PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

Weathering the Infirmary and Other Cold Places

The Heatons experienced first hand the drawbacks of inhabiting a CCC building over the winter of 1941-1942. Heaton reported to headquarters "that it is so hard to heat and keep warm during windy days. The wind comes in one side of the building and the heat all goes out the other, even though the stoves consume 100 to 150 pounds of coal and wood daily. (Thanks to the old CCC coal pile, by screening, we get enough to keep warm in the living room and kitchen.)" [1232] The many cracks in the board-and-batten frame building - never designed nor constructed to be a permanent structure - let in as much cold as they let out heat. Fortunately for the Heatons, the closure of nearby camps resulted in the family having an additional supply of coal. In February 1943 Heaton built a coal bin to store coal picked up from the abandoned Fredonia camp. He placed the bin on the south side of the willow patch in an "old concrete and rock washing spot, built by the ECW when the camp was here..." [1233] In September 1944 he picked up an additional five to seven tons of good stoker and large coal from one of the camps - enough, he estimated, to last about a year. By the fall of 1945, he ran out of salvage coal and had to start making trips to the coal mine in Alton several times a month to buy coal.

The coal not only heated the residence but also took some of the chill off of Heaton's drafty office in the fort. Working in his office a few days before Christmas 1943, he reported "...trying to keep warm with the little 2 x 4 heater. Have to stuff wood and coal into it about every 15 or 20 minutes to keep the room warm enough to keep from getting cold. Feet always cold. Floor is rock and a bit damp most of the time." [1234] Poor Heaton had nowhere to get warm. Even the old monument truck had no heater in it, making winter trips to Zion an unpleasant affair. In January 1944 Heaton went to Zion for supplies in the pickup, writing later that the long trip was "one of the coldest rides I have had since about 1924 or '25." [1235] In December 1945 Heaton worked in the office filing papers and studying reports. He wrote, "Very hard to keep the place warm. Have to get up every five or ten minutes to stuff the stove with fuel to keep the chill out of the room. Still one's feet are always cold." [1236]

The warmth of springtime was thus always welcome at the monument. By the spring of 1942, however, the Heatons could no longer stand the bare look of the old CCC infirmary's landscape. In early April Heaton transplanted lawn grass from Moccasin to the front of the family's quarters. The following spring he planted trees around the residence to create a windbreak. That fall, with no hope of a new residence being built, Heaton wrote, "...since it looks like it will be several years before a new residence building will get put up, I am going to improve the grounds around the residence building we live in now, plant lawns, trees, and shrubbery." [1237] The grass earlier transplanted from Moccasin apparently didn't transplant well, for in November, Heaton wrote in his journal, "Want to plant some lawn early next spring to make the place look like a home rather than a shack. [For] 18 years I and the wife have been at the monument without decent outside grounds and I am going to change this condition if possible." [1238] For a Mormon couple used to the well-irrigated surroundings of Moccasin, the natural desert vegetation of the monument (or at least what little of it remained) must have appeared terribly unattractive.

In May 1944 Heaton was informed that Zion had received a $50 allotment for repairs to his quarters. In June 1944 Heaton went to Bullrush Wash for a load of flagstone rock to lay a path to his residence. In mid-month he excavated a new cesspool north of his quarters. He then filled in the old cesspool northeast of the residence and leveled ground in preparation for planting a lawn over it. During the war years, a number of cesspools associated with Camp DG-44 had caved in. Heaton filled these in with dirt.