Lavar Johnston and the smile that brought me to Fredonia

When I joined the Arizona Highway Patrol in 1954; I was assigned to work Highway 89 from Cameron to the Utah border plus all of the Arizona Strip. I was to live at the Arizona State Highway Camp at Jacob Lake on the Kiabab.

I was given this assignment for two reasons. First I was the Mormon and most of the people around Fredonia were Mormons. Secondly the job was very isolated and I had spent three years as a deputy for the Maricopa County Sheriff office, so I was experienced as an officer.

The job was mostly patrolling U.S. Hyway 89 from Cameron to the Utah border. I also had the North Rim highway of the Grand Canyon from Jacob Lake to the North Rim. Many miles of Majave County roads all thru the Arizona strip to places like Short Creek, Pipe Springs, Maccasin, Cane Beds, Mount Trumble, Bundyville and Black Rock. The US highway from Gunlock, Utah to Mesquite, Nevada were also my jurisdiction.

We enjoyed very much living in the forest at Jacob Lake. When school started Danny went to school with Swede Bynum's wife. Swede was the highway maintenance foreman and his wife worked in Kanabe. Her three boys spent time after school at her mom's, she lived close to the Fredonia school. I would plan on picking Danny up after school and take him home in my patrol car with permission to do so from my patrol office.

One day a car drove thru Fredonia very fast heading south on 89. I had just picked Danny up and he was in my back seat. I pursued to catch the speeding car, clocked him at 85 miles per hour in 70 mile per hour zone. I stopped him and wrote him a speeding ticket. I had parked in front of him cause he was hard to stop. He was a middle aged man from out of state. A couple of weeks later my captain came to see me from his home in Williams- He had a letter the patrol superintendent had received from the fore mentioned speeder. He said he didn't mind getting a ticket for speeding and paying the fine but he was very angry because a little boy )Danny) was watching and smiling at him while Ii was writing the ticket. The captain asked me to find a home in Fredonia so no other would have to suffer such pain as having Danny smile at them.