PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

Births, Deaths, and Accidents

Living on the remote Arizona Strip posed certain risks, particularly years ago when driving over miles of rutted dirt roads was an ordeal in and of itself. One had to travel to Kanab to see a doctor or to reach a hospital. (For serious medical conditions or operations, the Heatons went to the hospital in St. George). Farm and ranch work have always had inherent hazards. What is surprising is the low number of accidents Heaton reported. Most accidents or injuries involved either him or his family, rather than visitors, and these (judging from Heaton's journals and monthly reports) did not occur frequently.

Accidents near the monument were often road-related, such as the one Heaton reported in 1946:

At 2:00 a.m. [on] May 23rd, a truck driven by Mr. A. Jesup of Short Creek, Arizona, driving west on the road just east of the monument failed to make the sharp turn about 500 feet east of the monument and overturned. In it with Mr. Jesup were two women, three children, and an elder man. No one was seriously injured and after an hour and one-half, with the help of the custodian and members of his family, the truck was righted and the people cleaned up.... This turn should be fixed before someone is killed or maimed for life. [1409]

It appears that nothing was done to remedy this particular road problem. Area residents had a hard enough time just keeping the approach roads maintained in driveable condition, much less redesigned for safety (see "Area Roads" section).

What stands out most about accidents reported in Heaton's journal was the recurrence with which his daughter Olive was involved in them. Her fall from the railing of the speakers' stand at the April 29, 1950, barbecue has already been mentioned. That was not the first time she had suffered serious injuries, however. On a Tuesday in early January 1947, Heaton reported. "...when returning from taking my 3 boys to school at Moccasin the rear door of the car came open and pulled my 4-year old girl Olive out and injured her very seriously. Bruising her on the left side and back, sending her unconscious 'til 6 or 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning." [1410] Heaton took Olive to the family doctor in Kanab the day after the accident (Wednesday). After checking her, the doctor told the concerned father that everything was all right, except for the bruises and shock. The following year, in May 1948, Heaton reported that he "...had to take my 5-year-old daughter Olive to the hospital for an appendix operation. It was in the last stages before it would have ruptured. She was resting well last night." [1411] The little girl also was involved in a very serious farm-related accident a few years later (see Part VIII).

From time to time in his journal, Heaton reports area searches for missing persons. On May 26, 1947, Heaton joined a search party of between 75 and 100 men to hunt for his missing uncle, Lynn Esplin. Esplin, according to Heaton, "through worry and sickness wandered away from his sheep camp." [1412] It was discovered that he had fallen from a 300-foot ledge in a side canyon of Orderville Gulch, northeast of Zion. Heaton and other men carried Esplin's body out of the canyon on foot, then took it by horseback to the nearest road, all together a two-hour ordeal. [1413] Returning from a trip to Zion on May 28, Heaton stopped in Orderville to attend the funeral services for his uncle.

Oddly, with the frequency that rattlesnakes had been spotted at the monument in the 1930s and 1940s, no venomous snakebites were ever reported by Heaton. While swimming at the monument was very popular, only one swimming-related accident was recorded during these years and it involved one of Heaton's teen-aged sons. In the summer of 1949, Heaton reported, "My son Dean had an accident while swimming. Dove too straight into the pond and hit his face on the side, cutting a wound on the bridge of the nose, a hole through the upper lip, skinning the chin and breaking the inside corner of his two upper teeth. Had to have the doctor take two stitches in his lip; also wrenched his neck a little." [1414]

More common than accident reports at the monument was Heaton's news of a birth or a death. Pregnancies and births among the extended Heaton family appear to have been so common that such experiences by his wife provoked little comment in Heaton's journal. One has to make some effort to discern when they occurred. For example, on May 20, 1947, Heaton wrote, "Took Mrs. Heaton to the hospital, nothing much to report today." [1415] About two weeks later he mentioned, "Brought Mrs. Heaton and baby home feeling pretty good." [1416] (It is unclear if the trip to the hospital was for a check-up or for the baby's delivery.) Just a few of his children's births are mentioned in his journal. Only one of a number of funerals attended by Heaton during this period will be mentioned here. In 1948 Heaton attended funeral services for Fred Bulletts, a Kaibab Paiute man. Heaton wrote in his journal, "A large crowd of Indians and whites [were] there." [1417]