PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

East Cabin Repairs; A New Caretaker Is Hired

The restoration of Pipe Spring's three historic buildings would take a great deal of physical effort, a good many years, and considerable funding to accomplish. It was a process that proceeded bit-by-bit, as labor and funds slowly chipped away at a very long list of needs. Even prior to the monument's creation Director Mather was aware that restoration funding was essential to the plans he had envisioned for the site. It was this vision that facilitated his selling the Pipe Spring idea to Union Pacific and Church officials who in turn helped bankroll the property's purchase.

In September 1923, just over one year prior to the Park Service's acquiring title to the Pipe Spring tract, Mather directed Frank Pinkley to go to the site and assess restoration costs. Mather told Pinkley the fort's large wooden gates needed to be rebuilt so the courtyard could again be enclosed, much of the woodwork needed to be replaced, and the roof required new shingles. Since the July 1924 incident between Dr. Edgar A. Farrow and Charles C. Heaton had soured Congressman Louis Cramton on providing restoration funds for the 1924-1925 year, Mather suggested that Pinkley try to solicit money for restoration and for road improvements from Arizona's Governor George W. P. Hunt. [527] Pinkley went to Pipe Spring early the following month (October 1923). After consulting with Charles C. Heaton, Pinkley reported to Mather that he thought the west cabin should be restored first since it would provide experience with local materials and labor. [528] Due to the scarcity of money, restoration of the fort had to be put on hold until the fall of 1924.

On October 15, 1924, Mather was able to get $300 set aside for restoration work at Pipe Spring. Pinkley assigned John White the task of gathering together native building materials for work on the west cabin. During the winter of 1924-1925, White obtained logsandstone to be used in its reconstruction. He also cleaned out 20 loads of dirt from the cabin's two rooms and removed rock that had been dropped in the cabin's chimneys by vandals.

Pinkley evidently changed his mind about wanting the west cabin reconstructed first, for he spent the month of July 1925 at Pipe Spring overseeing reconstruction of the east cabin. [529] As mentioned in Part I, Anson P. Winsor's family lived there while the fort was under construction, reportedly sharing it on occasion with Joseph W. Young who was charged with overseeing the fort's construction. Its use from 1872 to 1886 is unknown. During the Woolley period of occupation (1886-1891), the cabin was reportedly used as a chicken house and stable. [530] The cabin was allowed to deteriorate between 1895 and the time the property was acquired by the Park Service, being used as a cow and pigpen by those who lived at the fort. When Pinkley inspected the cabin in 1924, it was missing its roof, the back wall, and part of the front wall. Using most of the $300 appropriation he had for the monument that year, he had the east cabin reconstructed, using the materials gathered the previous winter by John White. For the roof, pine stringers were used to support peeled cedar posts fitted tightly together. It was then covered with cedar bark and dirt. At the time, funds were insufficient to replace the hand-hewn window and doorframes. These were installed the following year. [531]

42. East cabin and corrals, ca. 1924
(Pipe Spring National Monument, neg. 936).

43. West cabin and meadow, ca. 1924
(Pipe Spring National Monument, neg. 4110)

Earlier, in the spring of 1925, White notified Mather that he needed additional income and requested a five-year permit from the National Park Service to operate a gas station at the monument. Mather wrote Pinkley that he disapproved of the idea. Pinkley then informed White that while he would not be given the permit, he would be allowed to sell his farm products to tourists. Next, White asked if he could use the ground floor of the upper building to prepare and serve hot lunches to tourists, but it was determined that the floors of those rooms were too deteriorated for such use. Unable to make sufficient income to support his family at the monument, White left the monument in the fall of 1925. [532]

Soon after John White left his custodial job at Pipe Spring, Mather made the decision to offer the position to C. Leonard Heaton, oldest son of Charles and Maggie Heaton of Moccasin. Heaton had worked as a monument laborer under Pinkley at some point during 1925. [533] After attending high school in St. George, Leonard may have attended several of years college at Brigham Young University; when in Moccasin, he worked for his father. [534] At age 24, Leonard Heaton assumed his new position on February 8, 1926, riding to work his first day on a black horse named "Snake." [535] Although he acted as the monument's caretaker, Heaton's first job title was laborer. [536] In addition to pay of one dollar a month, his appointment included permission to operate a gas station and store, a request earlier refused to White. [537] In a 1991 interview, Leonard Heaton stated that the permit was issued and the store was opened in February 1926. While his memory is most likely correct regarding when the permit was issued (which coincided with his hiring), documentation suggests it took a number of months for the small store and gas station to be constructed. In a letter report for the month of April 1925 to Director Mather, Superintendent Pinkley wrote, "Mr. Leonard Heaton is building a service station and lunch stand at the monument. This is a very pleasant stop on the way from Zion National Park to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, but it is a very interesting relic in itself. We hope in time to rebuild this fort and furnish it with old-time Mormon furnishings." [538]

44. Restored east cabin, undated, probably late 1920s
(Courtesy Union Pacific Museum, image 39023).

The only photographs known to depict the store are taken from such a distance that it is impossible to give a detailed physical description of it (see figure 67). A number of later maps label it as a stone building. In a recent interview with Moccasin resident Grant Heaton, Heaton said he thought the store was about 12 x 16 feet. [539] It appears to have had a rectangular footprint with a flat roof. A 1933 service permit stated the store occupied a plot of land "not to exceed 30 feet square," located south of the fort ponds. That permit was issued to Grant Heaton (rather than Leonard Heaton) for one year at a cost of $3 per year beginning January 1, 1933. [540] Grant Heaton, who was only 15 years old at the time the permit was issued, stated in his interview that Leonard and Edna ran the store and that he only helped them out on occasion. [541]

The arrangement with Leonard Heaton - a nominal salary, a place to live, and a permit to operate a small business - was not particularly unusual for the National Park Service during that period. [542] In fact, the store (or "lunch stand," as Frank Pinkley called it) and gas pump served a real need that Mather had earlier identified when he suggested to President Carl Gray that Union Pacific set up a lunch station at Pipe Spring, and which the latter declined to act upon. As long as tourist traffic followed the Hurricane-Fredonia route to the Grand Canyon's North Rim, a gas station also filled a need of the traveling public.

In a 1991 interview, Leonard Heaton described his first meeting with Director Mather. He believed it took place in 1925, after Mather had taken his teen-age daughters on a trip to Yellowstone National Park. Heaton recalled of their meeting: "Well, he was just an ordinary man. He didn't seem to show any superiority about anyone else... [and] he was easy to talk to. He told me what he wanted to do but he said to use your best judgement in putting it back like it was." [543] The last time Leonard Heaton saw Mather was in September 1928, when the director was traveling through the area for the September 14 dedication of Grand Canyon Lodge at the North Rim. On November 5, 1928, Mather was stricken with paralysis. Due to ill health, reportedly "brought on largely through his steadfast devotion to his work," Director Mather resigned his position on January 8, 1929. [544] After 15 years of service to the National Park Service, he died on January 22, 1930, at the age of 63.

Horace M. Albright was appointed Mather's successor, serving as director until August 9, 1933. Even before Mather's death, Heaton had more contact with Albright than with Mather. Albright's early instructions, in Heaton's words, were as follows: "As custodian now, your first job is the traveling public and then your next job is to keep the place clean and presentable. Then if you've got any time left, it's yours." [545] Heaton would have little spare time, because in 1923 Mather and Pinkley started to put together a list of jobs to be undertaken at Pipe Spring which only grew longer after he was hired.