PPE History

Sunday, March 04, 2012

Thanks to David Lyon for taking the time to compile and write this information concerning the Pine Plateau area. Mr. Lyon and his family have been members of Pine Plateau Estates since August of 1960.

My intent in the future is to add to this information one topic or one area at a time, such as Christmas meadows, Bear River City and some of the old stories concerning the Indians and the Spanish influence in the area.

The Web Master

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PINE PLATEAU
LIFE ON A GLACIAL MORAINE
SURROUNDED BY
FORESTS AND MOUNTAINS

 
FOREWORD

I have been asked by David Eyre on behalf of Pine Plateau home owners to write a history of the Pine Plateau and the surrounding area.  This is an attempt to do so without being too detailed or overly broad.

I have had the benefit of some old files, a few preserved letters and much information that David Eyre has found.  It is hoped that the end product will be of value to all.

SECTIONS

Frist Glimpses of Pine Plateau Beginnings
The Uintah Mountains
The Coming of the White Man to the North Slope of the Uintah Mountains
The Oil Spring
Roads and Access
Wildlife in the Neighborhood
Bear River Hilliard Flats Flume

I -  FIRST GLIMPSE OF PINE PLATEAU BEGINNINGS    1961
 
On a hurried trip from Heber City to Kemmerer, Wyoming via Highway 150, I chanced to see some construction activity beside the road with several trucks bearing the name of Caqzin & Houtz.  Having known Jerry Cazin and Max Houtz for some time, I called them at their Evanston headquarters to inquire about what they were building by the Bear River.  I was told they were building a service station and store for a man named Mackay who was going to sell lots.  In a short time, a power generator and a few small sheds were added and then a good-sized house trailer appeared where a short term partner of Bill Mackay's (named Knoble) resided.

I believe the first cabin was built by a construction engineer who had followed heavy engineering projects all over the world.  It was a precut cedar log home crafted by the Pan-Abode Company.  He and his wife moved away and sold the cabin to Mr. Snarr of Snarr Advertising who, after a few years, in turn sold it again.  It is the home now occupied by David Andrus.  Many other homes have followed and it is now a very choice place to visit and live.

 II - THE UINTAH MOUNAINS

The Uintah Mountains is the only mountain range in the United States that is oriented east and west!  The Appalachian Mountains, Rocky Mountains, and Sierra Nevada Mountains all run north and south.  The highest mountain Utah, King's Peak, is located in the Uintahs.  The Bear River, the Provo River, the Weber River, and the Duschene River all convey water from the Uintahs

In times past, a vast ice sheet or large glacier extended northward from these mountains through the Pine Plateau Manor Lands area and on to the north for some miles.  The tremendous quantities of well-rounded rocks we observe are evidence of the tumbling/rolling effect of the moving ice.  These rocks consist principally of quartzite, sandstone, and limestone in several colors.  One of the most interesting colors is a light green quartzite that is found in small gravel and larger sizes, but never longer than the size of a cantaloupe.  Some larger, but less well-rounded, rocks are also present and a few very large pieces of ledge rock (30 to 40 cubic feet in size) are also to be seen.  A few pieces of ledge rock (1-2 feet across and 4-6 inches thick) are also present with a wavy surface.  Are these evidence of wave action on an ancient beach?

Also to be seen are an occasional drumlin or hillock surrounded by flat terrain where the glacier dropped a load of earth and rock it had carried along.  As the climate changed and the glacier began its long retreat, the Bear River and its tributaries formed and cut through the debris field and drained to the north.  John Martin, a resident of the area north of the Wyoming state line, described how he, as a young man, hauled freight with a team and wagon to a gold mining operation at the south end of the Stillwater Valley.  The mine operator was Billie Christmas!  Thus, the name of Christmas Meadows.  The mine was destroyed in a 1919 earthquake and landslide.

III - THE COMING OF THE WHITE MAN TO THE NORTH SLOPE OF THE UNITAH MOUNTAINS

The often-expressed thought that one must know the past to understand the present has its corollary in the concept that one must understand the wide area around his adobe to appreciate that adobe.

A Native American presence in the area is evidenced by the stone arrowheads and stone spearheads found by Pine Plateau residents.  Game animals are observed to move down from higher altitudes in the fall and were hunted extensively.

The principle emigrant trail passed through South Pass and onto Ft. Hall, Idaho where the Oregon Trail split off to the northwest, and the southern branch continued on to San Francisco.  In 1846, the Donner party proceeded west with the hope of great monetary gain and cheap land.  Some of their wagons were described as immense and very heavy.  They were in possession of a map and pamphlet published by an explorer named Fremont who had found a much shorter route to California by coming through South Pass, turning southwestward, coming down Echo Canyon, through the Wasatch Range, around the southern end of the Great Salt Lake and across the salt flats.  This trail was called the Fremont Cutoff.  The path a man on horseback follows is not the path that heavily laden wagons can follow.  They spent a month hacking out a road through the Wasatch Range and were again delayed when many wagons broke through the salt crust of the salt flats into the perpetual mud below.  They left a trail of abandoned possessions before reaching Pilot Mountain. These delays were the root cause of their tragedy in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada that fall.

What does this have to do with our area?  It was the trail of the Donner party that the first Mormon wagon train was following a year later in 1847 when they crossed the Bear River by the afore-mentioned monument.  The road hacked out through the Wasatch Mountains by the Donner party the preceding year was invaluable to the 1847 wagon train.

Hundreds of wagon trains followed this route to Great Salt Lake City (as it was then known) in the coming years.

In 1857-1858, another significant event in our area occurred:  the "Utah Mormon War.," which was based on information by a political appointee from the East who had been sent by Washington to Utah as territorial Supreme Court Judge.  The false story was that the Mormons were in rebellion and were destroying Government records.  The President ordered 1/2 of this then US Army to Utah while Congress was out of session.  The judge who had a wife in the East arrived in Utah with a "wife" who was not his wife and discovery of the situation caused him to leave secretly and suddenly.

The army, known as Johnston's (who was their general) Army advanced slowly through the summer, coming down through South Pass to Soda Springs, Idaho and on toward Fort Bridger, which had been purchased by the LDS Church.  As they approached from the north, they saw the fort where they intended to winter going up in flames.  They spent a cold and miserable winter there in tents.  They reconnoitered Echo Canyon and found concern with the Mormon sham fortifications.  Negotiations led to a peace accord which permitted the army in the spring to pass over the Pioneer Trail, down Echo Canyon and through Great Salt Lake City and on south to peaceably establish Camp Floyd, west of what is now Saratoga Springs.

There continued to be a great deal of wagon traffic both east and west bound during the ensuing years.  The Civil War erupted in 1860 and continued until 1865.  The war had demonstrated the value of railroads in moving men and material, and the national desire to tie both east and west coast together plus the desire to establish a prosperous population in the empty center of the nation led to various schemes and plans to construct a new railway from Omaha, Nebraska to the West Coast.  The Central Pacific was organized to build from the West Coast, and the Union Pacific to build from Omaha westward.  Congress provided loan guarantees and land grants along the railroad which could be sold to raise capital and hopefully attract people to live there.  Across much of what is now Wyoming (including the north slopes of the Uintahs) the Union Pacific received every other square mile in a checkerboard pattern for ten miles on each side of the railroad.

Beginning in 1867 in the Bear River Area, the Union Pacific began contracting for supplies and especially ties, and an industry was born.  They also needed bridge timbers.  Much of the route across Wyoming is treeless and the north slope has many trees.  The cutting camps quickly sprang up.  One such camp east of Highway 150 and a little south of the present East Fork Road had a high log dam which backed up a good sized pond.  Trees were felled, the limbs cut off and dragged to the camp where they were cut into the lengths (about 9 ft.) and then were flattened on two sides, usually with an adz and branded or marked with the cutter's initials or symbol.  At spring high water time, ties were released into the east fork, floated west to the Bear River, and then north to a weir in the vicinity of the Pioneer Trail crossing and pulled from the river and initially hauled east by wagon and later westward.  The cutters were paid by the tally or the branded ties retrieved from the river.
 
THE RAILROAD ARRIVES

A steam railroad locomotive required a constant supply of fuel and water!  Also, they required skilled workers to maintain the many large moving joints, the firebrick in their combustion chambers, and other critical parts.

The Union Pacific had a support train following closely behind its track laying activities with multi-tier bunk cars, kitchen cars, supply cars, and rail transporters.  Southern Wyoming towns spring up as the rails moved west.  Some survivors are Rock Springs, Green River, and Wamstutter.

We now need to look at some other towns before moving on to other matters because these towns have a rich history.  First, however, we need to look at the geography of our near area.  Driving south from Evanston, Wyoming on Highway 150, the double track main line of the Union Pacific can be seen to the east.  It gradually passes from sight as it and the highway diverge.  The original single track line crossed the Bear River close to the Pioneer Trail crossing and proceeded up Sulpher Creek.  Some of the right-of-way is under Highway 150, but in other spots, it can still be seen to the east.  Some are in use as a local road.  This old right-of-way follows the hills to the east and under the present day Sulpher Creek Reservoir to the south and east and is the present day road that leads to the east.  It is the old railroad right-of-way or road bed.  Proceeding generally east, we climb a good sized ridge and find a Y exiting to the south and returning a little further east.  This was a turn-around for a helper locomotive!  Now proceeding to the east, we come to the abandoned town of Piedmont.  The last inhabitants of this town froze to death in the terrible winter of 1948-1949.  Railroad workers lived there doing maintenance work.  There was a deep water well, water tower, stores, and other facilities.  The cemetery is still remembered to this day and contains the grave of Etta Pace, the girlfriend of the Sundance Kid of the Wild Bunch fame.

A remarkable event occurred at Piedmont in 1869.  As was not unusual in this period, the railway workers had not been paid for many weeks, and with the Golden Spike ceremony only days away, the workers, fearing they would no longer be needed and would not be paid, barricaded the tracks and refused to let the west-bound train carrying the Union Pacific dignitaries to the ceremony pass.  The workers unhitched the dignitaries'' car and surrounded it for two days until the payroll money was obtained from a bank in Salt Lake City.  The release of the officials and the ceremony commenced two days late.

Now, moving back west along the roadbed, we have just traversed, we come to the area where it approaches the present day Highway 150 close to Sulpher Creek.  Here was located Bear Town, a wild railroad town of some note!  Fuel (wood) water and some maintenance was available.  There were a number of saloons, bawdy houses, and stores and it boasted a real newspaper.  Two factions developed.  Newspaper articles tried to calm the waters, but without good effect.  One party stood for peace, harmony, and a quiet town life.  The other wanted the rowdy life and the right to do as they pleased.  There were murders and beatings which finally erupted into a shooting war of several days duration!  When it was over, the rowdy crowd left town and peace reigned. Sometime later, the town was abandoned when the Union Pacific moved its base of operations to Evanston where they had more room for facilities.  Eventually, the Union Pacific built a large roundhouse, machine shop, and various workshops in Evanston.

IV - THE OIL SPRING

The monument denoting the place where the first pioneer wagon train of 1847 crossed the Bear River can be seen close to Highway 150 on the east side and just above the river.

Scouts for the train were ranging ahead of, and on the flanks of the train looking for camp sites, good grass for their animals, fire wood, water sources, and game.  They chanced to find an extremely rare crude oil spring west of the present Highway 150 and a little south of the present gravel pit, which can be seen about 1/2 mile to the west.  The road to the gravel pit is four or five miles to the south of the monument.

The scouts immediately returned to the wagon train and obtained all available containers to obtain oil (grease) for the wagon wheel hubs.  This was the first grease they had found since leaving winter quarters in the spring.  John Martin showed our family the spring in the 1970's.  John owned the property at the time.

Historian, T. Edgar Lyon, had found reference to this spring in pioneer journals, but had never known its location.

V - ROADS AND ACCESS

We can be sure of a wagon road from the emigrant trail at least as far south as the tie cutter and lumber camps east and west of the Bear River and south of the confluence of the Bear River with its east fork by 1866.  There is evidence of a wagon road to the south end of Christmas Meadows by about 1910.  There is also evidence of a road northward from the Sulpher Mine a few miles north of Hayden's Summit and one-half to one mile west of Highway 150.

Coming eastward on Highway 150 from Kamas to the Trial Lake area, we come to the 1930's site of the Duschene tunnel boring project which was designed to bring water from the headwaters of the Duchesne River to the Provo River.  An early version of a tunnel boring machine was used.  The headquarters buildings, service shops, and other buildings remained on the north side of Highway 150 until the late 1970's.

We now precede north and east over Bald Mountain Pass into the Mirror Lake basin.  A large lodge and some campgrounds were built in the 1930's and a service station and store was built on the north side of the road.  The road was in terrible condition and very rough until paved in segments after World War II.

Highway 150, at least in the Pine Plateau area, was built by the Denver office of the Bureau of Public Roads under their mandate to build forest highways.  The right-of-way they bought from W. Tracy Mackay and his wife, Made Mackay (developer Bill Mackay's parents) on 27 August 1951 is not where the highway is presently located!  That right-of-way is about 800 feet east of the present alignment.  The deviation begins at the East Fork Bridge and rejoins the existing alignment about at the Manor Lands gate.  This went unnoticed by UDOT until all of the controversy about a parking area at the south gate erupted.  UDOT's attorneys asked Bill Mackay's widow, Mary Lou Mackay, for a meeting and several UDOT attorneys came to the meeting with prepared deeds of right-of-way oon the present alignment for her to sign.  Her attorney asked her what they were offering.  The reply was:  "Nothing.  We just want to set the record straight."  She didn't sign.  End of discussion.

Further north, the last farm house in Wyoming belongs to the England family.  About 1,000 feet to the east is their former home – where the highway used to be!  A little further north, the highway makes a long right angle to the east.  At this turn and running west is the Chalk Creek Road, now partially paved.

Historian, T. Edgar Lyon, tells of finding an account of an assignment given to a lieutenant of artillery by Gen. Johnston, Commander of the 1857 Utah expedition to find an alternate route to avoid Echo Canyon for the army's advance to Salt Lake City.  He checked out Echo Canyon and then turned southward and found the possibility of a better route (now the Chalk Creek Road) which he deemed much easier and safer.  The General decided to use the emigrant trail as it was now "proven."

VI - WILDLIFE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Upon coming to Lot No. 1 in 1960, many small quaking aspen along the river were found that had been cut down by beavers that apparently gnawed the bark off for food.  To the east and next to the East Fork Road is the large flattened area where an oil drilling rig worked for over a year.  Just to the northeast is an area of small creeks with several beaver dams.  Beavers have been observed there, working on river dams.

A short distance west of the Bear River is a spring-fed pond of fair size that contains a beaver lodge a little distance from the shore.  Water lilies grow along one side of the pond.  Late one fall, the pond iced over and a beaver was observed on the ice, eating the flowers out of the lilies.

Twice, "bear trees" have  been seen a little south of the above mentioned area in a thick stand of small lodge pole pines!  These are 4" thick pines where a bear has sharpened his claws by shredding the bark.  Long black hairs were seen stuck in the sap.  Some Pine Plateau Residents have reported seeing bears along the river and at least one reported that the heads and other parts of some fish he had cleaned and buried were dug up by a bear.

Flying back from a job inspection north of Evanston in a helicopter, the pilot called my attention to a herd of moose among the trees north of the Utah-Idaho border.  Neighbors reported that two cow moose spent one winter lying under the cabin deck on Lot #1.  Deer and elk are seen on both sides of the river, and coyotes on the west side.

Though not wildlife, many sheep have been in the Pine Plateau/Manor Lands area and were the primary source of income for the Mackay family.  When we came to Lot No. 1 in 1961, there was still a herd grazing there.  There were also many sheep ticks and some of our children had to have them removed.

VII - THE BEAR RIVER - HILLIARD FLATS FLUME

A great undertaking – that of building a 36-mile wood flume from Gold Hill and the Stillwater area to the rail head at Hilliard to float logs and cord wood – was begun in 1872 and completed in 1875.  It was built of 3" thick by 6" sawed planks in a 45-degree "V" shape supported by horizontal stringer cross ties and founded on log cribs.

Since it must flow at a relatively even gradient, the beginning and ending elevations must be known, the route accurately surveyed, and design of supporting structures over low places prepared.  In retrospect, let it be remembered that Roman engineers, 2000 years ago, were accurately boring tunnels to carry water through mountains starting from both sides and meeting in the middle at an even gradient.

Remnants of the flume were still to be seen in 1961 on the east side of the Bear River a little above the upper road to Lot No. 1!  The flume through this area was supported on 4' square log cribs to make an even support for the flume.  The 5-6" logs were fastened together with square cut nails.  The horizontal members had been salvaged long before 1961.  A few remnants indicate 3" thick sawed lumber.  Their being sawed suggests a steam engine driven saw.  Across Hilliard Flat and in other places, the flume was carried on supports as high as 15 feet.

When the railroad moved its line north in 1900, the flume's usefulness diminished, and when the price of charcoal declined, the flume was sold and subsequently dismantled.  The cord wood mentioned above fueled the many kilns in the Hilliard area that supplied charcoal via the railroad to Utah and Colorado.

For more details, see the Utah Historical Quarterly, Summer 1967, Vol. 35, No.