“PASSPORT IN TIME” TRANSPORTS VOLUNTEER ARCHAEOLOGISTS BACK TO ANCIENT PUEBLO VILLAGES
HOUSE ROCK VALLEY, Arizona. – Connie Reid stands with me atop a low ridge, the ruins of an ancient rock house scattered around us. The landscape here is high desert. Pinyon pine and juniper struggle to grow in the dry rocky soil. The Grand Canyon zig-zags across the flat landscape to the southeast, while the squat gray-green bulk of the Kaibab Plateau and the towering red Vermillion Cliffs frame the area to the west and north. The charred remains of cliffrose shrubs—victims of a 2001 wildland fire—poke out of the dirt here and there. Aside from scrub pine and maybe some weeds, it doesn’t look like a place you’d want to try to grow anything.
But Reid, an archaeologist with the FS’s North Kaibab Ranger District, begs to differ. She points out another ruined home site atop yet another ridge about a half mile away, then gestures from southeast to northwest and tells me, “A thousand years ago, this whole area—from the Grand Canyon all the way around the Kaibab Plateau to Kanab (Utah)—was farmed.”
During the first week of October, the North Kaibab Ranger District hosted a FS PIT project here, a remote area along the north rim of the Grand Canyon that was once home to the ancient Pueblo people. A diverse group of 15 volunteers joined Kaibab NF archaeologists in locating, documenting, and mapping Puebloan farmsteads, trying to better understand the agricultural and trade patterns of the people who once occupied this now-isolated landscape.
Here in House Rock Valley, Reid and I wander through the survey area, noting the remains of homes and field shelters where Puebloan farmers lived, worked, and stored food and tools, and the terrace systems and check dams they built in drainage areas to capture runoff from the Kaibab Plateau. “A few years ago when we completed a survey of this area for another project, we knew that there were terraces and check dams out here,” Reid says. “The purpose of this project is to find out: What’s their extent? How are they laid out? Where did the people live in relation to their farms?”
Reid leads me to a team of volunteers, led by FS archaeologist Melissa Schroeder, mapping the site of yet another pueblo home. Bob Dye and Donna Koster, river guides from Kanab, Utah, measure the dimensions of the rubble and plot the location of artifacts in relation to the home. Gene Cordero, a scenic-flight charter pilot from Kanab, draws sketches of different arrowheads he found among the ruins. “Don’t ask me what I’m doing,” Cordero replies cheerfully to my questioning. “I’m just doing it.”
Learning by doing is an important aspect of the PIT program. The volunteers learn from the professional archaeologists with whom they work, and from each other. And the archaeologists take away a few things from the volunteers, too. “It’s great to soak up the enthusiasm of the volunteers,” Reid says. “Their sense of wonder and discovery reminds me why I do this job.”
|
|
| (Above) North Kaibab District Archaeologist Connie Reid briefs PIT volunteers on the day’s work plan during the Exploring Ancient Pueblo Homesteads PIT project, Kaibab NF, Arizona, 2004; (above right) a petroglyph carved into a rock on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon indicates a source of water nearby, for those hardy enough to descend into the canyon to reach it. (Right) The ruins of an ancient Puebloan rock house stand atop a low ridge in House Rock Valley, Exploring Ancient Pueblo Homesteads, Kaibab NF, Arizona, 2004. | |
It’s also easy to see how this year’s group of volunteers can learn so much from each other. In addition to river guides and a charter pilot, the group includes a pair of retired Stanford University anthropology professors, a career Foreign Service diplomat, and a retired Boeing aeronautical engineer. “We had over 100 applicants for this year’s project,” Reid notes. “Each year, we try very hard to select people from a variety of places and backgrounds—we give preference to those applications where the person writes something about himself and why he wants to participate. It makes for a great working group, and some very interesting conversations around the campfire at base camp each evening, too.”
And, of course, the FS participants spend at least as much time educating their charges as they do actually supervising their work. “Connie and Neil (Weintraub, FS archaeologist) were great—I learned so much from watching and listening to them in the field,” says Joan Radonich, a community college instructor and guidance counselor in Gresham, Oregon. “This is my third PIT project, and I’ve enjoyed each of them more than the last.”
In addition to the archaeology lessons, the volunteers also learned about the people who have lived on this land over the ages. Although the focus of this particular project was the Puebloan people who farmed this arid countryside about 1,000 years ago, Reid notes, “The evidence shows that this landscape was used by people as far back as 8,000 or 9,000 years ago. In fact, it was probably more used in the prehistoric than the historic period.”
And when the Pueblo people disappeared from the region—either from drought or assimilation—around the 12th century, the land became home to the Paiute Indians. Angie Bulletts, a Kaibab Paiute Indian and FS employee, brought her family out to base camp the first evening to tell the volunteers about the “old ones” which the Kaibab Paiute claim as ancestors, and the importance the land still holds for her people.
Evidence of all of these peoples remains in the House Rock Valley. Every yard or two, it seems, of our walk through the project area, Reid stops to examine yet another artifact—pottery sherds, arrowheads, tool handles, wall fragments—that lies along our path. The ground here is literally littered with history. Paiute side-notched arrowheads are mixed in with red- and black-painted Pueblo pottery sherds and fragments of prehistoric tools.
At another site, a team led by FS archaeologist Russ Snyder and volunteer John Azar of Fredonia, Arizona, found a turquoise bead which, like the obsidian used for arrowheads, were imported to the area through long-distance trade networks that extended as far as Oregon and the Pacific Ocean. This shifting pattern of people and use over time intrigues archaeologists like Reid. “Artifacts are fun, but the more we get into discovering patterns and changes over time—that’s when things get interesting,” she says.
To discover these patterns, the volunteers spent the entire first day of the five-day project simply walking around the area, noting sites worth revisiting later. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the first thing you find, and not notice something even more interesting or important just a few hundred feet away,” Reid says. “Walking the area first gives you a bigger picture and allows you to see how the different sites are interconnected.” After walking the area and determining which sites would receive further attention, the teams returned on the following four days to do the donkey-work of archaeology—inspecting, marking, mapping, sketching.
Reid and her fellow FS archaeologists will ultimately publish the results of this PIT project. The information collected will undoubtedly prove useful to North Kaibab Ranger District managers as they develop forestry, wildlife, range, and recreation programs for the area, helping them to protect the rich cultural resources of the House Rock Valley. But to Reid, the significance of what the volunteers found goes far beyond the pragmatic. “Programs like these really help us expand our knowledge of human history,” she says.
For five days’ work from 15 volunteers without an archaeology degree between them, that’s a pretty impressive contribution.
During the week of August 23–27, 2004, six PIT volunteers—Greg Breyta, Jim Goosens, Ira Jones, Lila Jones, Bruce Richards, and Tara Scoggan—aided FS Archaeologist Angie KenCairn in performing sample archaeological survey in the Zirkel Wilderness on the Medicine Bow-Routt NF in northwestern Colorado. The project’s objective was to gain a greater understanding of site function and distribution within the wilderness area where very little archaeological reconnaissance has been carried out in the past. Volunteers succeeded in locating and recording nine sites, including an NRHP-eligible cabin dating to the early 1920s and an extensive prehistoric site along a probable hunting-and-travel corridor across the Continental Divide. Volunteers trekked deep into the Zirkel Wilderness with the help of Wilderness Manager Jon Halverson, and pack horses Gus and Iron Eagle, and Cleo the mule. The PIT crew was dubbed the “Super 6” crew, and though they worked hard each day conducting the archaeological survey and site documentation, they also enjoyed, creating gourmet camp meals, napping in alpine meadows, and swimming and fishing in a high mountain lake.
 |
The “Super 6” crew from left to right: PIT volunteers Tara Scoggan, Greg Breyta, Bruce Richards, Ira Jones, Lila Jones, Jim Goosens, and FS Archaeologist Angie KenCairn. Zirkel Wilderness High-Altitude Site Survey and Documentation, Medicine Bow–Routt NF, Colorado, 2004. |
Sucker Lakes is composed of three lake basins oriented north-south and connected by narrow channels. The Sucker Lakes site is located on the west side of the channel separating the northern and middle lakes. It was first recorded in 1979 and was relocated in 1995 during reconnaissance survey of the area prior to a planned timber harvest. Thirty-seven positive shovel tests along the shoreline recovered Brainerd, Blackduck, and Sandy Lake ceramics, lithics, and faunal remains. In 2003 and 2004, FS archaeologists, students from the Cass Lake Alternative Learning Center, and PIT volunteers evaluated the site for NRHP eligibility.
The cultural occupation soils were very dark, making features that included soil discolorations and charcoal extremely difficult to see. As a result, artifact concentrations were the predominant feature indicator. One interesting feature included 31 racket-to-baseball-sized rocks. The cobbles were not modified, and show no battering from use as hammer stones. The rocks were compressed into a single area, suggesting that they had been in some kind of container, such as a bag or basket that has long since rotted away. Evidently someone collected these to use for some task, but never fulfilled their plan.
A large bone with cut marks was found. Made of the long bone of a large mammal (e.g., wapiti or moose), it shows several cut marks perpendicular to the axis of the bone and has a spiral fracture, indicating that it was deliberately broken by humans. A second bone object displays a possible spiral fracture. Another small bone fragment had a shallow hole in it that does not penetrate completely through the bone. A single large mammal tooth with the root still attached was found. It appears to be the left premolar of an adult moose.
Two objects were found that may be tools used to smooth or decorate pottery. These were a rounded piece of basalt with a flattened profile and a flat, paddle-like object of wood.
Seven units contained objects associated with red ochre or hematite, which was commonly used as coloring. Three of these appeared to be chunks of raw red sandstone or hematite that, after mixing with grease and other ingredients, would form a kind of paint. Also found were one granite cobble, two granite spalled fragments, and a siltstone fragment, with what appears to be red coloring on the exterior.
The site was littered with broken and worn-out tools. Fourteen projectile points were recovered. Seven were triangular, one corner notched, two side notched, and the remaining were fragments. There were also five bifaces, 13 scrapers, three retouched flakes, and six utilized flakes. One ground stone tool resembling a mano was recovered. It has a flattened and polished surface that appears to result from abrasion. Perhaps it was used to grind manomen (wild rice), grains, or nuts.
Ceramics are the predominant artifact category, with a total of 13,008 sherds recovered. The ceramics present fall into four broad ware categories: Brainerd, Blackduck, Late Blackduck/Rainy River Composite-like, and Sandy Lake. One vessel of Sandy Lake form bears a rare and distinctive Oneota/Mississippian trailed decorative motif informally called “Sandyota” (from the blend of Sandy Lake and Oneota characteristics.)
Analysis of horizontal distribution of ceramics indicates that the Sucker Lake site has potential for allowing comparisons of different cultural components by location. The excavations of 2003 and 2004 were separated by about 80 m. The western 2003 excavation contained Brainerd and Sandy Lake wares, but no Blackduck wares, whereas the eastern 2004 excavation area was dominated by Blackduck and the later affiliated wares and Sandy Lake with very little Brainerd present.
Ceramics may offer insight into the identity of groups of people who chose to live at the site. Although the cultural affiliation of those who used Brainerd wares is unknown, they appear to have been the earliest inhabitants of the site. Elsewhere in the Mississippi Headwaters the time depth for Brainerd (aka Elk Lake) culture has been shown to be as much as 1,700–3,000 years b.p. Blackduck develops as early as a.d. 800 and lasts to about a.d. 1100 or later, and seems likely to represent a proto-Algonkian affiliation that may be antecedent to cultures such as the Cree and Ojibwe. Sandy Lake ware appears about a.d. 1100–1650, has clear cultural connections to the south, and appears to represent affiliation with Dakota (Sioux) peoples.
The Sucker Lakes site appears to be eligible for listing in the NRHP. Shovel testing indicates that the site is much larger than expected, and includes the large hill north of the 2003–2004 excavations. The fact that organic materials such as wood and bone have been preserved adds to the significance of the site by increasing the variety and information value of its data. Datable cultural features may also be present. Testing recovered concentrations of artifacts and horizontal ceramic distributions, and more discrete activity areas may be discernable with a larger sample size. The size and complexity of the site indicate it has the potential to contribute knowledge about poorly known contexts in northern Minnesota such as Brainerd, Blackduck, and Sandy Lake Oneota/Mississipian influence is also present in the “Sandyota” ware, whose appearance in the Mississippi headwaters is rare and poorly understood.
Thanks to the efforts of volunteers, the information value of this site has been recognized. With dedicated stewardship, it will continue to provide insights into the past for future generations.
PIT volunteers are not only talented and hardworking, thankfully, they are also very flexible. The main focus of the October 2004 PIT project was supposed to be Swamp Child, an NRHP-eligible prehistoric site. But that work could be wrapped up in two weeks, and the PIT project was three weeks long, so what to do? There was another site, Gopher Nation Path, that needed to be tested, so that seemed like the perfect solution, even though the volunteers didn’t know there would be a second site. But further circumstances intervened. I tore my Achilles tendon shortly before the start of the PIT sessions and knew that I would not be able to handle the terrain around Swamp Child, so the alternative site, Gopher Nation Path, in flatter terrain, became the primary focus of all three weeks of the project.
Over the three weeks, the volunteers excavated 67 m (1.5% of the total site) while I sat in a chair and hobbled around on crutches. Artifacts recovered include 11,407 flakes, 202 bone fragments, 853 sherds, 59 cores, 54 points, 33 tools, 62 bifaces, 13 ground stone fragments, 2 burnt nutshells, and 2 crystal fragments. The first important discovery was that the site appeared to have a relatively undisturbed stratigraphy, with the following time periods represented: a.d. 600–950 (Late Woodland); 200 b.c.–a.d. 550 (Middle Woodland); 300–1000 b.c. (Late Gulf Formational); 1000–2500 b.c. (Late Archaic); 3000–6000 b.c. (Middle Archaic); and 6500–8000 b.c. (Early Archaic).
The second important discovery was the diversity of activities through time. The earlier users of the site were bringing rocks in from a local gravel source and knapping them down for tools that were most likely used for working deer hides. In addition, there were several drill bits found indicating possible bead manufacturing, but unfortunately, no beads were found.
Later occupants also refined the tools and finished points for hunting and gathering the local food resources. This was when the site had the densest occupation. There was also some indication of trade with distant groups indicated by the presence of crystal fragments and the steatite sherd. Still later, people stopped using the nearby rock source, but brought in their tools and points. These last visitors to the site tended to stay for weeks, maybe at certain times of the year when different foods were available. A large number of bone fragments discovered at the site were associated with the activities of these latest visitors.
With the upcoming lab in February and March of 2006, and further studies of the artifacts, we will be able to get a clearer picture of this site’s history. I would like to thank everybody for coming to Mississippi. Y’all were a BIG help.
The Lolo NF Heritage Team and another group of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers completed a successful PIT project in May 2005 at the historic Ninemile Remount Depot. Eleven volunteers worked with the Ninemile Ranger District and Lolo NF Heritage staff to help restore and reroof the East Residence at the Remount Depot. This restoration project finished up just in time for the FS Centennial and the Ninemile Ranger Station 75th anniversary celebration, which took place on June 11, 2005.
During the week, PIT volunteers had the opportunity to experience typical Montana weather, sporadically ranging from thundershowers to 80 degree heat. Although the crew was shooed off the roof by thunderstorms at the beginning of the week, we managed to make up for it later on in the dry heat.
Prior to beginning the project, we showed a movie about sawn-cedar-shingle roofs entitled These Old Cabin Roofs, and starring retired Northern Region Historic Preservation Team Leader Bernie Weisgerber. Safety was stressed throughout the project. The net result was a new roof that was professionally and safely installed, despite the complications imposed by multiple dormers, chimneys, and vent installation.
During “off” hours, I shared stories about the history of PIT and my vision of the program’s future. Volunteers were also able to mingle and share a meal with folks attending a training session on the backcountry skill of horse and mule packing. Sue from the Friends of Ninemile spoke to the group about the importance of volunteers and preservation of the historic ranger station.
Much of the success for the planning and execution of this project goes to Ninemile staff Shiffy Wellborn and District Ranger Garry Edson. The Ranger District crew in company with Sydney Wimbrow and Milo McLeod undertook the supervisory and safety-observer duties as well as wielding the occasional hammer and snapping photos. Most of the credit for a job well done, however, goes to the outstanding PIT volunteers who participated in the project.
 |
 |
PIT Volunteer Stacey Root helps with the roof restoration on the East Residence at the Ninemile Remount Depot, Lolo NF, Montana, 2005. Here she is scraping paint off the dormer siding. |
PIT Volunteers Steve Waylett and Ansel Doll finish applying the last course of sawn-cedar shingles on the East Residence roof. |
The restoration team of PIT volunteers and FS Archaeologist Sydney Wimbrow (bottom right) pose with the PIT banner on the completed East Residence roof. |
 |
I spent August 14–22, 2004 participating in the PIT project at Pentagon Cabin on the Spotted Bear Ranger District of the Flathead NF. Five PIT volunteers plus Facilities Engineering and Heritage staff (Bill, Carlos, Tim, and Lisa) from the Flathead NF conducted major historic preservation efforts at this 1929-vintage guard station. This NRHP-eligible historic administrative site sits at the junction of five major trails in this part of the Bob Marshall Wilderness and is heavily used by trail crews, recreation managers, biologists, and others. It is an integral part of the network of historic backcountry guard stations now being studied for consideration as an NRHP district within the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
After gathering at Spotted Bear Ranger District, the crew hiked 10–12 miles to Pentagon Cabin. All heavy personal gear, tools, jacks, and building materials had previously been transported to Pentagon by mule string. The project involved felling, peeling, notching, and hewing trees to replace rotted spandrels and sill logs, digging 10 large footer holes, hand mixing and pouring concrete for piers to support the cabin, and then jacking and leveling the cabin to its former position. Native rock was placed atop the new piers at ground level to preserver the historic facade. In addition, the old porch was removed, and new log joists were prepared to support a new porch. This was heavy, challenging work that was somewhat hampered by cool rainy weather, but it was completed safely and on time by a highly motivated group of PITsters.
The Flathead NF supported the PIT crew by setting up a field kitchen that provided a steady stream of hot meals, snacks, and an endless supply of strong coffee. Crew members camped out or bunked in the cabin for the duration of the project. Safety was emphasized, with several “tailgate” sessions to discuss the use of unfamiliar tools like draw knives, broad axes, crosscut saws, and the like. I am happy to report that no injuries occurred. I made a short presentation on the history and origin of the PIT Program, which was well received by the volunteers. District Ranger Deb Mucklow and Packer Bob Starling rode in and spent an evening with us and had some lively discussion with the volunteers. Bob’s extensive logging experience came in very handy the next morning with a particularly challenging tree that needed felling. This was a well-thought-out, well-organized, and well-run PIT project.
Pentagon Cabin should now have another 70 years of useful life as a working administrative site. Once again, PIT volunteers provided the critical people power, energy, and enthusiasm to complete a much needed historic preservation project. I commend the Flathead NF staff and leadership for an excellent project and a wonderful experience.
Construction of the Alamogordo and Sacramento Railroad from Alamogordo to Cloudcroft in 1898–1899 immediately allowed for lumber operations to begin in the 9,000-foot-high Sacramento Mountains of southern New Mexico. El Pasoans and other regional residents and tourists soon discovered an alternate use of the mountains as an escape from the desert heat via the tourist cars on the trains. High Rolls and Cloudcroft became tourist destinations, but the trains that took the tourists also delivered logs to Alamogordo. Russia and Marcia were isolated, semipermanent logging, sawmill, and railroad camps south of Cloudcroft. Russia’s heyday lasted from 1903 to 1907. Marcia was a logging headquarters beginning in 1921 through to the 1940s, with repair facilities for trains located there as well. By 1942, railroad logging operations ceased in the Sacramento Mountains.
PIT volunteers helped FS archaeologists use Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies to survey and record major structural features at the different sites. The data were compiled and analyzed with GIS through a process called “geo-referencing” and compared to historical aerial photography. We also conducted interviews with some local area old-timers to personalize and round out our snapshot in time. The combination of field survey, comparison of our survey results with the historical record, and the oral histories provide an excellent account of life in the mountains and mining boom towns around the turn of the century. Thank you to all of the PIT volunteers for helping to preserve this important chapter in our nation’s history.
For more information on this project, please check the Web site: http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/lincoln/contact/archaeology/PIT/pit_index.htm.
The Journey of a Gold Mountain Miner
If you seek my monument, look around you (gravestone epitaph, St. Paul’s Cathedral, London)
The early life of Brigham Daniel Darger lies largely in the shadows of the past. What we know for certain is that he was born into a family of modest means in Salt Lake City on June 15, 1862. His birth occurred during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln and the beginning of the Civil War. When he was but three years of age and living in Spanish Fork, conflict came close to home when a Ute Warrior named Blackhawk rose up to drive the Latter-Day Saints from Utah.
For the next 27 years, there are many gaps in the life of Brig Darger. When we again hear of Brig, he is a single, 30-year-old miner on Gold Mountain in south-central Utah. In 1894, he staked the “Silver King” claim in Spring Gulch. Between 1894 and 1896, the property had several tunnels, mine dumps, an assay shop, a boarding house and a large two-story cabin. Brig employed as many as 10 miners at any one time.
Sometime in 1896, a very pretty dark-haired girl caught Brig’s attention. Although the young woman was engaged to another miner in the next camp, Brig captured her affections. Her name was Pansy Permelia Brown, and she was 13 years younger than Brig. On March 17, 1897, Brig and Pansy were married in the Manti Temple, and their wedding photo is the first known portrait of either person. Brig was about 5'7", had curly black hair, and a handlebar mustache. Pansy was 5'2" and very pretty, with thick brown hair.
Brig and Pansy purchased a small farm in Joseph, 15 miles south of Richfield. After the couple started a family, Pansy stayed on the farm and tended the livestock, gardens, and orchards. Each summer when the snow cleared, Brig made the 16-mile trip up to the Silver King Mine. Discouragingly, long hours produced only meager profits because of low-grade ores and high overhead costs. On more than one occasion, Pansy’s peach money put food on the table.
Times were also hard in other ways. Soon after their marriage, Brig walked into a pocket of carbon dioxide in one of his tunnels, which subsequently made him prone to seizures. On another occasion, Brig was cooking a meal for his crew, collapsed onto the stove, and burned out his left eye.
Hard times continued for the Dargers. They lost a 4½-year-old girl and a 14-month-old boy to diphtheria in 1905. In 1916, Pansy lost an infant child shortly after his birth. And within just a few years, tragedy would claim two of their older sons who were killed in automobile accidents.
At the close of his life, Brig and his family moved to Los Angeles, where he became increasingly despondent at having never found the elusive bonanza at the Silver King. A philosopher once said “As a rule, adversity reveals genius and prosperity hides it.” This statement seems oddly applicable to the life and times of this miner from Gold Mountain. When Brig died just a few months before the 1932 election of Franklin Roosevelt, one can only imagine that his eulogy would have included the most priceless thing that a man could hope for: the love and respect of his wife and children.
Today, the old Silver King Mine is still there in Spring Gulch. The last mining occurred in the late 1980s, and the old two-story cabin was slated to be burned. Then, two unlikely heroes came forth to save the mine and its history. Steve Winslow, of the Beaver Ranger District, persuaded FS management to remove just the modern renovations and to let the historic 1890s building remain standing.
Several years later in 1999, Max Reid, Fishlake NF Public Lands Staff Officer, sponsored a PIT project to open the historic mine for people using the nearby Paiute ATV Trail. Volunteers and a FS crew cleaned up the mine and built a ¼-mile interpretive trail around the site. The old cabin, stabilized by Brig’s family a few years before, was in very good shape.
The pieces of this historical puzzle were now almost complete. Although Brig had been buried in the Joseph Cemetery, his wooden marker had long since rotted away, and the location of his unmarked grave had been lost through clerical error. Working with local historian Cleo Utley, FS archaeologist Bob Leonard was able to locate the missing grave. When PIT volunteers heard that Brig’s grave site was unmarked, donations were sent to buy a tombstone. On February 19, 2005, the gravestone was dedicated, with 50 descendants of Brig’s family in attendance. One hundred years and many tragedies and triumphs later, the story of Brigham Darger and his Silver King Mine had come to a close.
 |
 |
Brig Darger’s grave stone with artifacts from the glory days of the Silver King Mine. Featured is a .36-caliber Navy Colt, $20 gold pieces, an old kerosene lamp that lit the cabin at the mine, gold ore, and an assay crucible. In the early days of mining, most assay equipment was imported, and this crucible is stamped “Made in England.” |
Members of the Darger family, hailing from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City, gather on a cold day in February 2005 to dedicate Brig Darger’s grave. The monument was made possible by donations from PIT volunteers; the research of Jan Ulrich, a detailer from the Shasta-Trinity NF; and the detective work of a local historian who was able to locate Brig’s grave, which had been lost when the original wood marker rotted away. |
Advertised as a tough 2-week trail-building project “at the top of the world,” the Fishlake NF PIT project took place among wildflowers in full bloom in the Sound of Music Tushar Mountains in central Utah. PIT volunteers in Week 2 arrived expecting to get a glimpse of Julie Andrews. Most of the PIT crew assembled in Marysvale. After brief introductions, Bob Leonard, the FS archaeologist and project leader, led the caravan to the Big Flat base camp at about 10,500-foot elevation. Ken Haber, a longtime PIT volunteer from Arizona, had set up the camp’s amenities previously and was there to greet us. After we set up our camp, Bob gave us the full introduction. Joan and Mark garnered the long-distance award from Alberta, Canada. Other volunteers included Michael (from Minnesota), Doug (full-time RVer), and Mel and me (from Utah).
We then set out for the trailhead where we commenced our adventure. I was huffing, puffing, and wheezing up the trail. Joan and Mark were simply strolling up the hill with no apparent side effects, even though they were carrying lots of tools. Bob, Mel, and Michael humored me by stopping and pretending to be tired, so I didn’t feel bad, being so out of shape. They also stopped to look at the elk and mountain goats, which were fun to look at, but mainly they gave me another excuse to stop and rest. Bob is thoughtful that way, even pointing out a rare flower once so I could rest, when I was so tired from lifting the crow bar that I wondered if I would pass out from exhaustion.
As we worked on that first day, Bob immediately assessed who could work and who wasn’t worth much, which was pretty easy to judge, because Joan and Mark were digging so much dirt they were hard to see under the flying debris. Mel and Ken were experienced trail makers and had a fair amount of dirt-flinging experience too. Michael and Bob were trying not to laugh at me in public, for what little I was doing. Bob finally looked at my girth and deduced I could leverage a crow bar better than most. So he had me bounce on the crow bar to pry rocks from the trail. I knew some day all those health food candy bars and doughnuts would come in handy.
Doug worked with every tool there on that trail. He parked at the trailhead to be closer to the work. After a rain, he often returned to work while the rest of us were marooned at camp. By the end of the week, Doug was getting tired. Once I headed out early and had a half-mile head start on him in the mile walk to the trailhead; he beat me there by only 15 minutes. As the week wore on, the crew got hardened into the work, their muscles flexing and stretching their sleeves. I was actually starting to grow a callus on my belly, where I would flop across the crow bar.
Later in the week, Mark and I carried a post to the top of the pass and the goal of our portion of the trail this year. On the way up, I huffed and puffed pretty hard. Mark was clearly affected neither by the altitude nor the work. As he dragged me and the post up the trail, he chatted normally. When he finally got to the top of the pass, he had to take a deep breath or two before he could start talking normally again. My breathing returned to normal after only three days, and then I started talking normally again too.
Dinner at the Big Rock Candy Saloon—I mean café—was a real treat and a highlight of the trip and where we all met the beautiful Swedish woman that Bob claimed was his wife. How he ever got a woman that gorgeous to pose as his wife all during the dinner is beyond me. It also happened to be Bob’s birthday that night, or so we thought. To celebrate, a fancy dessert was delivered to our table. Bob gazed at the floor, embarrassed. He mentioned this was the sixth celebration of his birthday this year (a growing PIT tradition). PIT volunteers on Bob’s projects are never constrained by details—like this was August, and Bob’s birthday is in November.
I think I speak for all of us when I say we can’t thank Bob enough for letting us work on his trail and for the wonderful group he called in. I hope we can all come back next year. I know I’m trying to stay in shape for it by leaning on the table more this year, to keep that belly callus in shape for next year’s work on the crow bar.