THE TOWN OF VICTOR

by Dottie Grimes

Victor was a "twin-town" with Desert Lake that came about as some residents began looking for more land. Eventually most of Desert Lake residents moved over to Victor, but not all. They shared a cemetery  located between the two towns, and most of the graves from Desert Lake were moved to Victor, but not all. The towns are usually linked together in history, found in indexes as Desert Lake/Victor.

A couple of years ago the Pierce Family gave us some histories of people who lived in Victor--Martin Riley and Harriet Ann Peterson Pierce and their daughter Elda Pierce. I want to include some of Elda's history because with her words we get eye-witness view life in Victor. 

We left Hanskville on December 19, 1921 with a herd of goats, cows, and a buggy and two wagons holding what personal possessions we felt necessary for the move to Victor...Papa farmed raised animals, except lambs and chickens. This was Mama's department...

My memories of childhood were that of bare feet and hot sand. There was always

Claude and Elda Pierce

something to be herded like goats, cows, turkeys and pigs)...Mama made everything that we wore, including around-the-house-shoes. They were made from the backs of worn levis or seamless sacks. Our slips and panties were made from flour sacks. Mama was a beautiful seamstress. I wonder how many yards of material she sewed into something, for she made our clothes, men's clothes, temple clothes, and burials clothes too.

We were the first to have a phonograph, an Edison with cylinder records. To this music we danced, sang, and by it were lulled to sleep to the tune of the Blue Danube Waltz...  I was baptized in an irrigation canal in Victor. I attended the school in Victor which was also used as a church. My third grade teacher was Miss Lucille Gold. She boarded at our home, and it was my job to wash her dirty handkerchiefs. (We attended Victor until the 6th grade.) We rode a Dodge truck to Elmo for the 7th and 8th grades. High school was in Huntington. I boarded there and did housework for my keep and went home on weekends.

Victor School (Don Oveson Photo)

 School Children in front of School

Back yard of the Pierce home in Victor

When I think about Victor, I remember the fun we had dancing, skating, swimming, Easter on horseback, bonfire parties, ball games, sledding parties--of course after all the work was done. (Elda Pierce Throckmorton)

The following history is quoted from Thomas Wells' account published in Castle Valley, A History of Emery County, compiled by Stella McElprang, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1949. The photographs are from the Pierce Family  and the Don Oveson Collections in the Archives.

A Young school teacher, Manassa J. Blackburn came to teach (in Desert Lake). He remained to take up land and when the ward was organized he was sustained as the first bishop with Henry G. Mills, first counselor and David Powell as second counselor.
Mr. Blackburn, negotiated with Joseph Powell of Salt Lake, for the purchase of land about six miles below Desert Lake that he had taken up and surveyed...Water was brought in through the extension of canals from the Desert Lake Reservoir. Bishop Blackburn went to Huntington to teach school. Henry G. Mills was sustained as bishop in his place. The responsibility of establishing and building up the new settlement then fell to him.

Victor School behind the car

Elda Pierce age 15 in Victor, 1929

 The venture had been such a long hard fight that the people finally became discouraged (because of water) and left for more prosperous places. The ward was discontinued and joined to the Elmo ward and Victor became ghost town--Thomas Wells (McElprang, 130-131).

Victor School years after town was abandoned. (Don Oveson)

Martin Riley Pierce

Victor Cemetery (Don Oveson)

Pierce Home in Victor (Pierce Family photos)

THE TOWN OF DESERT LAKE

by Dottie Grimes

Desert Lake 2001

I moved to Elmo in 1975. It was the smallest town I had ever heard of or seen. It was a long time after moving there that I heard about it's history and found out that there were other communities nearby at one time called Desert Lake and Victor. Desert Lake is still there; I knew it as a bird refuge, so it's a little hard to imagine a town there.

I remember the house that used to sit there near the lake when we headed to the Dinosaur Quarry. Someone told me that it was part of the town that was once there. Since then I've been piecing in my head what that town looked like. I couldn't get a good picture of more than a few houses, but then I heard they had a school as did Victor. I also read that the community was not successful because of a shortage of water and eventually the town was abandoned.

Thomas Wells, one of first settlers in Desert Lake.

I was pretty excited when Theora Worley from Wellington called me and said she had some history about Desert Lake. She said that she was born in Desert Lake, and so was her father. I had no idea that it lasted for two generations. That's when I decided  to study up more on that little town. So I set out to visit with her and took my computer with me hoping to get her oral history. She was very generous as she shared her knowledge and memories of the area. She also shared precious histories and photographs that she has collected through the years for me to copy for the Archives and public use.

Thomas Wells 1925 in his blacksmith shop in Desert Lake

Here at the Archives we know how priceless photographs and family history are and only borrow them for a short period of time and take very careful care as we scan them into the computer which is called digitizing and then return them, usually in better condition with archival sleeves to protect the photographs. We then make CDs of all that we have digitized and will make as many as the donor wants--to give away to family. We then have them to share with the public for education and research purposes. These photographs are great!

Theora had a photograph of Thomas Wells (above) that I had never seen before. The 1949 Castle Valley A History of Emery County, compiled by Stella McElprang says that Desert Lake was settled by three men in 1888. Hans P. Marsing and Charley Winder had worked on the Cleveland Canal and had accepted stock in the canal for payment. They obtained land in the Desert Lake area. In Edward Geary's History of Emery County, we read:
  

Members of the Wells, Powell, Thayne, Winder, Marsing, and Pilling families took up land in this hollow between 1885 and 1888 and began work on an earthen dam...Their intention was to capture runoff from higher fields and also store the winter flow of the Cleveland Canal...The 1900 census showed a population of 127 in the Desert Lake precinct.(Geary, 114). 

The dam failed in 1896 and flooded the town, but it was rebuilt with help from the LDS church. And extension of the Huntington North Ditch, the town was able to continue until the 1930s.

We read from other historical accounts that there were many orchards, a nice school, store, post office, dairy, and good farms.The population was around 125. They raised children, attended church, had house parties, went sleigh riding, horseback riding, hay rack riding, ice skating, and of course there was dancing. "C.H. Winder developed a resort at Desert Lake featuring Saturday night dances and moonlight boat rides" (Geary, 246).

Wilford and Charlotte Pilling with Woodrow on the horse-- Desert Lake 1920

Theora said her grandfather, father and his brothers started a dairy--"The Modern Dairy." In 1928 they relocated the dairy to Big Springs Ranch. The photograph above is of the Pilling family home where he grandparents lived. It was taken many years after Desert Lake had been abandoned. On the back of the photograph there is a poem: 

The old house stands alone now. Where once a family lived and worked, now there is nothing but the wind blowing dust through the open door. Where once there was laughter and the sound of little children, now there is nothing...nothing but the rustle of a rodent that has set up light housekeeping in the wall of the house. The old windmill creaks in the wind to let one know it is still there.Once there were horses and cattle lowing in the fields, now there is nothing. The wind blows the dust, and all is still and ghostly.

The shortage of water during the drought-ridden depression years effected all communities but forced the demise of Desert Lake. Today there is nothing left there but a small cemetery and a few remnants that show it was once a living place. As you look at this forgotten place, it's good to remember that ghost towns are not sad; life did not die there-- it just moved on to a better future.

An old house on Desert Lake

Below are some people who lived in Desert Lake (If you know someone who lived there, leave a comment at the end of this blog) :

Frances Isabell Cooley

Maruice and Bell Mills

Emily and Thomas Wells

Monte Pilling

Ervin Pilling

John Wilford Pilling

Emily Wells and daughters Bertha, Luella, and Bell

William Pilling

Cleon Pilling

Clifford Smith

Kathy Hamaker from Price just sent me a picture of her husband Van's grandfather, Clifford Smith, who was born in Desert Lake along with three of his siblings. His parents were Joseph and Estella Holt Smith.  Their oldest daughter, Pearline Smith was married to Charles Albert Mills and their first two children where born in Desert Lake. 

Keep the information coming. Who do you know that lived in Desert Lake/Victor?

Also, check out Kathy Hamaker's work in preserving history for Carbon County at http://www.carbon-utgenweb.com and

http://www.wildwesttrailsandtales.com

The Closing of Central School

by Dottie Grimes

My last post about the consolidation of schools and the "New Emery County School" was only half of the oral history project funded through a grant from Utah State Historical Society and Utah Humanities Council. The other half of the project concerns the closing of Central High School and making two high schools out of three. I have interviewed a few people who were former students, and I have talked to many who have an opinion about it. It has been fascinating to study. This was a much more difficult transition than the consolidation of 1962. Central School was closed in 1943 and burned four years later. "It was worse than a funeral," one of the students said.

Emery Stake Academy1910-1922.  Central School 1922-1943

(Click on each picture to enlarge it)

The burning of Central School in Castle Dale in 1947 was a great loss not only to the residents of Castle Dale and Orangeville back then, but for the entire county even today.  The school had served the people for at least three generations. It began as Emery Stake Academy in 1910 and became Central School in 1922 Although I did not live in Emery County during my school years (see About Me) and actually, wasn't even alive during the lifetime of Central School, I mourn the loss of that majestic building and miss it terribly! I often drive past the hill that was once its throne and try to picture what it was like when it reigned over the valley.

Central High on the East Bench of Castle Dale

It was originally built by the LDS Church as a Stake Academy. It was three stories high with 16 classrooms on the first two floors and a large third floor assembly hall where many activities were held including weekly dances. The floors were all wood; there was beautiful woodwork all through the school. It functioned as a high school (7th-12th) for Emery County LDS residents from anywhere in the county. In 1922 Emery County School District bought the building from the LDS Church and opened it as Central High School. Judging from articles in their school newspaper, The Broadcaster it looks like they had some fun times. Such as, "Speech Class held a Chocolate Cake and a Pickle party at Miss Beth Jewkes of Orangeville last Saturday night. A delightful evening was enjoyed by all."  

Faculty page in yearbook "The Tower"

Dance Card from Central High School

The school had three clubs: The Knights, which was a boys club; the Peppers, which I have not learned much about; and the S.A. Club which was a secret society club like those in some universities. But in this club, the members were known and so were the activities--only the name of the club was secret. No one knew what S.A. stood for. It was a girls club and to be invited into it one had to have a B average. After receiving a letter inviting you to a meeting. The initiation meetings were held at night. One former member said: 

S.A. Club Girls in their uniforms--black sweaters with white initials.

It was candlelight, and it was secretive. It was in a beautiful setting with candles. I remember that. Then they made you take an oath and promise that you would never reveal the name.

I overheard one lady say that she would never tell the name of the club; it would go to the grave with her. Others have felt like it was of their childhood and held no harm in telling it, so they divulged it to me. I will not publish it here in respect of those who want to "take it to their grave" with them. The club was founded in 1931, and the tradition continued until the close of the school.

Students gathered around their school rock painted with a "C"--behind the two boys in front

The school rock was moved onto the lawn on the corner by the Castle Dale City buidling

According to the history books Emery County communities were losing population and school enrollment  during the Second World War. The school board felt that they needed to look at all options. Central School was very old and probably too large to accommodate the number of students in the area. It was difficult to heat, and the war had taken a lot of the teachers, so there was a shortage.One lady remembers they brought in just about anybody in the county who would take the job of teaching, and they were usually just temporary. So closing one school and busing them to another school would save the district a lot of money. The proposal to close Central came from a school board member from Huntington. This proposal 

"...set off the most bitterly fought consolidation battle in the county's history...The beginning of the school year brought a boycott, with students refusing to board the buses." (Geary 306)

When the fight began and bad feelings were flaring, Huntington was included at the top of the  black list just under the school board superintendent R.S. Chipman.

Edward Geary states in his book The History of Emery County: 

Building R-L: Seminary, Central School, Shop

A group of Central High patrons filed suit to block the closure...The courts, while noting that the school board lacked the authority to close the school permanently, ruled that the board could temporarily discontinue Central High for the duration of the wartime emergency. A compromise was reached that called for all Central High students to be bussed to South Emery instead of dividing the closely tied communities of Castle Dale and Orangeville. This solution ended the boycott, but bitter feelings continued for many years. (Geary 306)

With the end of the wartime emergency that had been used to justify the closing of Central High School, residents of Castle Dale and Orangeville began pressing the board of education to reopen the school. (Geary 320)

The school burned down August 1947 before the issue was resolved.

I heard some expressions of bitterness, anger, suspicion and injustice concerning the school's demise such as:

• It was a "heavy handed decision," opinions were not asked for. 
• Some felt that if the board had gone about it differently there wouldn't have been a "war."
• They felt like they "didn't get a chance" to improve the school or make any changes.
• Parents and teachers were mad at the superintendent. "They sure didn't like Mr. Chipman."
• "We didn't start school or even go to school until January. Our parents kept us home."
• "We even had a family problem. My dad was on the school board and wanted to close Central; my aunt was opposed to it. She lived in Castle Dale."
• The school board wanted to separate students Orangeville was to go to Huntington--North Emery; Castle Dale was to go Ferron--South Emery. That fueled the fight even further.
• A small town's social life revolves around a school, "you take that out and there goes your town."
• Some of the parents had attended Central High when it was the Stake Academy, so they were especially attached to that building.
• While some were attached to the building, and others just were adamant about having a high school in their area--if they tore the old one down, they needed to build a new one.
• Some said the building was deteriorating, others said it was in good condition and could have easily been repaired, the deteriorating claim was "just an excuse."
• There was rivalry between all three schools. None of the kids wanted to go to Huntington--North Emery; they didn't want to go to South Emery either, but they mostly didn't want to be separated.  
• When the kids did start at South Emery, everything was done differently like grading, etc. 
• None of the kids from Central "could do anything for the year and a half that I was there" (like be student body officers and cheer leading, etc.).
• The kids from Ferron weren't very happy to have the new students invade their school.
• When the school burned a few years later, many were sure it was started by the school board superintendent. 
• "I remember the fire! How we watched it. It was worse than a funeral!"
• "I went to Central School until they burned it down.And that was no accident! I know about that! That was no accident!"
• "It’s funny they didn’t ride that superintendent out of town!"
• "I run up there and looked and I could see all them microscopes and stuff in there. It just made me sick. I wanted to get in there so bad. I would have died if I had." 

As one person put it, "The fight was a losing battle. The compromise was not satisfactory, but nothing more could be done." These are all very sad comments, but the school is gone and everyone learned to adjust to it. And there are always the memories.Those who attended Central High School have some great ones that they have passed on to us.

In September, 1947, the seminary building caught on fire and quickly spread to the main high school. Montell Seely was 13 years old at the time and lived nearby. His eyewitness account is interesting. He and his brother saw the smoke and quickly rode their horses to the building. 

Three or four other men were just arriving. They tried to get some water turned on, but since these building had been closed for several years with all the water lines shut off, no one seemed to know where to turn the water on. We arrived soon enough, so that if we had had some water, we could have put out the fire in the seminary building.

Soon many people arrived and men were running in all directions...Finally they got the water turned on, but by then the Seminary building was an inferno of flames and there was no chance to save it. They tried to wet down the high school building, but there was not enough water pressure to do any good and the roof caught fire. To make a long story short, they had to stand there and helplessly watch, as that beloved old Academy building burned to the ground.

1986 Central High School Reunion

For me, the fact that such a majestic building once belonged to the Emery County landscape piques my imagination. I walk the halls, peak into the classrooms, and attend the dances as I listen to others share their memories. Having come to know Emery Stake Academy/Central High School, I will forever revisit it!


The wonderful thing about Emery County Archives (and we are the only county archives in the state*) is that we are preserving history right here. Through oral histories, we save memories; we save stories; we save photographs. The photos and the memories are what brings history back alive for us.

 Come revisit it, and other elements of Emery County History, with me at the Archives. We have more photographs here.  Come visit the Archives and see all the information and even more photographs we have.  Please leave any comments you have at the bottom of this page where it says "comments." Or email me: dottiegrimes@gmail.com
To donate any type of history see Public Welcome

*We are the only county archives other than Salt Lake County. 

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.

Temple Mountain and Madame Curie

by Dottie Grimes

Madame Marie Curie in her laboratory (public domain)

Uranium Mining at Temple Mountain was going on in the early 1900s. Madame Marie Curie had isolated radium from uranium ore, and she and her husband Pierre conducted research on radium which became known as "The Wonder Element."  She and her husband received the Nobel Prize in 1903 for their studies in radio activity. After the death of her husband Marie received another Nobel Prize in 1911 for her isolation of radium as a pure metal and determining its atomic weight. She and Pierre had decided not to patent their discovery, but leave it open and available for all to study and experiment. Marie focused practical uses for radium such as a cure for cancer--it proved to destroy diseased tissue much faster than healthy tissue. Because she hadn't patented it, a great deal of testing and experimenting was done by many laboratories, and in all fields. According to Curie  by Sarah Dry, Madame Curie focused on accumulation of as much radium as possible in order to "ensure her laboratory retained its prominent position in the world of radioactivity." That is where Emery County and Temple Mountain enter into this period of history.

On one of her two trips to the U.S.

 Madame Curie was a household name here in Emery County. All mining accounts from that time period that I've read or heard about, mention her. The ore from the Temple Mountain mining was "sent to France for Madame Curie's experiments."  Many also declare that she visited Temple Mountain on one of her trips to the U.S. because she wanted to see where ore of such high quality was coming from. I mentioned in the book Images of America: The San Rafael Swell, that her visit has not been substantiated, but it is part of the folklore of our area. I got in trouble for saying that. A few people (at different times) pointed out to me that her visit here is not folklore; it is a fact. (Folklore is history that is unwritten, but passed down by word or mouth or tales, so saying it is folklore is not denying that it really happened, it is just recorded through conversation--the root of a folk tale is often truth or a version of it.) So I continue research for verification. She did come to the United States twice to raise funding for her research. Railroads came here from the East, so she could have visited here.

The Cabin Madame Curie stayed in during her Temple Mountain visit

One man even told me that his uncle drove her to Price for supplies while she was here. And one of the rock cabins that partially remains at Temple Mountain is identified as the place she stayed while she was here. So for this non-academic blog-post, I'll call it a fact. I like believing it, don't you?

In 1921 the U.S. was holding a ceremony to "honor a discovery and the discoverer" and gifting Madame Curie with a gram of radium for her work. Professor R.A. Millikan gave a speech on the "Significance of Radium" and explained that discovering radium was like finding a needle in a haystack. He said to get a gram of radium (worth $100,000)  "... it took 500 tons of  Colorado carnotite ore (Temple Mountain is part of the Colorado Plateau.), which possesses 2% of uranium, and  to treat it with 500 tons of chemicals" (Millikan).

So it took a lot of mining, muscle, and sweat to get a little radium.

Temple Mountain Panorama. See the mining camps along the bottom of the ridge 1912 (courtesy USGS)

2% ore was considered high grade ore. In 1912 it was all done by hand with a pick and shovel.

Wyatt Bryan, Joe Swasey and others mining vanadium in early 1900s.

Monte Swasey said in his oral history, "This is where Granddad [Joe Swasey] and old Wyatt Bryan located Temple Mountain back in the 1900s and started what they called Cowboy Mine. Madame Curie in France was just doing a bunch of experiments with radium, and she needed this radioactive ore to do her experiments with. It was high grade uranium. They couldn't ship anything under 2%." In the early days they mined vanadium and uranium.

Monte's father Royal Swasey went out to Temple Mountain in 1916 to mine uranium. He described the process as "looking for a tree."

Royal and Eva Swasey and children about the time he worked at Temple Mountain

 Uranium is often found in petrified wood, so they would find a small "stringer" or branch and follow it along and hopefully it would open up into a an underground room as the trunk of the big tree was found.

The Swasey Family donated the letters that Royal and his wife Eva wrote back and forth to each other through those years of mining and other times when they were separated. The Archives is very privileged to have such a  great source of history! In them we find that one evening while he was at Temple Mountain, he wrote to Eva and told her that he had just bagged 150 bags of ore. He was tired and sick with a sore throat and aches because of handling all of that ore. In the next letter he told her that he had tested his bathwater after handling the evening he had written that letter, and it tested at 1.5% uranium. Eva wrote back and said that she had tested the letter he had sent that day, and it had tested at 2 %!

Madame Curie is said to have usually carried a piece of ore in her pocket to show to others. At the time neither she, nor others realized how many symptoms and health problems stemmed from radiation exposure. It was called "Nature's Wonder Element" because it seemed to be the cure for so many problems, including facial skin problems. It was put into shampoo powders and beauty cream to "replace old tired cells;" it was in hair tonic and toothpaste to whiten teeth; it was even put into yarn for baby clothes --" O-Radium Wool provided a precious source of heat and vital energy." [Curie, Dry] The "glow in the dark" properties made it great for watches and clocks and other things that needed to be seen in darkness. Women learned to use paintbrushes in a twisting method, holding the brushes in their mouths. This was a learned technique and an  art form to make dials on watch faces.

Madame Curie's notebooks used to record her experiments are considered too radioactive to safely view, after all these years! They are preserved in a lead box, and a person must sign a release form before handling them. She died at the age of 64 from Leukemia. She suffered many other forms of radiation poisoning from all her years of handling the ore.She literally gave her life to her research.She is a legendary figure, having been the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize and not just once, but twice! She broke new ground for women in science and other professional and academic areas. And here in Emery County she is kept alive-- by facts and folklore! She may be Polish by blood and French by her residence and research, but here on the Utah desert we claim her. She even slept here!

P.S. In writing this and thinking about that letter--Royal's letter that tested at 2%--I think I'll have it checked...

Sources:

•  Robert Andrew Millikan  "The Significance of Radium," published in Science and the New Civilization, C. Scribner's Sons, 1930.

• Sarah Dry,  Curie, Hughes Publishing Limited, London, 2003

• Emery County Archives Oral Histories and Collections