Haws, the fancy and rich man,
made a very fine planed bench for his children.
The three girls sat side by side.
Then on the back he extended out a seat for Henry and made a desk over
that seat for him. This was quite
original, no one else had ever thought of anything like this.
In April 1896, Mary and Chris
Mooseman decided to move to Boulder.
Mary was a blue-eyed blond, a sister of Willis Thompson, who was already
living here. Her husband, Christian
Mooseman, was the son of a Swiss Italian, he was very dark, had dark hair, dark
eyes, and dark skin. He was a small
agile man who always stood very straight and always dressed neat and
flashy. He owned fine horses and always
rode a horse proud and tall in the saddle.
He was an expert teamster with a fine big team.
 |
| Capitol Wash Road to Fruita |
There was a saddle horse trail from
Boulder to Escalante that was used by anyone wanting to go to Boulder when the
mountain was covered with snow. Chris
flounced with a good outfit like he had, thought he would be able to take his
team and wagon across the trail. The
mountain was still snowbound in April when they started to Boulder to
homestead.
When they came to where the trail
dropped down to the Escalante River, there just wasn’t enough room to take a
wagon along the ledges. After searching
vainly, they finally decided they would have to lower everything over the ledges
to the canyon below. They had some brand
new horse blankets of canvas. So using
these, they lowered all the household goods, dismantled the wagon, and lowered
it into the canyon below. By using the
team and saddle horse for a pulley, they were able to do this without breaking
anything.
Bill Osborn had decided to come to
Boulder to homestead as had had a dream about a certain hill in which to build
a dugout for a house while he cleared his land.
So, he had come along with Chris and Marv to drive their milk cows. Now he came in very handy and helped lower
everything into the canyon. When all was
at last at the bottom of the canyon, they rode their horses down the narrow
steep trail. They had their two children
Wilburn and Francis with them.
 |
| George Baker family |
Finally on top and after another
day of travel, they arrived in boulder.
It had taken three days to go thirty miles. They went north to the foot of the mountain,
north of the Lyman homestead in the Upper Valley and here started their
homestead of about 160 acres. They
cleared land as fast as possible, but were unable to raise any hay the first
year. So, Chis traded one milk cow to
George Baker for three ton of hay to last him through the winter.
Soon after the Mooseman came on 22
May 1896, Edna Baker was born to the George Bakers. The Haws have been claiming that Mina Haws was
the first white child to be born in Boulder, but Edna was born before
Mina. This fact I thought most
interesting. Also, remember Amasy Lyman
was a 2 ½ pound baby who lived.
 |
| FRUITA SCHOOL |
Old lady Ramsey, Hanna Baker’s
mother was a midwife in in Richfield.
She agreed to come to Boulder to deliver the baby. Accompanied by Elizabeth Burns, she came in a
small, black topped buggy, driven by themselves, around the mountain to Boulder
to deliver the baby. They stayed until
the baby was born and two weeks longer for the mother to get back on her
feet. In those days a mother always
stayed in bed for ten days to two weeks after the birth of a child. The road these women travelled was much longer
than the one today. They had to go where
Lurt Knee has his Sleeping Rainbow Ranch and circle around the foot of the
mountain instead of where the road goes today.
 |
| Sarah Sariah and Jack Smith Family |
Poverty was stalking the valley for
many. The Thompsons were having a very
hard time making a “go” of things. The
Thompson children came to school in canvas britches. Their lunches was usually corn bread and
molasses. They always drew off to
themselves, so the others wouldn’t see what they had to eat. Sadie Thompson who wasn’t old enough to go to
school, rode a horse every day down to the Baker Ranch with a two gallon crock
with a snap-on lid tied to the horn of the saddle. Mrs. Baker would fill the crock with
milk,
and Sadie would ride the fore miles back home.
The fall of 1896, Andrew King came
to Boulder from Fillmore. He was the
brother of John King. He stayed all
winter, working here and there, while he courted the school teacher. He married her in the spring and they left
Boulder.
In November, just before the heavy
snow fell, Henry Baker moved his family back to Boulder from Richfield. He had moved out before and here he came back
and brought his brother-in-law, Jim Ramsey, as well as a load of building
materials for a new home on the George Baker ranch. This was to be a big, new frame house. With the help of Jim Peters, they started
building the house as winter came.
 |
| William Smith |
The schoolhouse was now used
regularly for church each Sunday and for many dances and parties.
Indians still roamed here and there
and regularly came to Boulder which they still claimed was their land. To make peace with them George Baker gave one
Indian a horse which was to trade for his place. One Indian called, “Old Teawald” shouted at
Jim Peter’s wife fiercely when she didn’t hand over food as he demanded.
Jim Peters moved his family to
Boulder from Richfield this summer. They
came through Wayne County, around the mountain and arrived in Boulder on the 4th
of July. Jim planned the event carefully
because he had brought a dozen small flags.
Everyone had gathered together at Boulder Creek to fish and celebrate
the 4th of July. Jim arrived
during the celebration with flags waving from the horse’s bridles and harnesses
and bells were attached here and there.
The horses pranced and pawed as they trotted in amongst the celebration
with bells ringing.
 |
| School and Church in Monticello |
Andrew King had married the school
teacher, Violet Cottom, in the spring, so the school board hired Ronda Cottom,
Violets sister to come and teach at the school.
Gene Baker came with his father,
William George Baker, to the valley.
They came into lower Boulder because Willard Brinkerhoff sold his entry
to Jim Peters, William Baker and Victor Bean.
He had 640 acres and sold his full entry to these three men, so each one
had 219 acres of land.
 |
| the Late Jim Haws |
The year of 1900 was the big year
for the Frank Haws family. They had Ash
Gault come to Boulder and build a frame house for them. This was the first frame house in
Boulder. All the materials had to be
hauled in from Richfield. The home he
built was very well constructed. It
still stands today, very sturdy—even after years of neglect. Gault was a fine carpenter. He built the house and barn. He spent the whole year building in Boulder.
Also this year of 1900, at the
invitation of John King, everyone went to Salt Gulch to celebrate the 4th
of July on the John King Ranch he had homesteaded. There was still snow on the mountain, so some
of the men went up and got snow so they could make ice cream by putting bucket
of custard in the snow and ice and turning the bucket back and forth. Every little while the bucket would be opened
and the frozen custard would be scraped to the middle in order some more would
freeze. Finally the whole bucket would
be frozen. The main fun was liking the
spoons after each stirring.
 |
| who are they?? |
In the course of this celebration,
they decided to have a shooting contest.
Nethelia King was so afraid of guns, she cried as loud as she could each
time someone shot. Many were disgusted
with her.
In the spring of 1900, Joe
Hutchingson brought the first saw mill from Wayne County to Boulder. He later left the country and left Will and
Jack Smith, Bob Kitley and Vern Lyman to run the mill.
Also this year, Amasy Lyman was
appointed to get a flag pole for the 4th of July. He found one fifty feet tall, straight and
slender. It lasted for many years. Standing in front of the school, they always
had a flag to fly on special occasions.
In March 1901, Grandma Safely,
mother of Frank Haws, lay dying. With
her last breath she asked that she not be buried in Boulder. She had married Old Safely and came to
Boulder, but she wasn’t happy. She was
sixty miles from Thurber her former home.
The mountain was still covered with deep crusted snow, but to fulfill
her wish, a hand sleigh was built, her body placed on it, and a party of young
men started over the Boulder Mountain.
There was young John Safely, Charlie Haws, and two Jensen boys, Ed
Thompson, Will Peterson and Vern Lyman. They
pushed and pulled the sleigh over the mountain by foot while Frank Haws, his
wife and daughters, went around through Escalante by team, up over the
Escalante Mountain, through Grass Valley, over Parker Mountain and back to
Thurber where everyone met for the burial.
In 1902, Fred Simmons sold his farm
to George Ormond for $300.00. George
paid this with 36 head of cows and calves.
George went ahead then and made the final proof on the homestead.
 |
| Amanda Haws & James William Peterson family |
Also this year of 1902, John Safely
sold his homestead to Joe Robinson. It
was this year that Charlie Nazor gave up and left the country, so Reynolds
Lyman took over his homestead and stared working on it. This is where the Roundy family now
lives.
Claude Vee Baker had been
journeying to Escalante to court Lilly Liston.
On 17 Dec. 1902 they were married in Escalante and Claude brought her
back to Boulder.
On 7 May 1902 the first “National
Forest Reserve” was established by a Presidential Proclamation. This immediately started shaping the lives of
the People in Boulder, though they were not aware of it at the time.
Also in 1902, Brig Woolsey and
family moved to Boulder. Brig and his
wife, Theresa, had a log cabin in the trees directly west of the Jim Peterson
house which was also log. Theresa was a
fine cheese maker and made cheese for people in the valley and also taught
different ones how to make cheese. They
didn’t try to ship any out. They just
made a years supply during the summer.
 |
| Hell's Backbone |
While Brig was living in Boulder,
he and Rile Porter, Hyrum Gates, and Faun Campbell went in as partners and
bought a threshing machine. It was to
end up in boulder, but they thought they should make all the money they could
as fast as possible. They took teams and
went out to Marysville to get the thresher, a second hand one. As they came bringing it back they stopped in
Coyote, now called Antimony and threshed all their grain. They came on to Escalante and threshed all
their grain there. Then they brought the
thresher on to Boulder. It took all the
owners and all their boys to take the thresher to Boulder. With two teams pulling and two in reserve,
they started out. On many parts of the
hazardous road, they tied a pole to the top of the thresher and then two or
three men would ride the pole to keep the thresher from tipping over.
In 1903 Amasy Lyman, sold his ranch
to Bill Osborne, and he moved to Canesville
 |
| Hattie Mulford & Ellis Robison |
This year of 1903, it was decided
to have the 4th of July celebration on the Frank Haws ranch. They built a bowery and they brought in candy
by pack mule in five gallon buckets.
They spread a tarp under the bowery and dumped the candy out on the tarp
so everyone could eat all they were able to hold. An orchestra came from Escalante to play for
the dancing.
This year, Dad Ogden and Gresham
had a big fight. Gresham started the
fight as he had a fiery temper. Ogden
was slow to anger, but after he got mad, he threw Gresham on the ground and
pounded sand into his eyes and battered his head until it was black and blue
for a long time. He couldn’t see for
days, though his wife finally got the sand washed out of his eyes.
It was now the year of 1904, Joe
Robinson sold his homestead to John Black and moved back to Fillmore. Then Brigham Woolsey sold his homestead to
Walt Baker and moved by to Escalante.
This year was the first year forest grazing was established. There were 75,000 head of sheep and 12,500
head of cattle on the Boulder Mountain. 
On the 8th of July 1904
Harvey Mooseman was born at the Mooseman ranch.
Ida Ormond was there but she was inexperienced and afraid to do
anything. So, after the baby was born,
Mary the mother, raised up and cut the
cord and cared for the baby, then for herself.
Boulder always had a 4th
of July celebration. The 4th
of July 1904 the bowery was rebuilt.
Frank Haws with his fiddle and Cal Gresham with his banjo played for the
dance in the school house.
Boulder students all rode horses to
school. At noon they watered and fed the
horses or let them graze while they ate their lunch, as soon as school was out, they all made a
wild dash for their horses and every kid went home as fast as they could run
their horse.
On 1st January 1907
Minnie Haws was officially appointed the first Postmistress in Boulder. They had the Post Office in their home.
 |
| Pectol's Indian Ceremonial Shields |
During the summer of 1907 Sariah
Haws and Hannah Baker started carrying the mail to and from Escalante with
pack-mules. George Baker had the mail
contract, but these two girls drove the mules to carry the mail back and forth
between Escalante and Boulder, distance of thirty miles which would take them
most of day one way. They would drive
the mules and ride astride as rough and wild as any man. Just a short distance out of Escalante, they
would start riding side-saddle and ride very sedately into town. There were would always be plenty of young me
men to help them unpack and deliver the mail and show them a good time during
the evening. The next day they would
make the trip back.
James Alvey was courting Sariah, he
told me many times, two or three of the guys would follow Sariah and Hannah
unbeknownst to them. When the girls got
far enough out that they thought no one from Escalante could see them, they
would throw their leg over the horse, uncoil their long whips and in no time at
all would have their mules on a fast trot out across the big flat.
In 1907, Walt Baker traded the
Victor Bean and Woolsey homestead which he owned to Christian Hansen for a
large home in in Richfield which they valued at $1,200.00. Everyone was thrilled! Boulder land was already valuable. The Hansen’s moved to Boulder.
 |
| the Leo Rolando & Anna Laurine Smith Holt family |
One early trip home, James Mooseman
drove the team, Albert Gledhill played his mandolin, Frank Haws played the
violin- they came out and got in the wagon, still playing, never missing a
beat. Everyone piled around them and
they played their instruments all the way home, never stopping all the way. James Mooseman was living at the time at on
the Baker Ranch and Albert Gledhill had married ne of the Haws girls.
On 8th of November 1909,
Minnie Haws the postmistress, issued the first money order. It was the Sears
and Roebuck and Company of Chicago, Illinois for $1. 22.
In 1909, Rosa Gouding from Panguitch
came to Boulder to teach school. Some of
the kids discovered she wore rag garters, so all the boys in school went
together and bought a beautiful pair of pink satin and lace elastic garters
with flowers and ribbon too. They gave
them to her for Christmas. She started
to cry, and they never were able to figure out whether she was crying because
she was insulted or pleased.
 |
| Max Robinson at Fruita |
The Frank Haws were always having a
party or something going on at their house.
They had a string of race horses and when a bunch got together they
would have races. Then Frank would get
his violin and Minnie would play the organ.
They were the first ones in Boulder to have an organ. The whole family was very talented. They could all sing and play some instrument.
In 1910, Rosa Goulding taught
school in Boulder again. She had started
going with Bertram Peterson. He wanted
her to come home with his brother, Rio after school. Rio had a mare called Topsy. He didn’t want the teacher riding with him,
but he couldn’t get out of it. So he let
her get on behind him. Then he started
the horse off on a dead run, and whipped her all the way home. Rosa hung on for dear life. Soon her skirts began to fly and were soon up
over her head, but she knew she would fall off if she let go, so she just hung
on. With her head covered with clothing,
she was even more terrified. They
finally arrived at the Peterson Ranch after a dead run of four miles. Indignant people who had seen bloomers as
they ran by, entered a complaint against her for indecent exposure. Chris Hansen was the Justice of Peace, so
after much talk and excitement, he had a hearing and promptly canceled it in
favor of Miss Goulding who he thought had been subjected to a very hard
ordeal.
In 1910, the Forest Service ran a
telephone line to Boulder, to the Ranger Station and told Chris Mooseman that
the Boulder people could connect on and use the line whenever the Forest
Service wasn’t using it. Chris went to
George Baker and told him what the Forest Service had told him. George told him, “You and your boys put up
the lines and I will buy two telephones and furnish the wire”. The line was run across the street to Chris Mooseman’s
home. George Baker had Chris run a line
to his ranch. He purchased both their
telephones and the line from Montgomery Ward and Company. Parcel Post brought it in by pack-mule. Very soon, all of Boulder was connected to
the telephone, each with his own ring.
Chris Mooseman’s ring was two short rings. George Baker’s was three rings, two short and
one long.
Bertram Peterson and Rose Goulding
got married and built a little log house on their homestead down in “the draw”. France and Morris Lyman helped Bert to build
the house. They built a scaffold on the
side of the house, France and Morris got on it together and it collapsed, and
Morris broke his arm. He fainted while
trying to get home. When Ruth and Hack
came after him, they took him on home and bandaged his arm. He then got on a horse and rode 40 miles to
Wayne County all by himself to have the doctor set it.
John Black had bought the “Upper
Ranch west of Lyman’s. He was always
getting into a fight. Reynolds Lyman
turned on him and just beat him half to death.
He gave him such a beating that they had to bring a buckboard and haul
him home. When they got him all loaded
and ready to go, Reynolds said to him, “Now Mr. Black remember, I wear a size
17 shirt.”
 |
| James C. Peterson family |
Sam’s brother, Dave Sheffield, came
from Chicago to settle his estate. He
was a one-legged man big and handsome.
He had a white poodle dog, which he loved very much. The people of Boulder had never seen a poodle
dog before. He stayed at the Jaunt
Morrell’s in Salt Gulch who were running the John King Ranch. Sam’s place in the draw, where he had died,
had the house, the stable, chicken coup and hog-pen all under one roof. Sam was buried in the Boulder Cemetery.
 |
| who and what are they? |
In the year of 1917, John King
purchased the Old George Baker Ranch for $20,000.00 from Almon Robinson of
Fillmore. John Black had been trying to
buy it, but had not been able to get the money.
Also, in the summer of 1917, Arthur
Alvey came to Boulder. He took care of
the Frank Haws Ranch while Frank toured Southern Utah with his race
horses. Old Brady, Maudie, Old Joe and
Redwing were his choice horses. In those
days, the horses were ridden, or led from town to town. When travelling, they were shod with heavy
cork shoes. When ready for racing, the
shoes were removed and replaced with light weight racing plates. He took his whole family in a covered wagon
and travelled all summer going from town to town. He did this for many summers.
In the year 1917, James Pierce family moved to Boulder from Canyonville. James, his wife and children. Pauline, Estle, and little Paul, lived in a log house on the John King Ranch, then moved up and built a cabin out of aspen that now stands by the Indian ruins. Pierce was a bragger and he was always referred to as a “dirty Old Cuss”, but he genuinely loved Boulder. He always called it “God’s Country.” He claimed to be a rock mason and a woodsman. He said, “When I go out to chop a tree, you can’t see my hind end for chips.”
When he died, his wife wanted him
buried in Escalante. So, his sons,
Mercel and Marvel took him in wagon packed in ice. They left in the morning about 4:00 a.m.
driving their best team. Claude Baker
rode a horse accompanied them in case they needed help. That night 9:00 p.m. they drove into
Escalante. This is still recognized as
quite a feat for a couple of boys. This
trip usually took a couple of days.
Usually people camped over on the river, but this boys drove clear
through.
 |
| "Hole-in-the-Rock" trail----after blasting below Escalante |
In October 1919 Amasy and May Lyman
moved from Boulder to Teasdale. Eph
Coombs bought their homestead for a new car, a house and one acre of land. Gertrud Wilson started reporting news from
Boulder to the Garfield County News and the Deseret News. She was the first reporter from Boulder.
For years a giant Grizzle roamed the Boulder
Mountain, killing cattle and sheep. He would range clear across the mountain
from Boulder to Coyote later called Antimony.
In April of 1919, the snow was three or four feet deep, when the bear
appeared. He killed five steers and a
burrow with a bell on. Claude Vee Baker
took hounds and went to chase the bear.
When he got on to the mountain, the snow was so crusted the horses could
walk on the snow, but the bear was too heavy.
He kept breaking through. In
spite of this, though, he got away. He
went all around the mountain, but was finally killed by Rube and Charley Riddle
near Coyote, Utah. The bear weighed
2,200 pounds and was 20 inches between the ears. He made a trip around the Boulder Mountain
every 30 days. One foray, he killed a
five year old steer of Johnny Kings.
On 18 May 1920 it snowed 18 inches
in Boulder.
In 1921, Alf Whatcock started
running John Black’s cattle. He took
cattle for pay. It wasn’t long until Alf
was getting more calves than John.
 |
| Wild Bill Hickman |
In the year of 1922 the Boulder
Irrigation Company was formed.
In 1923 the number of cattle and
sheep on the Boulder Mountain had risen in great numbers. There was now 56,577 sheep and 20,878 cattle
on Boulder Mountain.
In 1924, Parcel Post Packages was
added to the U.S. Mail, which until this time had been carried in by pack-mule-
letters only. This immediately caused a
big boom in ordering stuff to come in. The
one pack that had carried the mail was increased to as many as ten or fifteen
and almost everything was brought in by pack mule.
By inquiring, Mrs. Hansen found out
that there was no reason why we couldn’t ship anything we wanted out of Boulder
as well. So, immediately everyone
started milking cows and separating milk and shipping cream out. The pack mules carried loads of cream, there
would be as many as ten, fifteen or twenty pack mules- all loaded with
cream. Sometimes it would get so hot,
the cream would sour and blow the lids off the cans and end up with a pack
saddle full of cream- what a greasy, oily mess.
In 1926, the Commercial Bank closed
the mortgage and took over the Upper Boulder Ranch owned in partnership by John
Black, and Niels Jepsen. The bank made
an agreement with Niels and he bought the ranch. Then in 1936, Clyde King bought it from
Niels.
 |
| road to Hell's Back-Bone |
In 1930, the census was taken and
there was a population of 192 in Boulder, 44 were children. I took the census in 1940 and at that time,
there were 240 living in Boulder. This
was the biggest population that had ever lived in Boulder up the year 1940.
My thanks to Irene Wilson K.I. for
a wonderful history and memories but now we will talk about my memories.
MY
MEMORIES of the LAND of the SLEEPING RAINBOW
By Eugene Halverson
I was 17 years old discovered this
land of the “RAINBOWS” now I am 86 now but I can still remember the Valley with
its rainbow colors.
The War was over and I could
actually buy gas and tires without a rationing stamp. Well, actually we came down to fish. The word was out about the big fish in Lower
Bowns Reservoir and it was true. Then we
heard about the “high lakes” and where to find horses. Soon we were at Levi Bullard’s Fish Creek
Ranch and it was quite a bargain. His
wife, Billy fed us coming and going.
Levi took us mostly to Donkey and Blind Lake and would come back to get
us when it was time to go. We found many
lakes under the “Rim” and it was fun. We
were up about 11,000 feet, so, we had quite a view of everything below.
So, the next time we came down we looked
over the “Upper Valley” as we fished the Fremont River. I can still remember Torrey with its “Giant
Trees” reaching across the road and forming a beautiful shady tunnel for the
town. They look pretty shabby now.
 |
| Fish Creek Ranch Gene center Levi Bullard behind |
We dropped down to the “Lower
Valley” to a town called, “Fruita”. Now
we were on an old horse and wagon trail down through the Grand Wash” and what a
wash it was. We could see flood marks on
canyon walls when the canyon was filled 20 feet deep. Well
we found Fruita with all its colors, canyons, domes, and spires and all across
the valley was all kinds of fruit trees, little houses and a store. It was warm down here and fruit ripened long
before the upper valley and selling fruit was how they made a living. Well, we were all eyes and ears and the
ladies told us, “If we wanted to talk, we had to pick fruit”. It seems like we were always picking fruit
whenever we came down. It was pleasant
down there, the people were friendly, and we relaxed in the evening by sitting on
the Oyler Store porch overlooking the Indian writings and we even slept on his
lawn. We later found we were in the middle
of the “Water Pocket Fold”. I always
called this valley “Wayne Wonder Land”.
It’s now called Capital Reefs and I don’t like it.
 |
| Add caption |
To get to Escalante was even worse
somehow you had to bypass “Box Death Hollow”.
Just four years before I came down here mules
were delivering mail here.
Up we went through Salt Gulch to the top of
the mountain over the “Hells Backbone” over a little wooden bridge across the top
and down Escalante Canyon passing “Posy Lake”, a mighty fine lake.
Time changes everything, Boulder
and Escalante are no longer the little towns I remember. If I am sad the people are sad to see their
towns change to accommodate all the tourists on a popular “Scenic Highway”.
 |
| Jack Smith Jorgen & Mette Smith Jed Mott |
NOW
FOR THE REST OF THE STORY
Jorgen Smith buried one wife, left
another, and came down here with his third wife and most of his 22 children. Now after three or more generations almost
all of the families in the “Sleeping Rainbow” story are my relatives.
“Big Cousins” are closely related and “Small Cousins” are distantly
related.
My library is full books, pictures
and stories from every town down there. I
have been to a few reunions and met many wonderful people. I even have one “Brady’s” racing shoes
hanging on my wall.
I was 17 years old when I discovered
this wonderland of Colors. I came before
the “Great War” and now I was back when I could actually buy gas and tires
without a rationing stamp.
 |
| Grand Wash road to Fruita |
Really we came down to fish. Everyone was talking about the “big fish in
Lower Bowns Reservoir and the “high lakes”.
I remember knocking on Levi Bullard’s door at his Fish Creek Ranch. Levi would take us mostly to Donkey and Blind
Lake and would come back to get us when it was time to go. We found many lakes up under the “Rim” but to
see anything, we had to climb above the Rim and that was a hike. We fished
most of the lakes here, the Parker and the Thousand Lake Mountains as
well.
The Torrey I remember had “Giant
Trees” growing across the road from both sides.
It felt like we just entered this wonderful tunnel. Then there was the “Ice cream Dairy in the
river bottom above Torrey that we just could not pass without stopping.
 |
| Grand Wash after a flood |
I travelled the “Grand Wash” when
it was the only road to Fruita. It was
just a horse and wagon trail down through the bottom of a canyon. It had water (flood) marks on the walls 20
feet above us. We found Fruita to be an
oasis in the desert. It was filled with all
kinds of fruit trees, little houses and even a store. It was nestled below giant walls, domes, and
spires. We had to look straight up to
see the sky. It was warm down here and
fruit ripened long before the upper valley and selling fruit was how they made
a living. Well, we were all eyes and
ears and the ladies told us, “If we wanted to talk, we had to pick fruit”. It seems like we were always picking fruit
whenever we came down. It was pleasant
down there, the people were friendly, and we relaxed in the evening by sitting on
the Oyler Store porch overlooking the Indian writings and we even slept on his
lawn. We later found we were in the middle
of the “Water Pocket Fold”. I always
called this valley “Wayne Wonder Land”.
It’s now called Capital Reefs and I don’t like it.
The road to “Boulder” was a jeep
road and only a fair-weather road at that.
A rain and even the jeeps stayed off it.
To go on to Escalante was quite an adventure. The mountain passes were closed with snow in
the winter, so you walked or rode a horse through the bottom of “Box Death
Hollow”. This was the trail that the mules
used to deliver mail to Escalante. During
my time we went above Death Hollow. The
road from Boulder snaked around a big wash and up through Salt Gulch to the top
of the mountain over the “Hells Backbone” over a little wooden bridge across
the top and down to Escalante. Now we
have “Scenic Highway” 12 through all these red rock canyons. Time changes everything, Boulder and
Escalante are no longer the little towns that I remember. A change from a “cow town” to a tourist
town.
 |
| Water Pocket Fold |
A mining company forced us to move
from my mountain to the valley. It was bad
enough to watch a giant mining shovel gobble-up our house,
but it was worse to watch them bury my canyon.
My backyard had Pine trees and Quaken Aspin and I drank from the springs
and streams. Everything is gone and
nothing flows from the mountain anymore.
STICKIE-TA-GUDY
--We cannot fail
It
was now 1879, Brigham Young was dead but his “colonization” plan was still
alive. But how could you send “new
converts” down to the San Juan when nothing was known about the place and no
one wanted to go there. They did know
something had to be done because miners and cattlemen from Colorado were
beginning to occupy it.
High
mountains, washes, river gorges and a desert full of sand and slick-rock
protected it and how to even pass through it.
The Silas Smith Company took 26 wagons from Cedar City through a hostile
Indian Reservation, travelled a thousand miles and failed.
Other
experts told of a short-cut below Escalante.
So now Bishops were “Calling” their most experienced, most dependable
members to report to Escalante. Charles
and Jane McKeshnie Walton travelled all the way from Northern Utah and over the
snowy mountain before winter hit them. Far
from Escalante high on a ridge sat 280 men, women and children with about 83 wagons
and hundreds of animals. It took months
to blast and dig a passage down through the “Hole in the Rock. This trail was used for a few years until a
better way was found.
Snow covered the passes, they
couldn’t go back and if they couldn’t get through the hole to the valley below
they would starve. When everyone was
discouraged Jens Nielsen got up and challenged them. “If we
had enough, STICKIE-TA-GUDY (go-with-God) we cannot fail”. That became the battle cry that raised their
spirits and made them work so much harder and on they went.
 |
| Hole-in the -Rock |
A promised six week Journey ended
up being a six month journey and most of their food and supplies were almost
gone. Undaunted the horses to pulled all
wagons down a two thousand foot steep slot in the wall into Glen Canyon close
to Rainbow Bridge.
Bluff was still 60 miles away with
more roads to be built. There was still
blasting and digging new roads and walking with ropes tied to the wagons
through down-hills, up-hills (like the chute) and side-hills (that were even
more scary). They were completely worn
out, hungry and out of almost everything.
They even had to eat some of the seed they were supposed to plant.
At Bluff houses were built, land
cleared and piece by piece the land was settled. The river was not kind, they either had too
much water or not enough. Businesses
came and the town grew and people began to prosper, but the Indians were
unhappy with their new neighbors taking their land again. It was scary when the whole tribe came and took
over their town.
 |
| Jane's home in Monticello |
There were many horses and cattle
taken by Indians and many posses were sent out to retrieve them only be
ambushed. Many people were killed but
the Mormons stayed out of it.
One day Chief Posy came in the
house after some food and scared Jane while she was cooking. She turned and hit him on the head with a
frying pan. The next time he came he
knocked on the door and said, “Me want Biscuit”. In time he became Jane’s special friend. At a dance on 24th of July, Jane was shot and
killed by a drunken cowboy. Chief Posy
and his warriors gave chase and the cowboy was never seen again.
 |
| Chief Posy |
I
have been all around Escalante but nowhere near the hole in the rock. I have hunted the mountains around Bluff,
Blanding and Monticello. Bear’s Ears,
Elk Ridge, Dark Canyon to name a few.
These were high mountains and scary ridges and sandy canyons. Even today you had to be careful coming and
going. I can see why they were lost and God
only knows how found they found their way again. Camping anywhere in any canyon is still very
dangerous. Once two trucks with trailers
and all the people were washed away and nothing was ever found.
Hole in the Rock Books to buy.
Jane..
A Woman’s Determination and the Wild-West Frontier by Michael King
The
Undaunted by Gerald N. Lund
“Advised
to call the Place Escalante” Jerry C. Roundy
