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Deward Iverson | Oral History
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Deward Iverson was interviewed on February 9, 2005 in St. George, Washington County, Utah by Milton Hokanson, a representative of the Grand Canyon-Parashaunt National Monument Oral History Project. He related his experiences ranching on the Arizona Strip, Mohave County, Arizona.
MH: How did your family come to the Arizona Strip?
DI: My dad was born in Arizona on the Strip. Littlefield [Arizona] is part of the [Arizona] Strip. He lived there all of his life. It is part of him. As far as what most people [say] about the [Arizona] Strip, it is in a different part of the world than Littlefield. They homesteaded out there in the 1920s. In the late 1920s they slipped down into California and [I was born] and then brought back to the [Arizona] Strip. That was home through grade school.
MH: Was their [ranch] at Little Tank?
DI: No. The school was at Little Tank. They homesteaded [about] four or five miles south of Little Tank. They raised their family there until [there] were not enough [children] to [have a] school. Then they moved their family in town [to St. George]. I don’t remember the year.
MH: How many brothers and sisters do you have?
DI: There were two girls and seven boys.
MH: It was a big family.
DI: They weren’t short of [children] out there to feed and care [for].
MH: Can you remember your first teacher?
DI: Yes, a [man] by the name of Lester Parker was the teacher. They had to keep eight [children] in attendance out there [in order to have] a school. Even though there were quite a lot of [children] scattered around, they started me [in school] a little bit young. Lester was the teacher at the school. The neighbors across the way close, the [Ray] Esplins, [had] an older girl, Norma [Esplin]. This was back before kindergarten was even thought of and she tended me. It took me a lot of years to get through the eighth grade out there. I don’t know how many years! [Laughter]
MH: [Laughter]
DI: I would go for awhile and then they would hold me back [a grade] again. I would take another run at it and finally they gave up on me and graduated me.
MH: Did your family run sheep or cattle?
DI: My dad homesteaded. To my knowledge, he never did have any sheep. He had a few cows that he ran. But, to make a living, he would go off and work for someone else. [It was] generally digging reservoirs, doing a little fencing, cutting posts or wood to feed his family.
MH: What was your first job out there? That you can remember!
DI: I don’t remember when I didn’t have a job. Growing up, we had chores to do. We had [cows]. As far as a job, that went with the territory. By the time we would get our cows milked, then [we would] find enough horses to get all the [children] to school. I don’t know what you would call a job. To me, that was a job! We did it. As [for] a paying job, I never did have any paying jobs out there.
MH: [Laughter] It was all family work.
DI: There wasn’t a McDonald’s or any place [where] you could go to work out there. Through the years [I] would go help other ranchers the Atkins, the Childers or the Esplins. I probably [received] a little pay for [that work]. I do remember helping them branding [or] moving cows.
MH: Some of the families that were out there were the Atkins and the Esplins.
DI: The Atkins were sheep people. Childers [had] cattle. Esplin [had] sheep. When my dad [would be] working for one of them building [a] reservoir or fence, there would be a lot of times [that] I would go along. I would follow along and do whatever [they] were doing if [I] wasn’t supposed to be in school. Time wasn’t a pressing situation. We just kind of did whatever we did!
MH: What were the winters like? Did it get rough?
DI: I am sure you have some [information] on [the] winter of 1936. I was old enough to [vividly] remember that. We were going to school down at Little Tank. I don’t ever remember missing one day of school down there. I remember we came in late to school more than being on time.
MH: How did you get to school?
DI: We either walked or caught some horses and rode back and forth. They said it was [very] cold the winter of 1936 and I am sure it was. I don’t ever remember hurting from [the] cold out there.
MH: [Wasn’t there] another bad winter in 1949?
DI: Yes, I remember 1949 reasonably well. After I [was] a little older, [Wayne] Sims came out there with equipment [to] build reservoirs. I went to work for him digging reservoirs. Then [the] winter of 1949 came along. I went to Parashaunt and [the] area of country [that] now is under the [Grand Canyon-Parashaunt National] Monument. We plowed snow out there.
They lost Wayne Gardner [in January 1949]. A posse was to come out [from] St. George. Sims showed up with some equipment that he put together and [had] a bulldozer on it. I went back into town and loaded the vehicle down with all the groceries that I could, came back and picked up Lawrence Iverson. He had stayed there at the camp [as] Sims had gone on ahead. This posse [was] camped at Little Tank.
MH: They got that far?
DI: Another caterpillar or bulldozer came out and they spent the night at Little Tank. It was about daylight, or after, when we came by. We just had the pickup truck pulling our camp. Sims was supposed to be building a road through the snow that we could follow. Someone there had a thermometer and it was 30° below. We hung around for awhile while they were getting their [equipment] together. This story could go on forever! [Laughter]
MH: [Does] it go on to where you found him?
DI: Lawrence and I tried to catch up with Sims, our boss. He only had a tank of fuel and I had the fuel in the truck. This was one of the items that I brought back [from] town. I kept trying to catch him. Some places he forgot to put his bulldozer down far [enough] and we would get stuck. I kept thinking, surely he would be sharp enough not to run out of fuel. I don’t know how far we had gone [until] I saw the tractor coming back. He had come to the point [where] he knew that he would be in trouble, too. We got him fueled up and by then [the] posse had caught up with us. They had sheep wagons and I am sure you have [information] on how much [equipment] they had. [There] was quite a crew of people.
MH: Yes, and all [of you were] looking for Wayne Gardner who had gone out to check on his [sheep] herd.
DI: We got him fueled up and everyone headed out on the road. By then, we were down [to an area] where we could all travel along [fairly well]. We had built a little pond a year or two before this called the Overnight Pond [at Mustang Point]. I don’t even remember who [we built] it for. We built this pond overnight and it has had that name ever since. We set our camp up there. Wayne [Sims] and some of the others went on to Wayne Gardner’s camp. It was a mile or two up
there. They got [an] old [sheep] herder out. His name [was] Ed Harrington. His name stuck with [me]. He didn’t have anything to eat, zero. [Laughter]
MH: He was down to his shoelaces!
DI: They took care of him. Whatever they did, I am sure they fed him. The next morning we went on [with] all the rest of the posse and got them up there. Then we spent a day or two in there building trails. They didn’t find him right at this time. We took our camp [and] I don’t know how many went with us. We went on over to [Jonathon Deyo] “Slim” Waring’s place. “Slim” was there and he was perfectly fine. He had a whole cellar full of grub. His first comment [was], “What in the h-e-l-l are you doing over here?” [Laughter] He wasn’t even lonesome for company!
MH: No, and to have that many people show up.
DI: I don’t know how many [there were]. The posse didn’t go on over, it was just me and a few others. I am sure Lawrence was part of the group]. At this point, the machine had been running quite awhile. [We] dozed [cleared] off a place down to the dirt where we would change the oil and service [it]. How come I had a tape measure? I did. I measured the snow and it was four feet there on the level.
MH: Was this at “Slim” Waring’s place?
DI: [Yes], on a flat there out from “Slim’s.” There is a big flat out there in front of his house. [In] my memory there was four feet of snow right there on the level.
MH: That is a lot of snow! Did it take you three days to get over to “Slim’s” place?
DI: We came to [the] Overnight Pond and we stayed up there at Wayne’s camp several nights. It was three, four or five days before we got to “Slim’s.” [We] went over, I guess, to see if he was okay. He said, “What are you doing here?” We didn’t stay at “Slim’s” that long, probably stayed the night there [at] their camp. [We] came on back because [the] posse had plenty of trails and roads [where] they could hunt [for Wayne Gardner].
Where we went with the tractor after that, we plowed a trail in over to Roland Esplin to check his herd. He was one of the sheep [men] with us. I pulled his truck over. I don’t remember whether he came back with me or not. His [men] were perfectly alright. [We] got there just in time for dinner. [Laughter] There were two herders and then Roland and I showed up. They didn’t have to prepare [anything] else for dinner. We sat down and they had everything. I don’t remember whether Roland came back with me to this posse camp. Anyway, we came back there. I don’t remember how many more days we stayed there because the road over there, Main Street [Valley], was filled full of snow. [The snow] was blowing. We left and the road was kept open where the people associated
with the posse [went] back and forth. A day or two after we left, they found [Wayne] Gardner. I wasn’t there. I know about where they found him because I had been over [the area] so many times. I understand they went out and built a monument.
MH: Yes, they did put a little monument out there.
DI: That is what I understand but I have never been back to that ridge since I drove off of it with the tractor when we left there.
MH: You mentioned “Slim” Waring. Do you remember Bill Shanley?
DI: I was around Bill some but not [very much].
MH: Was he as wild as everybody said?
DI: I doubt it. I doubt it very much. Have you heard them talk about Jim King? He and Jim, to my understanding, were brothers. Maybe Bill was a little bit on the wild side. I don’t know. When I was around him it didn’t appear that way to me. But, then, everyone reads everyone a little bit different. I have heard some stories but like a lot of stories, people say if you tell a story [and] you can’t add to it a little bit you are not a good story teller! [Laughter]
MH: [Laughter]
DI: There were rumors that there were things behind [earlier in his life] him and there could have been and there might not have been. Jim King didn’t have the flamboyant stories [told] about him that Bill did. There were several out on the [Arizona] Strip that had —
MH: Who was the best cowboy out there?
DI: Who was the best cowboy or who could tell the best story? [Laughter] “Old Man” Whipple (I am sure his name has come up) was a good story teller. He was my first cousin. I spent some time with [inaudible] nowhere near the younger brother. He would go with [inaudible] over to Grassy [Mountain]. I have been [very] close to Grassy, a time or two, but I was never [been there]. It is kind of a mean, mean country. I don’t know how many years [inaudible] was over there. But [inaudible] definitely liked to live the life of the cowboy. I was working over there for Roland Esplin digging a reservoir. This was back when I was working for Sims. Someone [inaudible] me and I don’t remember who it was. But I was in camp and heard something outside and here is [inaudible] on his horse. This is six, seven [or] eight miles from Grassy. He came in and I put on a pot of coffee. I asked him, “Do you want a drink of water?” [He said], “No, by God.” He had flamboyant speech! He said, “I don’t want any damn drink of water. I don’t want to get the habit.” [Laughter] You know, this is supposed to be the cowboy life.
MH: [Laughter] [Do] you remember your first horse?
DI: I wasn’t much of a horse person. The horse was a necessary evil to me. It was something that, when you did something [went somewhere], you got on a horse. Out there, we had a lot of horses because they dug reservoirs. We rode horses to school. We drove mules. We had a set of mules and they would pull the buggy to school. But no, as far as a first horse, they were just horses.
MH: Do you remember your first truck?
DI: Truck? Well, [that] gets away from the [Arizona] Strip. A set of wheels is a [very] nice thing to own.
MH: Yes.
DI: When I was working for Sims, one of the first [items] on my agenda [was] to get me a set of wheels and it wasn’t a truck! [Laughter] Right after [World] War [II] pickups were [fairly] hard to come by. As soon as I got a down payment [together], I bought me a Plymouth [car]. I didn’t keep it too long. Then I bought me a Pontiac [car]. I knew General Motors was going to go out of the car business! [Laughter] Cars were my weakness! There for a few years I bought wheels. I never bought any trucks until I went into business for myself and then I bought too many [trucks]! [Laughter]
MH: How [did] you meet your wife? [Unable to locate his wife’s name.]
DI: I was working up in Wyoming, still [working] for Sims.
MH: Where about? [In Wyoming]?
DI: [It was] out of Evanston, Wyoming and rodeo time was a-coming. I took time off to come to the rodeo. I had a practically brand new Pontiac sedan. I was twenty-one years old and I wanted a convertible. [I was] coming down from Evanston on [Highway] 89 and slipped through Manti [Sanpete County], Utah. There along side [of] the road in a showroom floor was a brand new convertible. Fifteen minutes later [laughter] I am [driving] down the road [in] a brand new convertible. I got here [St. George] and it is rodeo weekend. [I] ran into a couple of my buddies and we [were driving] around. One [of my buddies] had a date with a gal that I knew. Mary Jean Sorenson was her name. She said, “How would you like to pick up a girl tonight?” One thing led to another and I said, “Whatever.” So we stopped at these apartments. Soon [Mary Jean] is coming down the steps with this gal. That is how I met my wife!
MH: Was she from St. George originally?
DI: No. Her family is from your country, Tropic [Garfield County, Utah]. She was from, at the time, Springville [Utah County, Utah]. But her family is from Tropic, the Hatch and the Shakespeare [families]. She is half Shakespeare and half Hatch. Both of those families at that time were [very] stout in Tropic.
MH: They still are!
DI: I am sure they still are. This was in September [and] six months later she was an Iverson.
MH: And your convertible days were over!
DI: That stinking convertible; a few years went by and then it wore out. This past summer I had a daughter that turned fifty years old up in Idaho. They wanted us to come up to help celebrate her birthday. We [went] to [the] birthday party [that] one daughter of hers had put together. [We] were going to go to [the place where the] party was and she said, “No, I have a ride coming for you.” I figured the daughter had a local limousine showing up for her. Finally, she called her mom [and said], “The ride [for] you and dad is here.” I thought I would go out just for curiosity [and] here sits a Pontiac convertible!
MH: [Laughter] Oh boy!
DI: It was two years newer than [the] one that I had. Holy mackerel! [Inaudible] grandma got in the [inaudible] convertible. [Laughter] So that is the story of how I met my wife.
MH: Did you take her back out to Diamond View [on the Arizona Strip]?
DI: She has been out there a few times. She has never been too enthused about the [Arizona] Strip. She has been out there quite a few times. But she is not strip-oriented like a lot of other people.
MH: What breed of cattle did you run?
DI: Herefords. Is there any other kind?
MH: [Laughter] [If] you talked to the Atkins, they might tell you differently!
DI: Atkins have had a lot of Herefords. They have [had] quite a few different breeds. [The] Black Angus [breed] has done wonders for the beef industry. But, as far as I am concerned, as long as it has a white face, it is red and it eats, [it is] good enough —
MH: Where did you sell? Did you haul your calves into St. George to sell them or bring your buyer out [to your ranch]?
DI: For years, there would be different ones [who] would come out there and buy the calves. The cow buyers would show up and they shipped [the cattle] to wherever. I was kind of gone from there [and] doing other things after I [was] married. My
dad lined [trucks] up and hauled [the cattle] to market [in] Los Angeles [California] a time or two. [There] was [an] auction in Cedar [City, Iron County, Utah], when it [was] active, that made it a little more handy for [the] different feeders here in town. Evan Woodbury [was] feeding a few [cattle]. That made it handy to bring [the cattle] in and sell to [Woodbury] and [Brent] Atkins. Brent was doing a [very] fine job, an excellent job, and we sold to him. Now we haul [the cattle] to Cedar [City] and [use] internet television [video] [for] buying now. If a [fellow] could get a little more oriented [to the process], that is a good market. [It] has been a good market for cows.
MH: What was your brand?
DI: It was the A-Bar-Z.
MH: Are you still using that [brand] today?
DI: Yes, we still use the A-Bar-Z. It has been with the ranch ever since my dad [purchased] it. [How] he came to [use] that brand, I have no idea. He bought whatever holdings [he had from] Brooks Hale. There never was anything that I know of, [about] him buying [the brand] from him. His brand was the Walking X. He would be a [very] interesting person to know about.
MH: I imagine he would have some stories.
DI: But a [fellow] waited a couple of years too long for that.
MH: Was the saw mill going at Parashaunt when you were growing up?
DI: It was, but [I cannot] remember the names of those people [who] were out there. I have been to [that saw mill] when I was working. I did quite a lot of work for “Slim” Waring out there. I am sure Reed Mathis could remember the names of [the] places where the saw mills were and how much lumber [was] brought out of Parashaunt. I don’t think [it was] as much as [was taken] off of Mt. Trumbull.
MH: No, they had a bigger operation on [Mt.] Trumbull. Did you ever get down to [the] Grand Gulch Mine [on the Arizona Strip]?
DI: Grand Gulch [Mine] ─ is that where we built a road?
MH: A road was built down Pigeon Canyon to the Grand Gulch Mine.
DI: Yes. Another fellow and I were working together [for] a company from New York, Western Golden Uranium. They were going to build a road into the Grand
Gulch [Mine]. We went out and started down Pigeon Canyon and I stayed there until we got right to the bottom. They were a big enough company [that] they had holdings over on the other side of the [Colorado] River. This mine was called the Ridenour [Mine and was in Coconino County, Arizona]. Have you heard of that name?
MH: Yes, [it] is on the south side of the [Grand] Canyon.
DI: I left there and spent probably a year plus over on the other side. They didn’t only go into [the] Ridenour. We came down another canyon straight across from the valley of Toroweap, whatever that canyon is called. [Vulcans Throne]. We came down right near to the [Colorado] River’s edge and then went back up to some claims they had there for uranium. Whether they ever developed any of that
[ore] —
MH: [When] would that have been? In the 1950s?
DI: [It] was in 1956 and 1957 [that] I was in there. [I had] another new pickup. [Laughter] [I] wore those pickups out! I did a lot of traveling. When you asked about a pickup, yes, I bought another pickup down there.
MH: [Do] you still take some of your friends and family out to Tuweep?
DI: Occasionally. There is a [lot of] interest in that country. It is amazing and [of] the ones I have taken out, some say it has been the best trip [they] have ever been on in [their] life, regardless of where they have been. I don’t know if they go anyplace! [Laughter]
MH: I asked you earlier on and I am going to ask you again. What is it about the Arizona Strip that keeps the people who are involved out there so interested in it? They all come back.
DI: I was raised at Diamond Butte [at Russell Spring]. As far as the rest of the [Arizona] Strip, I have never had any big interest [to] go wandering around it other than [at] Diamond Butte and at the Hurricane Falls. Though I wasn’t born there, I was only a few months old when I [came] there and I [stayed] until I left to go to high school in [St. George]. I don’t know what fascinates the rest of the people other than going out to the [Grand] Canyon. If you can get out to the canyon you can spend endless [hours] out there. The canyon is fascinating. I don’t care whether it is [on] the [Arizona] Strip side or the [south] side. When I was over at Ridenour [Mine] I had some people working for me. After we would get timed out, [we] spent endless hours down in those canyons, wandering around trying to find a mountain sheep or goat. That side of the canyon is on [the] Hualapai [Indian] Reservation [in Peach Springs Canyon]. Now you talk about some fabulous country! You go from the ponderosa pine [trees] right down into
the, well, the [Grand Canyon-Parashaunt National] Monument is not there on the reservation.
MH: No, the monument is across the river.
DI: You have to step down [to] get across!
MH: Now that they have made it a monument out there, what do you think they ought to do with it?
DI: I think that they ought to build a good road out there.
MH: You think they ought to put a road out there?
DI: I do. To have a monument out there, [they ought] to have some good access roads out there, a [road that] is oiled, maintained and take care of.
MH: Do you think they ought to stop the grazing?
DI: That is an odd thing to ask someone with [ranching as] a hobby.
MH: I know!
DI: It would be just like the fires in California, the fires they have down in Arizona and different places. That [Arizona] Strip can graze off and get to looking as tough and mean as anything that you can imagine. Water is a magic deal. [You] are a Tropicite! They could put mustangs or buffalo out there to eat it off.
MH: Tony Heaton tried that [and] it didn’t work too well.
DI: [Laughter] But as far as the grazing, if you are going to run cattle for a profit you are not going to overgraze your ranch. [For our] little hobby, we have some BLM [Bureau of Land Management] leases on it. But, hey, if you are going to run an animal for a profit, you are going to [want to] see him. Atkin, Esplin and I haven’t been on the other top country. In order to get ready for grazing ─ unless they could come with some other way, we have the fire engines and fire fighters. There is more money generated through organizations like that, by far, than there is [in] the cattle industry. As far as the economy, spending and making money, there is [much] more money generated. That comes out of the good old taxpayer’s pocket. That is becoming more and more the American way to do things like this.
MH: Sometimes you wonder just what [people] are thinking when they do some of [these things].
DI: To do away with the grazing, I know that I am probably in a very flat minority on this, but if they do away with that, you do away with something else. Soon it becomes a sanctuary [where] no one can get involved. A question like that you [shouldn’t] ask me! [Laughter]
MH: Ask a rancher.
DI: Mine is strictly a hobby. What few [cattle I have] out there is just strictly a little hobby. To run all the Esplins or the Atkins or the Heatons out of there, to me this is the best [way] of controlling it there is. But it [would need to] come to a higher density situation and [have] enough water out there to put enough people on it to handle it.
MH: You have been a good interview. I appreciate it.
[END OF TAPE]
Description
Deward Iverson was interviewed on February 9, 2005, in St. George, Washington County, Utah by Milton Hokanson, a representative of the Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument Oral history Project. He related his experiences ranching on the Arizona Strip, Mohave County, Arizona.
Credit
NPS
Date Created
02/09/2005
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