next day Edna and I took the same train to Farmington. I had a ticket this time. Since that time, all my life I have had an uneasy feeling when boarding a train.
This was the beginning of a radical change in my life. I had heard stories of how the wash basin had a hole in the bottom with a rubber plug and you turned a handle and got water or you turned another handle and got hot water. An electric lamp hung from the center of the room; just turn a button and on came the light. We had neighbors on both sides and across the street -- all relatives -- I had cousins by the dozens. The church only a half mile and stores and post office even closer. An interurban train ran between Salt Lake and Ogden several times daily and school only two blocks. I was put in the third grade and scared half to death (about a month late).
Father had built this house and moved mother in it because her health could not stand the severe winters in Star Valley. He also had about a hundred acres of land scattered around in small parcels -- some very good and some very poor. We gradually acquired and/or shipped a few (30 or so) cattle to Farmington mostly to use as milk cows. We built a milk barn and farmed the land, but the cows were really stock cattle, not milk cows, and we were ranchers, not dirt farmers, so I don't think we ever made any money in Farmington, though we did have work to do that we made ourselves think was important.
Father divided his time between the two places, but nearly every summer we would drive a covered wagon to the ranch in time to help with the haying, then back in the fall about a month after school started. The trip each way would take about 5 days. We would camp along the way or sleep in someone's barn and buy a little hay for the horses, etc. I made this trek nearly every summer.
We would take various routes on these trips and see different country:
Up Ogden Canyon to Huntsville and Eden, over to Hyrum, to Logan. To Brigham City, Mantua, Wellsville (before Sardine) to Logan.
To Brigham, Collenston?, Bear River Canyon, to Logan.
From Logan we would:
- Logan Canyon, Bear Lake, Montpelier to Star Valley.
- Smithfield, Preston, over the mountain to Paris, Montpelier, Star Valley.
- Smithfield, Preston, Mink Creek, Emigration Canyon to Paris, Georgetown, over the mountain to Wells Ranch to Star Valley.
A few times from Hyrum up Blacksmith Fork, through Round Valley to Laketown on south end of Bear Lake, then sometimes the east side of Bear Lake.
These trips were always interesting. I always enjoyed going along Bear Lake, as I still do. Sometimes we would swim in the lake.
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