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Grand Canyon Pioneers Society - Monthly Bulletin - October 1998 |
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We wish to thank everyone concerned with our inclusion in the Grand Canyon Hall of Fame. We appreciate the honor.
However we were active in the Community because we have always believed that one should give back to the community where one makes their home. The Grand Canyon was a wonderful place to call home for the 39 years we lived there. We cherish our friends and have many fine memories of those years.
Thanks especially to Al Richmond and Supt. Arnberger and to all the friends who attended.
Buford and Myra Belgard Williams, AZ
Please accept my thanks for being honored by the Pioneers Society and the National Park Service in the Grand Canyon Hall of Fame. It was a surprise and I do not feel I deserve it, thinking back over what others have done. My efforts were small. Most of the things I took part in was because I enjoyed doing them.
It was nice to see old friends and socialize.
Mary K. Hoover Williams, AZ
On behalf of the Post and the Auxiliary, we wish to thank you and the National Park Service of Grand Canyon as the first organization for being honored in the Canyon Hall of Fame.
Our Organizations are in their 75th year of "service to the community, state and nation". We are com-mitted first to our veterans and service personnel, but we are also solidly committed to our communities. The projects we have done in the past and are continuing to do, especially at Grand Canyon, the home of our Post and its Auxiliary mirror that commitment.
We are especially proud of our scholarship program, our Boy and Girls State programs that benefit our children. We hope the coming generations will not know the horrors and sorrows of war.
We are also proud of the five members that you chose to honor. In their behalf, we thank you.
Albert Dunaway, Commander American Legion John Ivens Post No. 42 Grand Canyon AZ
Due to an oversight we omitted the names of those receiving the Grand Canyon Hall Of Fame Award for Community Service at the Grand Canyon August 1, 1998. Those honored were Buford and Myra Belgard, Mary Hoover, Jack and Betty Verkamp, Donna Baird and Albert Dunaway, Commander, American Legion, John Ivens Post No. 42 and Auxiliary.
We apologize for the omission.
October 17, 1998 : The GCPS annual meeting will be held at the Radisson Hotel 1175 West Rt. 66, Flagstaff, AZ. The members of the Board will meet at 11AM.
The general meeting will begin at 12 noon. A buffet lunch will be served. Hotel charge will be $10 adults and $8.00 for children under 12.
November 14, 1998 : Program presented by Dick and Sherry Mangum on GC Pioneer Pete Berry. The meeting will be held at the Albright Training Center at Grand Canyon at 11:00
November 15, 1998 : For those interested there will be a hike down to horseshoe Mesa for a look at the newly named Berry Butte. The naming of the Butte was the work of Dick and Sherry and was sponsored by the GCPS last year.
December : No meeting scheduled
David Buccello of Springdale Utah.
MY VERY OWN PRINTER!
Oh, goodie, goodie, rah! rah! whoopee! Gee, gosh I don't believe it. I have a printer that's all my own. Will wonders never cease? How did this happen? Well, I never expected it, but it all goes back to Bill's saying, "I need a new printer, etc, etc . . . ." I forget the rest of it, but of course the next thing I knew here came a new printer delivered by Air Express or some other overnight service. Nothing slow about him. And after he got his new one installed he had one left over, so of course I was next in line. (He said my computer wouldn't work on his new printer!) So I went in search of an old broken-down stool (it hasa leg which is subject to collapse at any time). This he set up beside my computer then set the printer gingerly onto it. (If this suddenly scrambles it's because the stool fell onto its face).
And so, after playing with the setup for a while, then giving me instructions in the operation, I now can use my very own new (old) hand-me-down (inherited) printer. Aren't you proud? I will now be able to write my thoughts to you without inter-rupting the man of the house.
The ironic part of the whole thing is - - - Bill can't get his to work! (Editor's note: Poetic justice???)
Sunday, October 25, 1998 : There will be a ceremony commemorating one of Arizona's famous Pioneers, Buckey O'Neill. As most of you know Buckey who was influential in getting the Railroad to Grand Canyon was killed in action during the Spanish American War in 1898 and never lived to see the results of his project. The affair will take place at the Grand Canyon Railway Station and is sponsored by the Arizona Rough Riders. Arizona historian, Marshall Trimble will be a guest speaker scheduled to start at 1:45 PM. The 1st Volunteer Calvary A Troop will conduct a Flag Ceremony, Unit Drill and a Gun salute. Members of the GCPS are invited to attend.
Our attention nas been called to the fact that we can't spell for nuthin'! ïspecially not proper names for Old Timers. In the September Bulletin we misspelled practically every name listed in the letter from Ron Murphy. We are supposed to know that sort of thing. The names correctly spelled are: WALTER ROUSER, Dr. LEO SCHUR, HOWARD STRICKLIN, LOUIS SHELLBACH. And to add insult to injury, we even referred to JOHN IVENS POST as "IVERS". Twenty lashes for us.
What we really need is an Old-timer who is also a good proofreader. Any volunteers?
(Editor's Note: I writes 'em as I gets 'em. My spellchekker are Arkansas surplus. Why dont people larn to spel there names rite anyhow?)
The Bulletin welcomes news items and comments; personal stories of issues related to Grand Canyon and vicinity. Write Edwin Druding, Editor 7628 N 49 Av, Glendale Az. 85301 (e-mail druding@phnx.uuswest.net)
On August 15, a small group of Pioneers came out for the Jerome outing: Gale Burak, Ruth Druding, Sibyl Suran, Tom Carmony, Ron and Carol Werhan, Jeanne and Fred Schick, and Dan and Diane Cassidy.
We met outside the Douglas Mansion at Jerome State Historic Park on a lightly breezy summer day. The Mansion was built in 1916 of adobe bricks that were made on the site. It was designed as a hotel for mining officials and investors as well as for the Douglas family. It featured a wine cellar, billiard room, marble shower, steam heat and, much ahead of its time, a central vacuum system.
We began our tour with a 20-minute video on the history of the Jerome area and the Douglas family. The museum features exhibits of photographs, artifacts and minerals in addition to a detailed 3-D model of the town with its underground mines.
After the tour, we car pooled up the hill, through the usual weekend crowds, for lunch outside on the porch of the restaurant wisely chosen by Sibyl. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch and had a fun time exchanging stories and tall tales.
Dan
Before Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinski became household names, in fact before they were born, Arizona contributed a bit of news that was printed across the nation and perhaps around the world. Two players are featured in this drama from diverse backgrounds and goals. One, a gentleman from a reputable Mormon pioneer family and the other from a middle upperclass family. Irony shall weave a web between them as history unfolds. Jack found his career as a zealous cub reporter for the then Arizona Republican. She found her career as what may now is referred to as a high class call girl. Their paths crossed the first time when she was implicated in a murder of a roommate whose body was shipped to Los Angeles in a trunk.
Zealous Jack, with all of his moral convictions was influential in media conviction of the woman, for whom no actual evidence would have convicted her today. She was sentenced to die by hanging. However, a last minute evaluation by a doctor indicated her to be insane. She was then sent to the State Mental Hospital "....until she would be sane enough to be hanged!"
Our 'heroine' would live in the facility for many years, earning such things as grounds passes and leave passes to go to town unescorted. This she did regularly and even states that she plied her trade during such excursions. Occasionally she would be discovered missing by some new staff who unduly alarmed the news media whose headlines would report "Trunk Murderess Escapes" only to be found in her room the next morning. One time she failed to return.
Through a routine driver's license check it was discovered that she was wanted in Arizona. She was returned to Arizona State Prison who stated that she was not a fugitive from there but from the State Hospital. She was returned to the hospital where a hearing of a petition from her attorney for release was offered and a pardon granted to her with conditions that she not return to Arizona during her lifetime and that she not publish nor allow to be published the intimate details of her life during her lifetime. (The author had spent countless hours talking to this gracious lady while she was at the state hospital. She confided that she held a 'little black book' which would be interesting reading about some of our illustrious pioneer families, I'm sure).
Now, for the rest of the story, Winnie Ruth Judd is the 'heroine' in this and her co-star, the dashing young reporter and later Governor of the State of Arizona who signed the pardon is the late Jack "Leave us all enjoy it" Williams.
A moment of tribute to a fine man, reporter, announcer and governor. We'll miss him.
With all the bad weather we had in the northern part of Arizona the week before the Grand Canyon Pioneers headed to Toroweap there was some doubt if it would be possible to make it down the dirt road to the overlook. As it turned out we had a great outing. I counted twenty persons and four dogs.
The dirt road wasn't actually a dirt road; it was a dirt and mud road! At the first running wash we came to, one of the group decided his two wheel drive pickup had met its match and turned around. However, none of the rest of us got stuck or had truck trouble.
At four places along the sixty-one mile road we stopped while George Billingsly treated us with talks on the geology of our surroundings.
When we at last reached Toroweap overlook, being Pioneers, we were all starving and had lunch on what was someones old homestead. Ranger Clair Roberts and his wife, Liz, joined us then to give us a bit of history.
The Canyon Rim at Toroweap is indeed almost a 3000 foot drop straight down and I could not get myself close enough to the edge to see the Colorado River and had to stand back and look either up or downstream to see it.
As an added treat George took us up on Mount Logan and showed us the head of Whitmore Canyon (a side canyon to Grand Canyon) and the Hurricane Cliffs. He also pointed out Vulcan's Throne and the Toroweap fault. On top of Mount Logan there were thousands of ladybugs and to add to the excitement a rattlesnake.
After dark we all gathered at the campground and had a long interesting conversation about Grand Canyon and people, mostly of course about the previous Tuweap Ranger, John Riffey.
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