PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

Historic Buildings

The Fort

The primary project undertaken in 1951 was to reinforce the fort's two balconies. In February Regional Architect Kenneth M. ("Ken") Saunders and Assistant Superintendent Art Thomas inspected the fort and discussed with Heaton supporting the fort's balconies with angle iron and timbers. Stabilization plans for the balconies were dropped off by regional office staff on March 17, when Heaton was away. (He later complained in his journal, "I wish I would be notified when such men are coming, but maybe this monument doesn't rate notices." [1584] ) On April 10, Thomas inspected the proposed plans for repair work on the fort. Heaton began work on the balconies on May 3 and completed the job on June 26, 1951. [1585] Other work on the fort in 1951 included replacing broken windows, painting exterior woodwork, repairing balcony railings, and cleaning out the spring pipeline which, whenever it got clogged with tree roots, seemed to cause water to seep under the foundation of the northwest corner of the building.

During January 1952, Heaton removed loose plaster from several of the fort's rooms and prepared them for replastering. Freezing temperatures prevented him from completing the plastering work for a while. Heaton spent much of February and March painting the exterior woodwork and interior rooms of the fort. Light gray paint was used on most of the exterior wood except for the porch balusters, which were painted green. [1586] The porch railing was painted red. [1587]

In the spring of 1953, Heaton worked on restoring furnishings in the fort's spring room (milk and cheese racks and a cooling trough for milk) and replacing worn out flagstone in the room's floor. Heaton carved a trough out of a log, which he and Kelly Heaton installed in the spring room on June 23. [1588] On July 18 he turned the water back into the spring room which flowed through the wooden trough. The room was now restored "as it was when the fort was first built in 1870," Heaton observed proudly. [1589] He continued to work on furnishings for the room, working on the milk racks in November and December 1953. During the fall of 1953, a Kanab cabinetmaker, Mr. Pope, made reproduction doors for the fort's interior, based on an original door that Heaton took him. These were built of native pine. In November and December, Heaton replaced four doors in the fort that he had made 20 years earlier, which, like the fort gates, were not adequate as reproductions. As door frames were not square, he had to plane the doors to fit.

Other Rehabilitation Needs

In a March 10, 1953, memorandum to Regional Director Tillotson about monument rehabilitation needs, Superintendent Franke listed a number of projects with cost estimates. Among the list, he reported the southwest corner of the fort's lower building needed reinforcing. (A crack had developed from ground to roof and the wall leaned at the top about three inches.) Both the east and west cabin needed repointing and other minor work. The retaining walls around the fort ponds were crumbling and sloughing away and needed to be rebuilt, by far the most expensive of the proposed projects. Funds were also requested for purchasing period floor, wall, and bed coverings for the house museum, and for other period furnishings. Franke also listed the need for a new cesspool with septic tank and disposal trench for the Heatons' residence. [1590] Later reports by Heaton suggest that only the latter project was funded and completed during the early 1950s.

Monument Walkways

Some time prior to February 1951 the decision was made to convert the monument's gravel walkways to asphalt-surfaced walks. [1591] That month Heaton worked on drawing up plans and figures for the proposed walk improvements, which called for surfacing seven sections of walkways with "blacktop mulch." He completed some of this work in September and October, beginning first with paving the walkway between the fort and ponds, then paving the walk to the east cabin. The walkway project continued into 1952 and 1953, usually during the months of April and May. Heaton's sons and Kelly Heaton assisted with walkway resurfacing in 1953.

In May 1954 Heaton hired three Indians as laborers to help him resurface the walk to the west cabin, doing all the work by hand. [1592] The workers also helped him clean the monument ponds.

The Heaton Residence

Heaton continued to make modest improvements to his family's residence in February and March 1951 when he painted the old CCC infirmary with a coat of linseed oil, then two coats of white paint. Until that time, the structure had been unpainted. Then Heaton worked to prepare the ground in front of the house for grass seed, still trying year after year to get a lawn to grow. In April he painted the interior of the residence. During July through September 1951, Heaton laid wood floors in the residence.

94. Custodian's residence, April 10, 1951
(Photograph by C. A. Thomas, Pipe Spring National Monument, neg. 433).

Even with improvements undertaken in 1948, the building still had its problems. An unsigned housing inspection report to Franke dated November 24, 1952, stated that the two biggest deficiencies in the custodian's quarters were lack of storage space and inadequate heating. Living so far away from stores, the family needed space to store food (much of it home-canned) and other supplies. The cook stove and a wood stove in the living room (both on the east end of the building) were the only sources of heat. The rock wool insulation installed in 1948 wasn't sufficient to keep the house warm nor could it compensate for the problem of ill-fitted windows and doors. Given the size of the Heaton family, the small size and number of rooms the building had was also highly inadequate.

During October 1953, Heaton constructed a new concrete-lined cesspool for the residence. It was located just west of the residence lawn and south of the old cellar. In March 1954 a windstorm blew off about 100 square feet of the residence's roof, requiring immediate repairs. In September 1954 Zion finally approved an old request of Heaton's and gave him a new oil heater, which he installed in the residence. The custodian soon discovered the heater was an expensive luxury. It used almost six gallons of oil per day, at a daily cost of $1.10. Heaton wrote in his journal, "This is going to cost us more than we can afford to pay so we may go back to the old coal and wood heater, unless we get another raise." [1593]

In January 1955 Heaton was told at a staff meeting to cut down on running the light plant for the residence as it was costing the government too much. He decided to turn it off at night after the family went to bed. He later remarked, "The stopping of the power plant is quite a job but very saving on fuel. By keeping the doors shut in the evening, the plant stays warm all night and [is] not too hard to start. Have to bleed the injection pump of air each time." [1594] In spite of his cost-cutting efforts, when he attended the February staff meeting, he was informed that $5 per month would be deducted from his wages for fuel oil and that a rent raise was anticipated.