Arizona State Teachers College at Tempe

After returning home from 21 months in the United States Navy Reserve in July 1946 I was still only 19 years old. So many young men had returned from the war before me that no jobs were available. None of my family on either side had graduated from college except Uncle Orvel Johnston, who had become a CPA. I knew of the GI Bill that would pay a little to help us get a college education.

My parents offered us a part of their house to use as a small apartment to help us make it on the small amount the GI bill paid, we would not have to pay rent. So I hurried so I could attend Arizona State Teachers College of Tempe (ASTCT) that fall.

ASTCT had in the past had 500 or so students, only, but suddenly veterans came there on the GI Bill and the enrollment swelled and swelled. They moved old barracks onto the campus to use as temporary classrooms until new buildings could be built. The college wasn't ready for us so we had quite a time those first two years getting registered and deciding on majors and ect.

My mom's sister, Zelma Merkley, and her family had just moved to White Salmon, Washington where Uncle Arch Lamreaux worked in the timber industry. Uncle Alton Merkley was a mechanic so he worked on the saw mill equipment. The Merkley's owned a small home at 100 South Morris Street in Mesa. It was unoccupied so we arranged to live in her home while my dad did some remodeling on his home to add a kitchen for our small apartment.

Mom's brother, Raymond Lamreaux owned the Mesa Lumber Company so me and my brother Gene worked there off and on for extra money. We stacked lumber, unloaded railroad cars full of sacked dry cement. It was usually very hard work. During citrus harvest I went into the groves during free time and Saturdays to pick oranges, lemons and grape fruit, getting so much for each box I would pick.

Because I was always very smart in math, my mother encouraged me to major in engineering so that was my initial major. I had to take mechanical drawing and my high school had never offered any drawing courses. It was the first class I ever had a problem with in school. I hastily attempted to change to another major to use my math ability.

The veterans administration made me take aptitude tests to see what I should take. The tests showed I should be a farmer or a nurseryman. Accounting was third so I changed to be an accountant major.

I had purchased a Ford Coupe, a 1936, I think. I had mechanical brakes which didn't stop very good. I chose to hitch hike to and from school each day. I always had a school book in my hand

and stood at main street and country club drive and always got a quick ride, generally from fellow students or people working in Tempe or Phoenix. Many people picked me up day after day. coming home I would again have a school book in my hand and stand at Apache and Normal in Tempe and get a quick ride.

One of my classmates was from Thatcher, Murray Woods. Murray had a Ford like mine and one day a flat bed truck in front of us kinda stopped suddenly at Alma School and Main Street (Apache) but the mechanical brakes didn't stop us quick enough. Murray turned to the left quickly but the left rear corner of the truck bed hit the post in front of me on the passenger side. The two by four on the left side of the truck came free and went through the windshield hitting me squarely on my forehead, then stopped. It could have killed me had it came farther. I had a wound and was out a second but no lasting ill effect.

Wanda's cousin Viola Starmer came to live with us while we were in Aunt Zelma's house. She had graduated from high school in Long Beach, California and came there to spread her wings. After being in the family for awhile working at Mesa Woolworth Viola and my brother Gene started dating and soon got married. Gene was still in High School so they rented an apartment with VI's pay from Woolworth.

Shortly after we were married Wanda got a job for Bashas on the ground floor in the hotel just north of Main Street on MacDonald Street. Bashas were just beginning their chain of grocery stores in Mesa and Chandler. Our Bishop of the eighth ward was the accountant for Bashas.

Wanda had lived with Alice Kingsbury to tend her son in North Long Beach and Alice had sent

her to a Lutheran High School. Wanda had joined the Lutheran Church. She went to the eighth ward with me and with Bishop Charles Standige's help she soon became a Mormon. We were both very active in the eighth ward. I was assistant scoutmaster to Ralph Sloan. Ralph was a few years older than I was. When Bishop Charles Standige learned that I was an accountant major, he made me his financial assistant ward clerk even though I continued to work with the scouts.

Aunt Zelma moved back to Mesa that first winter so we moved into the small apartment with a bedroom, a very small kitchen and a very small bathroom.

The summer of 1947 we baby sat Hy Hancock's home and small farm a block east of Country Club Road on Southern. He had either 10 or20 acres with cows and horses. We stayed free for taking care of the place, feeding animals and irrigating. Hy took his family, his wife, and four kids on a long tour, I think to Alaska.

As soon as the spring semester was over I got a job for AT&T putting underground cable through downtown Mesa. We tore up the sidewalks which meant I ran a jackhammer again. We dug big holes for man holes on each intersection. We ran an air tamp to pack the dirt in before we patched the sidewalk.

Most of the crew were Gene's age so I was put in charge under the project manager, who was a full time telephone company employee. He was a nice man and he had me keep time books on the employees and kept inventory on supplies and equipment. We didn't install the lines, special people did that. This job lasted all summer and was a great boost to our finances.

Wanda's father was killed in a freak accident out in Long Beach. We went out to attend services and settle his affairs. We brought her bedroom set with us when we returned to Mesa. Wanda had a brother Fred Cross in Centralia, Washington. Her other sibling was a sister much older than her. Velma and Melton Meyers lived in Las Angeles area during the war but later moved back to Salida, Colorado their hometown. Wanda was born in Salida, too.

My brother, Gene, had worked at times at a bicycle shop for Alma Millett at Soloman and Broadway in South East Mesa. I became a part time employee of Alma Millett. He sold Schwinn bicycles and repaired them. He also sold Cushman Motor Scooters and serviced them. Shortly after I went to work for Alma as bookkeeper, salesman, mechanic and delivery boy, Alma made

a big tall mast with a directional antenna for television attached to his building. He became an agent for television sets. He did well until the Big company's finally started handling television sets and all accessories. We got one of the small 7 inch TV sets thru Alma Millet.

Cars

When I went to patrol the Highway 89 I was assigned a car that had been used. All of us rookies got older cars.

Orville Judd was the man that kept the Highway maintenance equipment running so I could always depend on him to keep my car working.


Late in the summer of 1955 while I was patrolling in the House Rock Valley a calf jumped out in front of me and knocked my radiator into my fan.

The entire House Rock Valley area from Marble Canyon to where we started climbing the Kaibab Mountain was open range, no fences along either side of the highway. The summer rains caused lots of grass to grow alongside the highway so the cows would graze along the roadside.

I was brought another older car to drive while mine was being repaired in Flagstaff.

Later that same summer I was clocking a tourist on the north rim highway but he spotted me and slowed down real slow. I went on around him and was going about 50 mph when I came around a gentle curve and a young deer jumped right in front of me.

I hit my brakes and the right front wheel locked completely up pulling me up onto the shoulder from where the car toppled onto its top in the middle of the road. I got out with difficulty and went to check the deer out. The young deer jumped up and ran off.

The tourist had arrived in time to see the deer get up and run off. I got his name and address in California then he took me to VT Park Lodge about 10 miles down the road. I called for help on their phone as I still had no radio contacts.

My Sargent didn't believe what had happened til he contacted the witness. Then I told him to drive the car even though its roof was caved in. He went a little ways and hit the brakes and it locked up on him too.

My first car wasn't repaired yet so I got a third old clunker. These were old worn out Fords.
I had the third car for a couple of months before they called me and told me to come get my first car as it was fixed.


I drove to Flagstaff the next day. It was a very stormy day.

By the time I was ready to head for Fredonia; it had snowed 3 or4 inches and was snowing hard. As I was driving on Hwy 66 in East Flagstaff I witnessed a new car heading west drive under the rear of a Highway Dept. Snow Plow. I turned around and parked behind the accident with my flashing lights on.

I radioed the dispatcher about the accident and he told me to go ahead and investigate it because the surprise early snow storm had all the local police busy already.

The victims were not hurt but could have been decapitated if they had been going faster. They had flown from their home in California to Detroit, Michigan. They had bought the car at the factory at a big saving and were driving it home. The top of the car was ruined by the snowplow.

I got the accident victims in my car which was clearly on the road shoulder. as I was filling out the report all at once a pickup driven by a Navajo ran into the rear of my car!!! We all had whiplash and my car had to go back to the shop. Another patrolman had to come and investigate my accident.

(The Navajo that hit my #1 car and caved the trunk in was driving drunk and had locked up his brakes and slid into my car. He spent time in fail for drunk and reckless driving.)

It was getting late in the day when I left Flagstaff in car #3 again. The Sargent though I needed to be in the Kaibab area with the snow. It was the day before hunting season opened and mobs of people had come north to hunt deer on the Kaibab Mountain

Many times while driving from the north rim to Jacob Lake I would see 500 to 700 deer in the park area. One evening while I was in the checking station a lady came in from the south and asked if I would sign a statement stating that they had seen 560 deer form the north rim to Jacob Lake. I signed it for her. She said, "I am going to be telling people about seeing that many deer and they won't believe me. We counted all we could."

Model T and the Tunnel

A young man named Gus Suedecum had came from Tennessee in a Model T Ford and had parked in a friends yard over in Pima. Gus was 3 or 4 years older than me so he was old enough to go into the service when World War II broke out.

Jerry Hancock and I had been trying to buy an old car so we took Gus's Model T out to try it one Sunday. We drove it down to Red Knoll, a group of red clay hills sticking up in some farm land west of the Cork store between Pima and Fort Thomas.

We found three Fort Thomas girls there in a pickup. We knew the girls from high school events and dances vaguely. They were Rayge Hammond, Pauline Cornet and Maxine Herbert. Rayge was a very large girl. Pauline was kinda cute so I wanted to impress her.

They were parked where a tunnel came out of the clay wall, we understood a farmer had cut the tunnel to move runoff to a field east of the knolls. It was about 3-4 feet high and 4-5 feet wide. We decided we would go threw the tunnel even though we had no light. I led the way with the girls behind me and Jerry bringing up the rear. I am very claustrophobic but didn't consciously realize yet. As I led into the pitch black tunnel, I became very uncomfortable and we were in about 30 or 40 feet. I was very nervous when a rattlesnake started rattling right in front of me.

I will never know how I got past Rayge but I was the first one out of that tunnel, basically too small for passing in. I have always remembered this as being one of my most frightening experiences. Now at 85 years old I still recall this wierd experience every time I am in a claustrophobic situation such as being unable to breath at night because of sinus congestion.

We gathered our cool and left Red Knolls, the girls went to Fort Thomas and we crossed the river at Cork and went to Eden. We thought the car was running hot so we pulled into Heber Kemptons yard and raised the hood and the moor was red from heat, this really scared us but we put water in it and we drove it on up to Bryce. The motor had turned back to black and still ran right. We decided not to buy the Model T, anyway.

Spencer W Kimball

In the fall of 1959 we had a couple of good snow storms and the roads on the Kaibab become difficult for traffic. One Friday early in December I was checking the traffic on the snow packed road and was helping a California driver when a north bound car advised me we had a bad wreck a few miles South. I proceeded to that location and found a big semi truck on the left side of the road where the he had been in the process of chaining up his tires.

Some of the Highway maintenance vehicles (snow-plows) were parked behind the truck. A car was in the canyon off the right side of the road it had sailed out into the canyon and struck a large pine tree about 2 feet in diameter right at its base, the driver door of the car was bent around the tree. It was a Packard, a big car of that time.

I asked Swede Bynum, the Highway Maintenance foreman where the body of the driver was, knowing from the look of things that the driver was surely killed on impact. Swede said "That little guy standing over there with the funny fur cap is the driver."

He had pointed out the driver so I approached him and asked for his drivers license and found out he was Spencer W. Kimball of Salt Lake City. He said he wasn't hurt and didn't even show any sign of shock. He said, "my wife is in great pain and needs to go to the hospital."
I said "If we can get her into the back of my patrol car, I will take her to the Kanab hospital."

I also asked if she needed a blessing and he said, "The Swapp brothers gave he one."
Cliff Swapp was a counselor to the bishop in Fredonia and his brother was in the Elder's Quorum presidency.

They helped get Camille Eyring Kimball into my car and I drove to Kanab with Spencer W. Kimball comforting his wife in the back seat. She had turned sideways when they hit the bottom of the canyon and broken some ribs where they hit the bash board. She was suffering a lot.

I helped them get her settled into a room and she felt comfortable. I returned Spencer W. Kimball to the scene of the wreck. On the way we were able to visit. He had known my grandparents, Ray Lamoreaux and Mabel Assay before they were married and continued to know and love them through his association in the LDS church. At this time Spencer W. Kimball was one of the twelve apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Brother Kimball had been my fathers boss for years in a sense he was the executive secretary for the Graham Canal Company that provided irrigation water to Graham, Hubbard, Bryce and Lizard bump. My dad , Leslie Johnston was the water boss for the Graham Canal for 12 years from 1931-1943.

I remember my mother saying many times some of her happiest times were when she went to Spencer Kimball's office to get dad's check because no matter how busy he was he took time to make her feel good about life.

When we got back to the accident site the maintenance crew had moved the damaged Packard down the old logging road in the bottom of the canyon to where it met the highway. Spencer W. Kimball insisted that he could drive it on to his destination which was my home stake, the St Joseph Stake in Thatcher, Arizona for their fall conference. This was also the area where he grew up and served the church so faithfully before becoming an apostle. His wife, Camille Eyring was from Pima.

We saw him heading south and he had to sit in the middle of the front sear and reach to the left to drive. In spite of the Packard being such a well built car both left tires were out of line so much the tread was gone when Spencer W. Kimball got to Flagstaff. He left the car at a garage and caught a bus to Thatcher.

I was told by friends and relatives that attended the conference that he spoke of the accident in detail and told how helpful Arizona Highway patrolman, Lavar Johnston had been to him at the accident.

The hospital informed me that they had moved Camille to Salt Lake City in a station wagon with a bed in it a couple of days after the accident.

I asked Edward Kimball, who coauthored the Spencer W. Kimball book how they could have miss-written the Kaibab accident so badly. He said,"Dad was never one for details in his journal so we just make up the story."

I felt badly when I first read the account in the book.

One of Edward Kimball's daughters (Jennie married my cousin, Rick Lamoreaux so I visited with Edward Kimball about the story.

The only part of the story in book that was correct was how the accident had happened.

WORLD WAR II- US Navy

I was born and raised in the small town of

Bryce, Arizona. I went thru my first 8 grades at Bryce Elementary School. I was well aware of the world thru a battery radio we had in our home and the news reels they ran at the movie in Pima on family night, Thursdays.
I had attended high school in Pima my freshman year among a lot of strangers and some were really strange.

Mid way thru my sophomore year the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Sunday, December 7, 1941. I was riding a horse when a neighbor told me about it so I went home and kept my ear to the radio. They declared war on Japan right away. I felt badly because they started a war and I had just turned 15 years old. Little did I realize they would keep it going until I got old enough to go fight the Japs.

The news reels helped us to feel a great hatred for the dirty Japs. Films of the raid on Pearl Harbor Navy showed how treacherous the attack was on that beautiful island of ours.

Right away many of my friends who were old enough joined a branch of the service. Many of the girls got married before their boyfriends left for the war. A lot of the families that had been struggling to make a living on their small farms would sell to neighbors who became big farmers. They would move to Phoenix or California to do war work. We were faced with all kinds of rationing because of the war, like sugar, gas and tires. We were fortunate on the farm because we had our own meat, milk, eggs, ect. Our school sports were curtailed so much that we played the local schools of Safford, Thatcher and Fort Thomas in football and basketball.

I stayed in school until I graduated in may 1944. I had gone to Phoenix with two of my buddies from Eden to join the service in June 1943. My buddies Pete Nelson was old enough to go into the army and Newt Kempton the navy. I tried to join but they wouldn’t take me without my parents’ permission and they wouldn’t give it until I finished High School.The summer between my sophomore and junior year was a very busy time for me. The river had flooded that spring so most of the dam that forced the water into the Graham Canal had washed away. My dad was the ditch boss so as soon as school was out Dad would take me to the dam each day where I worked with our team and was on hauling car bodies, brush and rocks to rebuild the dam. Some other men were working on the dam but it was mostly Cal Parker and I.
Cal lived on the Safford road north of the river bridge on the Bill Wansley farm which he share

cropped for many years. For lunch dad would take me to Cal Parker's where his wife Lavona always had a good feed prepared.

I had eaten at Parker's a couple of years before and his oldest daughter who was a few months

younger than me seemed to be very homely. Melba had grown by this summer and she stole my heart sitting across the table from her. I had never dated or really had a girlfriend but I found the courage to talk sanely to Melba.

We would go back to Bryce and and do chores and clean up then even though I was only 14 dad would let me drive back up the 10 miles to Parker's as long as I stayed on the road on the north side of the river thru Hubbard. We only had a 1936 Chevrolet pickup. Melba and I would sit in the pickup talk, hug, and kiss til after midnight. I would go home and sleep a couple of hours then get up and go work on the dam all day. The noon meal with Melba was very big for me. I don't know how I was able to drive on that crooked gravel road and not fall asleep or wreck.

Late on that summer my cousin Ray Hancock and his cousin Hollis Hancock offered to take me to an out door church dance one Saturday in Safford.

I told them I didn't need to go dance cause I found my love and told them about Melba. Hollis made fun of me saying Melba was Marshall Lee's girlfriend. Marshall was an older rich kid from Thatcher who drove a red convertible and he had a bad reputation with his women. This really broke my heart and I let my love affair cool down. I did take Melba to the Pima Junior-Senior

Prom the following spring but things were not the same as they had been.
At about the same time that my love for Melba cooled off we had some special company come to

Bryce. My grandmother Lamoreaux's mother had moved to Florida years ago and she had some half brothers that lived in Florida. Uncle Lonzo McGrath had came to Arizona to marry his wife in the Mesa Temple. They had two children that were sealed to them in the Temple. Faye was a few months younger than me and her brother Joe was a couple of years younger. They had stayed at Grandma Lamoreaux's home in Mesa. They stayed at Aunt Annie Cosper's and her sister's too.

My cousin John Cosper, Ray Hancock and I tried to make Fay have a good time here. We took her to the church dances and on picnics in the Graham Mountains. Ray and I went with part of the family to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. The caverns were incredible but I sensed my extreme claustrophobia. Carlsbad Caverns includes a large cave chamber, the Big Room,

a natural

limestone chamber which is almost 4,000 feet long, 625 feet wide, and 350 feet high at the highest point. It is the third largest chamber in North America and the seventh

largest in the world. In the Big Room they turned off the lights completely and played a rendition of a choir singing "Rock of Ages". It didn't feel so Big to me! It felt like the rocks were about to start tumblin' down.

My High School class continued to dwindle in number. One of our class mates, Nash Lamb had been a casualty of the war. Kent Larsen had been reported lost after a sea battle in which his ship went down. I remember we held a funeral service for Kent in the spring of 1944. I never knew he actually was later found and survived until I cam home from the Navy. I was able to attend Kent's real

funeral in 2006. we had 18 graduates in May 1944.

My parents had moved to Mesa and my parents both worked at W

illiams Air Force Base. They moved at Christmas of 1943. I stayed with Aunt Lela and Uncle

Laurence so I could graduate from Pima High School. All the boys who graduated with me left for the service before the summer was over, mostly the Navy.

I moved down to Mesa and got a good job at Williams Air Force Base in Warehouse #1. I

rubbed and I had to get rid of it. It took me over a month before I was able to go. This ruined our plans of being together in boot camp. helped run this large warehouse of all sort of airplane parts. I worked with an old gentleman from Pima, Clarence Davis and a man who was a neighbor of my Uncle Raymond Lamoreaux in Mesa, Walter Johnson. We made quite a team.
By mid August Ted McBride one of my best pals and close mates and Nile Coons who was a class behind us but our age got together and went to Phoenix to join the U.S. Navy. I had always wanted to be a US Marine but all my friends have joined the Navy, so I did too, I never regretted this decision. They took Niles Coons and sent him to San Diego the day we enlisted but Jed had

some physical problem that kept him out for a couple of weeks. I had a big nasty boil on my rump where my wallet

My grandmother Mabel Lamoreaux had made sure that I received my Patriarchal Blessing before I went away

. Joseph Lines, an old Pima resident, now living in Mesa gave it to me.

Since Pearl Harbor my dad's two younger brothers Orville and Doyle had entered the service. Both were stationed in Florida. My mother's younger brother Max Lamoreaux, was in the Navy in Hawaii and my cousin Ray Hancock was

a Navy Corpsman at the Balboa Park Navy hospital in San Diego.

I was sent on a Greyhound bus from Phoenix with three others, Robert Gaona of Mesa, Jack

Wagner, and Paul Smith of Phoenix. Smith and Wagner were classmates through North Phoenix high school. We were all placed into the same company at boot camp. The San Diego boot camp was quite an experience to a small-town Arizona boy.
We had a neat company commander; he was about 6'6" tall and real husky. He played in professional football after the war. He was like the movie camp commander in Gomer Pyle. I got along fine with him because I played on the company football team.

The camp was set up where eight barracks surrounded an area where we
washed our clothes regularly in long troughs.

We had clothes lines but had to mark our clothes well. For two months we marched, saw movies,

younger sister that lived in San Diego, Marie Broomes. She and her husband owned a Greek café in downtown San Diego. I was able to go visit a few times. This helped me in being away from home. When I gave blood I would see my cousin Ray Hancock at the hospital for a short visit. Ray spent a lot of time with Aunt Marie. marched, more movies and

more marching. We even went on a long hike up the beach to the north. Gene Kelly, the dancer

and the movie star, was in the company behind ours. He went through boot camp like the rest of us then I understood he was to entertain at the USO shows. I would see him and his company as they marched next to us every day. I also washed my shirts with him several times. He was a really nice guy.

The only time we got out of the long grueling daily routine was when we went to church, to give blood, or when we played football. I went to church regularly, gave blood as often as possible, and played right guard on the company football team. We played flag football on the blacktop. We sure tried hard not to fall down.

My grandfather Ray Lamoreaux had a

I had a short leave a week before Christmas so I went to be with my family in Mesa, Arizona. Dad let me use their car for to visit aunt Leila in Pima. I dated a couple of girls, Jo Cluff and Delta Peck while I was there. I had to return to San Diego just before Christmas. I was assigned to go to a signalman school on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. I spent Christmas day on a slow moving train in route to San Francisco from San Diego, what Christmas.

we were bussed to treasure Island from the train station. The old world fair site was now a naval property. We were to stay there several days til a true ship was ready to depart for

and downtown San Francisco. in the evening I went into a place where they were holding any US dance just like in the movies, it wasn't much fun. Hawaii. I never saw the sun and we revert just waiting in the San Francisco Bay. I went ashore one day spent in sightseeing in San Francisco, the trolley cars, fisherman's wharf, Olivera street,

There was a group of us that were being sent to start a signalman school in Hawaii. Who kind of hung around together there in

Treasure Island. we always lined up by alphabetical last names so it was Tom Johnson was in front of me and Carl Keller was behind me. Tom and I became real pals. He was from Beaumont Texas and had gone to Texas A&M for school. Keller was from the mid-West but we didn't relate very well.

Right after lunch one day they loaded us into a bus took us to a dock in San Francisco where we boarded a liberty ship. We got settled in and had supper, spaghetti meatballs, just before we set sail. We could see Alcatraz Island from where we were at dock. we sailed under the Golden gate

Bridge than we were on our way. The land swells the first 20 miles or

so had our ship bouncing around like a cork.

In a short time we were all seasick and there were gobs of spaghetti all over the deck. We were all on the rail throwing up.

We slept in bunks welded to the walls just a couple of feet above the other. This wasn't a good situation for a claustrophobic person such as I. there was a lot of spaghetti in the bunk area to.

Once we got away from land the ship

was smooth so we all got over our seasickness. We were at several days

than all at once there was Oahu Island
Diamondhead, Waikiki Beach, Honolulu and then we entered Pearl Harbor. Damage from the Japanese attack was still very evident. We could see sunken ships and damaged building.

We were taken from Pearl Harbor to a place called Camp Catlin about half way between Honolulu and Pearl Harbor and a mile or so above the main highway. we were to spend the next couple of months billeted in this US Marine camp. we would sleep and eat there then each day we would march to an open field of 40 acres where we proceeded to establish a signalman school facility. We took sack lunches to the field everyday.

The Navy Seabees did the construction work as we built to simulate a ships bridge on opposite corners of the field we would have students in each branch to signal back and forth and practice lights semi-and seeking flag signals. Each bridge had a big light with which we could send signals. Each had two masts and lanyards on which we would hang flags to signal all kinds of situations.
We had a classroom at Camp Catlin where we did a lot of learning of the Morse code and semi-door positions. We worked very hard and got pretty good at signaling.

We were off on weekends and had an occasional USO show to attend to at night.

Two of my old classmates were stationed here in Oahu. Lamel Pollock, whom I had gone to school with in Bryce and Benny Lofgreen. Lamel ran the laundry at Aiea barracks near Pearl Harbor. Benny Lofgreen was a classmate at Pima high school from Glenbar was a storekeeper at the submarine base in Pearl Harbor. Then he had lied about his age and skipped his senior school year. the three of us got together on most weekends.

From our fault signal bridge we had a great view of the Oahu coast. we watched two wounded aircraft carriers come to Pearl Harbor from battle where they had received that damage. One of them had taken a suicide plane down their smokestack and had no bridge left on it. The landing deck was the highest part remaining on the ship. The war was very real.
After we graduated from the school we each were given separate assignments. I was sent to

train for the amphibious landing of troops on enemy shores. I was at Barberas points station on the other side of Pearl Harbor. It was a tent city but pretty comfortable. We mostly trained at night with a red light. Some of us would stay on shore while others were in a small landing craft out from shore a short distance. I was here when Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt died. For some

reason our assignment was canceled so I was sent to the Aeia barracks to wait for a new assignment. I spent a lot of time with Lamel and his laundry office or with Benny at this submarine base. Then he would travel all over Oahu collecting produce and milk for his submarines we often went to a dairy in Kaimuki, a farming area up the slope above Waikiki Beach. We had a cute girlfriend that made good milkshakes in a drugstore there.

The girl was LDS and told us that dances were held at her ward each week. We attended a couple of the dances but they wouldn't let us dance close! Ben and I went to a ward located on Main street in Honolulu. The bus went past it.

I checked each weekday to see if I got my new assignment, very irritating. While waiting I got an abscessed wisdom tooth. The dentist wouldn't pull it while it was abscess

ed. It was miserable.

I finally got assigned to be a signal man on a tanker that had just left Boston, Massachusetts and would come through Panama Canal to Hawaii. It was manned by merchant Marines with a small Navy crew for protection.
I was given temporary duty at the main gate of Pearl Harbor. I moved into a large building next to the main gate. The building had banking areas but had barbershops, drugstore and all kinds of services like a small town. I would be at the main gate for an eight hour shift each day except my day off. My specific duty was to escort merchant marine personnel through the Pearl Harbor

base when they were to go ashore or when they returned to their ships. They were required to stay on the ship while it was docked there to load or unload unless they were escorted. This was a safety move to avoid espionage.

When we weren't on assignment escorting we would work with the full-time guards. I met lots of people from Pima doing this duty. one day Newt Kempton came in. I found where his ship was and went to see him on his ship that night. He was from Eden and I had gone with him to enlist when I was too young. Also on his ship was Robert Gaona who had went through boot camp with me.

Newt Kempton and I have been close buddies all through our life. He settled in Mesa and is still there. I take him to Pima high school games when they play in the Phoenix area.
When our ship finally arrived I moved aboard it. We had to chip and paint through old rusty tanker that was our new home. A partial crew that had come from Boston remained on the ship. They included a chief signal man and a signal man, a pharmacist mate first class, and a radio man. The rest of the crew were men that had waited here in Hawaii for the ship to arrive.

We were docked there while we made the ship liveable, loaded supplies, and made sure the diesel engine was in top shape.

The ship was a huge oil tanker built by Germans early in the World War I. It was named by the U.S. Navy and commissioned

as IX218 the USS Guardoqui. We were sent to Eniwotok Atoll in the Marshall Islands where we would refuel fighting ships and troop ships. We would be a portable dual station hauling diesel for ships. They said that our ship was as long as the biggest aircraft carriers.

The signal men had no duties while we were docked at Pearl Harbor so Richard King and I have to work with the theme and crew to get this ship shipshape. We had a slave driver type of Chief Boatsman who made our life real miserable because he knew he'd lose our service once the ship was at sea. We toughed it out but we didn't like him.

We were almost happy when after being at sea a day or two the chief Boatsman became very sick. the corpseman checked him out and decided he had an acute appendix problem either burst or just swollen. He needed a real doctor.

As a young geography student I had n

oticed a small dot in the Pacific ocean named Johnston Island. Little did I ever imagined I would ever be there. We veered off course enough to get to Johnston Island. One of my permanent jobs was to go on any trip the ship's boat went. We took the chief to Johnston Island basically just a small airstrip on a small island. I got off the boat to tie us up to th

e do

ck so I was actually on Johnston Island. We returned to the ship and proceeded south west to the Marshall Islands.

We went into Atoll center and became a service station. We single men were busy giving instructions to ships wanting to refuel. One of our first customers was a large ship from Britain loaded with Australians being returned from Europe where that part of the war was over.

We were accumulating a large fleet preparing to invade Japan. We were really happy to hear that an H-bomb had caused the japs to surrender.

One shipmate was a jack Mormon in Salt Lake area, I was alone in religion. We had a man named Temple who planned on being a preacher when he got home. He held Protestant services sometimes. He would call on me for prayers because he knew I knew how to pray.

One of my best pals on the crew was a skinny kid from Los Angeles named Alvin Pete Rozelle. He was our hero on payday, because he gave us our paychecks. The corpse man, radioman, and signalman made up the bridge crew. We often spent our off time in the sick bay where our

corpse men taught us to play bridge, the card game. We all got pretty skilled bridge players.

One of the engine crew was a boy from Phoenix remained Earl Somerall. We got together in Phoenix several times later. An older fellow in the engine crew from Globe, Arizona was named Lloyd, he was hard to relate to for me.

Our ship and 34 other warships headed for Japan as soon as the surrender was announced. We had battleships, cruisers, destroyers, destroyer escorts, and even tankers. We were loaded to capacity with diesel brought to us by fast tankers.

Our speed was just over 6 kn per hour, pretty slow

It was a beautiful sight to see all of these ships in an assigned position in the fleet. We made good time till we had a real bad typhoon near the Iwo Jimo area.

The formation broke up and we were all on our own. The sea was so rough that at times you couldn't see another ship and at other times you could see lots of them. The typhoon caused huge troughs then you would be on top of the ridge.

Everyone on our ship got real seasick except me and our chief cook. I didn't suffer a bit. No ships were lost due to the storm and once it was over we regained our formation proceeded to Tokyo. A day or two

later the seamen on lookout on our port side hollered box off the port bow. The officer of the day put his field glasses on it. I was standing alongside him. He said,"box hell, that's a mine." He gave instructions to turn to avoid the mine. He had me send a message to a destroyer near us advising them of the mines so they could go shoot it out of the water. They looked for it but didn't find it. It had apparently broken loose from the mooring in some Japanese harbor by the typhoon. This was the closest I got to danger during the war.

We arrived at the entrance to Tokyo Bay and I signaled for someone to pilot us thru the large minefields the japs had placed in their harbor. The pilot came and let us safely through the minds.We anchored off the port of Yokusuka alongside the battleship where the surrender had been signed. We re-fueled a lot of American ships and a few Australian ships. One afternoon in a small Japanese boat came alongside and with great difficulty I communicated with the Japanese sailor by semiphore flags then gave them permission to be fueled from us. It was a Japanese mi

nesweeper that was trying to remove the mines. He was a totally wooden ship.

It was hard to read the Japanese signals because they moved the flags at greater speeds than we did. It was hard to catch their pauses between letters and words.

My old pal Ted McBride was aboard a large landing craft and I knew which one. His ship came by after Tokyo Bay one day. We got together and visited each other's ships. We went on leave in Yokusuka one day. We wandered up the hills above the town and visited some farmers up there.
Most of us had a chance to go spend a day in a large city that firebombs have pretty much destroy before the surrender, Yokohame.

These are photos I took of Tokyo in October 1946.

In early December we left Tokyo to go home on

our slow ship. We got new supplies at Hawaii and continued on after a shortstop. We had our Christmas party between Hawaii and the Panama Canal. Temple arranged a pretty good Christmas program.
Ensign Wright, the storekeeper on the ship, was a cool guy and gave us all pictures of everywhere we went. Right got each of us a souvenir Japanese rifle from a factory in Yokusuka.

We got to Panama Canal and a pilot came out and boarded our ship. the pilot was an interesting guy. He took us to the locks up to Gatun Lake then he stayed with us til we cleared the locks on the Atlanta side. We docked a day in Christobel Colon and got fresh produce and supplies. Each half of the ship had a four-hour leave. I remember that there was a lot of poverty among the Panama people that we saw.

We were heading for where we would decommission our ship and leave it in the ship graveyard up the Mobile River from Mobile. It looked like we would get to Mobile by January 7 I would be able to surprise my mom with a phone call on her birthday on January 9.

When we got close to Mobile on January 7 we came into a heavy fog and had to drift around all night and part of the next day with our foghorn blaring periodically.

What an eerie feeling not knowing where other ships were. About noon on January 8 the fog lifted and so we were able to dock on Blakely Island on the afternoon of January 9. I was able to get to a pay phone on the day and give mom a real prize phone call.

We had a ship party at one of the big hotels in Mobile. in a few days then the older members of the crew with enough points went to bases near their homes to be discharged. Us that stayed behind had to strip our ship and prepare it to be abandoned. We were across the main branch of the mobile River from Mobile. It was a huge river and they had a tunnel connecting Blakely Island to Mobile. Buses ran regularly to and from Blakely Island. Our chief cook, an old career Navy man, came up missing a few days after we arrived. Everyone figured he probably just went home.

Ensign Wright and I were the last ones to leave and just before we were to go home the police wanted us to identify a body that had come up down the river. It was the chief cook and the police had determined that he missed the last bus one night so he had ridden a ferry that runs all night he was noticeably very drunk to witnesses and probably fell from the ferry and drown.

I was sad to go home the next Monday on Friday I boarded the bus to go to Mobile to enjoy the weekend at a Mardi Gras festival. As I boarded I noticed two young ladies sitting a few rows behind me. One of the girls looked familiar to me. I thought about her for an minute and then decided she must look like someone I have known.

I got up to go out the front door then I felt a tap on my back. I turned to face the familiar looking girl. She was a beautiful young lady with the LDS missionary name tag sister McGrath.

She said "pardon me but are you Var Hancock?"

I said, "no, but I know who you are."

I gave her a big hug and kiss we moved on out of the bus and continue to hug and kiss. We were among girls I knew from Blakely Island dances and found she had tracted out and talk. She quickly explained that I was her cousin. I don't know if they believed her. Her companion was sister Jackson from Jacksonville, Florida.

I had tried to locate a Mormon church when we first got here but none was listed in Mobile. I found out the church was located in a neighboring town. I'm sure I would have met Faye had I located the church.

The missionaries were not to work during the Mardi Gras weekend so I attended the parade that night with them. The next day we went sightseeing around Mobile. I thought beautiful places I hadn't visited before such as the Bellingraft gardens. The roads were all lined with beautiful azalea bush is in full bloom. It was a beautiful time.

We were together each night so I had to catch the midnight bus. She taught me more about the church than I had ever learned. On Sunday we had a conference at the chapel. I got to meet some nice people that were there all the time but I just didn't know them.

Sunday night was a very beautiful night we both pledged that we would get together later and get married. When I left on the train the next day day Faye and Sister Jackson were there to see me off. As the train pulled out she followed the train waving and crying. An older sailors sitting by me said ,"Man that girl sure loves you!"

Anytime I see a movie with the departing soldier or sailor on a train and a beautiful woman waving it brings tears to my eyes.

I also pledged to say that I would always attend church, serve my fellow man, and spread love where ever I go. I haven't broken those pledges.

I rode a slow train to Mesa. Going across Texas took for ever.

I got a great welcome home no ticket tape parade though streets of New York but I knew I had been missed. I visited in Mesa then spent a few days in Bryce at Aunt Lela's.

I received several beautiful love letters from Faye right away and I was so happy. I went to tell my grandmother Lamoreaux about our miraculous meeting in mobile and how we were in love with each other. Grandma threw a fit because Faye was my half first cousin once removed. She was sure if we were to get married we would have a bunch of crippled children. I had always loved my grandmother very much and I didn't want to go against her. She knew of a Haws family that were first cousins so all of their children were deformed. I can't remember what I wrote to say that I learned later that she had gone home early from permission and had a nervous breakdown. I've always felt very guilty for dropping her. We have kept in touch with each other at all of our lives but she won't talk about it. I hurt her very much, I know. They came West and attended BYU and became a teacher and then a counselor. She had five beautiful children about the same ages as mine.

I reported back to Navy at San Pedro California. I was the master at arms over a discharging barracks. The Navy men would spend two or three days there than they would go home as civilians. We had a two-story building and I had two seamen that each kept their floor in order. I took care of the assignments and oversaw the operation.

My grandmother had given me the name and address of her cousin living near where I work so I went to see Belle and Dean Chitwood often to get away from the Navy. Bell was the daughter of my great aunt Annie Smith. They'll often had a bridge club at her house where I would play too. Bell's cousin was the widow of the man who owned the San Pedro taxi company so I rode a lot of times free. She was grandma's cousin too, Great Aunt Ella Hendricks daughter.

Some of their younger grandkids took me to Hollywood to a dance at the Palladium. Dancing to the Glenn Miller band. That was a neat experience.

I rode to Hollywood by bus one day off and it was quite an experience. I went into the Ken Murray blackouts and sat by Esther Williams her husband's band was playing. I met John Caradine on the street he was with the pretty blonde. He bought me a pop in a nightclub. Guy Maddison , the new movie star playing Wild Bill Hitchcock, was at a nearby table. He had been in the Navy as a signalman so he sent me a message with his fingers as semiphor flags. He said," watch out for him because he is a Homo."

I excused myself and went to talk to Guy Madison. He said he had been on set with John Caradine and he was putting the make on him. I decided maybe Hollywood wasn't a good place to be.

One of my seaman helpers was from long beach nearby and he arranged for the others seaman and I to go on blind dates with him and his girlfriend and two of her friends. We met them and took them down on a Pike, a fun park.

I knew right away that I didn't like my date but Wanda Cross was the other blind date and she appealed to me. We made it through the date but I got Wanda's phone number and took her out alone, first chance I got.

It was getting close to my time to get discharged. My mom and dad and my brother Gene came to get me. After I was discharged we picked up Wanda and took her to a nightclub in Hollywood. We ate and were watching a magic show. He picked Wanda out of the crowd to help him and she did a good job at it.

We were staying in a motel out in Long Beach so I took Wanda home alone and was with her til late. She was a beautiful girl who had been through a lot of stress since she lost her mother early and her father was a lot older man. She had been raised by different aunt and her neighbor lady who basically wanted her for a babysitter. Wanda was not LDS but she had a sweet spirit. I invited her to come to Mesa and see if she could put up with my family.

I went home from the Navy in early July 19 and she came later and we were married on July 24 in grandma lamoreaux's home by grandma's bishop.

I spent 21 months in the U.S. Navy and was still 19 when I was discharged. I have often pondered just why the Lord provided me with the miracle in Mobile. I feel certain that if my grandma hadn't resisted so strongly that Faye and I would have had a very successful religious marriage. On the other hand the miracle completely turn me around religious wise. I had always took the church for granted and intended very haphazardly that said small bill I have dedicated my life to the church and of always doing service to my fellow man. After really studying my patrichial blessing I have always to do missionary work with a whole lot of success. I am certainly thankful that the Lord had me meet the two lady missionaries on the Blakely Island bus on the first day of Mardi Gras in Mobile Alabama. I was so far away from home and anyone I ever knew
.

Fast and Young

The Fredonia Justice of Peace was a very interesting man, Joseph Brooksby. He had a ranch on the strip where he had raised sheep for years. He had some mountain grazing land up in Utah. Joseph Brooksby was also the Kanab Stake Patriarch. I really loved working with Joe as my judge.

Most days Joe was away from home so his wife Herma would handle my tickets when I sent violators in to see the judge. She did a great job. She was a Pratt and grew up in Fredonia.

One morning as I was leaving home and approaching the Highway 89 I saw a car heading South at a pretty fast pace. I followed the car to the Johnson Wash about 5 miles then realized he was going 85 miles per hour so I stopped him. The driver got out and walked back to meet me.

He was a very distinguished looking older man. I asked him for his drivers license and he gave it to me. He was Seymore Dilworth Young of Salt Lake City, Utah. I recognized him as a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles in the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints. I advised him that he was driving too fast and particularly thru town. His reply was, "Those women in the back seat were talking fast so I was driving fast to keep up with their pace."

I wrote him a ticket and had him go back to see the judge. I felt sure that Herma would recognize who he was and not fine him. He was going to a Stake Conference in Mesa and his wife accompanied by the Welfare Representative and his wife. I told him I was a member of the church so he said, "Brother Johnston if you think I drive fast you ought to follow President David O. Mckay or Apostle Delbert Stapley sometime."

He thanked me for making him aware of his speed very graciously and sincere.

I went back to see the judge later and I asked Herma what she had done to S. Dilworth Young when he came in. She said who and I said who and I said Apostle Young. She hadn't recognized him because, like me, he never uses his first name so she had made him pay a $25 fine. She felt terrible about it that she hadn't recognized him as an aspostle of her church.

Later in 1958 while I was working out of Yuma we had a stake conference and S. Dilworth Young was the visiting authority from Salt Lake. He recognized me in the congregation and came back and talked to me. He assured me that he was still watching his speed all the time.

Then later in 1964 at a Grand Junction, Colorado Stake Conference S. Dilworth Young was our visiting general authority. This was a much larger crowd than the one in Yuma was but before the meeting started he walked back to where I was seated and addressed me as Brother Johnston and again thanked me for that time I stopped him for speeding near Fredonia, Arizona. We had a good visit that last time I saw him.

Rattling Tales

One duty I was given by my leaders was to make all of the many Utah residents that held jobs or ranched in Arizona get Arizona License plates on their car. They used our roads and highways but didn't help pay for the road upkeep.


A lot of people that worked at the Whitey Brothers saw mill south of Fredonia lived in Kanab, Oderville, Glendale of Mount Karmel in southern Utah. Many Utah residents had ranches on the Arizona Strip, the Kaibab and in House Rock Valley.

Most of them working at the sawmill have been forced to "double plate" by the men at the checking station but some have avoided it. When they were legal they had plates from both states. The ranchers were the ones that gave me the most trouble because they had been getting by without "double plating" for generations.

One hot summer day in 1955 I drove out to Pipe springs National Monument and as I drove up to the place where people filled water tanks on trucks a truck was pulling away with a full load. He had no plate on his truck at all so I stopped him right in front of the fort. I proceeded to write him a ticket. I was parked behind his truck and was writting the ticket on my car hood. He was standing beside me so I could ask him all the questions I needed answered. My car motor was running and vibrated quite a bit. For some reason I looked down at my feet and saw that a large rattle snake had crawled up and coiled right between my feet! I quietly and slowly took out my pistol and warned the other guy not to move. I shot the snake right thru his head and killed him instantly. The snake had apparently been sleeping around the base of the huge cottonwood paplar tree about 5 feet from my car. The vibration of the car motor running had enticed him to come nearer. He was the biggest rattlesnake I have ever encountered, 10 ratles and a button!

The rancher not only got a ticket but a good scare too.

I had learned about the fact that vibration drew rattlesnakes when I worked on a road to an old mine. It was when I was 16 years old, my dad and I were working on a road about 30 miles south of our home in Bryce, Arizona. They needed the mine in use for the war effort.

I ran a jackhammer driling holes in huge boulders that were in the way. We drilled holes all day then they put dynamite charges in the holes and blew the rocks up after we cleared out. Dad ran a bulldozer to make the road bed.

I worked with an older Mexican driller nd we had a compressor sitting near by to run the jackhammers. We had been drilling on this large boulder for quite a while when we stopped to change bits. We looked around and rattlesnakes were all around enjoying the vibration. A snake den was apparently under this rock. We spent a while killing snakes. It was on the south slope of the Santa Theresa Mountains.

Later that summer I spotted a guy that was with me when I killed the snakes at Pipe Springs, so I followed him. He was in a pickup that wasn't "double plated". I noticed he was driving very erratic; weaving alot.

I stopped him and noticed he was drunk. I talked to him for awhile ten I said "I am going to have to lock you up for drunk driving" He was already mad at me so he said, "Like hell you are!" He was standing with his back toward the bar-pit, a gentle slope for about 20 feet or so. I just flat handed him right in the chest and he went head over heels down the berm. When he landed I was on him and had the handcuffs on him before he knew what hit him. I locked him up for drunk and reckless driving and ticketed him for not having Arizona license plates.

He was a young man in early 20's from a big raching family in Orderville, Utah. He paid a big fine and was released the next morning. I never had any more contact with him.

Swimming Exercise Class

Police Work - Carjacker

In the spring of 1955 while I was hanging out at the only Fredonia checking station, talking to Joe Billingsley who had just been transferred from Gripe, the phone rang. The Flagstaff patrol officer reported that we were to be on the look out for a car of which they gave an accurate description. A couple had been headed North from Flagstaff on Highway 89 and had stopped and gave a ride to a young man hitchhiking. They had proceeded North a short distance when the hitchhiker pulled a pistol from his bag and ordered the driver to pull over. It was about 30 miles from Flagstaff. He ordered the couple out of the car and drove off continuing North. The couple flagged down a south bound car and returned to Flagstaff and reported the incident to the police.

Joe and I moved our signs around so any North bound car would have to pull into the checking station. We only stopped south bound cars for agriculture and license inspections ordinarily. We watched each car going north very carefully but after about 2 hours we hadn't seen the stolen car. Deputy Sheriff Slim and I decided to go check the two small motels in Fredonia. At the Baker Motel on the south edge of town we found a car parked in front of one of the units that fit the description. We asked Jim Baker, the proprietor, about who checked into a number three unit. He said it was a single young man.

Slim went around to the back of the unit and I knocked on the front door. A young man came to the door and I placed him under arrest putting handcuffs on him The gun was on the dresser.

We placed him in our little jail and reported to Flagstaff by phone that we had a culprit. The next day Slim and I took the prisoner to back to Flagstaff and placed him in the Coconino County Jail.

Curves of Kaibab

One of the interesting parts of being the first Arizona Highway Patrolman on the Arizona Strip area was situations on the highways on the Kaibab Mountain. The word Kaibab was an Indian word meaning “mountain lying down.” There were no peaks on the Kaibab, just a ridge running from near the Arizona -Utah border southwest only to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. This ridge was over 3000 feet above the Houserock Valley on the East and 2000 feet or so above the Fredonia area on the west.

Highway 89 wound up 15 miles from the Houserock Valley to Jacobs Lake climbing most of the way through small canyons and ridges. From Jacobs Lake it was pretty level for about 10 miles in a northwesterly direction then it dropped rapidly down for 5 miles to a sage brush flat 15 miles from Fredonia.

Highway 67 went south from Jacob Lake through a heavy forest of Ponderosa Pines most of the way. The last 15 miles before entering the North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park was big open meadows called VT park.

One of the rare sights to see in the Kaibab forest was a Kaibab White Tailed Squirrel. I would see them often except in winter.

After I was in the area a short time my Sargent brought me a bunch of wooden crosses. I was instructed to place a cross on the highway shoulder where a highway death had occurred.

I asked the the Highway maintenance crew where death had occurred prior to that time. They told me about “Death Curve” where I was to put up 7 crosses. This was a curve near the bottom of the road going down toward Houserock Valley. The road made an almost 90 degree turn where the canyon turned sharply. If you didn't slow down and negotiate the curve you would run into a solid cliff. The road was pretty straight approaching the curve so many accidents had happened there.

The 7 crosses were for a wreck where 5 members of one family had died. There had been two other accidents where a single person had been killed.

The maintenance crew told me of the names of other curves on the road all going Southwest on Highway 89.

About five miles from Jacobs Lake was a curve they called “chicken curve.” Several years earlier a semi truck loaded with live chickens in cages had wrecked going too fast and had scattered chickens everywhere. The people from Kanab, Utah and Fredonia had rushed up to the wreck and salvaged a lot of chickens.

The insurance covered the lost chickens so the local people had a lot of chickens.

Truckers seemed to pick up too much speed going southeast from Jacobs Lake. The curve after the “chicken curve” going southeast was called “potato curve.” A potato farmer up in Idaho had a bobtailed truck so he would haul potatoes South into Arizona on his own and sell them. In the fall of 1953 he had a wreck on “potato curve” and scattered potatoes all over the area. The Kanab and Fredonia people salvaged the potatoes and had a lot of potatoes to eat that winter. The insurance company took care of the farmer. He got a new truck and I got acquainted with him at the checking station as he came through with his potatoes several times each fall. I reminded him to slow down on “potato curve.”

In the fall of 1954 a big semi truck wrecked on the first curve southwest of Jacob's Lake about 2 miles. He was loaded with boxes of prunes from California.

I had always thought prunes were just dried plums but these were real prunes picked by “California prune pickers.” They were big juicy prunes.

When word got out a lot of people came from Kanab and Fredonia and salvaged boxes of prunes. We got a few boxes and Wanda and I put them up in jars. We are prunes for several year from that wreck. They were delicious.

I was able to name that curve “Prune curve.” None of the prune salvagers suffered from constipation.

None of the truck drivers ever got injured in these wrecks.

On the way to the North Rim on Highway 67, the first 20 miles or so is pretty straight but just before you entered VT part, where all of the large meadows are, the road winds around some. One Saturday afternoon on one of the curves a young couple in a convertible with the top down wrecked going real fast.

The couple were from California an a weekend visit to the Grand Canyon. They were both killed when the car flipped over onto it's top and went scooting off into a small meadow on it's top.

I found a ticket in the glove compartment written hours before on old 66 highway near Seligman by Chick Harddup, a highway patrolman.

I named this curve “convertible curve” and put two white crosses on it.

In the fall of 1956 the Mackelprangs were moving their cows from their ranch adjacent to the Buffalo ranch in the Houserock Valley back to their home place in the Kanab area in Utah. They had hauled their horses from Kanab in a bobtailed truck and sorted the cows and calves. They had loaded the cows only in a big semi cattle trucks and headed for Kanab toward evening.

Northwest of Jacob's Lake about 10 miles is a rest stop and view point where you can overlook Fredonia and Kanab in the distance. A couple of hundred yeard past this view point the road starts winding down a canyon. The cattle truck was going too fast as he went into the first curve so he flipped to his left side and went plowing through the pinon pine and juniper trees on the left side for quite a distance down a ridge.

I came upon the accident shortly after it happened. The small truck carrying the Mackelprangs and their horses was right behind the cattle truck. They found that 6 cows were killed. They unloaded their horses and were able to herd the remaining twenty or so cows down the road to a corral at the bottom of the mountain. I had the inspection station operator warn each South bound car about cattle in the road so no one ran into the cattle. It was getting dark by then.

The truck driver wasn't hurt. I got the necessary information for my reports and then I wondered; what to do with the six cows. The driver said “Don't worry about them. The Navajos will take care of them.”

Earlier in my tour of duty there I had learned that if a Navajo Indian finds a dead animal, they take everything but the feet and a pile of the stuff they squeeze out of the guts. From time to time I had found 4 cows feet and an ant hill like pile of what was in the guts. I also found deer and sheep remains.

A big wrecker had to come from Cedar City, Utah to set cattle trucks on its wheels. I drove on home and had supper and when I came back to assist the wrecker I found 6 sets of four feet and 6 piles of green stuff from the guts where the six cows had been laying. The Navajos that worked at the saw mill in Fredonia had been on their way home to spend Sunday at their homes on the reservation, saw the dead cows and helped themselves.

The people of Kanab and Fredonia didn't get to salvage any beef but the Navajo people sure did well. That curve is now “Cow curve.”

Movies

The movie makers often used the red cliffs around Kanab, Utah. The carmel cliffs near Mount Carmel Junction, the strange formations near old Paria town and the colorful hills were great back drops in western movies. Many locals got jobs as extras in the movies. Some of the ranchers rented horses and cattle, too. Peaches Motel was headquarters of the movie makers. The whole area was awake when a movie company was in town There were even two permanent movie sets built in the Kanab, Utah area. They had a army fort just north of the state line but about a mile west of Highway 89. The other one was on a country dirt road at Johnson Wash about 15 miles east of Kanab. It was a small town, false fronts.

The first movie made in the Kanab area after we moved there was a mystery using the Whiting Saw Mill for its crime scene. I watched some of the filming but didn’t really get involved. It was to be called “The Silk Stocking”. I never saw the movie.

The next movie was a low budget western starring Tony Bennett, the singer who “Lost his heart in San Francisco.” I went up by the state line north of Fredonia and watched them shot a few scenes. Tony Bennett was on a horse waiting for ‘action’ when a horse fly lit on his horse’s rump and the horse swung his head around trying to shoo the fly and swatted with his tail. Tony Bennett got mad at the horse and cursed him nastily. From that day on I couldn’t stand Tony.

One summer a big movie was made that starred Joel McRae and Barbara Stanwick. Part of it was filmed at the fort so I hung around out there in my uniform watching different scenes. I visited with both McRae and Stanwick when they weren’t shooting. I was awed in their presence but they both treated me respectfully. Stanwick seemed a bit hard to me. Some of my friends were extras and I thought it would be fun.

Katie Jurado and Ernest Borgnine were there to make a movie, they were quite a pair. I heard she really entertained the guys at the Buckskin Tavern in Fredonia. Most of the movie people had a party at Buckskin Tavern every night. No bars or taverns allowed in Utah so they came down into Arizona to party.

In the summer of 1956, we got word that Warner Brothers were coming to make the first full length Lone Ranger Movie. They came in the last week of June. I decided that this was my chance to work as an extra.

I went up to Peaches Motel the day they had advertised they would start hiring. I was in uniform. The assistant casting director, Julio Milliman was doing the interviewing. He told me that they may not be able to make the movie here after all their preparations. He said the local extras had recently organized into their own guild and wanted Warner Brothers to negotiate a contract with them.

I have always been against unions so I told him that I would try to round up a bunch of guys who weren’t in the guild that would be glad to work in the movie. He told me to see what I could do so I got busy and found plenty of extras. I had a couple of guys quit Bowman’s at Jacob Lake to work in movies. I found several at Grand Canyon, too. I talked to several locals that never bothered to work in movies to do it this time. Last but not least my wife’s sister’s family just happened to be visiting so my brother-in-law, Milton Myers, was an extra too.

Milton had never ridden a horse and fell off it when it started walking, which required a retake of that scene. He stayed on it the second time. We were issued clothes and guns etc. I worked as one of the bad guys, Lyle Bettigers men, an outlaw. I rode an old red horse, not spirited.

We started working right away. We would shoot scenes with no idea how it fit into the movie. We worked down the Virgin River from Mt. Carmel Junction, Utah about 15 miles or so. There were some colorful side canyons to the Virgin River Canyon. We would ride a bus there in the morning then shoot a scene for a few minutes. We'd be off for quite awhile then shoot another scene. Each day went on the same way.

Clayton Moore was the Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels was Tonto. They had five horses laying Silver and each had a special tricks! Wan Mackelprang a 19 year old local rancher’s son did the stand-in riding as the Lone Ranger on all fast runs. Robert Warner, a professional stuntman was the Lone Ranger in jumps and stunts. Warner also played the army lieutenant part.

Lyle Bettiger, my boss, was a familiar face in movies. He was just as honery in real life. The real bad bully guy was Robert Wilkie, a real bad apple. A miserable character with a foul mouth and arrogant attitude.

I would go work all day on the movie then put my uniform on and work the highway for 8 hours. We had lots of nap time during the day between scenes. No accidents happened in my absence.

The guys that I had recruited had a ball and really enjoyed the experience. Some of them slept at my house cause they were from the Salt Lake City area. They were able to go back to their jobs at Jacob Lake and the Grand Canyon when the movie was finished.

On July 4^th, a Sunday, they called a small bunch of us to work, triple pay. We shot all day up Kanab Creek about 10 miles north of Kanab. Us out law extras were there. Robert Warner was there to shoot the part where he fights Robert Wilkie down the side of Kanab Creek as the Lone Ranger.

Warner’s wife was Yvonne De Carlo and she was there all day. She was a very nice and pretty lady.

We always had a good catered meal at noon, usually good steaks etc…

One of the days we were working down the Virgin River, a big cloud burst came up stream and sent a significant flood down the river at mid afternoon. The dirt road from Highway 89 Southwest went across the river several times between where we were and the highway so we waited til after dark before we could come out. I got better acquainted with both Tonto and the Lone Ranger while we were waiting. They were both great guys. They all knew how I had made it possible to make the movie there and treated me great.

At this site down the Virgin River we were riding single file through a narrow canyon when a blast went off right in front of us. I was about 15 guys back and when the blast went off all of the riders in front of me fell off their horses! In the retake they put me right behind the two main outlaws and no one fell off their horse. The Lone Ranger was throwing sticks of dynamite in front of us to turn us back. I was clearly recognizable during these few minutes of the film. After the blasting stopped, I was there in front of the camera for quite a while while they talked.

The Moqui Caverns and Twin Lakes area were used for some scenes. They are along the highway a few miles north of Kanab.

Julio Milliman, the assistant casting director had become a good friend and he invited me to come to Hollywood saying he could keep me working in movies. He liked my rugged look. I told him I was happy as an Arizona Highway Patrolman. I told him I was going to California at the next Christmas so he invited me to come see Warner Brothers Studio as his guest. I did this when I went to visit Joop and Toos Wouter.

The following summer a movie company came to make a western. Peter Graves, Jon Arness brother was the star. They were shooting scenes just north of Highway 89 where Mount Carmel was in the background. I stood around awhile and visited with Peter Graves. I took Able Fernadez back to town because he was threw for the day.

When the Lone Ranger movie came to the little Kanab Theater we took the kids and went up to watch it. After the movie was over we asked Dan and Jon if they had seen Daddy in the movie.

Jon said “I didn’t see any highway patrolman in it.” He was five years old.

We watched it again and showed them each time I was on the screen. I have really enjoyed showing the Lone Ranger to friends and relatives since.