Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
1
Parents: Don Twitchell Sarah Etheleen Searle
Grandparents: William Henry Twitchell William B. Searle
Martha Elizabeth Potter Mary Jane Boren
My mom and dad were married in 1919. They lived in Manila, Utah for a while
then moved to Whiterocks, Utah where my dad rented farm ground from the Ute tribe.
This was during the depression time. All the spending money they had was from doing
extra things for the Indians like butchering, hauling wood, baking and such. The Indians
had cash allowances from the government that they used to hire these things done.
I had four older sisters and two older brothers (both of whom died and are buried
in Tridell, Utah). I was the youngest child to be born in this family.
My mom had trouble with the last little boy that was born so the doctor’s advised
her to stay in Vernal at Mrs. Swain’s Midwife Home, which still stands today. My
mother went to the doctor one day and he told her that I would be born soon but he had to
leave town for some training and another doctor would assist her.
Time went on for about six weeks after this and I still refused to come. My father
came to Vernal and took her to the doctor. The doc said, “My Lord, woman! I thought
you had this baby a long time ago.” He helped her and I was born that day; it was the 17
March 1934. I weighed in at 14 ½ pounds and my mom’s words were that I was “black
as the ace of spades.” I was large enough that the blood supply could not give me enough
oxygen. I had six fingers on each hand (a trait which has passed down to one of my
great-granddaughters); they took them off the next day.
My family moved to Manila in 1936. My first recollection of things was on my
Grandfather’s ranch in the south-east corner of the valley. My father had a big black dog
named Spike. Everywhere I went, Spike went with me. The sheep outfits used to cross
at the bottom of our place. I used to like to see them come, for they would always stop in
South Valley for a few days and I would go and have dinner with them. They fixed
things like sourdough, biscuits, fried potatoes and fresh, hot mutton. Boy was it good!
In the spring and fall the Indians used to travel this route and they would also stop
and say hello to my mom and dad.
When I was growing up I helped my mother with daily chores that were many
such as feeding the pigs, chickens, turkey, bum calves and lambs. We planted large
gardens with all types of vegetables. My mother and I would weed, hoe and water
everything.
Mom would bottle all the beans, peas and beets. The squash, carrots and potatoes
we dug and put in the cellar. The corn we would cut off of the cob and put it between
two sheets on the roof to dry. We did bull berries this same way. The cabbage we
shredded and put in Crock containers with salt to make sauerkraut. The cucumbers were
picked and put in jars and crock jars. This is what we had to eat in winter time as there
were no produce stores or electric appliances.
The pork we ate some fresh. The rest we put in salt brine in wooden barrels. We
always had two barrels of pork. My mom made casings for sausage by tearing sheets in
12 inch strips then sewing them back together. We then would stuff them full of sausage
and hang them to cure.
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
2
The beef and mutton we ate fresh and shared with our neighbors. We would hang
the meat out on the house to cool at night. In the morning we would cut off what we
wanted for the day then it was my job to bury it in the grain bin to keep it cool.
My mother always took care of milking the cows and separating the cream which
we sold. We also churned our own butter, gathered eggs and candled them. We sold
them to the stores or traded them for groceries. All of our food came from these things.
Plus, Mom cleaned house and did laundry as most moms did. She made all her own rugs
and quilts from rags and material end pieces. This is what she did in the evening to keep
her hands busy.
All the ranch work was done with work horses except spring and fall. The
community had gone together and purchased a large tractor and threshing machine.
Spring they would plow and in the fall they would thresh grain. Everyone would go from
place to place until all the grain was threshed.
My father bought a new pickup truck in 1937 from Joe Burleffe in Fort Bridger,
Wyoming. That was my first hotel experience. Also, my father paid $750.00 for the
truck and the room was free.
Concerning my childhood I loved to roam the hills with my dog Spike. He was a
faithful guardian. He would attack anything at my command. I remember finding water
snakes. He would grab them in his mouth, shake them then throw them. You had to
watch or he would warp them around your neck.
My father I thought was being good to me. He would cut me out a sizable stream
of irrigation water always next to a prairie dog town. My dog and I would shovel and dig
to get water to run down the hole. When the dogs came out, old Spike would catch and
kill all of them. I thought my dad did this so I could have fun, but now I realize how
shrewd he was. I learned how to make water go where I wanted it, I rid the ranch of
varmints, I irrigated a lot of ground with the stream I had and I was out of my family’s
hair.
My sister, Donna, and I were in the corral one day and we build a swing under the
shed and had lots of fun with it. But the next morning I really got my fanny strapped.
During the night my dad’s prize work colt had stuck his head in the swing and went
around and around until the swing tightened around his neck and hung him from the shed.
Woops.
Being the youngest in the family I went where ever the family went like dances. I
remember the old time square dances. Tim Potter and Mark A. Anson would call, Mark
E. Anson and Edith would play the piano and fiddle. Other times Ed Boren and Lila
would play. They would dance quadrilles, waltzes, schottische, and the Chicago glide.
Oft times there would be individuals who danced the two-step. Everybody else would
stand in a circle around them and clap to the music. These were generally men. The
round dance was danced part of the time also.
At these dances, Cala Anson and I were the only youngsters there so we would
dance together. We learned fast and had lots of fun. These dances were held in the old
hall owned by Willard Schofield. There was no electricity. There were six gas lanterns
that were pulled up to the roof with ropes. About every two hours they would lower them
and pump them up or re-fuel them, which ever they needed.
The heating stove was a large round barrel stove. It would get so hot it would be
red all over. Many dresses, coats and pants were ruined by touching this stove.
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
3
There were waltz contests held at these dances. My father would always get
Bertha Potter for his partner and they would win all the time.
They would make a bed for Cala Anson and me up behind the piano. I can still
hear the thump of that piano. When we got rested up we would go dance some more.
One time I was in Linwood watching the sheep shearers with Myron Slaugh,
Weldon Potter and Ned Twitchell. The herders would stay in their sheep camp while
their herd was being shorn. This day Bill Davenport was in his camp. We got to teasing
him about being Shaky Bill. He got mad and pulled a rifle and started firing. I don’t
know if he shot in the air or at us, but we left totally scared to death.
A few things that happened while we lived on my grandfather’s place: There was
a coal mine operating in Linwood Canyon, it was run by Harold Neilson. One day My
father and I went to get a load of coal. While we were waiting for the coal my father was
rough housing with me and gave me a little shove. I fell backwards and tried to catch
myself with my arms and hand but what happened was I ran my one hand and arm into a
crevice of a burning coal mine and burnt my one hand and arm quite bad my father felt
real bad. Years later the BLM came in and put the coal mine out. I used to go with my
dad to haul cedar wood from the reaves with a team of horses and a wagon. It would take
all day long. We would take a lunch normally consisting of coffee, homemade biscuits,
and salt pork. My father would take the team and pull the branches off from the big
cedars and pull them up to the wagon then he would pull over the big trunks of the tree
and pull it up on the up hill side of the wagon. we would take a large limb and put it at
each end of the wagon then he would pull over top of the wagon and around the big trunk
then pull and roll the log upon the wagon. After the big trunks were loaded we would fill
the holes and cracks with the limbs we pulled off earlier then go home. After we got the
wood home and unloaded my dad would chop all the wood we used and it was my job to
pack it into the house. Sometimes he chopped more than I wanted to pack so I would
hide it under the snow. I never thought about the snow melting in the spring. Then I had
a lot of wood to pack and my dad didn’t have to chop any for quite some time.
My sister Donna was 5 years older than I and didn’t care to much for her brother I
guess I teased her a little. One day Donna and I decided to smoke some cedar bark so
we rolled us a smoke out behind the shed then she said I forgot the matches you stay here
and I will go get some. When she cake back she had more than matches it was mom and
dad, I got worked on.
My father had a cousin Willis Twitchell but everybody called him Rip because his
father was also Willis. Rip used to come and visit dad after he became a night marshal at
Lyman, Wyoming and later at Evanston, Wyoming. One day Rip came and was wearing
his service revolver, I wanted to shoot it. He told me I would have to ask my dad. I ask
and dad said he didn’t think I was big enough to hold it. He said if I was big enough to
hold it I could shoot it. Dad, Rip, and I were sitting on the kitchen porch and Rip gave
me his gun and said go ahead. I said what should I shoot at. Rip said shoot your mom’s
chicken that was crossing the yard. So I pulled up and fired and blew that chicken all to
hell. About that time my mother realized what had happened and she blew her top. Poor
dad and Rip.
One time shortly after school was out for the day my oldest sister Dessie came to
the school in my father’s truck so I decided to ride home with her instead of the bus. I
got in the back of the truck and leaned my back up against the end gate. We started for
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
4
home and got down where Ina and Ernest Crosby lived and my sister hit a big chuck hole
in the road, the end gate came undone and I went out backwards into the gravel road.
When I realized what had happened I was bleeding all over my head and face, my arm
hurt real bad and I could not see my sister so I started to walk for home. But I could not
move because a big dog was pushing me. I tried and tried but to no avail so I just went
with him. I was afraid to go to Crosby’s house because I didn’t know them. Mrs. Crosby
saw us coming and ran to help me. Her husband went to find my sister who had gone all
the way home (about 5 miles) before she missed me. That night I met Doctor Sudman for
the first time. He stitched up my head, put my arm in a sling, picked pounds of rocks out
of my nose. I guess I learned something you don’t lean against the end gate.
When I was in the second grade I came down with the measles, I was quite sick
and got to stay home from school. I was in bed one day and my Uncle Roy came to see
me. He said he had something for me that would make me feel better, it was a quart of
wine. I kept that bottle in bed with me, when someone would come I would pull it out
and offer them a drink of that nice warm wine. My mom caught me taking to many
drinks and threw it away.
My father and other members of the people’s canal used to clean sections of the
canal yearly with teams of horses and slip scraper. I used to carry my father’s lunch to
him each day. We would eat our lunch then lay under the wagon while the horses were
eating and rest. I used to love to hear the crunch of the horses eating and sometimes I
would go to sleep. When I woke up the men would be back to work. I would spend the
rest of the day with my father. Sometimes I would ride the scraper and sometimes my
father would put me on the back of the work horse, I would hang on to the hames of the
harness and go round and round as they pulled the scraper.
When my dad was working on the roads I used to do the same thing for lunch.
One day my dad and Gerald Twitchell were drilling some rock by hand to dynamite the
road for a school bus road between South Valley, our place and Yelinchetas. I watched
them pound the drill and turn it each time it was hit they would pour water in the hole so
the cuttings would turn to mud. Then they would take a long spoon and dig the mud out.
It was a very slow process until they loaded the hole with dynamite and shot it, what a
big bang and very little rock was left.
I had a new pup called Curly, one day a man who only had one leg named Jack
Allen came to see my dad. After they talked awhile he started his car and left but ran
over and killed my dog in the process. Damn was I mad and I called him some choice
words. Then my dad kicked me in the butt for swearing. In later years I liked Jack Allen
very much and played a lot of bottle pool with him.
My dad stacked his hay by using a slip platform and ropes. They would lay a v
rope across the slip then pitch the hay onto the slip. When they got a load they would
pull up to the stack and attach the ropes to the double side of the v rope then they would
throw a rope over the load and attach it to the single side of the v rope. They had a team
of horses they attached to the end of this rope. My dad would get hold of the double ropes
and brace himself because he had to hold against the whole load. The team would pull
the load up rolling it between the ropes when the hay got to where dad wanted it he
would release ropes so the horses could pull them out. Then he would stack the hay and
start all over again. My father hired men to pitch hay onto the slip so he could do the
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
5
stacking. My sister did the hauling and driving the pull off team. I remember Howard
Iverson and Billy Pallesen pitching hay for $2.00 per day.
One of the Reed brothers, Lee married a very nice lady and moved down on their
ranch just below us. I used to walk down and visit them. She was going to have a baby
and my mother offered to help her make the baby clothes. I would watch and walk up to
our house with her, then I would home with her after she was finished sewing. I liked her
very much. When she had her baby it was a boy and they named him Cloyd. We moved
from my grandfather’s place shortly after this.
I remember going to a Christmas party at the Washam school house. I remember
Dewey Lamb singing “The Strawberry Roan”. Gene MacKay sang “My Pretty
Quadroon” and Pat Searles played a guitar solo. Howard Porter, Jimmy Darty, and Fred
Lowe played and sang some songs. I always was impressed by music and loved it very
much.
The ranchers used to get together in early summer each year and gather the cattle
off from the range and take them to William’s ranch, on the Henry’s Fork which was
about a mile up the creek from the Green River. There they would work together to
brand, dehorn, vaccinate, and casterate the calves. We kids had fun roping, keeping the
fires hot for the branding irons, and roasting some rocky mountain oysters, and having
lunch when it was over and returning the cattle back to the range where they would
remain until fall.
The 4th
of July rodeo’s used to be held on the bench directaly south of Manila.
There was a bowerie made from poles and covered with willows for the women and kids
to sit in. Elbert Steinaker used to sell ice cream and pop for treats. Each family brought
their own picnic lunch. Normally everyone ate together and shared with everyone. There
was a baseball game in the morning and the rodeo in the afternoon. The rodeo had no
fences around them, sometimes the bucking horses would go straight and sometimes they
would turn and go over the steep hill to the north and really give them a ride. There was
always a dance at night.
The Twitchell Family Reunion was held in Manila for many years. People qould
come from far and wide. Nearly all the community was related to the Twitchells one way
or another so it turned out to be a community affair. There was baseball games, all kinds
of musical and family singing, poetry and funny stories. These reunions were held at
Palisades Park. There was always more food than anyone could eat. At night there was a
dance and the whole community was invited. I remember our house would have beds
made on every square foot of room. I really enjoyed this because I would see cousins I
hadn’t seen for a full year. I never had boys to play with so it was a treat to have
company.
My first year of school was the only year that I had a perfect attendance. My first
year teachers name was Miss Merriott. Students that I remember are James Briggs,
Carlton Myers, Forrest Pallesen, Larrie Grenhough, Weldon Potter, Myron Slaugh, Mary
Jane Christensen, Rena Potter, Warren Riggs, Ross Siler, Evan Bullock, Louise Nebekear
and Bobby Lowe.
My second grade teacher was Miss Marriott for half year and she died, then Mrs.
Agnes Briggs was teacher the rest of the year.
Third and fourth grade was Mrs. Mary E Tinker. Fifth and sixth was Eva Ruble.
Seventh through eleventh were Miss Jackson, Miss Sheets, Mrs. Slagowski, Mrs.
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
6
Williams, Mr. Harper, Mr. Corn, Mr. Stevenson, Mr. Welch, Mr. Williams, Mr.
Hemmingway, Bill Garner, Mrs. Corn, Mr. & Mrs. Goodrich, and a one-armed bandit
name Gibson.
Because Bill Garner was a first Lieutenant, he had to return to the army in the
Korean War and he was the only ally that I had at the school. Because of the direct
personality conflict I had with Mr. Gibson, Gibson told me he would make sure of me
never attending Manila High School by destroying all my grades, which he did, there is
no record of me at Manila High School. I never returned for my senior year.
Growing up, my mom and dad always raised turkeys and at Thanksgiving time we
would slaughter them for sale. We would normally have about 50 turkeys and as high as
100 old laying hens we would kill. The turkeys were the most work as when you would
try to catch them, they would beat you with their wings. We would hang them by their
feet then Dad would use a pocket knife to numb their brain and cut their throat. When he
numbed them they would release their hold on the feathers and you could pluck them real
easy. The chickens we would scald in a barrel of hot water then pull the feathers off.
The hard part was trying to corral the turkeys as they ran free on the farm. We
would start to feed them in the shed for a couple of weeks then we would shut the door
on them. But it seemed like always some got away. It didn’t matter, though because
there was Christmas and New Year’s coming, too.
I remember the C.C.C. camp that was down on Sheep Creek. (See Appendix A)
They had a doctor there, a movie house and lots of men.
They had an equipment shed and lots of equipment. They had a creosote plant.
They made bridge timber fence posts. Boy did this place smell. The crew use to play
basketball and baseball with the surrounding communities.
They left home in 1939. When they left they had an orphaned deed named
Nancy. She use to come to Manila and play with the kids at school. At this time, my
wife was living on Sheep Creek with her family. One night she was running and here
came Nancy and knocked her down and stomped her. My wife still has scars to prove it.
They hauled Nancy to Vernal and turned her loose.
After the C.C.C. left, they sold the buildings. My father bought the officers
quarter and the 32-hole privy. The officer’s quarters we used to build on to our home at
the ranch. But the privy smelled so bad, we used it for pig pen lumber.
I remember the first time I saw Lawrence Biorn and Thelma. They had moved a
saw mill into the county and had hired my oldest sister, Dess, to work for them to help
with children and help Thelma with cooking for the hired men. My dad and mom went
up to Lost Springs to see her. The Biorns had a boy named Larry. He and I played
together. He showed me the saw dust pile where we rolled in it and played for hours.
We used to have picnics together. They were always fun. Later, Lawrence moved his
saw mill to Sheep Creek at the gap. They lived in a little white house and had a small
orchard located where the Willows campground is now. They lived here for a few years
then moved to Evanston, Wyoming. I missed having Larry around to play with.
Their daughter, WaNeta, stayed with us one winter and went to school in about
1942 or 43. I always liked Lawrence and he like me also, even as a kid. He would take
me fishing all the time. In later years, we hunted together a lot. I remember one time he
took me to an air show with his family.
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
7
He would always sing and yodel. After I got to playing music, he would sing
with us all the time. We played and sang at programs, funerals and just family
gatherings. He was extremely good to me.
One Hundred Sixty acres each, 40 acres being separated by a road. My father
purchased this from Keith Smith for $1700.00. This is where the rest of my growing up
years were spent.
World War II was in swing now. I remember the draft board, the rationing board,
the rationing stamps; it seemed like you could not buy anything you needed.
I always had plenty of chores to do. Morning and night we always had about 300
laying hens, from three to five cows to milk and tend, pigs to feed and water and about 30
head of cattle. We had to haul our water for everything or drive the livestock to water,
both of which we did.
We sold our cream to the Birch Spring Creamery. They came around once a
week and picked it up. Seemed we had plenty to buy with but could not buy anything
until after the war.
1945
My father bought the first Ford tractor that came to the valley after the war. I was
11 years old then. My father was mowing hay and would not let me try; he said it was
too dangerous. So, I waited until he went in the house for dinner. I went and started the
tractor and went to mowing. What a mistake! I never got off the machine for four
summers. We mowed and stacked all Keith Smith’s hay in this period.
About the only entertainment we had was MIA on Tuesdays and movies at the
church on Saturdays. We live about two miles out of town and my dad did not go out at
night so if I went anywhere, I walked or caught a ride with someone else.
My Aunt Lilie and Uncle Vernon always went to MIA as they were dance
instructors. I would always catch a ride with them and appreciated them very much.
After I got old enough to drive, I would take my mom in the truck to the movies.
Gasoline we bought from the Linwood store. We paid $0.17 a gallon and used
about 7 gallons per day. My dad rented me and the tractor for $25.00 per day. Back
then, most of the hired men worked for $175.00 per month.
1946
Austin Stevens contacted my father to bring his tractor to Rock Springs to dig
post holes for fences and pens for the first Sweetwater County Fair. It was across the
street from the Old Timers Building where the animals were kept. The old Timers
Building was used for Egeberts.
One day after we bought the farm, Tim Potter ran over and killed Spike, my dog.
At this time we were friends with a man in Rock Springs. He gave us a cocker spaniel
female dog. Her name was Snowball. My oldest sister had a male dog she called
Pickles. Now old Pickles like Snowball right off and a few months later, we had puppies.
Of these I picked one for myself and called him Cub.
Now Cub and I got in lots of trouble. He was jealous of me. I would love stuffed
animals to tease him, but if I ever left hem where he could get them, he would tear them
to shreds.
He liked to hunt and was good at it. We hunted rabbits, ducks, pheasants and
geese. If I shot something he would go get it and bring it to me. One day I shot a goose
and it fell in a patch of cattails. Old Cub was right there and in he went, jumping around
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
8
trying to see. Then all at once I heard him yelp. The seed on the cattails looked like
clouds of white. Old Cub had run face first into that goose and it had pecked him right on
the nose. He turned and run out of that cattail patch with goose right on his tail. He ran
right up to me and I finished the job.
We kids used to ice skate. We would get on opposite sides of the pond. One of
use would hold on to Cub, the other would call him and he would pull us around the pond
for hours and never complain.
After I was married, one night my wife came home and Cub was asleep on the
bed. Cub and I were in trouble again!
After we moved from my grandfather’s place, the house was just three rooms. It
was a house that Daniel Nelson had built across the road from where it now stands. I
don’t know who moved it or why, because they only moved it about 300 feet east from
where it was originally built. When we got the house we had to burn sulfur candles in it
for about a week to get rid of the bed bugs. The people that lived there before we did
didn’t have any wood, so they took the board off from the back side of the house and
burned it in their stoves.
My dad and I hauled gravel form a sand bar in Sheep Creek for cement.
Everyone used just Sheep Creek gravel and sand in those days. My dad and Bill Briggs
went together and bought a hand turned cement mixer. We built forms for a new addition
to the house along with putting the original three rooms on a foundation. I helped turn
every bit of this cement. What a job it was! We had cinder block laid on the new part
then we finished the floors, roof, partitions, etc from the Officer’s Quarters we had
bought down at the C.C.C. camp. This added three more rooms to the house plus a
pantry. The only fun part of this was I got to drive the truck some times.
My dad took the job of Ditch Rider for the people’s canal company. There were a
lot of beaver in those days so we rode certain sections every day. I would take my dad to
the head gate at the Dewey Lamb place then he would walk to the waste gate at the
George Despain place. I got to drive the truck. If all was well, he would walk from the
waste gate to Mr. Yokies place. I would pick him up there. You can see I got several
miles driven each day. If there were beavers dams we had to pull them out and try to get
rid of the beaver. IF we failed, the beavers would break the canal banks. We did this for
several years.
Then in 1945 my father was working for Germer and Abbot, a construction
company who was paving the road from Linwood to Manila. My dad was chaining
gravel fro them. I was there with him when a truck pulled up and waited his turn to get
past the gravel pile. It was Lawrence Biorn and his saw mill. He told us he was going to
Scraper Springs. I was excited to see them back. My sister just older than I had marred
Dee Potter and they went to work for them, so my folks went up there often.
We had some interesting neighbors when we bought our farm. There was Charlie
Ship who used to hire my sisters to bake for him. There were Ralph Mass and Minnie
Mass and Edgar Finch who was brother to Minnie Mass. They hired me to haul them a
barrel of water twice a week, when I hauled ours. Bertha Beckstead and family, Buhlea
Lowe and Family, John Ylincheta, Claude Jones, Frank and Mable Adamson, Owen and
Elma Walker, Tim Potter and Bertha Marion Twitchell and later, Tom Ruble. These
people helped everyone whenever you needed it, mainly because they were the closest to
you and knew your needs.
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
9
One day there was a man and his wife and a daughter stop at our place. They
were riding horses and leading pack horses. They were trying to buy some horses. They
said they were traveling the country this way. My dad sold them two horses. They
stayed for dinner then went on their way. The next I knew they were living in Little Hole
working for Burton’s and were writing a book about Daggett County. They were the
Dunhams. Their daughter stayed with Jack and Eonice Ellison and went to school in the
same grade as I. Her name was Mary. We sure used to tease her because she had her
hair cut like a boy and wore clothes of the same style. She never wore a dress like other
girls. She wore shirts and levis and boots. They were a very interesting family.
When I was 13 I took my dad’s tractor and stacker over to Tom Jarvie’s on Henry
Fork and bull raked hay for them. I learned real quick that when you worked for Mr.
Jarvie, you ate three meals a day there or it would insult them. They really ate well.
Pamela did the cooking along with her mother. They bottled all their beef for summer
use. They really gave you plenty. One day I came to work and Tom asked me where I
was for breakfast. I said I ate at home. He told me, “When you work for me, you eat
here.” That I did. After that, they were a fun family to be around.
Other ranches I hayed on was Hampton Cobb, Marion Campbell, John Ylincheta.
Olsen’s at McKinnon. Makey ranch I worked with Steril Mckey, Ed Wasmuier, Willford
Tolton. Ratie Searles ran the cook house and was a fine cook.
I worked one spring at Sage Creek and Currant Creek for Frank Bosler of
Laramie.
I remember when I was a seventh grader we used to pick potatoes during
Teacher’s Institute each year. Marion Campbell and his son Gene used to hire the kids to
pick and haul them into the cellar. I was always big so I normally hauled and dumped the
potatoes into the cellars.
Leland Meyers and Hans Michelson raised potatoes also. Some times if we did
not get all of them in the four days of Teacher Institute, they would let school out for a
day to get the job accomplished.
One day when I was in the 7th
grade, all the boys in the 7th
and 8th
grades decided
they had enough school. It was a nice, warm, spring day so we decided we would just
walk over the hill to Henry’s Fork where Blain Potter and his brother Tommy lived.
They had a basketball hoop and we could play ball. What we found out was the Wade
place is more than just over the hill, it was over several hills and deep washes. When we
got there it was about two o’clock in the afternoon—we were starving to death.
So, Ted Potter and his wife, Wanda, took us in and fed us then Ted loaded us up
in his car and hauled us to our different houses. We boys got in a little trouble over this,
too. It seems like nobody understands boys….
Our neighbor, Beuhula Lowe, had a boy who was the same age as I named Bobby
and a younger brother named Bruce. We played together all the time. One day in the
third grade, Bob and Bruce and I decided we had enough school for one day so we
sluffed the afternoon class and went up on the hill in back of the school house. While we
were up there, we killed a rabbit with a rock and decided to cook it but we didn’t have
any pans. So, we decided to use Bobby’s lunch pail. It was brand new and real shiny so
we built a fire and put the rabbit in the lunch box and put it on the fire. That bucket
turned black and so did the rabbit. We could not eat it so we threw it away. We walked
down the back road to Bob’s house. When we got there, Beuhla had made a rice pudding
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
10
for supper and had it sitting out to cool and she was gone. We decided it looked better
than the rabbit and each of us got a spoon and went to eating. When we finished there
was no more pudding. I left and walked on home. The next day Bob told me he didn’t
know which licking hurt worse, the one for the pudding or the one for the lunch box.
Poor Bob.
Beuhla lived where Paul Franklin lives today. In the summer time, they moved
over on Henry’s Fork where Stanley Slagowski lives today.
My dad use to love to fish and was good at it. When I was a boy, the limit was 60
fish. My dad could catch 60 fish anytime he wanted. Often he would catch a hundred.
We would take 60 home and eat 40 for lunch while we picnicked. I use to try as hard as I
could, but could never catch as many as Dad. I remember Dad and Burl Potter going
over on the east Fork of Carter Creek fishing and wouldn’t let me go because I was too
little. They said when they returned they had two 50-pound salt sacks full of fish they
had caught out of the beaver dams. Damn, I was mad at them!
I remember the last time I took Dad fishing, we went up on West Beaver Creek in
Lone Tree. My dad’s vision was quite poor. He said he couldn’t see, but he caught more
damn fish from feel-see than the rest of us did by seeing.
One time Burl Potter, my dad and I went fishing up to Anson Lake. It was quite
an experience for me. I had to weed the potato patch before they would let me go, which
was about an acre and took about a week. When we got up to Wyman Park, I had the
strangest feeling, like I had been there before, but I knew I had not. I knew where every
lake was and the trail that went to them. I knew were the camping spot was too. It was
kind of scary; it must have been part of the preexistence that I had not forgotten. We had
a real fun time and caught lots of fish. We ate some, put some down in sheep salt and we
put some in the spring to eat in the morning for breakfast. But a mink came along and ate
them first.
Dad and I use to camp out on Sheep Creek the first part of June for the low-water
fish season opening. We would camp out at Hickerson Park for the high-water opening.
I sure use to enjoy this and learned a lot from it.
When I was 13, my dad and Burl Potter took me hunting deer over to the Ford
Ranch on Goslin Mountain. We had a large snow storm the day before we left and when
we got to lower Guardstone, the snow was dragging the hubs on the wagon. When we
got to the Ford Ranch, it was getting light and we did not have much time to set up our
tent. My dad started looking around and found Tom Jarvie’s tent already set up. It had
been flattened by the snow but was dry inside. We ran the mice out and used it for the
three days we were there. My dad shot a nice buck the first day, but he went down the
east side of Goslin and we lost him. There was a 3-point buck that laid in the quaken
aspen and we saw him every day just laying there. I wanted Dad to shoot him, but he
said he was too small. The second day, Burl Potter shot a nice buck in the Glades. The
third day we did not find any big ones and on the way off from Goslin, my dad said, “Can
you see that 3-point? If you can, hit him in the head, go ahead.” I aimed as well as I
could and I got the buck but I hit him in the kidneys. Bye, first deer. The next day when
we came back home, the road was completely dusty.
My first rifle was a Winchester 32.special hexagon barrel that had been sawed off
about a foot. I bought it from Edgar Finch for $10.00. When you shot this gun, the
bullets were not tight in the barrel, so you did not know where they would hit but I use it
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
11
for two years, anyway. I used to borrow a shotgun from Minnie Mass to hunt duck, geese
and pheasants. It was a fine gun with hammers you had to cock in order to fire it. It was
all engraved and a very beautiful gun. It belonged to her father, Mr. Finch, so she would
never sell it to me.
My oldest sister’s name was Dessie, we called her Dess. I remember she always
worked outside with my dad driving horses, riding horses, working cattle and milking
cows. She married Elvin Luke in 1943. (see Appendix B)
My second sister was named Twila, we called her Ty. My mom said she was
sickly when she was born and so she stayed in the house most of the time with mom. She
married Howard Porter first and later divorced him. They had one daughter, Janet, who
my m mom raised until she was seven, when Twila married Bud Lowery.
My third sister’s name was Hertha Elisibeth, we called her Pete. She was always
a good cook and done some field work and milked a lot of cows, too. She married Burl
Potter.
My fourth sister’s name was Donna, we called her…oh, never mind. She used to
help Dad in the fields as well as milk cows. She married Calvin Dee Potter.
I had two brothers who died in Whiterocks, Utah. There names were Deloss
Twitchell and Harold Twitchell.
I was last. My name was Burl D. but they called me Buggs. I fed a lot of pigs
and chickens, and milked the cows. I also candled eggs and cleaned chicken coops.
My favorite person of the older people was Mark A. Anson. We called him
Trapper. He was also sheriff of Daggett County for several years. He would always take
me fishing, hunting and camping.
He had a 300. Savage rifle he had made a stock for from red cedar wood. He was
really proud of this gun.
One day we were preparing to go hunting. He told me to take his rifle and see if it
was any good. So I took his and he took mine. At the end of the day I had killed my deer
and his. He said, “I though you might like it. I want you to know you’re the only one
that has ever done that.”
I thought it a pleasure when he asked me to play dance music for his and Sara, his
wife, 50th
wedding anniversary celebration. He was truly a good friend.
I remember when he was sheriff, Billy Pallesen and Owen Walker got in a fist
fight at the dance over Elva Adamson. There was blood all over the floor. Old Mark
broke it up and took them down to the little cement jail and locked them in the same cell.
They never fought, though.
1949 & 1959
I bought my first mandolin in 1949. My father played a mandolin and fiddle. I
learned fast and it wasn’t long until I was playing in public. Myron Slaugh, Reo Boren,
Doyle Boren and I started a band and played music for dances and programs at Manila
and surrounding communities until in the sixties. Due to church involvement I couldn’t
play in places where I played music when I first started out. We used to go from ranch to
ranch and month. We would start to play about six in the evening and often we were still
playing at six the next morning. The ladies would all bring food to eat, the men all
brought something to drink. Along about midnight, they would pass the hat to pay for the
music. All the men would empty their pockets into the hat. We were paid well for our
efforts. There was a lot of fun had and not one single instance of violence.
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
12
The different ranches where we played were the William ranch on Henry Fork,
the old Buckboard Hotel on the Green River, the Currant Creek ranch on Currant Creek,
the Jim Ramsey ranch on Little Mountain, and the Gun Ouaily school house in Ouaily.
Sometimes Billy McCurtain and Paul Williams would join in with us playing their
accordions.
We played dance music for years in several place like Old Hall in Manila, school
house in McKinnon, school house in Lyman, school house in Manila, church house in
Manila, the UFW Club in the Green River, the Eagles Club in Green River, Solvinski
Dome in Rock Springs, Bud’s Bar in Rock Springs, Club 535 in Rock Springs, South
Pass bar in Rock Springs, Hub Bar in Linwood, Utah, The Gateway Club in Vernal,
Burnt Fork school house and Kemmerer Community Hall. Part of the time I played also
with Sonny Landon and his band, which included Archie Lamb and his tenor guitar. We,
at one time, put on a Hee-Haw show using the kids who were young men and women.
Letting them act and sing the songs of the stars. It was highly successful and we took it
to Green River, Rock Springs, Lyman, McKinnon and Manila. The kids loved doing it.
One night a group of kids decided to go to South Valley and chivalry Argie Boren
and Shirley Chumbly who had just got married. We went and picked them up and went
for a ride over to Sheep Creek. On the return trip, Fred Olson was in front of me with the
couple and a whole load of kids. We came down the dug way to South Valley and the
dust was real thick. I was driving along when all of a sudden, there was that car stopped
right in front of me in the middle of the road. I tried not to hit the car, but as I went in the
bar ditch to pass, the bed of the truck hit the bank and caused me to roll over one time.
When the truck stopped, I as lying on the ground with the truck door open. My head and
ribs hurt badly. Later I found out a five-ton hydraulic jack had hit me in the head. My
ribs were broken, also. Ida Marie Biorn had a broken collar bone, Sheila Masters broke
her thumb but Leta Olson and Donna Slagowski were unhurt. There was myself and four
girls in the cab of this truck…not too bad for a guy who didn’t like girls.
The next day a group of kids left school to go see where we had wrecked the night
before. They had a car owned by Jimmy Lamb. He had with him Burnell Lamb, David
Larsen, Larry Biorn, Darrel Mitchell, and Jimmy Masters. They were traveling too fast
and rolled that car over. There was no one hurt, lucky kids.
One fall when I was 16, Myron Slaugh, Weldon Potter, Forrest Pallesen and I
were headed for the Ford Ranch to hunt deer. We had a wagon and team of horses. We
forded the river at Suicide Wash on the Green River. We then took the road to Jug
Hollow. When we got there we met a horse that was saddled and the reins up on the
saddle horn. So we thought some one had turned him loose. We traveled on up the road
to Lower Grind Stone, a well known sheepherder camp, and we came up on a man
walking down the road with a walking stick to help him. It was old Mark Anson. He
told us he had shot a deer up at Cow Springs on Goslin. When he stepped off his horse
and shot, his horse had spooked and he could not catch him. So Myron rode back and
caught the horse and brought him back. We spent a week camped out with Mark and
really enjoyed it. We learned that every night’s meal was rice and raisins. We learned
some techniques of how to care for the game we killed and helped him carry his deer in
when we got through hunting. One of Marks sayings was, instead of saying where he
was hunting, was “I was just bragging around.”
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
13
On another occasion, Myron Slaugh and I had been fishing on the canal lake on
east fork of Carter Creek. We came up on the Wyman Park stream where the trail
crosses. We stopped for some lunch and I found a fishing rod, a good one, too. When
we got back to Manila, I saw Mark Anson and he asked what I had been doing. I told
him I just got back from fishing. He said, “Me also and I lost my damn fishing pole.” I
walked over to Dad’s truck and pulled out the pole I had found and asked, “Is this
yours?” You should have seen the smile on his face.
I would look up Larry and we would try to find something to do. Now, Larry had
a sister I had not known when they were on Sheep Creek, but now she was about eight
years old and a real Mama’s girl. I didn’t like girls much after having four older sisters
who didn’t like me. So, Larry would find someway to lure her away from her mother,
and then we would waltz her down to the stock pond, which was full of frogs, and throw
her in. Boy would she throw a fit. After doing this a few times, Ida would get sick when
she saw me coming and her mom would put her to bed until I left. The big chicken!
Later, Lawrence moved his cook house cabins and saw mill to the head of Saul’s
Canyon. Ida had got three or four years older and her mother trusted her to do the
cooking for the hired men. I was off bearing lumber on the saw mill and Larry was
skidding logs out of the woods to the mill. Now, I would really get hungry working that
hard. We would go in for dinner and it was really good, but I never let on. I always told
Ida how bad it was. At night she would go to a spring to wash the pots and pans. I would
wait until she got started then I would push her in the spring. She always got mad and
told me how bad she hated me. I didn’t really care, I still hated girls.
One day, I was using my father’s truck to cruise town with and got to work one
Sunday afternoon. I was driving down Manila’s main street when I met Von Christensen
driving his dad’s car. He stopped and so did I. We talked for a while. He had his
girlfriend with him, Ida Marie Biorn, and her friend Donna Slagowski. After a while
Donna asked me what I was doing that night. I told her nothing and she said, “Why don’t
you go get Forrest Pallesen and bring him up to my place?” I said I would see, and then
Ida spoke up and said, “Come get me, too.”
So about 7:00 I went and got Forrest then stopped at Biorn’s. I went in and asked
Thelma if Ida could ride with use, not knowing Ida was standing behind me, mouthing to
her mother “NO! She did not want to go.” Now, her mother thought, if she doesn’t want
to go then no harm can come of her going so she said, “She can go if you have her back
by 10:00.” I said, “Sure.” So she let her go.
That was not a very exciting evening, to say the least, but something happened to
Ida that night. She tagged me every where I went with other girls, but she just got mad at
the girls and not me anymore. And, I must admit, she was starting to look a little better.
She was not that bad of a dancer either.
One night I was sitting in the Old Hall waiting for the band to start up. Ida was
sitting by me, we were holding hands—I don’t know why. When her mother lit on me
about being disrespectful to her daughter and that she was going to take her home herself.
I didn’t really care; I just hated the tongue lashing I got. It was quite some time before
Ida could get within gun-shot distance of me, but she never gave up.
Eventually I married Ida. I don’t know why she wanted to marry me unless it was
to get even for some of my fun times.
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
14
As for Larry, he was always a friend. We used to sleep over together, hunt rabbits
and get into trouble. One day in particular, we went hunting and never got the wood in
first. There was a wood shed built on their house, and when we got back, Thelma was
REALLY mad. She took Larry in the wood shed and was tanning his hide. I thought it
was funny and started to laugh. Thelma picked up a piece of firewood and threw it at me.
She missed, but I did not stick around to see the end of the licking. Larry and I grew up
as friends, worked as partners and are still friends today.
In May of 1952 I had known Jack Evers for some time as I had played music in
his club and had been there on different occasions with Lawrence Biorn. I got the notion
one day to buy an engagement ring, but I didn’t have any money. So, I thought where I
had worked for Jack from time to time, I would ask him to loan me the money. His
response was, “What are you going to do with it?” I told him, “Buy an engagement
ring.” He laughed and said, “That’s the dumbest thing you could ever do.” Then he said,
“Who for?” I told him and he said, “Hell no! Lawrence is my friend.”
So, I let it drop. When I left the club Mary Martha Evers was waiting out side for
me. She said, “I heard what that old fool said and I don’t agree. You go up to Long’s
Jewelry and tell Hughy Long I sent you and I will call him right away.”
I left to make my way up there. When I walked in I told Mr. Long who I was and
he said, “Yes, Mary Martha just called me and told me to give you any damn thing in this
store you wanted and she would back your bill.”
The next evening I gave this ring to Ida Marie. The following day there was a
feeling that I was the lowest form of life that could be had throughout the Biorn family
and I don’t know if that ever completely changed or not.
On one occasion I asked Thelma and Lawrence if I could marry their daughter
and their response was, “Why in the hell don’t you go join the army?” This hurt my
feelings, but I didn’t give up.
On October 7, 1952, Ida Marie, her mother and I left Manila at 6:00 in the
morning to travel to Vernal, Utah where we were going to get married. My mother and
dad followed us in their pickup. It took us until 10:30 to get to Vernal on the old dirt
road. We went and got our marriage license at the court house.
We then went to the hospital for blood testing. They took us down stairs to the
lab. Ida had hers done first, then it was my turn. When they started to draw that blood, it
felt like someone had pulled the shades over my eyes. The next thing I knew, every body
was laughing and waving something under my nose that smelled bad. The sweat was
standing out all over me but it soon passed and I got up to leave. We climbed the stairs
and walked down the hall to the receptionist desk when, lo and behold, the lights in my
head went out again. When I woke up this time, I was back on a bed and they wouldn’t
let me up for about an hour.
When I finally got out of the hospital we called a bishop of the LDS church to
marry us. He said he could not come until 4:00 pm. The church was where the Ashley
Valley Medical Center is now. I think it was the Fourth Ward chapel.
When he got there it didn’t take long then we went out to a café and had dinner
before starting home. We left Vernal about 5:00 pm. While traveling home, we had a
flat at Deep Creek. When we got to Manila, MIA was just letting out. The kids saw us
and got the wild idea to chivalry us. We had to drop Ida’s mom off. So by the time we
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
15
headed for Green River, the pursuers were getting might close. They chased us until we
passed the junction of the McKinnon road before they gave up.
The next day I had to find a job because the place where I had been working
would not give me a day off to get married so I had to quit. So, I went down to the Union
Pacific Railroad and hired on as a switch man in the railroad yard.
About two weeks later we were in Manila visiting my folks. We had just got to
bed when those kids caught up with us to chivalry us. I got up and put my pants and
boots on and while they were fussing with Ida to get her dressed, I fled out the front door
and down the alley. There were several chasing me but finally they gave up and went
back for their car. They took Ida with them and drove around and around looking for me.
One time they stopped and said, “There he is!” Doyle Pallesen said, “No. That’s my
white-faced cow.” They eventually got tired and took Ida back home. I stayed out for
quite some time before I returned. But, we got together with Forrest and Donna Pallesen
and gave a wedding dance so they would leave us alone. It was held in the old dance hall
with George Okona’s western band playing the music with Howard Porter playing the
mandolin and guitar.
After Ida and I were married, it was time to go to work. I started by working for
her dad hauling props to the mines in Rock Springs, Wyoming. I would take a load in to
the mines either Superior, Reliance or Stansbury everyday then return to the mountain,
load up another load by hand, then return to my house. It would take 12 hours to do this.
We made this run six days a week. On Sunday we got the trucks serviced for the next
week, maybe we would get a half day off.
Some times we would stock-pile the props in Green River then we would load
them by hand into railroad cars, which was a lot of work. We wore horse collar pads on
our shoulders to keep from getting sores. Also we would make 6 x 6 wedges and load
them in to railroad cars. We would cut 40,000 board feet (bd. ft.) of 6 x 6 per day.
Lawrence had built a wedge mill that he should have patented. It would cut more wedges
than any other mill made at that time, or since.
On April 7, 1953 at 8:15 pm at the Sweetwater County Memorial Hospital, Rock
Springs, Wyoming, a baby boy was born. His name would be Lawrence Don Twitchell
after his two grandfathers, Lawrence Biorn and Don Twitchell. His parents were glad to
have him here but were really frightened when they attending doctor came in and told us
that the baby had a birth defect commonly known as club feet. He gave us an address for
the Crippled Children Services in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Lawrence’s little feet were so turned that he would kick and his toes were pointed
at his chin. When he was a week old, I went to Salt Lake and talked with the Crippled
Children’s Service and they recommended a doctor whose name was Clegg. I made an
appointment with him for the following Monday. After this appointment we took him to
Salt Lake every two weeks for two years. We had to take the casts off the night before
we went, which was no easy task. We would set him in a tub of water and I would cut
the cast off with a razor blade. Then the next day we would go to the doctor and he
would twist his feet as much as he dared and put new casts on that would hold them in
this position. Lawrence also had two surgeries by the time he was two years old.
Finally we got him in shoes, but at night we would put a bar between his shoes
and turn them out far as we could. Lawrence never slept with out shoes until he was
eight years old. His feet were fairly straight but he was flat footed. One of the operations
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
16
was they cut the cord in back of his foot so therefore, he could not jump. Despite all of
this, he was a good athlete but a very cranky boy. But, after what he had been through,
maybe he earned it.
On April 7, 1955 at 4:15 pm at the Sweetwater County Memorial Hospital in
Rock Springs, Wyoming a baby girl was born. Her name would be Christina Beth
Twitchell. Her parents were really excited to have her here but were frightened also that
their might be a birth defect like her brother. That was the first thing we looked for and
were extremely relieved when all we could see was a beautiful, black-haired little girl
that was perfect in every respect.
Beth was always the little mother to all the family. She helped everybody
anytime she could. Her mother depended on her all the time to help around the house.
Beth was always glad to share with others. I remember one time she wanted to
give her aunt Elsie a doughnut. She took the whole bowl out to meet Elsie and said,
“Would you like a doughnut, Aunt Elsie?” Elsie replied, “Why thank you, Honey,” and
took the whole damn bowl. Beth felt so bad that she cried about it. But, Beth was always
a good cook, a good student, and achieved high at whatever she tried. She grew into a
fine woman.
On August 6, 1956 at the Sweetwater County Memorial Hospital, Rock Springs,
Wyoming, a baby girl was born and her name would be LuAnna Marie Twitchell.
LuAnna was a small, blonde-headed little girl; perfect in every respect.
Her childhood was different than the others as she liked to play with dogs, cats
and other animals. She stayed to herself and never needed someone to talk to or play
with. She was a wild, hyper-type child who feared very little. She would tell me when I
got home at night about how mean her mom had been to her that day.
She was real creative, but liked to do things in her own sweet time. The other
kids used to get angry with her because she was so slow with her chores. Some things
they would have to help her so they could go do what they wanted.
LuAnna never walked anywhere, she ran as fast as she could. She was always
skinned-up from falling down. But, despite all the skinned knees, she managed to grow
into a fine woman.
In 1956 we had our saw mill up at Hole in the Rock Ranger Station cutting
Douglas Fir. We had logged out a large area of timber, and the forest ranger wanted us to
go back and lop down some of the tops. This one day I had been working lopping brush
and my axe got dull, so I set down and filed and whet-stoned my axe until it was like a
razor. Then I got up and went back to work. Forgetting to swing easy with a sharp axe, I
swung like it was still dull. I went right through the top of that tree, about 3” diameter,
and right into my foot. I knew I was cut bad so I started to walk out. Every step I would
take, I could feel the cord to my toes working up inside my leg. Finally, Roy Richardson
came and helped me to the truck. My father-in-law took me to the doctor in Green River.
He put me in the hospital for surgery. No one let me wife know. She heard it on the five
o’clock news that I had been admitted to the hospital…she was a little mad.
I was laid up for three months with this injury and workman’s compensation did
not come through until after I got back to work. We were getting low on groceries when
one night Junior Reed and his wife came up and said, “Let’s go for a ride.” We ended up
at Connor Basin where Carlene’s dad, Lorel Nelson, was ranch foreman. He said, “I hear
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
17
you need some and meat.” When I agreed, he said, “I have some I want to get rid of.” It
was a nice four-point buck deer; it sure did help us out.
November 1954-January 1955
Duane Lamb and WaNeta, along with Ida and I took a contract to paint the inside
of the old church. The church furnished the paint and materials. We worked on this
project for three months for a total amount of $600.00.
From 1965 to 1974 we were custodians for five years at the Manila Church house
and grounds.
During this time we were trying to raise funds to build the church and dedicate it.
There were several projects that I was responsible for. They were cutting 2000 6 inch x
20 feet poles to build fence for the Forest Service. Four dock sections and eight finger
sections were contracted from Bob Witherspoon. He furnished the plans; we did the rest
for a net profit to the church of $12,000. I helped mill the lumber at Hole in the Rock to
the tune of 30,000 bd. ft. This was enough to get the church started.
Other Fund Raisers
Burning slash on clearing project at airport in Dutch John
Installing guard rail on highway 44 down Sheep Creek Gap
Painting guard rail on Lucerne Road
Helped with several auctions
Supervised and cooked several family dinners
We used to contract hauling hay and stacking it for so much a ton, to raise funds
to build the church. We hauled hay to Lawrence Biorn, J.R. Broadbent, Lee
Nebeker, Connor Basin and Bransen Neff.
On January 10, 1959 at Sweetwater County Memorial Hospital, Rock Spring,
Wyoming, a baby girl was born and her name would be Nella Rae Twitchell. She was a
very perfect little girl with blonde hair.
She, like her sister LuAnna, like animals and played with them a lot. She also
loved new-born babies. Whenever she got near one, she could not leave it alone.
When she was about four years old, she got a little accordion for Christmas and
boy did she play it.
She always wanted my lunch box, when I would come home at night, to see if I
had left her something to eat. She would also bring me my slippers and help take my
shoes off.
One night I came home and sat in my chair and she came over their. I said,
“Nella, get my slippers for me.” She replied, “I can’t because we just wrapped them and
put them under the Christmas tree.” Uh-oh! The other kids were so angry with her.
Nella always wanted to be just a good housekeeper and good mother. I believe
she has done this, plus being a good neighbor to whomever is in need. She is always the
first there to help. She is a dedicated community leader.
After we were married I worked in Evanston, Green River and for Lawrence for
the first year. At this time Lawrence moved the cook house from Saul’s Canyon and set
it by Levi Reed’s property. They sided it and put new shingles on the roof. A man by the
name of Bill Haggardy lived there for about a year then had to leave. Ida and I moved in
to this house and lived there for about a year. It was the first time I didn’t have to use a
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
18
gas lantern. Junior and Shorty (Derl) Reed ran an extension cord over to our house with
one light bulb. We thought we were really “Up-town”.
We lived there for about a year then my father gave me an acre of ground where
we live now. Ida’s dad gave Ida the cook house and we got Kenneth Reed, who had a D-
4 Cat, to pull the house up where it is now.
From 1953 to 1958 we carried water from my father’s well as the town would not
let him nor I hook onto the city system. He had a well drilled and we still use it today. In
1953 I hired Burnell Lamb to put in a water line to our house. I hired Roy Richardson to
wire the house for electricity. We had, for the first time, a refrigerator, lights in all the
rooms, hot water and an electric range.
In 1963 I gave Lawrence Biorn $1200.00 for a large chicken coop he had built but
used very little. I took a chain saw and cut it in half and hired Shorty Reed to haul it to
Manila. I attached it to the cook house. There had been six of us living in a small, three-
room house and suddenly space had more than doubled.
In 1971 I added on to the house one more time, building a utility room, entry way,
large bedroom and large bathroom; no more outdoor privies. I remodeled the rest of the
house so we ended up with a utility room, kitchen, living room, three bedrooms, a
bathroom, an entry way and forced-air heat.
My father was the first funeral held in the new ward chapel in November of 1963.
My daughter, Beth, was the first girl baptized in the new ward chapel, also in 1963.
After the death of my father I started going back to church. It was quite a switch
from the life I had been used to. I quit smoking and playing music in bars. It was hard
on me because the old friends I had wouldn’t have anything to do with me because I was
going to church. On the other hand, the church people wouldn’t have anything to do with
me because of the things I used to do. They didn’t treat Ida this way, I guess because all
the blame was laid on me.
In the early spring of 1964 I was working for the National Park Service and living
in Dutch John through the week in a trailer house. One night I went to bed and about
4:00 in the morning I had an experience I will never forget. Some people may say it was
a dream, but I think it was real. My father had died in November 1963. He and I had
always been really close. He came to me in this spiritual experience and he was holding
on e small child in his arms and he introduced this child to me as my brother, Harold.
There was another small boy holding my father’s hand and standing beside him. My dad
said, “This is your brother Deloss.” He said they were fine but he had one request of me.
I asked what it was and he told me he needed their temple work done because being
where they were and not having it done was like only having half of your face. I
remember looking and seeing a blank side of my father’s face, which was very disturbing
to me.
That fall, on November 17, 1964, we went to the temple and did the work for my
dad. His cousin, Frank, stood proxy for Dad as Mom and him and all their children (that
could be at that time) were sealed.
June 1965
We had a large snow pack in the mountains this year and the spring was
especially cold. On the eighth of June we had a warm rain start to fall that continued for
several days. The low snow and ice in Cheep Creek started to flow, but because of the
excess water, the ice jammed up in the stream beds and would block the stream off. This
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
19
was going on all up the stream then when the ice and snow could not hold it back any
longer, it would cause a large gush of water, all at one time, running down stream to the
next and pond and doing the same thing to it only now there was twice the amount of
snow and ice and water. It continued to do this all the way to Palisades Park. When it
reached there, the water was 15 feet high on the trees that survived. It took out the road,
picnic areas, bridges, fields, fences and worst of all, people. Seven people lost their lives
in this flood. I had the job of taking a flat bottom barge and sifting through the debris
that hit the Flaming Gorge Reservoir. There was one body that was never found.
To date, we have not repaired all the damage that was caused over 40 years ago.
This not only caused problems in Sheep Creek, but every stream in the forest. There was
no road to Vernal except to go down Sheep Creek to the old switch backs that were built
in the 1920s. Primarily a one lane road, it sure crippled traffic. The school kids from
Dutch John had to be bused by motor boat and picked up at Antelope and Lucerne.
Sheriffs of Daggett County I Have Known
Mark A. Anson, John Ellison, Pete Riggs, Merlin Schofield, Mark Cornaby,
Sonny Larsen, Ed Greathouse, Ken Reed, Gaylen Jarvie
Mail Services
There was one post office in Linwood operated by George Rasmussen, and in
later years, was moved to another building and was operated by Elene Williams. There
was also a post office in Manila. My first recollection, it was at Nels Pallesen’s home
and was operated by Nels Pallesen. Later it was moved up to J.D. Harpers. It was in a
log cabin where the post office is today. J.D. Harper and his wife Julia operated all three
locations. Upon their retirement, Carleen Reed operated the post office until her health
failed her.
The early mail drivers had quite a challenge. They had to drive from Green
River, Wyoming each day with no paved road and very little gravel. The early drivers I
remember are Steve Anastas, Bill Urwin, and Marrion Meeks. Later came Bill Steinaker,
Harry Hudson, Lorain Beck, Elaine Steinaker, and Ray Bullock.
Businesses
Some of the businesses I remember when I was growing up were:
Silver Leach Saw Mill, Manila, Utah located about where Steinaker Chevron is today
Smith & Larsen Mercantile, Linwood, Utah operated by George Rasmussen
Manila Trading Company, Manila, Utah operated by Albert and Helis Steinaker
Reed Service, Power and Rentals operated by Ken and Myrtle Reed
Hans Repair and Power operated by Nels Philbrick
Reed Repair operated by Levi Reed and sons
Birch Springs Creamery operated by Cliff and Marian Christensen
Charlie Lazzel Blacksmith Shop
Mick Mahoney Blacksmith
John and Eunice Ellison Boarding house
L.R. and Son Freight Line operated by Levi & Sons
Vivian Pollson Dress Shop
Merlon Campbell Sawmill and Freight Line
L.P. Biorn Timber Company
Burnell Lamb Construction Company.
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
20
About 1958 George Ellsworth set up a repair shop and Randy Steinaker built a
service station about the same time. Levi Reed and Sons moved their home across the
street and built a new service station and maintenance shop. Bill Bruce built the Sure
Save Market and The Villa restaurant. The Hub bar and service station was built down
on Henry’s Fork in Linwood on the road to Flaming Gorge Dam and Dutch John town
site.
I have had foreman type jobs since 1964. My area for two years was all of
Flaming Gorge, Fontanel and Fossil Butte with headquarters in Dinosaur National
Monument. (See Appendix C)
Some of the local people who have worked for me since I went to work in a
foremanship role for the U.S. Government are:
Paulette Welder Ray Dale
Milton Wilkinson Steve Dillerie
Rusty Muir Celia Slagowski
Keith Babcock Dennie Maras
Rowdy Muir Brian Coulter
Tex Leflet John Simmons
Stan Slagowski Nancy Jarvie
Kelly Iverson Zane Radosivitch
John Iverson Curt Sadlier
Doyle Slagowski Steve Neff
Don Larsen Dixie and Carl Moser
Forrest Pallesen Danny Lamb
Merlin Schofield Kelly Wilde
Gene Campbell Craig Jarvie
Allen Campbell Dewey Erich
Eldon Lamb Hob Redden
Vivian Slagowski Tom Cook
Doyle Boren Leonard Twitchell
Selvian Arrowsmith Barry Cain
1984
When my mother died the cemetery committee asked me if I would be sexton of
the cemetery and clean it up. At that time, every lot had its own rock wall or log fence.
There was brush five feet high in places. There were many unmarked graves so Ida and I
sent out letters asking for donations. The response was great. We got over $6,000.00 of
which we started to build a pump house and make a water collection system from the
canal. We used a forest service loader to level the ground and haul off the debris.
Larry Biorn donated a load of P.V.C. pipe and fittings. Cyril Raylonce donated a
chain digging machine. Gene Briggs ran it for us then we put the piping in for a sprinkler
system and planted grass.
The next thing was to make markers for the unmarked graves, 76 in all. Vernal
Mortuary donated the markers. We put them in a 16 inch concrete block and set them.
Curtis lamb put up a flag pole for an Eagle Scout project. This was all done with
volunteer labor; mostly Burl, Sam and Lawrence Twitchell, Rusty Muir, Gene Briggs,
Punky Steinaker, Rick Ellsworth and the LDS Elders quorum. I was sexton until July
2008.
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
21
On May 12, 1994 I retired from the US Forest Service with 31 years of service. I
did not work this year but ran for County Commissioner. I did not get elected, thank the
good Lord!
In 1995 I was asked by Commissioner Sharon Walters if I would work for the
county and build them a park. I started by clearing five acres of Russian olive trees. The
area was a swamp so I put in four major drains to dry it up so we could work.
Scenic Highway donated money to build a picnic shelter, restrooms and parking
lot. We built the restroom and picnic shelter first then we did side walks, water and
electrical lines and security lights.
Then came top soil and sprinkler systems. The school let us use their water
system. After all of this was completed we paved the parking lot. There were still
swampy areas so I met with S.C.S. to see if they could put the irrigation ditch at the west
side of the park in a pipe. They said I would have to get a rancher or water user to apply
for it. I asked John Tinker if he would apply. He was hesitant but finally signed. This
dried up the whole area.
Next they wanted me to move the historic school house from Clay Basin and put
it in the park for a museum. This was done. The next project was electric lights in the
rodeo arena. I contacted UDOT in Orem and asked if they had any long light poles they
had taken off from interstate roads. They gave me eight. George Ellsworth went and got
them. We used a chain digger donated by Doc Huston and ran all the lines to the poles.
After we poured concrete bases we assembled the lights. Donald Pallesen used Gary
Pallesen’s track-hoe and stood them up into place. Next we got grants to build handicap
ramps into the grandstands. Then we purchased a water cannon to wet the rodeo
grounds.
The gates to the park were an Eagle Scout project by Travis Lamb.
The volleyball court was an Eagle Scout project by John Ross Catron.
The horse shoe pit was an Eagle Scout project by Chase Ellsworth.
The carved bear was an Eagle Scout project by Tyrell Smith.
The individual picnic sites were and Eagle Scout project by Jason Lamb.
The flag pole was an Eagle Scout project by Brett Steinaker and James Lamb.
The Town of Manila was having water problems and the new soil could not go
without water. I told Commissioner Jim Briggs I knew where there was a tank we might
get. The forest service had one at Red Canyon they wanted removed so they let us
remove it and set it up at the jail for reserve water. It held 17,000 gallons; enough for
three days. I redid all the side walks around the Court House. Put down new pavement
at Historical Park, Court House, new jail and medical building.
The county put me in as district road chairman. Since this time we have paved 12
miles of road, chip-sealed 14 miles, crushed 100,000 tons of gravel, and purchased and
hauled 10,000 tons of chips.
Presently the road committee is doing a $6,000,000.00 road into Brown’s Park. I
also assisted town of Manila in paving their streets in 2008. (See Appendix D)
Timeline
1951 Found me working for Petty Geophysical Seismography for oil in Buffalo,
Wyoming and Rock Springs, Wyoming. I worked up fast and was soon a Junior
Burl D. Twitchell Life Story
22
Operator of the camera truck. It was a fun job, but I didn’t want to move as often
as they did, so I came back to Manila and went to work on constructing the 530
road from Squaw hallow to Linwood Canyon.
1952 Electrical power came to the valley. I married Ida Marie Biorn in Vernal, Utah.
After I was married, I worked as switchman for the Union Pacific Railroad.
1953 April 7th
a son (Lawrence Don) was born to Ida and me.
1954 Ida Marie and I hired out to Heber Bennion to herd and lamb sheep. We did this
one summer. We borrowed a camp trailer from Duane and WaNeta Lamb. This
was a real enjoyable job, as you were so free to do what you wanted as long as
your sheep were cared for.
1955 April 7th
a daughter (Christina Beth) was born.
1956 August 6th
a daughter (LuAnna Marie) was born. All this time I was working in
the timber, oil fields and construction.
1959 January 10th
a daughter (Nella Rae) was born.
1964 November 16th
I got married again. This time the lady had four kids but we all
went to the temple and were sealed for eternity in the Salt Lake Temple. Yes, it
was to Ida Marie Biorn.
On May 21st of this year I was looking for work and I called the National Park
Service to see if they had an opening. They referred me to a man named Dick
Herriman. I called him and he asked me, “Can you add 2 & 2?” I said, “Yes,
that’s 4.” He said, “Come to work in the morning.” I worked for the Federal
government ever since.
1965 Went to Idaho Falls Temple with Ida’s mom and dad and witnessed the sealings
of Lawrence to his first wife, May, and their children and then Thelma and their
children.
1966 June 6th
a daughter (Thelma Louise) was stillborn.
1967 Called as Second Counselor to Bishop Dixon Christensen. Set apart by Edwin E.
James, Stake President.
1969 Released from bishopric.
1971 My oldest son, Lawrence Don, graduated from high school and went to work in
the oil fields.
1973 My oldest daughter, Christina Beth, graduated from high school and went to
Snow College in Ephraim, Utah.
1974 My second daughter, LuAnna Marie, graduated from high school. She enrolled in
Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho.
1975 My youngest daughter, Nella Rae, was married on August 8th
to Gale B. Lamb.
My oldest daughter, Beth, graduated from Continental Beauty School.
My sister, Hertha, died of a stroke in Rock Springs, Wyoming
1976 LuAnna Marie graduated from Ricks College.
1978 January 26th
a son was born named Samuel D. Twitchell.
1979 October 13th
a daughter was born named Sarah RaNae Twitchell.
Top Related