Corey Merrell

Service Learning

Fall Semester 2002

History 2700  Earl Mulderink

In my history 2700 class, a history survey of the United States, Professor Mulderink assigned me a service learning project.  The category was broad; in fact, I was allowed to choose any organization involved with history or historical research and find a way to assist with its historical purpose.  I decided to help the Special Collections Department at SUU’s library with their project concerning the history of the Dixie National Forest.

When I began planning my service learning project, I wanted to do something that would make a real contribution to both history as a subject and to people who might be interested in wildlife of the surrounding area.  I am an avid fisher and hunter, so I wanted to find a way I could serve others with a topic I love.  However, I’ve found it difficult to find historical information about the surrounding wilderness areas and forests, so when I discovered that the library was involved with this historical project I was very excited.

I met with Janet Seegmiller, head of the Special Collections Department, and discussed the possibilities of my project.  Janet told me that, more and more, historians are interested in what the common man does and what his daily activities are.  We decided that if I could find someone who had extensive experience on the nearby mountains I could interview him for the collection.

My excitement grew when I realized that my next door neighbor, Lex Wilkinson, was a treasure of information about the National Forest.  Lex has lived in Cedar City since the 1940’s and fished and hunted most of that time.  In 1972 Lex retired and began the tradition of fishing three times a week with his fried Jim Ammond. Both men are pretty old; Lex is 89, Jim is 87.   Both Lex and Jim kept extensive journals of their fishing trips from the very beginning.  When they started, the journals were only logs to record whose turn it was to drive.  In time, the two fishing partners used the journals to record water temperatures, weather conditions, how many fish they caught, what they used to catch the fish, and any other information they thought pertinent.

Hoping to make a meaningful contribution to the Special Collection’s project on the history of the Dixie National Forest, I thought I could copy Lex’s and Jim’s journals and donate them.  Neither Lex nor Jim has any surviving relatives.  Knowing this, I was afraid that when they died no one would recognize the value or importance of the journals, and thirty years of records would be lost. 

Despite my good intentions, when I approached Jim and Lex, they turned me down.  Jim told me that he simply didn’t feel that the journals would be of any value to anyone.  Lex felt the same way, saying that they were a little personal and he wasn’t sure he would be comfortable with his journal being open to the public.  Frustration set in as I wondered how these two men who had fished their whole lives could not recognize the value of their records to anyone who wants to know where to fish, how to fish, and what to use.  But both of them refused to give their journals up. 

I returned to the special collections department to meet with Janet again.  After explaining what I had originally wanted to do and the obstacles I encountered, Janet gave me some encouragement and some new suggestions.  Janet thought that I could tape an interview with Jim and Lex and have them discuss some of the changes they have experienced or witnessed over the last sixty years.  She ensured me that the interview would still be of value to the collection and told me how to effectively interview elderly people.  I left the library with new hope and determination.

Excited about my new prospects I went to tell Dr. Mulderink of the change in plans.  He offered great support, but he was concerned that the amount of time required for the interview may not be sufficient for the classroom requirement.  He suggested that I find a way to develop my project further, in a manner that more people might benefit from the information I gathered from Lex and Jim.  Together, we decided that I could teach some local boy scouts about how the forest has changed over time.

I hesitantly asked Lex and Jim if I could interview them instead of copying their journals.    Despite my concerns that their desire for privacy would yield me another “No,” they both excitedly accepted the invitation.  We decided to meet on a Sunday morning when we all had plenty of free time.

The following Sunday, I sat down with both men at Lex’s kitchen table and listened to them explain some of the changes they have experienced since the 1940’s, when both men moved to Cedar City.    They not only discussed changes they’ve seen on the surrounding mountains, but changes around New Castle, Enterprise, Minersville, and Antimony.  The stories and memories the two men discussed fascinated me.

Lex and Jim talked a lot about hunting experiences and changes in the wildlife.  Deer herds used to be so large that anyone could go to the local sporting goods store and buy permits to kill three doe deer.  Herd sizes peaked around 1953-1954, and supposedly, anyone could simply drive out of town and kill a buck.  Not just a buck, but a large buck.  From 1940 to 1960 the deer hunt every October was the biggest holiday of the year, even bigger than Christmas or Thanksgiving.  Lex showed me a picture of a deer hunt in 1958 at the Bulloch Ranch near Navajo Lake, which showed over twenty deer hanging on a fence.  Sure enough, all of the deer were very big.

Both Jim and Lex credited the growth of civilization to the reduction in the number of deer.  In Rainbow Meadow, between Brian Head and Panguitch, there used to be only one cabin, the old Jensen Sawmill.  Today there are over 150-250 cabins in the meadow.  These cabins are huddled around the headwaters of the Mammoth Creek, an important source of water for both elk and deer.  However, competition with the cabins has caused many of the wild animals that might have grazed in the meadow and drunk at the stream to look for new areas to exist.

Another factor that has dramatically affected the deer herds is the growing number of predators.  Federal law states that it is illegal to kill many predators today.  However, until the 1980’s killing predatory animals was not only legal, but was encouraged by the government.  Bounties were offered to people who killed coyotes, cougars, and bobcats.  Presently, bounties are still offered for coyotes, but cougars and bobcats are federally protected.  Jim thought that he had read somewhere that a full-grown cougar will kill a deer a week. 

Even though the deer herds are smaller today than they were in 1954, the elk herd has managed to grow.  Jim Ammond remembers when the Division of Wildlife Resources began a system of elk management to encourage the growth of elk herds.  He remembers rarely, if ever, seeing elk on Cedar Mountain before 1970, but says that the elk are plentiful enough now that with a little luck, anyone can see an elk on the mountain now.

  Pheasants are another species that have been affected by population growth and technological advances.  When Jim moved to Cedar in 1942, he enjoyed pheasant hunting every fall.  Pheasants thrived in the plentiful farmlands of Southern Utah, finding food and shelter around irrigation ditches.  When the sprinkler lines were invented and replaced the irrigation networks, the pheasant’s habitat disappeared.  Pheasants are virtually non-existent in Southern Utah today.  In fact, in the seventeen years I’ve live in Cedar City I’ve never seen a pheasant.

Most of the trees in the Dixie National Forest are dead today, victims of the pine beetle.  I asked Jim and Lex if they could remember when the beetle became a problem. Their reply was that it has been within the last twenty years.  They feel that the problem originated with the environmental movements of the last two decades.  Pine beetles have always been around, but when they thrived in an area of the forest, the forest was simply timbered before the beetles could spread out of control.  Today, concern for the welfare of the beetle is stronger than concern for the trees, so the trees are allowed to die and rot.  Jim felt that if a fire started burning at Cedar Breaks, the whole forest would burn and no one could stop it.

Finally, we talked about how fishing has changed.  This was what I was most excited about.  Since the 1940’s, fishing was a hobby for men like Lex and Jim, men who had free time to burn and loved the outdoors.  Fifty years ago the lakes and streams were uncrowded and loaded with large trout.  Roads limited access to those with trucks that could take large bumps and a lot of mud.  Now, fifty years later, almost all of the roads to the various lakes are paved, giving everyone access.  Fishing has become a family experience, bringing large numbers of people to all the lakes and streams in southern Utah.  The added pressure to the fisheries depleted the fish-filled waters and forced the Division of Wildlife Resources to artificially plant fish.  Today, most of the fish caught in southern Utah are planters averaging ten to twelve inches long.  Lex remembers when trout smaller than fifteen inches was a rarity. 

Lex and Jim proved a wealth of information about changes in the Dixie National Forest.  My next task included planning a meaningful campout for the boy scouts to learn some of this history of their mountain.  Kiley Chatfield, a friend of mine, and I decided that Rainbow Meadow, with its 150-250 cabins would provide an excellent site to point out the pressures of human expansion into animal habitat.

Kiley, five scouts, and I loaded our gear in the trucks and set-off for Rainbow Meadow Friday afternoon, November 8, 2002.  By the time we made the hour drive to our campsite, the mountain was covered with a skiff of snow.  Hurriedly we put our tents up before we had more snow to deal with, then we got a fire built.  We all hoped it would snow all night so the temperature wouldn’t drop much further.

After eating barbecued ribs, beans, and a cobbler dessert, all cooked in Kiley’s Dutch oven, I started explaining some of the things I had learned from Lex and Jim and what I hoped the scouts could learn also.  I pointed out some of the cabins, some dark, and some emitting bits of light behind closed curtains.  From our campsite we could see 22 cabins, even in the strange darkness of the snowstorm.  Most of the boys had never considered the possibility of the cabins never being there, at least not in the last few hundred years. 

The following morning we got up to look around.  It was freezing!  Everything was crystallized under the fresh five inches of snow, still untouched at the crack of dawn.  We tried making French toast, but the egg and milk mixture froze before we could dip our bread in.  The sausage was a different story.  We cooked the sausage on a little Coleman grill, but after cooking one side of the frozen link and flipping it, the cooked side only froze when exposed to the cold air opposite the grill.  We managed to fill-up on half steaming—half frozen sausage and soda pop that stayed almost warm in the cooler.

After breakfast we hiked from our campsite to Lowder Pond, about a mile away.  On the way I pointed out the pine trees effected by the pine beetle; all of them dead.  Finding one pine tree that was still alive became a sort of facetious game on our hike down.  However, even these rambunctious teenagers were surprised that all the trees were dead.  I told them what Jim Ammond had told me, that in years past the trees would have been timbered before the whole forest died, but now there is more concern for the beetle than for the trees.

On the way to the pond we found the old Jensen Sawmill, or what was left of it.  The cabin was built a few hundred yards away from the stream running into Lowder Pond, tucked in the edge of the trees.  The pond provided water for the Lowder family over a hundred years ago when they settled there.  It also provided fish that Lex Wilkinson told me used to grow to as big as five pounds.  Now, a fish larger than eight or nine inches cannot be found.  The stone foundation was buried under the snow, with a few old boards piled around the edges.  The whole scene provided a beautiful picture, despite the hundreds of cabins.

After our camp I asked the boys to tell me what they thought the biggest change was that has happened around the area we camped.  All of them agreed that the cabins being built would affect the environment and the wildlife more than anything.  I think they saw the forest from a new perspective after our overnight trip, our exploration, and our discussion.

The camp really made me feel like I had done something meaningful.  I was able to share information I researched with people who could use the information for years to come.  All I had left to do to finish the project for class was to finish transcribing the interview I recorded with Lex and Jim.  I put that off as long as possible because I never learned the proper way to type.

Eventually I did type the interview so I could give the record to the special collection department.  I began typing on Wednesday the 27^th of November, the day before Thanksgiving.  At first I hoped I could get the whole thing typed in one day so I could relax and enjoy the holiday football games.  However, after typing for almost three hours I had less than half of the interview done.  I spent a total of nine hours typing the interview.

The transcribing process would have been much quicker if I had done a little more planning.  When I began the interview I sat the microphone directly in front of me.  As I listened to the tape later I discovered that I could hear my own voice perfectly, Jim if I strained, and at times Lex’s voice was indistinguishable.  I listened to the interview a few seconds at a time, but over and over again to understand my interviewee’s responses.  Many times I simply had to go by memory to record Lex’s statements.  In the end, I finished the transcription, gave it to Janet, and felt satisfied that I did a good job.

Although I spent nearly thirty hours with this project, I enjoyed almost all of it, especially the snowy campout.  I learned that being a historian is more than just personally studying books and facts, it involves sharing that information with people that can use it.  I also discovered that my desire to help my scouts understand what I learned motivated me to make sure I knew my information thoroughly before we went on our camp.  I’m sure I learned more about the history of the Dixie National Forest through my service learning project than I would have I only read a book.