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Myron Jones | Oral History
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Myron Jones was interviewed on February 22, 2006 in St. George, Washington County, Utah by Milton Hokanson, a representative of the Grand Canyon-Parashaunt National Monument Oral History Project. He related his experiences living on the Arizona Strip, Mohave County, Arizona. His wife also participated.
MH: How did you come to St. George?
MJ: I was born in [1914] Uintah [Weber County, Utah].
MH: Up in the Uintah Basin in eastern Utah?
MJ: Yes. Dad and mother moved there [where their] oldest son and daughter were born. They were born up there.
MH: How old are you now?
MJ: On April 25, [2006] I will be ninety-two [years old].
MH: Ninety-two! How old were you when you [moved] to St. George?
MJ: I was a baby [with] diapers on, I think. [Laughter]
MH: [Laughter] How did your family wind up out on the Arizona Strip?
MJ: We moved to Bloomington [Washington County, Utah] first.
MH: Was it called Bloomington then? Was it Atkinville or Price [City Fields]?
MJ: Atkinville was below there, but [it] was Bloomington as far as I remember. [My dad] traded the place [in] town that he bought to [the] Blakes for a place they had down in Bloomington. So we moved to Bloomington. We lived there for quite a few years. I went to school. We [rode] on a school bus from there to St. George. The [Virgin River] Creek would flood every once in a while and shut us off. [The school] bus would get stuck in the creek.
MH: No Man O’ War Bridge!
MJ: No, it wasn’t [built then]. [Then] we traded that place for a place out on the [Arizona] Strip, [a] homestead. The section was a mile north of the school house.
MH: The Mt. Trumbull school house?
MJ: [It was] just a mile down the hill where the road goes up a steep hill and over to our house. We were right underneath. Dad decided he wanted to go into the sheep business. My mother’s folks had a herd of sheep and they wanted to lease them out so dad leased them.
MH: What year was this?
MJ: I was sixteen [then]. [1930] I don’t remember [how] much older than that I was, but I was old enough to drive. I had made up a little car-pickup outfit out of an old Dodge. We took that and went up the Uintah [Mountains] and got the sheep and brought them down. I was sixteen [and] had a driver’s license. We went down north of Cedar [City, Iron County, Utah] [and] came off the mountains north of Cedar [City] and down past Enoch [Iron County, Utah] and out onto the flats.
MH: You drove the sheep all the way from Uintah down to here?
MJ: We went down the railroad [tracks] on the west side of the valley. Dad went to a reunion while we were [there]. I herded sheep in the lanes [railroad tracks] and held them there until the next day.
Then we took off again. We went from there up over Iron Mountain over just east of Enterprise [Washington County, Utah] a little. The [United States] Forest [Service] had that all fenced off. I had to go in and get a permit from the ranger in Enterprise to pass over that place. The next morning I did that. Dad, by that time, had the sheep ready to head up there. [We] took them up to the Lytle Ranch that night.
MH: You got all the way to [the] Lytle Ranch?
MJ: [Yes]. Lytle let us put them in his corral overnight. They gave us our meals and we were treated royally. The next morning we took [the sheep] on over the hill and down past Veyo [Washington County, Utah] on down to St. George, right down along the road.
MH: You came right down Highway 18 and Bluff Street?
MJ: Until we got down to the Sugar Loaf rock [on Red Hill]. Then [we] went above Sugar Loaf and come down with them on this side. My brother-in-law had [a] piece of ground on the north here, where the buildings are now, [and] he owned this other [piece of ground] too. We put the sheep in the shearing corral out here – [what] used to be a shearing corral, and the next day we headed for Mt. Trumbull.
MH: How many sheep [were] in that herd?
MJ: I think [over] 300. We took them out on the Arizona Strip. [Dad] had traded [the] place in Bloomington for a place out there, just under the hill [and] north of the school house.
MH: [It was] right in Main Street [Valley].
MJ: Then we herded them in the valleys, further out, away from the homesteads out on Poverty Knoll. It went north of the Poverty Mountain. We held them there most of the summer that year. The next winter we wintered them down next to the [Colorado] River down below where [Tony] Heaton has his camp [in] that valley.
MH: You took them all the way down to Whitmore [Canyon]?
MJ: Yes, we herded them [down] on the side-hills where there weren’t any homesteads.
MH: Down below the Bar 10 [Ranch]?
MJ: Yes.
MH: How did they do in the winter down there?
MJ: They did alright the first winter until we got [some sheep] mixed in with Bundy’s [herd]. [Roy] Bundy was supposed to furnish a herder while we went back [for] Christmas. When we got back, we didn’t have any sheep. The herder wasn’t a herder! He had heard that all you had to do was tie a sheep up to the tongue of the wagon and the rest [of the herd] would stick around. That was the idea he had. Roy was supposed to have known him. When we got back, we didn’t have any sheep, only the one tied to the tongue!
MH: [Laughter] Oh boy!
MJ: Dad went back home and all the boys came down. We scattered out and started getting them out from under the ledges. We finally got most of them back together. After that we headed down Main Street [Valley] for St. George with a Jeep.
MH: Did you herd on foot or use a horse?
MJ: We were a-foot most of the time.
MH: Myron, you walked some miles!
MJ: Yes! Yes, that was lots of walking. Later, up around [Mt.] Trumbull we had saddle horses we could ride. Then dad went into town. His brother had built a sheep wagon and [dad] brought [it] out. We hooked a team to it and brought it
back down Main Street. We spent Christmas in Main Street [Valley], or I guess it was New Years. We herded along there and headed for the lower valley by the first of March. That is when they started lambing down in the narrows.
MH: [Was this] below Bloomington?
MJ: Yes.
MH: Why did you pick the narrows down there? [Because it was] warmer?
MJ: [For the] warm air and the feed [pasture] started earlier. It was country that wasn’t took up [built up]. [Laughter] That was what we had to work with.
MH: Where did you sell your wool?
MJ: We had to consign it and whoever we consigned with would take the wool.
MH: [Did] you have to shear it?
MJ: Yes.
MH: Where did you do your shearing?
MJ: Right out here south of town [St. George]. We would shear [the sheep] and take the wool to Cedar [City] and they would take over from there.
MH: Did you ever tromp wool?
MJ: No. I didn’t ever tromp wool but I’ve tied them. I’ve tied the fleeces, a lot of them. I went out with my cousin and worked with him on shearing for awhile. I learned how to do that. I knew how to handle sheep to start with, so I was [a] wrangler and part of the time I was tying up fleeces.
MH: Did you have electric shears in those days?
MJ: Yes, we did there. They had an electric heat and light plant. An uncle of mine owned the outfit.
MH: Describe your house out [in] Main Street [Valley] by Bundyville.
MJ: The first [house] we moved into [was] a dugout. It was a [fairly] good-size dugout with a cedar top on it covered with dirt. The first year, dad and my older brother went up on Mt. Trumbull and sawed down a whole bunch of good straight quaking aspen [trees]. They took them down to the saw mill that was up there then and split them. We laid them with the flat side in and put pasteboard boxes over the outside and then screen wire and plastered it. We had one big kitchen, a
small room and two bedrooms. Then we kept a bed in the dugout. One year we had a school teacher; he wanted to live there.
MH: Do you remember [his] name?
MJ: No, I don’t.
MH: Did you ever go to school at Mt. Trumbull?
MJ: Yes, we walked [to school] in the snow. I was in second grade when we were there, I guess.
MH: Is there anything left of the old house today? Is the old house still standing?
MJ: I think it is. [It] was the last I heard.
MH: [When] you turned twenty-one [years old, you] decided to leave home. What happened then?
MJ: [I] went back [to] herding sheep with Ward Esplin! [Laughter]
MH: [Laughter]
MJ: I came in here and spent a week and I met my wife at that time.
MH: How did you meet your wife?
MJ: I was partying at the dance one night and I got a date with her. It went on from there.
MH: I didn’t know you were a dancer!
MJ: [Laughter] I could dance with any of them!
MH: [Laughter] You must have [been] alright, she stuck with you.
MJ: She sure did!
MH: Not much of a romance if you were out with Ward Esplin herding sheep!
MJ: Two days later, I saw Gil Prince on the street. I said, “How about a job?” He was still in the sheep business. He said, “I haven’t one for you, but why don’t you get a-hold of Ward Esplin?” So I contacted Ward and he said, “I’ll come pick you up at seven o’clock in the morning.” That was when he took me out [to the Arizona Strip].
MH: Where was he running sheep at that time?
MJ: He was running in the spring, back on the slope, up on Littlefield [Arizona], right [on] the slope there.
MH: On the Beaver Dam [Arizona] slope?
MJ: Yes. I worked for him until – I would take a day or two off and then [be] back on the job up on the mountain. He went up [to] Duck Creek [Iron County, Utah and that] is where we summered two different years when I was with him. We had an old [fellow] named Charley Little [who] herded when I wasn’t there. That was when I married [and] took her up there that summer. We had a sheep wagon and a little cabin set there.
MH: You might be a good dancer, but I don’t know about your honeymoon! [Laughter]
MJ: It was alright. [Laughter]
MH: How did you get the sheep from here up to Duck Creek? [Did you] trail them up?
MJ: [We went] up by Virgin [Washington County, Utah] and up [the] road on [the]
side-hills [and] on into lower Kolob [Canyon]. That was where he had his setup [on his] property down in the upper and lower Kolob [Canyon in Iron County, Utah].
MH: [Was this] where the reservoir is today?
MJ: Yes, just south of it is where we were. I herded there two different summers. My wife was there [with me].
MH: What year was that?
MJ: Oh, I don’t remember the years! [Laughter]
MH: Now you [are] married. What happens then?
MJ: She was with me up there all that summer. Then she went down [to] live with her mother and her father while I was up there and [came] back and forth. She would go to St. George at times, and meet my folks and [come] back up there. So she had the run of the ─
MH: She was footloose and fancy free! When you got out of the sheep business, where did you go?
MJ: That was when I went to work for Ward Esplin.
MH: You went to work for Ward Esplin for a couple of years. Didn’t you come back to St. George or [did you] go back on the [Arizona] Strip?
MJ: I don’t remember what we were doing after the second year up on Ward Esplin’s [property at] Duck Creek. [Laughter]
UV: Second year of what?
MJ: [When] we were herding sheep for Ward. We bought a little Willys. [Willys-Overland Motors, Inc.]
MH: [A] Willys car? Boy you’re lucky! I’m old enough to remember Willys cars. Sears and Roebuck used to sell those!
MJ: [Laughter] I traded for it in Cedar [City]. That was what we drove back and forth when she would come up [to see me at Duck Creek]. She stayed up there a lot with me that first summer.
MH: How did you get back [to] working out on the [Arizona] Strip?
MJ: I started to getting jobs out there, working for [Mohave] County [Arizona] and for the BLM [Bureau of Land Management]. Then I got into the equipment business through the Soil Conservation [Service].
MH: Is that where you learned to operate [heavy] equipment?
MJ: Yes, that is where I started.
MH: What did you run?
MJ: I ran the grader, the loader [and] the caterpillar. After I got a caterpillar [I] took it out there.
MH: Was that a motor grader? Or did you have to pull it?
MJ: It was a motor grader. It belonged to [Mohave] County or the Soil Conservation [Service]. I operated it for them and graded all the roads.
MH: That was [long ago] enough that [it] would have been mechanical and not hydraulic.
MJ: No, it was hydraulic. How many miles was it we traveled that one year?
UV: [We traveled] 1,500 miles when you graded the roads.
MH: That is a lot of miles to follow you around!
MJ: [Laughter] Yes!
UV: We started over by Gould’s [Ranch] over by Hurricane, went up Mt. Trumbull Mountain, down Bundyville and down the canyons. I kept track of the miles. [For] 1,500 miles he stood driving the grader. That is when he wore his ankles out. He couldn’t sit down and had to stand [while running the grader].
MH: Yes, you can’t see where your blade is if you don’t stand up. So you spent all summer grading roads.
MJ: Yes, part of the summer. When I wasn’t [doing] that, I went out on Black Rock [Canyon] and filed on the waters, four springs on [the] north side of the mountain. Then I leased a school section [of land] that tied into it [and] was available. That started the difficult [beginning] of the BLM.
MH: Did you run sheep on that school section?
MJ: No, I got into the Brahma business, you might say.
MH: You got into cows?
MJ: I bought a bunch of heifers from Lane Cox. I worked all summer for him on the ranch out there. It was out on the desert up by Milford [Beaver County, Utah]. He wanted to sell them and I said, “I’ll buy them.” I took them over. He had been using my International Truck that I had traded for and had about worn it out a couple of times hauling hay from [his] place to [Las] Vegas [Nevada], back and forth. When we [were] ready to settle up, I said, “I’ll trade you for the labor on that truck for the heifers.” There were twelve or thirteen heifers. I just threw them in [my truck] and took them out to the ranch. I had my water pipe down from the springs. I had to prove up all of those springs, get them in the pipe-line, dig them out and pipe them out.
MH: How did those Brahmas do out there? Did they [do] alright?
MJ: Yes, they did alright. These heifers were Herefords and I traded for a bull from Max Layton, so I had a Brahma bull. That is what got me into the Brahma business.
MH: So you ran a Brahma-Hereford mix? That is an odd [breed].
MJ: It worked, for awhile.
MH: Where were you living when you had [the] place out on Black Rock [Canyon]?
MJ: Right here [in St. George]. What year was it that we bought this house?
UV: [What]?
MJ: We traded the property in town where I had been living and borrowed a bunch of money and bought this [house] here. I traded my brother out. He owned all of this [property] on both sides of me. I traded him work that I did on the ranch he took up [had] out there. I bought a caterpillar and moved [it] in there and did my own work. I did a [lot] of work for him on his trails and one thing and another.
MH: What size caterpillar did you buy??
MJ: [It was] D-4.
MH: Oh, a little one.
MJ: It was a [fairly] good size. We could do a lot of work with a D-4 [and] built a lot of roads.
MH: Was [it] a cable operated blade or was it ─
MJ: No, [it was] hydraulic.
MH: Could you push some dirt with [it]?
MJ: Yes! [And] make ponds.
MH: Did you make a lot of reservoirs for people [on the Arizona Strip]? Who did you build reservoirs for?
MJ: Mostly for [Fernard LeMoyne] “Buster” Esplin and [Jonathon Deyo] “Slim” Waring. I cleaned a couple of ponds for “Slim” when he was there.
MH: Describe “Slim”; what was he like?
MJ: He was a good, honest citizen as far as I knew [about] him. He would do anything to help you.
MH: Was he [a] wildcat at that time?
MJ: Yes.
MH: Did you ever meet his wife, Mary [(Osburn) Waring]?
MJ: Yes, she was there. I overhauled their cars and changed oil for them now and again.
MH: Did you ever know Afton Snyder?
MJ: Yes.
MH: Was he out there where you were?
MJ: He was on the south of “Slim’s” [place], on a point, down in the valley with the Grand Gulch Mine. He was down by [the mine] and along that side-hill and [had] some [land] up on Parashaunt next to “Slim.”
MH: Yes, he was close to “Slim.” Was he a bit of a character?
MJ: He was all to himself. He was quite a character alright! [Laughter].
MH: What did he do – ranch?
MJ: Yes, he had some sections [of land] and some cows out there. He would have his family out there once in awhile.
MH: Did you ever go down to Grand Gulch Mine?
MJ: I did go down to the Grand Gulch Mine once. I traded for a trailer-house and went down there with the pickup and brought the trailer-house out of the Grand Gulch by the great Grand Gulch Mine.
MH: Boy, that must have been a trip!
MJ: It was! I went out early one morning and got the tires all pumped up and [went] back up to Wolf Hole Valley, south of [the] waters [at] Little Tank. It was [late] in the night so I just pulled over and slept until morning. Then I came on home. That was when I moved [the trailer-house] out there to live in when I wanted to work springs out there. It is still out there, [all] still set up.
MH: It is? Was that over on Black Rock [Mountain]?
MJ: No, that was down on the valley on the line-points where my setup started.
MH: Where [was that] from Wolf Hole [Mountain]?
MJ: It was over the mountain from Wolf Hole Mountain. It was on the south of Black Rock Mountain. The springs were all up close to the top where I had them. I had [to] pipe [the water] all down. The [fellows] wanted to share and so they furnished the pipe and I furnished the labor and put the pipe out down to where they could get to [the water]. I had to prove up on the water and that took some money.
MH: Do you remember the store at Wolf Hole?
MJ: Yes.
MH: What was [the store] like? Describe it.
MJ: I went there one time. We had a horse that got loose out of the pasture and went back to St. George.
MH: [Laughter] That is quite a walk!
MJ: I got on one [horse] and took the head of the other one and away we went back out [to the Arizona Strip]. When [we] got to Wolf Hole, late in the afternoon, I got us a [candy] bar or two and went on my way. It was midnight when I got back home. [Laughter]
MH: How was the road up Quail Canyon?
MJ: It was just a trail. It wasn’t anything like it is now.
MH: You were the [fellow] who was supposed to grade it.
MJ: I never did grade that [road]. [It] was all out on BLM ground where I graded. I didn’t ever grade that [road].
MH: Did you ever know Reed [Miles] Mathis?
MJ: I knew him well.
MH: Did you do any work for Reed?
MJ: Yes, [I worked] with him a lot.
MH: He had a pretty place out there.
MJ: Yes, he had a good setup out there. I joined the Soil Conservation [Service] and we would go on trips.
MH: That is right; you [fellows] were always out on a party! [Laughter]
MJ: We went up to Reed’s one time and partied up there.
MH: Do you still have the property out on Black Rock [Mountain]?
MJ: Yes. I turned it over to my son. [Allen Jones]
MH: Your son is running it?
MJ: Yes.
MH: How many cows [do] you have out there?
MJ: [We have] thirty-some head.
MH: What is your brand?
MJ: [It is] E with a J underneath it.
MH: Where did that come from?
MJ: Just out of my head!
UV: He tried to get a M J but ─
MH: Somebody else had it. So E J is the brand. How long did [the] store at Wolf Hole stay in operation?
MJ: Well, let’s see. We had been out there with the sheep and that year the government come in and bought all the old ewes. [We] had to butcher them out.
MH: What was the reason behind that?
MJ: I don’t know; [to] feed the poor, I guess. [Laughter] They had butchering places out there. I went over to one place where Erlin Orson had his sheep. We would run around him, so we had sheep in his herds. I [wanted] to go through ─ while they were around the dip in the corral ─ the herd to see if I had any of our sheep in there. I got out in the corral there and found this one – he had his mark. He brought the mark from Enterprise. It had a swallow fork and three bits. So [inaudible] swallow fork and [inaudible] and I had three bits and [inaudible]. This swallow fork looked like a crop most of the time. I ran across this sheep that had that; it was a crop, I’m sure it was. I started pulling it out and he come over and stopped me. “You can’t take that.” I said, “Are you thinking I can’t?” And he hit me! Right in the mouth and down I went. When I came back up, my fist was right at his chin, and I got him a good one! His old hands were going around. He was kind of cross-eyed, anyway. By that time, this [fellow who] was butchering came running over there. He said, “You get the hell outa that corral!” But I didn’t get my sheep. I couldn’t prove that wasn’t swallow fork, but it was a crop.
MH: What year was [it] that they were buying sheep?
MJ: I don’t remember what year [it] was.
MH: What’s the worst winter you ever had out there?
MJ: That winter [when] we had the sheep south of Bundyville. It [was fairly] deep that year.
MH: Was that the year that Gardner died? [January 1949]
UV: He was out of the sheep business when Wayne Gardner died.
MH: That would have been before 1949. Gardner died [in 1949]. What do you do when you have deep snow and you are way out there?
MJ: [Laughter] If you are going home you just dig your way through and get back home.
MH: How do the sheep do in that sort of weather?
MJ: You try to keep them out where they can run the side-hills, mostly [we would herd the] side-hills.
MH: [On the] south, facing side-hills, the snow wasn’t so deep. Did you go out [looking for] Wayne Gardner?
MJ: No.
MH: You didn’t get involved?
MJ: No. I was out there doing caterpillar work when they were hunting for him. I was opening up the road down toward the Gold Butte Mine, up the canyon.
MH: You were way over on the west end [of the Arizona Strip], down around Pacoon [inaudible] and that area.
MJ: Yes, they called it Grand Gulch Mine.
MH: That was how they got into Grand Gulch [Mine], from over that way.
MJ: Then later, when I [was] working with the district [the Soil Conservation Service], I graded roads from the top clear down around this mine. That was the first time I had ever been to [the mine].
MH: [Did] you come down Pigeon Canyon?
MJ: I graded across to [the] head of Pigeon Canyon. At that time, only a four-wheel drive [vehicle] was all they [could] get up there. We went up past the end and then down into the next canyon and then we would grade back up.
MH: What did you do for “Slim” Waring? Did you build any roads for him?
MJ: No, I cleaned some ponds for him.
MH: Did you ever get out on Kelly Point?
MJ: Yes, I built a road out there. I built trails out there from the [Reed] Mathis [Pine Spring] Ranch. I built a road from there down. It was a wagon track down onto the point, off down the canyon, and went on the long-point around along the rim with a road over to where you could look down to where they were [thinking of] building a bridge or a dam. I could see the equipment on the south side of the [Colorado] River from there. I built a pond down underneath for him while I was there.
MH: Do you remember the saw mill at Green Spring?
MJ: No, but I was by it. It wasn’t a working [mill] when I was there. It had been abandoned.
MH: They started back up in the 1950s and [it] burned a couple of times.
MJ: I didn’t know about that.
MH: A group from Short Creek [Arizona] was running [the mill]. Did you ever stay at the Mathis place?
MJ: Yes, two or three times.
MH: Do you remember the well out in front of the house?
MJ: Yes, he fell down in it one time and about didn’t get out! [Laughter]
MH: [Laughter] Was [the] well hand-dug or was it drilled?
MJ: It had to [have been hand drilled. It was a big well.
MH: Who put the windmill on it?
MJ: I guess Mathis put the windmill up.
MH: Were there any other ranches along the rim besides “Slim’s” out there? You go to the Mathis Ranch and he had [inaudible] and a cabin out there. What about Oak Grove? Was there anything going on in Oak Grove?
MJ: There were two trailer-houses there. There was a dugout there, I think, [that] somebody had built years ago, and the well was there. They had [a] well.
MH: [Was there] any water in it?
MJ: Yes. In the spring, after wet weather, [water] would run out the bottom of the pipe-line. It would build up enough [water] to do [that]. They [would] run it down and around to where some of the old-timers [had] built on the side-hill of that ridge.
MH: Is there anything left of those old places?
MJ: No, they are all gone.
MH: Did you ever do any logging out there?
MJ: Yes.
MH: Where?
MJ: Right along “Slim’s” [land], right there along the road. We got a bunch of logs about this size on the butt, log cabin type, and brought them in and squared them up [at] the mill here. That was some of the lumber Allen [Jones] has in his house up here, my boy.
MH: Is Allen running the cows?
MJ: Yes.
MH: Have you retired your caterpillar?
MJ: He does [some work with it] when he wants to. It is setting out there to be used. He has one here that he got a long time ago. He just got it back on good tracks again. He is hauling cement from the gypsum mine, putting it in barrels, bringing it in and stacking it. [It is] surplus [cement]. They open [the] valves after they have unloaded and turn on a vibrator. It vibrates out nearly another hundred pounds of cement. He was doing a lot of the road grading for the mine at that time so they gave him permission. He could gather up all the cement as long as [it was] dumped there. It was his [for] gathering it up.
MH: [Cement] is [fairly] expensive right now.
MJ: He has barrels all over the back end of his hill, as well as piled up out there. [It] turned [out] to be quite a job.
MH: Were you out on the [Arizona] Strip when the CCC [Civilian Conservation Corps] were out there? That would have been in the 1930s.
MJ: No.
MH: What was the worst thing that ever happened to you out there?
MJ: There wasn’t too much [that] happened! [Laughter]
MH: No accidents, no mishaps?
MJ: No. The worst thing that happened was the scattering of the sheep; getting them all rounded up again. [Laughter]
MH: What was it like building the road down into Whitmore [Canyon]? That must have been a little exciting.
MJ: It was an old wagon road to start with, and I took the grader down and widened it out, smoothed it up, and made a better road out of it. That was all.
MH: It is still [fairly] steep getting in there.
MJ: Yes, [in] some places. I traded for a trailer house that was out there and got it [out]. There [was] one hill that I didn’t know whether or not I [could] pull up out of there or not. I moved a lot of rocks and [fixed it so] I could make a good turn, a run on it, and I made it. [Laughter] I left here early in the morning, got out there, got the tires on it and everything pumped up and [was] back up the canyon by dark. I was coming up the canyon and it was dark when I come up that dugway, up that hill. I got over into Wolf Hole Valley, the other side of what they call Little Tank on that long valley there and it was way into the night. I just shut her down and tipped over in the seat and slept until morning, then brought it on in. [Laughter]
MH: Did you do the airstrip down in Whitmore [Canyon]? Who graded that?
MJ: No, I never did [that].
MH: Did you make any airstrips anywhere?
MJ: No.
MH: [Did] you use the roads a lot for airstrips?
MJ: Yes, your road was the airstrip a lot of times.
MH: What was the funniest thing that ever happened out there?
MJ: What I thought was the funniest was [the] sheep herder [who] thought he could tie a sheep up and they would stay around. [Laughter]
MH: This has been a good talk, but I have to ask your wife a question. Can he dance?
UV: He used to [be able to] before his ankles [were] fused.
MH: He said he met you [at] a dance and I just wondered if you really danced with him.
UV: Sure! [Laughter]
MH: Who was the best cowboy you ever knew out there?
MJ: There were a lot of different cowboys out there. I don’t know who would be the best.
MH: You watched them work. Who did you think was good?
[END OF TAPE]
UV - This is his wife but unable to locate her name.
Description
Myron Jones was interviewed on February 22, 2006, in St. George, Washington County, Utah by Milton Hokanson, a representative of the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument Oral History Project. He related his experiences living on the Arizona Strip, Mohave County, Arizona. His wife also participated.
Credit
NPS
Date Created
02/22/2026
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