PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

Museum Collection

In 1946 Heaton worked on cleaning up some of the museum artifacts loaned to the monument for display by Zion National Park the previous year. He borrowed a display case from his father to put some of the monument's "relics" in. Park Naturalist Russel K. Grater visited the monument on June 26, took pictures, and familiarized himself with some of the museum's collection. [1456]

In the fall of 1946, Heaton picked up the grinding stones that had come from the gristmill in Long Valley. [1457] The two stones were found in two different locations, Kanab and Glendale, and were donated by two different men, Homer Foote and a Mr. Black, respectively. Each stone weighed about 1,500 pounds. [1458] Heaton first displayed the stones inside the fort courtyard under the north porch but moved them outside near the southeast corner of the fort in 1950. In late 1946 Heaton's journal records he was trying to pick up a collection of Woolley family materials from a Mrs. Mace at the Kanab library. (It is unknown if or when he got these.)

An advance was made in monument exhibits when, in November 1946, Heaton placed the Bishop Hopkins collection of carpenter and blacksmith tools on exhibit in the east room of the west cabin "as at one time this room was used for the blacksmith shop," he reported. [1459] He also made tables and benches for this display. In April and May 1947, Heaton continued to work on the west cabin display as well as one in the east cabin. His efforts to display artifacts was handicapped by a lack of shelves and cases: "Spent the day in arranging museum articles.... I need to make or get several shelves and cupboard to display the museum articles better." [1460] During the winter of 1947-1948, Heaton built some display shelves for museum articles housed in the lower building of the fort, second floor, resulting in the rearrangement of artifacts to "make the museum more attractive to visitors." [1461] In May 1948 Regional Archeologist Erik Reed made his first visit to the monument, later commenting to Superintendent Smith favorably on the repair and restoration work Leonard Heaton had done.

In August and September 1948, Heaton spent time inventorying, marking, and cataloguing museum articles loaned by Zion. As some artifacts had the same numbers, Heaton used the letters Z and P to indicate whether they belonged to Pipe Spring's or Zion's collections. After he completed cataloguing Zion's pieces, he began working on Pipe Spring's collection. Heaton also made card labels to place with museum artifacts and placed a few more out on exhibit. He continued the cataloguing project over the winter months. The Hopkins collection alone consisted of about 100 objects.

In August 1949 Heaton drew up some plans for museum exhibit cases. In April 1950 he rearranged museum articles in the fort in attempt "to make it more of a self-guide to people who came while the Guide is busy elsewhere," Heaton reported to Smith. [1462] During October 1950, Heaton obtained parts of an old shingle mill from Fred Majors' ranch in Utah. [1463] He temporarily exhibited the shingle mill parts in the west cabin. That month, he asked Edna Heaton to help him survey the museum's collection and to suggest how the fort exhibits could be arranged better.