The New Emery County School 1962

by Dottie Grimes

In 1960 the Emery County School Board proposed to close North Emery High School and South Emery High School and combine them into one. Then in a bond election enough people voted "yes" to carry it through, leaving almost as many who had voted "no" very upset. Not only the two high schools, but three elementary schools were closed as well--Castle Dale, Emery, and Elmo.The new high school was finished in 1962 in time for the new school year to begin.

The New Emery High School finished for the 1962-62 School Year

The Archives has had a grant this past year from Utah Humanities Council and the Utah Historical Society to gather oral histories from some of those students who attended that new school in those first years. I got a few full histories from some students who experienced this change, but we also held an Archives Open House where year books were opened to view and a poster with pictures of all the old Emery County schools was displayed. I talked to people and encouraged comments about their school experiences. The reasons for consolidation were economics of the county and reduced population, but this project was seeking some answers: Did the students think consolidating the two high schools a good thing or not?

I did not live in the county when I was young, so everything in this article is from what I have learned from others. It was very interesting to hear the different view points and experiences. Following is a summary of the comments from a variety of former students of the New Emery School.

North Emery High School in Huntington

South Emery High School in Ferron

North and South Emery were bitter rivals. Since the schools have been combined into one, there has never been another school that came close to being such a fierce rival to Emery High as the two county schools were to each other.

Examples of this contention are:

• It was taboo to date someone from the enemy school but "sometimes they would do it on the sly."
• Girls were considered "bad girls" if they dated boys from the other school.Boys who did the same were asking for fights.
• Some kids even avoided driving through the rival towns--they disliked everything about "those" towns.
• Sometimes there were fights after games or over girls.
• Kids from the "other" school were referred to by derogatory names such as "Swamp Angels" or "Retards" or worse.
• Some said, "We hated each other." 
•  This rivalry was felt since the 1930s, perhaps before, so some of the parents still held onto their feelings against the "other" school.

This was the climate in the county when all the students were suddenly thrust together and efforts were made to unite all the high school kids (with the exception of Green River). It must have been a daunting time for the school board and faculty, as well as the students. As I started into this project, asking a few people of the right age how they felt, I began to think it was a much easier transition that I had expected to find.
 I  heard many positive things about the consolidation:

Shiny New School Lockers

• There were so many more boys/girls to meet and date! "So many classmates married a boy/girl from the other part of the county after the merge."
• Progress and change were exciting! (It was only the parents who had problems with it.)
• It offered better curriculum and greater choices of classes--a better education!
• We were no longer Bulldogs and Rangers, we became Spartans! "Can't tell you what a positive experience it was."
• The best teachers were chosen from both schools and so they had "cream of the crop--remarkable" teachers!
• Everything was new--classrooms, equipment, desks, uniforms--it even smelled shiny and new!
• It was uncomfortable at first, but the "following year I had a ball and had met some wonderful people."
• The two high school buildings were so old their options had been limited, such as the tiny gyms--now they had a big, real gym with bleachers and glass basketball backboards!
• They could finally have a football program in their school and county again! 
• They combined the best of the two sports programs and so they had better teams and were able to compete for State!  

Principal Kinder from North Emery

 The new faculty was made up almost entirely from the two old schools with the exception of sports coach. With the intense rivalry between teams, how could they select a coach from either school and expect fairness? Even if the coaches could show fairness, there was doubt that the kids would accept an enemy coach. The last rival basketball game was won by South Emery. North Emery watched them carry their coach on their shoulders as they felt the bitterness of such a close defeat. Could North Emery have welcomed him to be their coach? So a new coach was brought in from outside the area for fairness--and he also knew how to coach football.

The faculty spent some serious time creating activities that would help the consolidation go more smoothly. The last football game of the season before the new merge was played by North and South Emery at South Emery. During the intermission there was a skit presented about two Indian tribes who were enemies; the counseled together and decided to bury the hatchet. The hatchet was symbolically buried between North and South Emery High Schools. Another tool for peacemaking was that the student body officers had equally represent both North and South-- The student body president was from South Emery, and the vice president was from North Emery. Assemblies were organized so students from both schools participated and performed in them. The student body officers came down the aisles in the first assembly singing the song "Getting to Know You" from The King and I. Students participated in unification by choosing their new school song, colors, mascot and uniforms--things that would make the school their own. Students were encouraged to submit ideas for each of these things and then the options were voted on.

 Home Economics Room, Shop, Entry and Office

Some memories of those first choices include the option of an Allosaurus for a mascot because of their abundance in Emery County. It lost out to the Spartan mascot. At first the color choice seemed logical--if you combine blue from one school and red from the other you have purple.That seemed to be the decision. The marching band combined from the two schools early--in the summer--in order to march in parades. So purple uniforms were made for the girls who were the flag bearers and twirlers; purple cummerbunds were worn with the other uniforms. When school started, however, there were other options brought up. The new coach suggested taking purple down a shade or more to maroon which would be a great color to hide the football as a player carried it against his maroon shirt during games. Someone or some group came up with the option of gray, black, and gold. It looked "classy."  It won by a landslide, so the girls' purple uniforms were worn only once. Students were also encouraged to submit designs for the various uniforms. Bernice Payne's design won for the Drill Team. One school song was submitted by Mr. and Mrs. Johansen, but lost out to a song composed by JoAnn Cox and Marie Ware. 

These efforts to make a smooth transition from two schools to one are commendable, and they seemed to have worked well for some students, but there were many others who found the whole experience very difficult.

Here are some unpleasant memories of consolidation:

• Everyone had to be bussed so getting to and from school made everyone's day longer.
• The old schools had been right in town, "kind of in the middle of everything." The new school was off by itself away from any town or park. Their sports practice was done in a cow pasture.
• It was no longer a close, personal, and friendly atmosphere.
• Some teachers played favorites with kids from their school. (I really only heard about one teacher who did this, but I heard it from a few sources.)
• Kids kept their old friends from previous school, so there was little chance to make new friends.
• Kids from one school ignored the kids from the other--they stayed segregated in many ways.
• The library had too few books that first year to be helpful. (Sam Singleton volunteered to take all the extra classes and training to qualify as a librarian and had to build the library from scratch.)
• The curriculum was set up to accommodate South Emery students and not North Emery so the scheduling had to be changed so seniors could all have the opportunity to get the classes they needed for graduation; they were accommodated, but it built up more resentment.
• Many athletes from both schools did not make it onto the sports teams.
• There was no alternative to school lunch (like going to Walts in Huntington next to the school).
• There was intense dislike between students from the different schools, and there were greater opportunities for fights--enemy too close to pass up; name calling of the opposite schools were used directly to people or easily overheard.
• It ruined the high school experience for some who had been so involved in their old school--now there was no particular place for them.
• Students in class were only friendly if they knew your name.

It seems that if a student participated in an area where they were forced to mingle with each other such as student body officers, sports teams, drama, band, etc. they liked the changes in the school, made new friends and found the transition easy and even fun. The students who were not part of those groups had a more difficult time adjusting on their own to the new situation. There was such a problem over who and how many girls could be on the drill team that they finally just opened it up to everyone who wanted to be on the team--according to yearbook pictures, there were 77. But not all teams and groups could do that and many were left out.

As can be seen by what has been written above, in the course of this project I found some very opposing viewpoints. Some people expressed the opinion that those rivalry feelings were increased by "forcing" the students into a combined school. One man I spoke to who had attended high school a few years before the consolidation said that if they would have tried to consolidate during his school years, he would not have gone to school. He would have enrolled in Carbon County rather than having to go to school with "those guys."  Other people shared the view that the rivalry feelings dropped off quickly, and the combining of students and faculty gave them a greater education and brought the county together better than anything else could have.

 Change is very difficult for some personalities, it is an exciting opportunity for other types. Like all high school experiences, it seems to have depended on one's circumstances, friends, goals, and attitudes whether or not consolidation was a good thing.

If any of you readers attended Emery County High in its first years, please leave a response at the end of the article and tell us your experiences.

Below are photos from the 1963 year book of the faculty.

Serendiptiy at the Archives

by Dottie Grimes

Joyce Miya walked into the archives one day and introduced herself as Velda Jensen's daughter. One of my assistants had just interviewed Velda to get her oral history and Joyce had realized that we were very interested in all histories of Emery County residents and their ancestors or relatives, so she had brought in photographs to be scanned and family histories to add to our collection. We were happy to have new histories! We have about 700, but wouldn't it be wonderful to have 7,000? (We'll get there. Keep them coming!)

Ernest Eugene Jensen

As I looked over the names of the histories she was donating, I saw "Ernest Eugene Jensen" among them. I asked if that was the Ernest Jensen that went on an LDS mission to Denmark, and she said, "Yes, he is my grandfather." I then asked if she knew that we had his missionary suitcase containing all of his missionary books, pamphlets and journals? She had no idea but was so excited to know they existed! It was serendipity!

Joyce loves family history. She collects photos and histories of the ancestors and puts them together as gifts to her family. She was with her mother the day one of my assistants called Velda to see if she could stop by and talk to her and get her oral history. Joyce and her mother were almost out the door on their way to something, but Joyce feels like not much is more important than preserving and passing on history, so she encouraged him mother to stay home and do the interview. That's how Joyce became acquainted with Emery County Archives. And that's how she found that we have preserved pieces of her grandfather's life that, to her, are like finding buried treasures.

Ernest Jensen's Missionary Journal

I thought how wonderful I would feel if I were able to change places with her and discover that journals of my grandfather actually existed where I could see and read his own handwriting and learn more about him personally. What an exciting discovery to find pieces of one's heritage!


Ernest Eugene Jensen's Missionary Collection had come to us through his daughter--Joyce's aunt. It was all in the original suitcase he had taken with him on his mission. It was small--maybe valise would be a better description of it. 
Each item is encased in acid free sleeves or wrappers to keep safe from moisture and dust/dirt, and the suitcase itself, with all of its holdings, is in a box with a number and a label that reads "Ernest Eugene Jensen Collection"

We drew out the train schedule that told of the trains he rode on his way to the coast; the shipping schedule that listed all of the passengers of that ship that carried him to Denmark; booklets written in Danish; a Book of Mormon in Danish; and many other things. She was so thrilled to see them and touch them, and almost overcome with emotions as we leafed through his journals.

I explained that everything we have in the Archives is open to the public so all may have access to them. I told her I would scan the journals which were filled with handwritten details of Elder Jensen's missionary experiences so that she could have a copy of his handwriting as well as his record.
There were two journals and one day book. I scanned them and put them on a web album so she could have access to them right away. As she downloaded them, she typed the pages up so his words can be easily read and added maps from the Internet to show his travels. She put them in a book and gave them as gifts to her family for Christmas!

Joyce's Christmas Gift

Joyce has stopped by my office a few times since that first day of serendipity  and has shared much more information with us. One interesting and helpful thing she did for the Archives was to give us a picture of Ernest Eugene Jensen. There was a photograph included in the suitcase, and we surmised it was a picture of the him, but Joyce did not recognize him when she saw the picture. She took a copy of it to her mother and they are guessing it was a companion of his, because it does not resemble Ernest or anyone they know. That was so good to know. We may have confused history with that picture. 

She stopped by again last week and brought more history and photos for me to scan and copy. She said that typing up her grandfather's journals was so much fun; she learned so much about him that she had never known. She showed me the book she had made as a gift for family members and donated one of them to the Archives!    

1st Page of Journal--Leaving Castle Dale

I have not read beyond the first few pages of his journal yet, except for segments I would mentally grab as the pages were turned and placed on the scanner. But those first few pages not only told about Ernest Eugene Jensen's experiences, but explained some details of life in Emery County that would be common place to residents in 1916. Following is the transcript of the first page of Ernest's journal telling how difficult travel was in the winter time on unpaved roads: 

Price/Emery Stage or Mail Wagon 1912. courtesy USGS

"October 6, 1913--Left my home in Castle Dale at 7:30 AM in a buggy and went as far as Huntington and stayed there till 3 PM when my parents came over in one of Bowen's Auto cars which Alvin was driving. We went along as far as Washboard (near where the town of Elmo is today) where we broke a wheel of the car, so we went to Price with the stage or mail car. We went to a very nice show that night."

So it took all day to get from Castle Dale to Price in three different vehicles! I love reading those details.  I was surprised to find that the next day he boarded the train to Salt Lake City and it took him 12 hours to get there. I had expected that trains traveled a little faster than that, so that was another tidbit of history uncovered.

"October 7 --Left Price at 8:45 AM for SLC. Was on the train until 8:30 PM  when I reached SLC. "

Later, on the ship, we find that missionary rules were different for  in those days. He records that he spent most of one day, on the ship, "with the girls." 

Albany, New York 1913 Postcards

I love first hand accounts on the details of living in days that are long gone.  His collection also includes postcards from Albany, New York as he made his way to Denmark.  

Thank Heaven for people like Ernest Eugen Jensen who saved some details of his life for us to learn from!

And thanks to Joyce and all of you who support Emery County Archives by donating pieces of history to help us better understand where we came from and those who paved the way for our more comfortable lifestyles of today. For, as the saying goes, "We stand on their shoulders."


We invite you all to come and visit and find your own serendipitous moments as you comb through the treasures we are preserving here at Emery County Archives.

See links for access to Ernest Eugene Jensen's Missionary Journals:
Journal of 1913-14

Journal of 1915

Notebook of Subjects and Scripture References