Happy Birthday for Alma Coyn Jones

Alma Coyn Jones was born 113 years ago today. A stork landed in downtown Nortonville and Alma did a variety of work through his 81 years on this planet. In his early days he was a mule skinner and helped build the old road known as highway 91. You can still see a part of that cement portion near the road where you turn down to the lane to George Jackson of Nortonville. Cash Jones also worked as rancher; farmer; plaster and stucco expert; Thermoid worker; Nephi City-cutting down aspen trees with Ray Powell for telephone poles; janitor; painter and mill worker at Juab County Mill and Elevator; cattleman; potato farmer and Juab County employee. He knew how to work and his pleasures of life was being around horses. We have a few photos of this Juab County man and will also show a photo of five.....of his five kids! The first photo is of LaVon Harris who he married, then Alma's own family from left to right being Pearl Ockey; Grant Jones; William; Alma; Bert, Elizabeth; Vic, Erma Garrett; Dell and Norma Kay. Two kids named Eddie and Ray died when young.

Our Tribute to Nancy Reagan; Don Gowers and Gary Howarth.

Nancy and Ronald Reagan were not from Juab County, but they could have been. This computer photo shows them riding high in their saddles like they were just coming back from the Ute Stampede. Their absolute devotion to each other helped buoy Americans and the world to be better people. Like Dale Evans and Roy Rogers, they can now ride  together again, where pillow clouds float; the gentle breeze is constant and where the rolling hills never end. They are true hero's and the same devotion was present with Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt. FDR had the name and the money; she had the intellectual capacity of a scholar and yet the wisdom of a matriarchal genius. Harry S. Truman could not have made the major war ending decision he did without his devoted sidekick-Bess. One day while with the FFA in Independence, Missouri, myself and Ed Newton of Mona had  a chance to yell at President Truman and before his Secret Service agent got too nervous, Truman gleefully smiled and yelled back at us in the school bus. As I reflect on Nancy Regan as a national hero, I examined The Times News and found two local hero's had just passed away too. As a neighbor, little did I know that mild manner Don Gowers was a World War Two hero that most of us would never have guessed. Don was a Naval Officer deployed to the South Pacific, assigned to an underwater demolition and reconnaissance unit, the precursor to today's elite Navy Seals. Maybe that is why he permitted his son Clyde and I to take a ride in his Willy's Jeep for a spin around the J hill, to give us a taste of real fear. I also read of Nephi hero Gary Howarth, who not only was in the Korean War, but was in the National Guard and a devoted Nephi City employee for 38 years. To top that off, this country boy was called up to the big league, playing for the Cincinnati Reds in 1962. He then spent his extra innings helping local kids as a coach. I call them real sports hero's and it reminded me of the time when the big boys came to Nephi to watch Gordon Kelson show off his baseball skills. Another American and living hero is my little brother G.B. Jones, a former Army Ranger who is now the mentor for Iditarod Racer Charley Bejna, who at this entry is resting with his dogs on the trail at Rohn on the thousand mile sled dog race in Alaska.

"Hey Culligan Man".

Emmett Culligan, a devout Catholic- was a published author before he started his famous soft water business in 1936,  In the early 1960's, a devout Mormon trekked down Track Street to Nephi from his hometown of Ft. Green, Utah to become the local "Culligan Man" and made it a booming business on the corner of 4th North and Main in Nephi. He lived up the street a block, then three blocks up the same street. As you may suspect by the obituary photo of Gayle Yorgason, he accepted our teenage yells of "Hey Culligan Man" as a friendly gesture, which it was. Throughout his life he always looked at things in the positive, even during his years of pain. He was a self educated but well read man of wisdom, and part of his DNA may have trickled down to sons Blaine and Brent Yorgason, who during their career, was highly sought after authors of true and fictional stories of courage and faith. My thoughts were their written words was an internal skill, but it was the Nephi Jones boys who help bring it to the surface. As kids, we would ride sleighs down the snow embankment of the old hollow on Fourth North and Third East. When a Yorgason sleigh veered out of control, it hit my brothers arm, causing a compound fracture. I vividly recall the ordeal, as I was the one that carried the non-supportive forearm of Hal until he walked home. I was the only one who cried. To Hal, it was just another broken arm. Later on Hal and Brent Yorgason used to ditch church services, so my thoughts were the Yorgason boys were so guilt ridden, they were forced to write noble stuff. Gayle is buried in the Yorgason family cemetery, which is about a mile north of Ft. Green. His oldest son-Gary is buried there as well. If you look west toward the fountains of green, you will see the solemn resting places, and if you remain still and ponder, you can sense the ora of other Denmark pioneer immigrants, including Hans Peter Olsen, the Llewellyn's and Hans Anderson. Just don't stand too long or you could get run over by the ghosts of 100,000 sheep that used to graze nearby, giving it the nickname of "Wool City", but you are welcome to visit for "Lamb Day".

Porters Place of Lehi is now coming to Nephi, so steak lovers get ready.

Even if you a non-Mormon you may have heard of the Book of Mormon figures named Lehi and Nephi. You may have also heard of Orrin Porter Rockwell-the Territorial Marshall of Utah when the Mormons first came here. It all depends on who is writing the history of Old Port, but the general consensus is he shot and killed more hoodlums and ruffians than the Earp Brothers; Pat Garrett and Bat Masterson combined. People in the know list his gun notches at forty, but on the death of Rockwell, the Salt Lake Tribune thought the number was over a hundred, but they may have stretched it when they called Rockwell a notorious outlaw, along with the funeral speaker-Joseph F. Smith. In his later years, Porter said "I never killed anyone who didn't need killin". Although some folks didn't like his long hair, Joseph Smith did and gave him a prophesy that "as long as ye shall remain loyal and true to the faith, need fear no enemy. Cut not they hair and no bullet or blade can harm thee". Through 35 years of gun battles, he was unmarred, but he did cut his hair to make a wig for the widow of Don Carlos Smith when she lost her hair from typhoid fever. It wasn't long before he took to strong drink and liked it so much he made his own "Valley Tan" at his bar called "Hot Springs  Brewery Hotel" near the Jordan Narrows below the Point of the Mountain. Many years ago, this writer was able to located the foundations for that "half-way house", but the area is now obliterated by a gravel pit. It was a stop over for travelers going between Salt Lake and valleys south. Porters Place will be arriving in Nephi in July, 2016, along with all the historical artifacts. Once inside Porters, you can try an Apostle Burger, a Seventy Sandwich or Son-Of-A-Gun Salad. If you are not interested in the best steak west of Haun's Mill, then take a gander at the large painting of Orrin Porter Rockwell. You will be mesmerized by his cool grey and searching eyes, watching your every move. His small hands were given to him for a reason. He was lightening fast in outdrawing a desperado and it was said that in "True Grit" John Wayne borrowed a true life scene of Porter by holding reins in his mouth while shooting through a campfire at bad guys in Rush Valley after kidnapping a young girl. During a feast break, you may hear about Porter and Brigham when they camped at Chicken Creek(Levan) to help settle the dispute with Chief Walkara; of he and Brig's repeated stays in Nephi while heading south; a murder in Sanpete; his cattle ranch in west Juab County, or how about the time when the Atkins brothers were being escorted through Nephi and after escaping, they were somehow killed by "invisible hands"; his discussions with Nephi's Guy Foote; the Skeem family, or how about the two guys chased to Willow Creek(Mona) then they "accidently" drowned in the nearby deep bubbling springs(Burraston's) with rocks in their clothes. How about when O.P. and a hundred of his guerrilla "Mormon Militia" held off Johnson's Army in Echo Canyon when President Buchanan directed them to Utah to suppress a non existent "rebellion" which became known as "The Utah War".