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Panguitch • Panguitch Lake • Hatch • Bryce • Tropic • Antimony • Henrieville • Cannonville • Escalante • Boulder • Fremont • Loa • Lyman Bicknell • Teasdale • Torrey • Grover • Fruita • Caineville • Hanksville
BLM Seeks Public Input on GSENM Livestock Grazing Plan Amendment KANAB - The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is seeking public input on a Livestock Grazing Monument Management Plan Amendment and Associated Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that will replace existing grazing management decisions and amend the Monument Management Plan. The announcement was published in the Federal Register on November 4, 2013 and initiates a public scoping period that will end 60 days from the notice date of publication, or 30 days after the last public scoping meeting, whichever is the latest date. During this public scoping period, the BLM is seeking input from the public to determine relevant issues that will influence the scope of the environmental analysis, including alternatives, and guide the process for developing the EIS. To provide the public an opportunity to review the proposal and project information, the BLM will host public scoping meetings that will take place in Kanab, Utah on December 10; Escalante, Utah on December 11; and Salt Lake City, Utah on December 12. Locations of the meetings will be published at least 15 days in advance through local media outlets and on the BLM GSENM website at: www. ut.blm.gov/monument. You may submit comments on issues and planning criteria in writing to the BLM at any public scoping meeting, or by any of the following methods: * Mail: Bureau of Land Management Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
669 S. HWY 89-A Kanab, Utah 84741 * Email: BLM_UT_GS_EIS@ blm.gov * Fax: (435)644-1250 Please reference “GSENM Livestock Grazing Plan Amendment” when submitting comments. To be most helpful, please submit comments before the close of the scoping period. Before including your address, phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment – including your personal identifying information – may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. BLM will not consider anonymous comments. The minutes and list of attendees for each scoping meeting will be available to the public and open for 30 days after the meeting to any participant who wished to clarify the views he or she expressed. For further information, please contact Matt Betenson, Planning and Support Services Division Chief at (435) 644-1205. Persons who use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-8778339 to contact the above individual during normal business hours. The FIRS is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to leave a message or question with the above individual. You will receive a reply during normal business hours. —GSENM
Honoring Our Veterans
national program that involves conducting surveys on a portion of our national forests. Each Forest conducts surveys on a recurring five-year cycle. This is the third time the Dixie National Forest has participated in the NVUM program. According to Dean Cummings, NVUM field coordinator, “These surveys are important because the information gathered assists Forest managers in forest planning as well as reports to Congress. The results are also helpful to local communities who use it for tourism planning.” Debbie Wilkins, the Public Service and Engineering Staff officer for the Dixie, added that by conducting these surveys every five years managers are able to look at recreation trends over time and adjust programs to meet changing needs. Results from NVUM provides the National Forest man-
REGIONAL Weather forecast Thurs. Nov. 7 - Wed Nov. 13 Thursday through Monday mostly sunny with highs in the mid 50s, and lows in the mid to upper 20s. Colder Tuesday and Wednesday with highs in the upper 40s to low 50s. Yikes! It’s seriously time for the hat and gloves. Zero chance of precipitation the entire week. Maybe a good week to rake up the leaves if you do that sort of thing. They’re mostly all off the trees, now.
Garfield Memorial Receives Award for Outstanding Data Collection
Adus Dorsey
The Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetary. A visit to the memorial was among the activities that took place during Utah’s first Honor Flight for Veterans to visit the nation’s war memorials, which took place last week. WASHINGTON, DC - On October 30, two groups of Utah veterans embarked on a whirlwind tour of the nation’s capital as members of Utah’s first Honor Flight, to enjoy three days of camaraderie and visit war memorials in honor of fellow service men and women. The fifty-six Utah vets visited more than a dozen sites including the World War II Memorial, The Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and Arlington National Cemetary. The trip was sponsored by the Panoramaland Fund at the Community Foundation of Utah, and is part of the national Honor Flight Network, whose goal is to identify over 9,000 WWII vets, 11,000 Korean Era, and 12,000 Vietnam era veterans, in that sequence, that want to go and see their memorials, at no expense to the veterans. Several Wayne County and other area veterans engaged in the tour, including the Insider’s Torrey correspondent Adus Dorsey. Adus has a report on their trip on page 7.
PANGUITCH - Garfield Memorial Hospital was recognized by the Utah Office of Vital Records for their outstanding excellence in data collection in Prenatal Care and Timeliness. Garfield Memorial Hospital Administrator Alberto Vasquez says “Many people work at the hospital. We regularly see the doctors, nurses and other clinical folks. However, there are a lot of people behind closed doors that do a lot of work that most people don’t know about. They have jobs that involves quite a bit of detailed and complex information. One of these areas is our Medical Records department. This department is led by Connie Sawyer and includes Kaelyn Partridge and Bitsy Hatch. I am grateful to get to recognize them and let others know how hard they work to provide great service to our community.” —Garfield Memorial Hospital
World War II Comes to Wayne County
Seventy Years Ago This Month, the Wreckage of a Military Aircraft is Recovered Near Factory Butte Part I: Recovery Leader Major LeRoy Heston Describes His Initial Acquaintance with the People of Loa by Debra Allen Young WAYNE CO. - It is impossible to know how many thousands of military airplanes flew across the deserts and mountains of Utah enroute to the European or Pacific Theaters during World War II or as training missions for the American pilots who would carry the war to the enemy. Most did so safely and without difficulty. However during 1943, two incidents, each with different
Dixie National Forest to Conduct Visitor Surveys CEDAR CITY - Beginning October 21, 2013 and ending September 30, 2014, the Dixie National Forest will be conducting visitor surveys as part of the U.S. Forest Service’s National Visitor Use Monitoring Program (NVUM). In the upcoming months Forest employees will be conducting these surveys throughout the Dixie National Forest at randomly chosen recreation sites, trailheads and along Forest Service roads. They will be wearing bright orange vests and stationed near a sign that reads, “Traffic Survey Ahead”. These folks are waiting to talk to Forest visitors, so please stop for an interview. The well-trained interviewers want to know about your visit to the national forest. All information given is confidential and the survey is voluntary, interviews usually last 10 to 15 minutes. NVUM is an on-going
Thursday, November 7, 2013 • Issue # 1021
agers with an estimate of how many people recreate on federal lands and what activities they engage in while there. Other important information it provides includes how satisfied people were with their visit and the economic impact of their recreational visit on the local economy. It’s important to talk with local and non-local visitors using the forest, so all types of visitors are represented in the study. Even if you answered the survey questions once already, you can stop and take the survey again, so that information is gathered about each of your national forest visits. To learn more about this program you can visit the Forest Service’s web site at http:// www.fs.fed.us/recreation/programs/nvum or contact Debbie Wilkins at 435-865-3741. —USFS
outcomes, brought the war a little closer to the residents of Wayne County. As the two incidents unfolded, the modernity of the air age met the traditional agriculture and ranching frontier that had persisted in the small communities of Bicknell, Fremont, Hanksville, Loa, Lyman, Teasdale, Torrey, and other locations since the settlement of Wayne County in the 1870s. Accounts of the two events reveal interesting insights into the culture and lifestyle of mid-twentieth century rural Wayne County, the process by which the United States Military handled wartime emergencies, and the interaction of local civilians with soldiers who found the days they spent in the county unlike any other experience in their lives. On January 25, 1943, a B17 “Flying Fortress,” landed in Loren Webster’s pasture just west of the Lyman town cemetery. May Taylor Brown recorded, “I was washing and I heard an awful noise. I looked out my window and a large airplane was circling our field. I pulled the washer plug and took Aunt Rula in the car and we watched the landing of the largest plane I ever saw.” The plane was, for its day, enormous standing nineteen feet tall, seventy-four feet long, with a wing span of one hundred three feet. The mechanical difficulties that forced the B17 to make an emergency landing were engine troubles and the local residents looked after the crew and held a dance in
their honor. Meanwhile a crew of mechanics arrived from Wendover Air Field in three trucks to fix the airplane. On January 28th, three days after its safe landing, the aircraft was repaired. Schools were let out early so that children could join with the rest of the county’s residents to watch the plane take off. As the pilot stepped off the distance needed for a safe take off, it was obvious that there was not enough space. Local men stepped forward to take down fences and cover a ditch with hands and shovels to remove the obstacles. At 4:20 p.m. the plane made its successful liftoff. The pilot circled the plane twice above the crowd as the enthusiastic observers waved, hollered, and honked their horns as they relished the successful departure and rejoiced that the bomber was on its way to help bring an end to the war. Nearly six months later, on July 14th another military aircraft encountered difficulties over Wayne County, but this time the outcome was tragic. The plane, a Lockheed AT-18A left Mather Field in Sacramento, California at 8:05 a.m. Pacific Time destined for Colorado Springs, Colorado. The last communication from the aircraft was over Milford, Utah. When the plane did not reach Colorado Springs, an intensive search was launched. Thirty planes left Mather Field as part of the search effort that stretched from Milford to Colorado Springs. The search aircraft was divided into flights based at Milford, Salt Lake
City, Grand Junction, and Albuquerque. In addition the Civil Air Patrol participated in the air search while civilian authorities undertook search efforts on the ground. With no success, the search was abandoned on July 25, 1943. In October, the wreckage of the airplane and the bodies of its six crew members were discovered in what is known locally as the Middle Desert. LaVor Brown and his brother Lon, along with other Wayne County ranchers were moving two hundred head of cattle from their summer grazing grounds to Hanksville for the winter. Military officials were notified of the discovery and Major LeRoy Gray Heston, who was stationed at Mather Field, was assigned to oversee the recovery efforts. In a lengthy letter written to his parents in Oregon shortly after the recovery mission was completed, Major Heston provides a detailed account of the discovery of the crew’s remains by the Wayne County cowboys, his experiences with the local residents, Military Aircraft Cont’d on page 3
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You can’t say that civilization don’t advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way. —Will Rogers (1879 - 1935), New York Times, Dec. 23, 1929 THE WAYNE & GARFIELD COUNTY INSIDER is owned and operated by Snapshot Multimedia, LLC and is distributed weekly to all of Wayne and Garfield Counties, Utah. Its purpose is to inform residents about local issues and events. Articles submitted from independent writers are not necessarily the opinion of Snapshot Multimedia, LLC. We sincerely hope you enjoy the paper and encourage input on ideas and/or suggestions for the paper.
This article first appeared in the Fall 2010 issue of Utah Historical Quarterly. Debra Allen Young is the granddaughter of LaVor and Mary Brown, who are featured in this article. She has authored two family histories and is a history enthusiast. The article has been abridged for publication in the Insider.
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