PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

General Historical Research and Publications

The historical handbook for Pipe Spring (in preparation since Lloyd Sandberg began work on it in 1956) was ready for publication in 1964 but cuts in the printing fund delayed publication for two more years. That year, Park Historian Bob Olsen provided additional review and corrections based on his research during his tenure. In 1966 it was finally published as part of the Park Service's Historical Handbook Series with James McKown and Robert M. Utley listed as authors. According to Olsen, this was the first publication that told the whole Pipe Spring story.

Olsen continued being very active through his tenure in researching a number of topics related to Pipe Spring's history. He was particularly interested in John Wesley Powell's survey of the area and gathered quite a bit of data concerning it. Another area of research for Olsen in 1964 and 1965 was the domestic and wild plants that would have been at Pipe Spring historically. He also spent a great deal of time reviewing the company records of those companies that managed the Church's tithed herds and even offered several public programs on those records. As the interpretive program geared up to include demonstrations, his research efforts included personal interviews with old-timers to learn how certain artifacts were used. He searched diligently during this period for documentary proof of the legend associated with the naming of Pipe Spring, but was unable to find such evidence. Many of Olsen's monthly narrative reports to Bozarth contain a wealth of information about specific research efforts.

In March 1963 Olsen visited the Utah Historical Society and found materials there on the Whitmore-McIntyre incident. Olsen made another research visit to Dixie College in St. George, Utah, in late January 1964 to review the minutes of the Canaan Cooperative Cattle Company. He was also able to meet with Professor A. Karl Larson and to make arrangements for the microfilming the Winsor Stock Growing Company's Ledger B. [2065] That month, at his own expense, he ordered a microfilm copy of the diary of F. S. Dellenbaugh from the New York Public Library. (This was the only extant diary of the 1871-1872 Powell Survey not published by the Utah Historical Quarterly.) An 1872 sketch of the fort's floor plan was located in the diary of Frederick S. Dellenbaugh. [2066] In March Olsen continued his research at the University of Utah and the Utah Historical Society.

In the spring of 1964, Ledger B of the Winsor Castle Stock Growing Company and the Canaan Cooperative meeting minutes were microfilmed at the expense of the Zion Natural History Association. This documentation provided a record of the owners of Pipe Spring from 1873 to 1879 and a partial list from 1879 to 1883. Olsen gave a presentation on the Winsor Ledger B microfilm on May 6 at the request of Mrs. Carlos Judd. The program was given in the fort's spring room and was attended by 20 people from Fredonia, Kanab, and Orderville, most of whom were interested in genealogical research. A similar presentation of the Canaan Cooperative's microfilmed minutes was held on July 10, 1964, for another 20 people from Kanab.

In September 1963 a contract was negotiated between the Park Service's Southwest Regional Office and Professor C. Gregory Crampton (Department of History, University of Utah) to prepare a narrative history of Mormon colonization in and around the national parks and monuments of southern Utah and adjacent Nevada and northern Arizona. It was expected that his report would aid in developing the interpretive programs of park sites. Crampton conducted most of his research in the summer and early fall of 1964, visiting the park areas within his study area. He made visits to Pipe Spring on September 11, 18, and 19. Crampton was particularly interested in the Deseret Telegraph Company's line and the old road trace west of the monument. He returned to Pipe Spring on July 12, 1965. Crampton's report, "Mormon Colonization in Utah and Adjacent Parts of Arizona and Nevada, 1851-1900," was completed during 1965. Crampton returned again to Pipe Spring on August 28, 1966, and spent the day with Olsen.

As part of the monument's research efforts, Bozarth and Olsen met with Utah historian Juanita Brooks for two hours on October 20, 1964. They were hoping to track down the Winsor Castle Stock Growing Company's Ledger A, but she knew nothing about it. (Ledger A could not be located that year or the next. Winsor family members thought it might have been lost in a house fire.) In reference to their questions about the origin of the Pipe Spring name, Brooks told them she didn't think any men in Hamblin's 1858 expedition kept diaries. She suggested several other research paths for Olsen to follow. Olsen was very thorough not only in searching through archival depositories but also in writing to more distant archival sources for information, such as the Huntington Library in San Merino, California, and the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 1965 an article written by Olsen was published in The Journal of Arizona History, entitled "Pipe Spring, Arizona, and Thereabouts." [2067] (After the article appeared, Olsen reported to Bozarth that revisions had been made by someone at which time erroneous information was added before the article's publication.) That year Olsen made visits to the Utah Historical Society and the Church historian's office in Salt Lake City to research military records. Also in 1965, Olsen conducted a taped interview with Leonard Heaton. [2068] In February 1965 he interviewed Andrew J. Alger, grandson of Charles Pulsipher, the man who succeeded Anson P. Winsor as the Pipe Spring ranch's superintendent. In March he interviewed Lucy Chamberlain Esplin of Cedar City, Utah, daughter of Thomas and Ann Chamberlain of Orderville, Utah. From late 1965 to early 1966, Olsen was "loaned" for a while to Capitol Reef National Monument (made a park in 1971) to research the history of the Fruita schoolhouse for a Historic Structures Report.

In May 1966 Olsen interviewed 81-year-old Mrs. Edward Nisson of Washington, Utah, while she visited the monument. She was the daughter of Woodruff and Martha Alexander, who, she told Olsen, were early owners of Moccasin Spring in the 1860s. [2069] During 1966 Olsen wrote two more articles for journal publication, "Winsor Castle: Mormon Frontier Fort at Pipe Spring," Utah Historical Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 3; and "Conflict in the Arizona Strip: The First Skirmish of the 1865-69 Mormon-Navajo War," in the West Coast Archeological Society Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 1. An article by him also appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune on May 29, 1966. Olsen was also quite active in preparing almost monthly press releases to newspapers to increase people's awareness of the monument.

In the fall of 1968, Ray Geerdes and Allen Malmquist conducted research on Pipe Spring and on the old Mormon Wagon Road. (See Part I. In the vicinity of Pipe Spring, the road was called the "Kaibab Wagon Road," probably after the reservation was set aside.) In October Malmquist spent a day doing research on Pipe Spring in the Church historian's office in Salt Lake City. Geerdes also did some research in the Church historian's office in November. He took with him a letter of introduction from Bishop Owen Johnson of Moccasin that he later reported was "very helpful." On November 19 Geerdes had a three-hour interview with author Juanita Brooks in St. George, discussing the history of Pipe Spring and Lee's Ferry. A few days later he and Allen Malmquist drove to the old town site of Paria and to Lee's Ferry (Glen Canyon National Recreation Area) where they explored the road up "Lee's backbone" on foot. (This is an extremely rugged wagon road across the river from Lee's Ferry on the Navajo Reservation.) The two men also visited House Rock Valley and returned to Pipe Spring via Kaibab National Forest and the Buckskin Mountain. In December Geerdes conducted two hour-long interviews with Juanita Brooks about the history and location of the main road as well as associated routes.

The Arizona portion of the route is depicted on State Historian James H. McClintock's map depicting "early agricultural settlement and roads made and traveled by colonists and Mormon Battalion route;" a copy of this map is included in Part I of this report (see figure 5). Geerdes and Malmquist were interested in researching the pioneer road system because it was important under a number of historical themes. It was used to carry out Mormon missionary work among the Hopi and the Navajo ca. 1858; it was important in military operations during the Navajo campaign of 1863-1865; it facilitated the beginning of immigration to Arizona (ca. 1875-1880); and it led to the establishment of normal communication and supply routes in the areas it passed through. It was nicknamed the "Honeymoon Trail" for its use by young Mormon couples in Arizona settlements who wished to have their marriages "sealed" at the St. George Temple. Geerdes learned from Brooks that the trail passed through St. George and up the Dugway from Rockville to Pipe Spring and on to Lee's Ferry. He was excited by the idea that Pipe Spring National Monument and Lee's Ferry, also a Park Service site, were historically linked by the road.

Geerdes spoke with BLM officials on whose land much of the road was located about erecting interpretive signage along the old Kaibab Wagon Road. (The route also crossed Kaibab National Forest and entered the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Below the Colorado River the road entered the Navajo Reservation, but it does not appear that there were plans to erect signs on the reservation.) In June 1969 an interagency agreement was reached between the BLM, Arizona Strip District Office, and Ray Geerdes (representing the National Park Service) on an interpretive program for Arizona pioneer roads between St. George, Utah, and Lee's Ferry, Arizona. The BLM agreed to participate in on-the-ground research, construct the necessary signs, include Arizona pioneer trails on their visitor map, prepare and publish a stenciled handout describing the trails, and program a formal printed publication scheduled for distribution after the signs were installed. For its part the Park Service was to conduct historical research, prepare a map of the routes to be interpreted, propose a design for signage for major road crossings and public contact points, install the completed signs using NYC labor, provide horses for doing on-the-ground research and trail identification, and propose wording for a handout describing the trails and their history. [2070]

In late 1969 Geerdes also conducted research on the ownership of Pipe Spring in connection with tribal developments. (See earlier "Historical Research on Pipe Spring Ownership" section.) In January 1970 Geerdes interviewed the daughter of Edwin D. Woolley, Jr., Elizabeth Woolley Jensen, in Logan, Utah. He reported "an original manuscript on Pipe Spring was obtained from Mrs. Jensen containing much valuable information." [2071] (At that time Jensen also donated an Indian artifact to the museum collection Geerdes referred to as a "konunk.") Geerdes returned the manuscript to Jensen by mail in late April, urging her to have it published.