PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

Monument Administration

Activities at the Nevada Test Site did not impact day-to-day activities at Pipe Spring National Monument, but they did give Heaton something out of the ordinary to report at Zion staff meetings. Heaton's wife and children continued to help give guide service and to assist with monument maintenance work during the early 1950s. After a January 1951 staff meeting at Zion, Heaton was given a new heater for his office in the fort. The heater, he later reported, "Keeps the room at a workable temperature, except draft on the floor." [1510] The next staff meeting he attended was on February 7, 1951, just one day shy of Heaton's 25th anniversary of working for the Park Service at Pipe Spring. Regional Director Tillotson sent Heaton a letter of commendation for his service.

The Rainmakers Cometh

Experiments in cloud seeding were carried out during the spring of 1951 in southern Utah parks and in the area of Pipe Spring National Monument. Superintendent Charles J. Smith described the activity in his monthly report for March to the director:

What could be very significant to the national parks of this area is the projected rainmaking venture, which has been instituted in southern Utah this spring. Seven counties in this area have contracted with a California firm to set up and operate ten stationary generators for cloud seeding from April 1, 1951 to April 1, 1952. The backers of the venture hope to double the annual rainfall in this part of the country and say that in many cases they even triple and quadruple it. If successful in bringing additional moisture to desert range lands, the 'cloud milkers' have visions of causing large amounts of snowfall to accumulate in the high mountains for use for power and irrigation. It is too early to hazard a guess as to what success this venture will meet with. Whether or not the venture is successful, we will watch it with great interest. In the event the project is successful, we can foresee the possibility of the most profound effects on our national parks. [1511]

A few days before the experiment was to begin, Heaton received a visit by two "rainmaker men" who left one of their machines in the area for testing. [1512] The Water Resource Development Company owned the machines, and its field representative was a Mr. Noble of Provo, Utah. The job of operating the machine at Pipe Spring, keeping records, and making reports was given to Heaton's son, Lowell, for which he was paid $1 per hour while operating the machine. Leonard Heaton commented, "Very simple thing. Burns charcoal with silver iodide in it." [1513] Apparently the "rainmaker men" would phone the monument with instructions to turn the machine on (it seems this was done when potential rain clouds could be seen approaching the area). Occasionally the men would stop by to check the generator and leave supplies for the machine.

Testing of the machine at Pipe Spring began in early April and continued into the summer. In April Heaton reported to Superintendent Smith that the silver iodide generator was run for 80 hours late in the month. He gave the invention credit for producing storms that generated 2.5 inches of rain during that time. No other weather affects were attributed to the machine in Heaton's later reports. On August 10, 1951, Heaton reported, "Mr. Noble, district supervisor for the rain making machines, was in and moved the generator from this area because of poor telephone service. Will likely be placed in Fredonia." [1514] In December of that year, Heaton reported to Zion that he received a call from Noble about putting the rain generator at the monument again. Then nothing more was written about the machine, the "rainmakers," or the outcome of their attempts to control the weather.

92. Leonard Heaton with "rainmaker machine," April 1951
(Photograph by Fred Fagergren, courtesy Zion National Park).

This is Station KNKU20

In May 1951 Pipe Spring National Monument took a modest leap forward into the world of modern telecommunications with the acquisition of a two-way radio. [1515] Heaton got permission to get two, 50-foot pine poles from Kaibab Mountain to make a radio aerial. On May 11, two of Leonard Heaton's brothers, Grant and Kelly, helped the custodian erect the two aerial poles at the monument residence. On May 16, Heaton attended the Zion staff meeting, returning to the monument with the radio transmitter (Call KNKU20). The following day, Chief Ranger Fagergren and Chief Clerk Fred Novak came out to set up the radio at the monument and to inspect monument files. While the radio receiver worked, the two men had trouble getting the transmitter to work. Toward the end of May, two staff from Bryce Canyon National Park came out to fix the radio set, which turned out to be only a microphone problem. Heaton borrowed a microphone from the Moccasin Church to test out the set and managed to get the Chief Ranger at Zion on the radio that afternoon at 1:40 p.m. "Another milestone in communications at Pipe Spring National Monument," wrote Heaton in his journal, referencing Pipe Spring's 1871 telegraph office and later advances in communications. [1516] The radio enabled Heaton to communicate with park sites in southern Utah and northern Arizona.

The Monument Fire

A serious fire occurred at the monument on Saturday, July 7, 1951. On that date the 36 x 20-foot, wood-frame, combination barn/garage burned down. [1517] The fire was discovered about 5:00 p.m. by one of Heaton's children, who saw smoke and told Edna Heaton. Custodian Heaton was not on duty that day and was away; only Edna and two young children were home when the fire broke out. [1518] The burning building was located about 150 yards northeast of the residence, immediately adjacent to a cellar in which a large amount of fuel was stored for the electric generators. This added considerably to the situation's danger. Edna tried to call Moccasin for help but discovered the telephone wasn't working, which delayed getting help to the scene. While one of the children was left trying to make phone contact with Moccasin, Edna Heaton moved the government truck and then fought the fire with a carbon tetrachloride, "bomb type" extinguisher. The water tap near the building could not be used as it was too close to the flaming building. Edna fought the blaze for about 15 minutes before help arrived. "Help" at that moment consisted of eight youths under 16 years of age, who attempted to put out the fire with carbon tetrachloride and soda acid extinguishers. Edna Heaton prevented the youth from approaching too near the fire because of the danger of the fuel storage cellar igniting and exploding. About 15 minutes later, area ranchers arrived with a pressure pump and portable stock watering tank. While there was little left of the garage or its contents by that time, the men averted a potentially far worse disaster. The exposed roof rafters of the fuel storage cellar had ignited and the ranchers were able to extinguish the flames preventing much worse destruction at the monument.

Heaton returned home to the ruins of the fire that evening about 7:30 p.m. The custodian worked to put out the fire for another three hours, then kept a stream of water running on the smoldering ruins all night. The building was destroyed as well as its contents: four to five tons of hay, a chicken, a tractor and trailer, and many of the monument's hand tools. The following day, Heaton notified Assistant Superintendent Art Thomas by phone and reported the fire. The custodian thought the cause of the fire was spontaneous combustion from new bales of hay stored in the barn the previous Tuesday. On Monday, July 9, Chief Clerk Novak and a ranger came to the monument, took pictures of the fire damage, got a list of government and personal equipment lost in the fire, and interviewed Edna Heaton. Losses were later estimated at $1,100 for the building, $1,090 for Heaton's personal property, and $286.55 for loss of government property. [1519]

Heaton later cleaned up the mess from the monument's most destructive fire, hauling away five truckloads of burned materials. The fire also damaged about 200 feet of monument boundary fence, which Heaton replaced in August. In the fall he dug up about 300 feet of 3/4-inch pipeline that ran from the meadow to the garage site as it was no longer needed. In January 1957, using cinder blocks left over from the comfort station construction project, Heaton built four-foot high walls on the north and west sides of the old garage's rock floor "to have a place to park [the] truck and store things." [1520]

On August 30, 1951, Heaton answered a fire call in Moccasin at Chris Heaton's residence, taking with him nearly all the monument's fire fighting equipment (adequate to equip an eight-man crew). By the time he arrived, the fire was under control, he later reported.

Other Events, 1951-1952

In mid-June 1951, Heaton attended an Arizona Strip Community Association meeting where the decision was made to erect a large sign for the benefit of motorists on U.S. Highway 89. [1521] The sign was to depict the main roads and towns of the Arizona Strip. During August 1951, Regional Forester S. T. Carlson made his first visit to Pipe Spring National Monument. He later recommended to the regional office that early attention be given to installing a lightning protection system on the fort and to taking measures to protect the fort and residence from fire. (In this regard, his recommendations echoed those made by others in 1950.) He pointed out that while the monument had "copious amounts of water," there were no distribution lines or pressure system to provide for fire suppression. Carlson also recommended that monument trees be sprayed to control insects as an annual maintenance project. [1522] (Correspondence and later reports suggest an annual tree-spraying program was initiated in 1951.) In November and December 1951, as a fire protection measure, Heaton and four of his sons dug a trench and laid a pipeline to supply water to fire hydrants at the residence. It would still be some time before the fort received protection from lightning and fire.

Shortly after the July 9, 1951, monument fire, Heaton discovered someone had stolen a box of arrowheads from the Indian relic showcase. The thief had left the empty box in another room after removing the arrowheads. At this point, Heaton, was rather discouraged: "Makes a fellow pretty low to have things happened as they have to me the past month. First my girl getting hurt, fires, and things taken from the fort." [1523] Another theft was discovered by Heaton after the August 31, 1951, Winsor family reunion. The custodian reported that a small brown crockery jar recently donated by Maggie Heaton, Leonard's mother, was stolen from the museum during that event.

January 1952 was a difficult month for travel in the area, with not all problems attributable to local road conditions. On January 8, Leonard and Edna Heaton ran out of gas driving to Zion National Park for the staff meeting and a supper and party to be held afterward. (The fuel tank register didn't work on the truck.) The temperature was four degrees below zero. The couple finally arrived at the park at 10:00 a.m. A week later Heaton received a call from two regional office staff (one of whom was Regional Architect Kenneth M. Saunders) whose car was stuck in a snow bank on Kaibab Mountain. The two men were not bound for Pipe Spring at the time. The trip to assist them took Heaton three and one-half hours. While he didn't mind helping, what seemed to bother the custodian most at the time was that he had been waiting for some time for Saunders to come and inspect the work he had been doing on the fort. Money had been allotted to the monument ($500) for repairs to the fort, acquiring additional antique furnishings, and display cases. The monument also had an allotment of $700 to replace the burned-out garage with a new utility building. Heaton felt he needed some direction in planning the work that was to be accomplished with the money and was anxious for guidance that would enable him to plan out his work for the year. In the interim, Heaton completed some grounds-keeping chores over the winter, removing dead trees from around the fort ponds, digging up tree suckers from the meadow and campground, and thinning out willows growing on the banks of the meadow pond.

Superintendent Smith retired from his position at Zion National Park on April 30, 1952, and was succeeded by Paul R. Franke on June 1, 1952. After Heaton attended a staff meeting run by Franke, he reported, "Mr. Franke is making quite a change in our staff meeting procedures and it is not taking too well with the rest of the fellows. So it looks like our reports will be somewhat shorter when we get on to what he wants." [1524] Assistant Superintendent Art Thomas remained at Zion and Heaton usually dealt with him on monument issues.

During the summer of 1952, as in summers past, Edna Heaton was in charge of the monument during Heaton's absences from the site, often handling a considerable numbers of visitors. After more than 25 years of family members doing this pro gratis, either Edna and/or Leonard Heaton must have decided enough was enough. In July Heaton wrote in his journal, "Am going to see the director on the 21st about having her paid part-time employment for the two days I am away." [1525] Director Conrad L. Wirth and Assistant Director Ronald F. Lee visited Zion on July 21, when a party was held at the park. While Heaton attended the affair, it is unknown if he asked about possible employment for Edna Heaton at that time. During Heaton's absences, Edna continued providing year-round, unpaid guide service at the fort until the 1953 travel season.

In October 1952, when Heaton took two week's annual leave, Edna was in charge of the monument for the entire time. Again in early April (probably Easter weekend) Edna was left to oversee the fort and its visitors. A Fredonia community outing brought 212 people that Saturday, followed by another 340 people on Sunday. [1526] A few weeks later the decision was made that the family would spend the following summer at their farm in Alton, perhaps fueled by Edna's weariness with being left to manage the monument on her husband's days off or with the lack of privacy attendant with living on the monument. Of the decision, Heaton wrote in his journal, "Sure don't know what to do about the place this summer during my two days off from work with the family being away most of the summer. There will be no one at the monument to look after things during the day. Will work to try and get [a] hired laborer 2 days a week. Cost about $21 per week." [1527] The decision that the family move to Alton for the summer was made prior to Heaton obtaining Zion's permission to hire someone to fill in for him. This strongly suggests Edna (probably with Leonard's backing) may have in effect gone "on strike," serving Zion with notice they must find an alternate for Leonard Heaton on his days off.

On July 27, 1952, Franke paid an inspection visit to Pipe Spring, bringing his wife along. Franke discussed a number of topics with Heaton: getting park signage, trimming trees back so the fort was more visible, furnishing the fort, restocking the ponds, replanting orchards, and other work toward implementation of the monument's master plan. Franke was not pleased with the site proposed for the new utility building. Still Heaton seemed grateful for Franke's visit, his criticism, and direction. "It looks like I will get more attention from Franke than I got from Smith," he wrote in his journal. "Makes me feel that I am part of the organization rather than a necessary evil the park was putting up with and didn't want." [1528] This was a sentiment never expressed by Heaton when the monument was under the supervision of Southwestern Monuments. It seems he felt more like the "odd-man out" once Zion took over its administration.

In August 1952 Heaton confided in his journal that Franke's administrative style was rankling a few people: "Things don't set too well with Supt. Franke and the rest of the fellas. He seems to be too critical of things for them, being new in the place. He sees changes needed." [1529] In September he wrote in his journal, "The men are getting tired of the way Supt. Franke is running them. Don't have much to say," implying Franke had a rather dictatorial style. [1530] What was worse, Heaton complained that Franke's "short and snappy meetings" were getting longer and more tiresome. "Instead of an hour length they stretch out to two and one-quarter hours," he wrote. [1531] Long staff meetings (up to six hours) soon became the rule and Heaton began to dread them. In the days when cigarette smoking was in vogue, the meeting room was always filled with smoke. A non-smoker, Heaton frequently returned home with what he called a "sick headache" from these meetings. [1532] His journal has numerous references during the early 1950s like the following description of a staff meeting: "Took most all day. Seems like there is a lot of waste of time talking about little things, not of any value to most of the men." [1533]

Getting Power to the People

Arizona Strip communities continued to push for commercial power in their areas in the early 1950s. In September 1952 Heaton reported the Arizona Strip Community Association was pushing for Rural Electrification Administration (REA) to supply electricity to the communities of Moccasin, Fredonia, Short Creek, Jacob Lake and area ranchers (see Part VII for background on the REA). The group had decided to join the Kingman REA Corporation of Kingman, Arizona, in the hope of saving time and cutting through bureaucratic red tape involved in obtaining REA assistance. [1534] A meeting was held in Fredonia on January 5, 1953, to discuss the REA establishing a power line from GarKane Power Company's line at Mt. Carmel Junction to Arizona Strip communities. [1535] It was later reported that the REA program to the Arizona Strip hinged on the possibility of buying power from the Whiting Brothers Sawmill in Fredonia. Another community meeting in Fredonia held in February left Heaton optimistic about the area soon getting commercial power: "The prospects look good at this time," he later reported to Zion officials. [1536] But commercial power would be delayed years more.

Other Events, 1953-1955

An inspection of the boundary fence in February 1953 revealed that about 50 percent of the cedar boundary fence posts needed to be replaced due to deterioration. Except for a small segment replaced by Heaton after the 1951 fire, the monument's boundary fence was the same one installed during the winter of 1933-1934 under the Civil Works Administration program. Heaton made some repairs to the fence during October 1953.

Assistant Director Hillory A. Tolson attended the Zion staff meeting on April 1, 1953. Heaton later reported, that Tolson "told us to obligate all the money as soon as we get authority to do so, then ask for more. It seems like the Service still hangs onto the New and Fair Deal Policies of the Democratic Party of spend and spend and ask for more." [1537] The monument was to benefit from that approach during the year. Two long-needed advances occurred during 1953 at the monument. That summer the monument received a new fire pump, reel, and fire hose. [1538] Heaton constructed a housing for the pump near the fort ponds in July. Finally the fort had fire protection. Heaton quickly discovered the new pressure pump was a great aid to him in cleaning out clogged pipelines and trash-filled cattle guards (rather creative uses of the system, but ones that fire protection rangers later frowned on). In 1955 the monument's carbon tetrachloride extinguishers were replaced with six new carbon dioxide fire extinguishers.

The other important expenditure of funds in 1953 was for hiring a laborer for the monument. On May 1, 1953, Heaton to attended a marathon five and one-half hour staff meeting at Zion. Edna Heaton was left in charge at the monument, tending to 225 students from Short Creek and Fredonia schools on a May Day outing. Heaton came home with welcome news: Zion gave him permission to hire a seasonal, part-time laborer on the two days a week he was off-duty. Edna and the children moved to Alton for the summer three days later. The laborer was Leonard Heaton's youngest brother, Melvin Kelsey ("Kelly") Heaton, who began work on May 14, 1953. During the summer Leonard Heaton worked Friday through Tuesday. Kelly Heaton worked Wednesday and Thursday. In the fall, when Leonard Heaton's tour of duty reverted back to Monday through Friday and Edna and the children returned to the monument, the laborer was let go. From about October to May, the fort was officially closed on Saturday and Sunday, but Heaton reported "most of the time someone is at the monument and can let people in." [1539] (That "someone" of course was Edna Heaton who continued to fill-in for the custodian during the off-season until 1957.) Word also arrived at the monument in June 1953 that Heaton was to get a pay raise to $1.73 an hour. [1540] That was good news, particularly since the rent for his quarters was raised a few weeks later to $17.50 per pay period. For the increase, Heaton would get a new heater and electric bills would be included. Zion officials promised several other improvements. Still, with the rent increase, Heaton wrote in his journal, "I am not much better off than before the raise." [1541]

Assistant Director Ronald F. Lee visited the monument on July 13, 1953, accompanied by Superintendent Franke. Lee was perturbed about the lack of monument signs at Pipe Spring, there being no visible indication that it was a national monument. Otherwise, Lee was impressed with the area and with Heaton's operation of the historic site. [1542] In the fall the Arizona Strip Community Association echoed Lee's request for monument signage at Fredonia, at the junction of the road to Hack Canyon (to the south on the Arizona Strip), and at the monument so people could find their way to the site. The lack of signage at the monument and at highway junctions had long been an identified need. Sign plans had been requested from the regional office but had not been received. In March 1954 Heaton called on Arizona State Highway Department officials to request directional signage to the monument be placed at the junction of State Highway 40 and U.S. Highway 89 in Fredonia. They agreed to this request and the new sign was placed in the summer of 1954. Finally in February 1956, new directional signs were received from Zion to replace the deteriorated wooden signs made in 1939 and 1940. These were placed along paths and in the campground area in March. New informational signs were installed in April. The installation of the large entrance sign delivered from Zion was delayed until Heaton found someone to help him erect it.

Kelly Heaton's appointment ended by mid-July 1953, leaving Heaton again without guide help until his family returned from the Alton farm. In mid-August he wrote, "There are a lot of people coming out to the monument during my day off that don't get to see inside the fort, but it sounds like I will not be able to hire anybody this year because of the economy drive in the government." [1543] In September Heaton asked Zion officials if Edna Heaton could be hired as a part-time employee while he was on annual leave. Correspondence suggests that the main objection officials had in hiring Heaton's wife was that she did not meet the qualifications of a laborer under which both Leonard and Kelly Heaton had been hired. A person was needed at the monument who could perform heavy physical maintenance work as well as provide guide service. Edna had only performed the latter work, so this may be one of the reasons Zion officials would not consider hiring her. The fear of charges of nepotism was probably not a factor in Zion's decision, for other close family members had been hired on a temporary basis to work at the monument. Unlike the wartime years, the Park Service during the post-war era generally considered hiring women only for clerical positions.

Other than Heaton's guided tour, the primary source of information about Pipe Spring available to visitors at the monument was a Park Service brochure. Heaton ran out of monument brochures during the summer of 1953. In May Zion officials asked for a reprinting of 10,000 copies but asked the regional historian to revise the brochure. There was some debate over the format and content, which held up its republication. Meanwhile, Heaton sold some reprint leaflets that were available from Southwestern Monuments for 10 cents each. The monument leaflet was reprinted in 1954, reduced from a four-page to two-page format. [1544]

Events of late July 1953 serve as a vivid reminder of the northern Arizona's Mormon 19th-century legacy of polygamy, which survived into the 20th century and, no doubt, will continue to be practiced by some into the 21st century. [1545] On Sunday July 26, at about 3:00 a.m., under orders of Arizona's Governor Howard Pyle, law officials conducted a raid on the town of Short Creek, located 15 miles west of Pipe Spring. Many of its residents were living in polygamous households. [1546] Heaton wrote in his journal that day, "Very active day. Lots of cars going coming past the monument as the Arizona officers, about 100 strong. Went into Short Creek, Arizona and arrested every man, woman, and child. A number of charges of conspiracy and white slavery and other state charges. Some 50 men and women were held and taken to Kingman to await trial August 27. It is a very sorry mess to be handling." [1547] The next day, Heaton wrote, "A lot of cars going by the monument but not many stopping. [In] Short Creek more arresting." And on the 28th, "Quite a few visitors, also a lot of traffic to Short Creek." [1548] Heaton reported that state officials moved the children from Short Creek to Phoenix in four large buses. "I suppose [there were] 26 cars and buses in their caravan, by here at 4 p.m.," he wrote on August 1. [1549] Husbands and wives without responsibility for children were jailed and children were sent to foster homes, accompanied by their mothers. [1550]

The raid was headline news in Arizona papers, which continued to cover the story for some time; it received considerably less press coverage in Utah. Ultimately the polygamists plea-bargained, pleading guilt to a charge of conspiracy. On December 7, 1953, 26 accused polygamists were sentenced to one year's probation and released. [1551] The raid did little to alter the Short Creek families' commitment to the institution of plural marriage. The Short Creek raid and associated publicity temporarily boosted visitation figures to Pipe Spring National Monument. The event also played a part in the town changing its name to Colorado City in either 1962 or 1963. [1552] Short Creek straddled the Arizona-Utah border. The Arizona side was named Colorado City and the Utah side was named Hilldale; the latter incorporated on December 9, 1963.

The monument received another boost in visitation when in August 1953 Westways magazine published "Refuge at Pipe Spring," an article by Jay Ellis Ransom. Its author praised the monument's campground as "one of the finest overnight refuges for tired travelers in all western America. It includes a marvelous open-air, natural-rock swimming pool and a two-acre 'bowling green' of virgin grass, formerly the old parade ground fronting the fort." [1553] There is no historical evidence that the monument's grassy meadow to which this author refers was ever a military "parade ground," but such fanciful bits of information were not uncommon in magazine articles and reinforced the popular idea of the fort as a military garrison, a remote outpost against "hostiles," rather than as the Church's cattle ranch. Heaton said the photos and information in it were out-of- date but he thought the article increased the monument's visitation. [1554] In July 1954 a reporter and photographer from the Arizona Republic newspaper visited the monument.

In January 1954 Heaton got the impression from reading circulating correspondence that officials were discussing the possibility of turning the monument over to Arizona State Parks or abandoning it altogether. [1555] Unrelated to that, during that month he began changing his official records over to a new filing system. "Looks like it will take me all summer to get them changed over," he reported in late March. In his monthly report for January, Heaton called Zion officials' attention to the fact that February 8, 1955, marked his 30th anniversary at Pipe Spring National Monument. He wrote, "During that time there have been no serious injuries to monument visitors. No one lost. Very little vandalism has taken place to mar the historic features of the monument." [1556] Actually, Heaton was a year off - 1955 marked only his 29th year at Pipe Spring. (Heaton was already thinking about retirement and perhaps was a little over-anxious to see the years fly by.)

Zion officials planned to hire Kelly Heaton to take over on Leonard Heaton's days off in May 1954, but Kelly became ill and was hospitalized at the time. [1557] Until they made their summer move to Alton on May 18, the family filled in at the monument. Heaton was able to get Zion officials to let him hire his son Sherwin on his days off until Kelly Heaton was released from the hospital. Sherwin ended up with the job for the entire summer. [1558] After the family returned from Alton on August 31, Edna once again took over the job, covering for Custodian Heaton while he took two weeks' annual leave that fall. Even on his days off, if he was on the monument, Leonard Heaton would often give tours of the fort. He wrote in his journal that September, "Just can't turn anyone away that calls at the house to be shown the fort." [1559]

In May 1955 Zion told Heaton that he could hire a seasonal laborer for up to 30 days for the rest of the fiscal year. He hired Sherwin that month but his son soon quit to take a full-time summer job. Then in June, Heaton's son Lowell took over. He also quit a few weeks later to accept a permanent job at the Grand Canyon. On June 21, Heaton hired Robin Grant Brown as laborer. Funds allowed him to keep Brown working five days a week for the summer season. This allowed Heaton to get a lot more projects completed that summer. In June all the monument trees were pruned and the west end of the west pond's rock wall was rebuilt.

During the second week of August 1955, several men inspected the monument to see if it would be suitable to film an Indian scene for the popular television program, "The Lone Ranger." Movie makers were also interested in the fort as a setting. On August 25, 1955, Heaton reported,

The Bel Air Movie Company came in about 6:30 a.m. today to start filming part of the western picture, 'Frontier Scout.' [1560] There was two large trucks of equipment, several smaller ones and under the direction of Howard W. Kock. Started filming by 8:30 a.m. There was a cast of about 24 whites and Indians. Filming [was] done in the courtyard and east side. There was also a number of visitors and local people coming to see the filming. Better than 125 people here. [1561]

On August 26, Heaton wrote,

More filming of horses and Indian fights around the outside of the fort. The filming completed and all property moved out by 3:30 p.m. Very little damage was sustained at the monument, just the trampling down of weeds and a few bushes and packed ground. No damage to building that I have been able to detect. The place was left pretty clean of litter. A lot better than I expected. I would not want to have any larger filming done here as it could do a lot of damage.... Filming these two days brought in more than 250 people. [1562]

So it was that in 1955 there finally was a "battle" between Indians and settlers at the old Pipe Spring fort! This would not be the last movie filmed at the monument.

Laborer Robin Brown's temporary position at the monument ended when the summer travel season was over. During September 1955, Heaton took several week's annual leave and was away from the monument the entire time. Edna Heaton and some of the children remained at the monument conducting visitors and school parties through the fort.