PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

Deaths, Accidents, Missing Persons, and Heaton Family Matters

Deaths

In 1956 Heaton took several hours off work to conduct funeral services for Max Clarence Mayo, a Kaibab Paiute boy, age 12, who was killed accidentally with a 38 pistol. [1832] Three years later, Heaton attended the funeral of Asa Walter Judd, who died on July 17, 1959. Judd was three years old when his parents settled in Kanab in 1870. On April 23, 1959, Heaton attended the grave-side funeral service for "old Jake Indian who was about 85 years old and a very good friend of the white man." [1833] Heaton went to a number of other funerals for friends and relatives during this period.

On May 9, 1959, just a few days after Jim McKown's return from training at Yosemite National Park, Kelly Heaton died in his sleep of heart failure. His wife Nora and five children survived him, ages two to 15. The funeral was held on May 11. Kelly Heaton had seasonally worked at Pipe Spring as both laborer and guide since 1941. Nora Heaton later worked at the monument from 1974 through 1982 as a clerk/typist and park technician.

Accidents

On March 17, 1957, Heaton reported that two men, Wayne Brooks and Keith Bryner, crash landed their small plane at Cox's ranch 15 miles west of the monument due to storms and darkness. The wreckage was brought through the monument on a truck. Heaton reported they "had quite a time getting through the monument as the wing spread was too great to go between the trees. Had to pull the truck sideways with a tractor to get through." [1834]

In May 1958 a three-year-old boy fell into the fort ponds, but was fished out by his mother, unharmed. On July 30, 1958, a more serious accident involved driver Yvonne Heaton and some local girls. While driving seven young girls to a 4H camp at Duck Creek, Utah, the driver lost control of the pickup truck, which left the road and overturned about one-half mile east of the monument. All were brought to the monument, then treated at Kanab Hospital. Aside from bruises and abrasions, Mary Heaton sustained a broken wrist, Carolyn Heaton some torn rib ligaments, and Millicent Heaton (Leonard Heaton's daughter) "a bruised chest and eye full of dirt and gravel." [1835]

On September 22, 1960, three of Leonard and Edna Heaton's children - Olive, Claren, and Millicent - were in a car-truck accident in Fredonia. Olive, age 18, was injured the most seriously with a broken jaw, rib, skull fracture, and numerous cuts and bruises on her head, arms, and neck. Millicent suffered cuts, bruises, and shock. Claren had only one cut and a stiff neck. A few days later, Heaton took Olive to Salt Lake City to see a specialist for her injuries, where she was hospitalized until October 7. [1836]

On December 13, 1960, an accident occurred involving a truck driven by Ralph Castro, a Kaibab Paiute man. Castro's car slide on slick, snow-packed roads into a big rock 1.5 miles north of the monument. His grandfather, a passenger in the vehicle, was seriously injured when his head went through the windshield, giving him numerous cuts and bruises on the head, shoulders, and hands. They called on Heaton for help, who spent several hours with them administering first aid, getting them to a physician, and moving the vehicle from the road. [1837] Park Historian Bob Olsen's truck accident in Johnson Canyon was mentioned earlier (see "Monument Administration, 1961" section).

A small "cotton fire" occurred at the monument on May 4, 1961, started at the comfort station when a man dropped a lighted match on the sidewalk. The cotton from the cottonwood trees was thick on the ground that day and caught fire from the match, burning about 30 square feet of area. [1838]

Missing Persons

On July 5, 1962, a missing person was reported from the reservation. Heaton later wrote,

Got a phone call from the Indian village at 6:30 p.m. [Wednesday] saying old Charley Chaws [sic] was lost. [He] wandered off Tuesday evening. I and my son Gary went up to help find him. Ray Mose had located him before we got there, about 1? miles north of home. He is about 70 and can hardly get around. Got mad at the folks because they took all his money [and] won't feed him, so he went off to die. We had to carry him to the car about 1/2 mile. [1839]

The elderly man Heaton referred to was Charlie Chassis, grandfather to Glendora Homer, (formerly Glendora Snow). Homer recalled her aging grandfather was nearly blind and partially senile at the time the above incident was reported. While she remembered him frequently getting disoriented and lost (often calling out for her help), she thought Heaton misinterpreted his mental state. Her grandfather didn't have any money, she recently told monument staff. [1840]

In late June 1962, Bob Olsen failed to return from one of his hunting trips for Powell survey markers. Heaton got worried about him as he was driving on old vehicle with poor tires, so Heaton and Ray Mose went to search for him. Heaton later contacted the Utah Highway Patrol, the U.S. Forest Service, the Whiting Brothers Sawmill logging crews, Zion officials, and the Fredonia sheriff and asked them all to be on the lookout for Olsen. When Olsen returned to Pipe Spring at 5:30 that evening, no harm had come to him. It turned out he had decided to stop by Orderville to visit relatives. Zion officials insisted on a write-up of the incident, and Olsen was chastised for not keeping Heaton informed of his whereabouts.

On September 8, 1962, Heaton spent part of his day off hunting for a couple of 11-year-old Kaibab Paiute girls who had taken their mother's car and driven it off the road. They were unhurt, but scared, Heaton reported, and had run off into the hills after the accident. [1841]

Heaton Family Matters

In the early 1950s, polio epidemics posed a serious health crisis in some parts of the country, including Utah. The Poliomyelitis Vaccination Act of August 12, 1955, provided that the Public Health Service allocate $30 million to states to help them buy the new vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas E. Salk. [1842] Polio cases dropped from 37,771 cases in 1955 to ca. 5,700 in 1957-1958. [1843] Heaton reported in 1956 that all children under the age of 14 were required to be inoculated with the polio vaccine (given in three shots) and that his children were among those who received the shots.

On November 16, 1956, the Heatons' son, Lowell H., was married to Glenda Jones of Welsville, Utah. [1844] The couple attended Utah State Agricultural College in Logan, Utah. On January 7, 1957, son Sherwin Heaton left for California on his two-year Church mission. In early June 1958, son Clawson Heaton graduated from Utah State University, Logan, Utah. Another son, Leonard P., married Yvonne Workman on June 8, 1957. In January 1960 son Gary A. Heaton left for Australia on his two-year Church mission. In June 1962 the Heatons attended college graduation for another son in Tempe, Arizona. [1845]