In the hundreds of history blogs we have submitted, we seldom come up with any "breaking news" like the tel-a-blision viewers who like to suck you in. Today, just maybe, we have a little breaking news, at least to the "Lost and Found" Department of Juab County. On Feb. 5, 2021 our blog entry told of a walking stick found by local cowboys in the west fields. They were quite aware of my love of history, so they brought it to me. I advertised it where I could and started my own study in to the various markings. It was on the side of the road, so my fifth grade education kicked in and told me that the Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics would not normally be found on a couple thousand year old piece of wood. But we had a break in the case and without the use of the crime lab at the Quantico in Virginia. I had prevously talked of the walking stick to many which included the folks at the DUP Museum in Nephi, Utah. We got a hit today, and carried the stick to the owner who wanted to visit the museum. He is a renowed sculpture and artist who moved to Nephi from "up north" and been here since 1992. My interrogation continued. His family arrived in Nephi even before the Jones family in 1852. His family was on the 26th wagon that entered Salt Creek. The family was directed here by Brother Brigham to build the Salt Creek Fort. The Dutton family were then directed to Spring City. David Jack Barlett Nielsen returned to Nephi and made the Stick out of his grandmothers cherry tree in Provo. He had previously met this writer when I was distributing brochure information about "Big Boy" coming to Nephi, and that is why he had not only the Big Boy carved in the wood stick but the Union Pacific pin on it. He was like an open book with his knowledge of trains and started to name every Big Boy still in existence; their number and where they are located. By this time, this history lover was foaming at the mouth and my sister Jaynette and Shanna Memmott were present with DUP staff. When David thought that was quite a fete for Big Boy to stop in Nephi, both Jaynette and Shanna knew the real story, as it was not a government event nor a penny of the taxpayer dollars used, but one sole contributor who wined and dined the VP of the Union Pacific and worked on him for a year. On the Stick David had a carving of a fish and that was because of his love of golfer Greg Norman. The top of the stick, I could never figure out, but he made it simple. It was drilled in such a way to hold his camera to take photos of trains and Big Boy rolling in. He pointed out a horse shoe; his dog and copyright symbol. Much of it was burned in the wood, including the Penguin. But what in the world was on the bottom of the cane. Oh now I see, it was a cut out portion of his flip flop! And since my home made Rosetta Stone doesn't do me much good to interpret the thousand distinct Characters from Egypt, he carved in a writing from Daivid O. McKay which was "What ere thou art, act well thy part. The band on the top had the name "Stowell" on it, which is a Nephi name. Roger Stowell didn't know, but the stick owner said it was Roger's brother-Richard Stowell, who had cancer and all prayed for his recovery which worked and kept the band on the Stick. We both had been to China, and visited No. 2 Cornwall Street in Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, with our bystanders thought we were a comedy team acting out a scene. All is well, now for the next discovery of a body buried many years ago.
