Saturday, November 28, 2015
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Monday, October 19, 2015
Monday, September 14, 2015
New Horizons Band and Orchestra at the Chapel; Everyone Invited!
On Saturday, the Zion Music Ensembles; New Horizons Band and Orchestra, directed by Teri Hold Horne (Orchestra) and Kirk Jones (Band) will perform at the chapel. The performance will begin at 6:30.
This is open to all community residents and camp ground hosts or campers. Ice Cream and cookies will be served after the performance.
Saturday, September 12, 2015
Fires Near Pine Valley
If you have been in the valley this past week, you first noticed plumes of smoke coming from behind the mountains to the south and recently from the Browns Point trail to the southeast. The first fire was in the Oak Grove Campground and then Friday morning another fire started in the Browns Point Trail area. Helicopters were deployed to reduce fire spread and ground personnel are now at the fire site.
According to a news article, the estimated size of the fire was at 0.5 acre at the time of discovery and the cause of the fire is undetermined. The fire is burning Ponderosa Pine, Oak Brush and mixed conifers and Browns Trail is currently closed. The video above is of one of the larger helicopters dipping water from the reservoir and the stills below show the fires from a few different locations. The first two are from the St. George side earlier in the week
Oak Grove Fire
Oak Grove Fire
Brown's Point Trail
If you enlarge this one, you can see the helicopter dropping the water on the fire.
Helicopter getting water at the reservoir--the fire fighter there, said that computer tell the system how much water can be carried depending on the amount of the fuel left (and thus total weight) The computer also tells the system the ideal time to drop the water.
Thanks to the Pine Valley firemen who cleared a landing space behind the fire station, the helicopters were able to land to bring in personnel and supplies. I'm sure that they all appreciated being able to get directly to the valley with this recently cleared out landing space.
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Friday, August 7, 2015
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Old Silver Tip or Old Crackfoot, The Last (Natural) Bear on Pine Valley Mountain
This is an abbreviated version of the story as told to Budd
Iverson by Mitt Moody, for the full story you can go to this link:
http://brentprince.blogspot.com
Mitt Moody
was an early resident of Pine Valley and the first ranger for Dixie National
Forest. A couple of years after he became the ranger, 3 steers were killed one
night not far from the ranger cabin in Pine Valley. From all indications it
looked like the work of a big bear, but no bears had been seen in the Pine
Valley area for 15 years or nevertheless, the broken neck and deep rake marks
along the bodies indicated not only a bear, but a very big one. Mitt and
several other men hunted for the bear without luck, but found the remains of
another large steer that the bear had been able to kill and then carry across a
meadow and up a steep mountain slope without making any drag marks. A few more
days passed and several more head of cattle were killed. Other cattlemen joined
the search, but they found only more victims but no bear.
Every day for more than a month, Mitt rode the trails to White Rock, across to Mill Flats, to Anderson Valley, off the Syler Spring Trail to Browse Creek, then over the hump to Wet Sandy Trail to climb again to the top through Whipple Valley and all the meadows in that area, then back across Further Water and back toward Pine Valley. All the while, he carried a Savage 32-30, one of the best guns of the time, in the scabbard slung on his saddle, hoping for signs of the bear, but found no tracks or sign at all.
Every day for more than a month, Mitt rode the trails to White Rock, across to Mill Flats, to Anderson Valley, off the Syler Spring Trail to Browse Creek, then over the hump to Wet Sandy Trail to climb again to the top through Whipple Valley and all the meadows in that area, then back across Further Water and back toward Pine Valley. All the while, he carried a Savage 32-30, one of the best guns of the time, in the scabbard slung on his saddle, hoping for signs of the bear, but found no tracks or sign at all.
Together, the
cattlemen of the area posted a reward of $250.00, which was a summers wage at
the time, so there were quite a few hunters searching all over that mountain. For
weeks, they found only more dead cattle or ones with deep rake marks that has
apparently just gotten in the bear's way during a kill. Even when the reward
was raised to $500.00 and more people joined the search, the bear was not
found.
When winter came, the depredations ceased temporarily, but early the next spring two yearlings were killed and others soon followed. At each of these places of slaughter that Mitt inspected, each time finding a broken neck. Apparently the bear would attack by knocking down the animal with a terrific blow to the top of the back or head. Sometimes the carcass would be slashed and raked with his great claws like the bear was venting anger because the animal had run. The tracks indicated this bear had a left front paw that had been severely injured at one time; possibly he had ripped his foot out of a bear trap, which had left it badly damaged.
When the killing continued, the bounty was raised to $1,000.00, a huge amount for the time. Two professional hunters, brothers by the name of Ganet, came from Colorado with their hounds, confident that they would get the bear. Within a few days of their arrival, a big steer was killed in the meadows east of Grant's Ranch. The ten dogs picked up the bear's trail. Because of the difficulty of the path, one brother followed after the dogs while Mitt and the other brother lead two packhorses and rode south. By the evening, the dogs had cornered the bear and were heard baying. It soon grew too dark for the riders to see to continue, so the dogs were called back. Eight dogs returned but two didn’t and were later found to be dead. Early the next morning, they tried to pick up the bear’s trail again. One of the old dogs bellowed, indicating he had picked up the scent, but after an hour or so of trying to climb the steep ledge mountainside they gave up and the dogs were called back. Even as the hunters had been pursuing him, the bear had killed two heifers during the night and broken the neck of an old milk cow that had been in the same pasture.
It was decided to give the dogs a rest until the next kill which came a week later. From the spot, the hunters followed a trail from Grass Valley toward Mountain Meadows. It was hard country to ride through on horseback, but the dogs were able to pick up a scent and, at first, by hard riding, the men kept up with them as they worked in the general direction of Pine Mountain. As the day went on, the bear moved closer to the mountain and the dogs followed. The heavy brush became impossible for the riders to penetrate so some followed on foot. Finally in the evening, the dogs were again called in with only five of the remaining eight returning. The brothers had started with ten good tracking dogs and now had only five. Saying that bear hunters were no good without his dogs, they got on the train and went back to Colorado.
Mitt didn’t give up and neither did the bear. Cattlemen began putting their cattle in corrals at night and posting a guard over them that cut the slaughter, but not entirely. By this time, the bounty had been raised to $2,000.00 but still there were no sightings. A heavy snow fell in early November and Mitt found signs that the bear was looking for a place to bed down for the winter. He continued tracking for days along a heavy growth of timber not far from the bottom of a canyon. As he traveled through area that no cattle or riders ever ventured, a winter storm developed into a blizzard and trapped him for several days until finally he was able to travel back to the valley on the snowshoes he had brought in his pack, knowing that the bear had won again for that season.
When winter came, the depredations ceased temporarily, but early the next spring two yearlings were killed and others soon followed. At each of these places of slaughter that Mitt inspected, each time finding a broken neck. Apparently the bear would attack by knocking down the animal with a terrific blow to the top of the back or head. Sometimes the carcass would be slashed and raked with his great claws like the bear was venting anger because the animal had run. The tracks indicated this bear had a left front paw that had been severely injured at one time; possibly he had ripped his foot out of a bear trap, which had left it badly damaged.
When the killing continued, the bounty was raised to $1,000.00, a huge amount for the time. Two professional hunters, brothers by the name of Ganet, came from Colorado with their hounds, confident that they would get the bear. Within a few days of their arrival, a big steer was killed in the meadows east of Grant's Ranch. The ten dogs picked up the bear's trail. Because of the difficulty of the path, one brother followed after the dogs while Mitt and the other brother lead two packhorses and rode south. By the evening, the dogs had cornered the bear and were heard baying. It soon grew too dark for the riders to see to continue, so the dogs were called back. Eight dogs returned but two didn’t and were later found to be dead. Early the next morning, they tried to pick up the bear’s trail again. One of the old dogs bellowed, indicating he had picked up the scent, but after an hour or so of trying to climb the steep ledge mountainside they gave up and the dogs were called back. Even as the hunters had been pursuing him, the bear had killed two heifers during the night and broken the neck of an old milk cow that had been in the same pasture.
It was decided to give the dogs a rest until the next kill which came a week later. From the spot, the hunters followed a trail from Grass Valley toward Mountain Meadows. It was hard country to ride through on horseback, but the dogs were able to pick up a scent and, at first, by hard riding, the men kept up with them as they worked in the general direction of Pine Mountain. As the day went on, the bear moved closer to the mountain and the dogs followed. The heavy brush became impossible for the riders to penetrate so some followed on foot. Finally in the evening, the dogs were again called in with only five of the remaining eight returning. The brothers had started with ten good tracking dogs and now had only five. Saying that bear hunters were no good without his dogs, they got on the train and went back to Colorado.
Mitt didn’t give up and neither did the bear. Cattlemen began putting their cattle in corrals at night and posting a guard over them that cut the slaughter, but not entirely. By this time, the bounty had been raised to $2,000.00 but still there were no sightings. A heavy snow fell in early November and Mitt found signs that the bear was looking for a place to bed down for the winter. He continued tracking for days along a heavy growth of timber not far from the bottom of a canyon. As he traveled through area that no cattle or riders ever ventured, a winter storm developed into a blizzard and trapped him for several days until finally he was able to travel back to the valley on the snowshoes he had brought in his pack, knowing that the bear had won again for that season.
The next
spring another tracker with his hounds came to collect the bounty. The dogs
were eventually able to pick up a scent but the hunt continued over a hard,
difficult trail all through the rest of June and July. Sometimes they lost his
trail for a week at a time. When the bear eventually killed five of their dogs,
the Wyoming hunters also gave up. They went back to the country where the bears
were not so mean and tough, the mountains so darn rough, and the brush didn't
pull a man out of his saddle.
Mitt continued tracking through August and September, when one evening just before sundown, he crossed a small stream and saw in the mud a fresh track of the bear. Mitt pulled his rifle out of the scabbard and loped up into and on through the thick bunch of trees. On the other side they thinned out again and there, about 100 yards distant, was the big bear moving rapidly through the trees toward the mountain. Bringing his horse to a sliding stop he shot from the saddle just as the bear disappeared. The solid thunk of the slug told him the bullet had either hit the bear or a tree but soon saw drops of blood leading to the mountainside. Knowing a wounded bear was dangerous, he went to find help to hunt for the bear. Three men offered to assist and the next morning they followed the blood trail, climbing up through heavy brush to where the ridge blended into the mountainside. As he looked upward at the ledge above, Mitt saw the bear stand up at the base of the cliff where he had apparently been lying down. Mitt took careful aim and squeezed the trigger. A blood chilling squall echoed down the canyon as the bear reared upward to clasp his front paws across his head. Then he drooped back on all fours and headed down through the aspen trees toward Mitt. The Savage 32-30 had 6 more cartridges in it and each time he shot, Old Bruin squalled but kept coming. He was only a few yards away when Mitt shot him in the head with the last bullet and then shoved another cartridge from his gun belt into the chamber and pulled back the hammer. At the last second the rifle blasted into the bear's open mouth, knocking him down.
Lying practically at his feet was the huge animal about the size of Mitt's saddle horse in weight and bulk. Just to make sure the bear was dead, Mitt reached out to cut his throat when the bear’s hind foot came forward to catch Mitt and throw him about 20 feet into some brush that cushioned his fall. Mitt carefully climbed over to his gun and shot the bear again through the ear. It took a team of horses to get the bear to the Pine Valley ranger station where it was dressed out. It weighed 1,000 pounds or better and the women of the town rendered out more than 100 pounds of bear grease.
Because Mitt was a public employee and had killed the bear while on duty, he could not accept the reward money offered by the stockmen but earned the thanks of the area. The skull and hide of the bear were sent to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC where it was mounted and proved to be one of the largest Silver Tip Grizzly Bears ever killed in the United States.
Mitt continued tracking through August and September, when one evening just before sundown, he crossed a small stream and saw in the mud a fresh track of the bear. Mitt pulled his rifle out of the scabbard and loped up into and on through the thick bunch of trees. On the other side they thinned out again and there, about 100 yards distant, was the big bear moving rapidly through the trees toward the mountain. Bringing his horse to a sliding stop he shot from the saddle just as the bear disappeared. The solid thunk of the slug told him the bullet had either hit the bear or a tree but soon saw drops of blood leading to the mountainside. Knowing a wounded bear was dangerous, he went to find help to hunt for the bear. Three men offered to assist and the next morning they followed the blood trail, climbing up through heavy brush to where the ridge blended into the mountainside. As he looked upward at the ledge above, Mitt saw the bear stand up at the base of the cliff where he had apparently been lying down. Mitt took careful aim and squeezed the trigger. A blood chilling squall echoed down the canyon as the bear reared upward to clasp his front paws across his head. Then he drooped back on all fours and headed down through the aspen trees toward Mitt. The Savage 32-30 had 6 more cartridges in it and each time he shot, Old Bruin squalled but kept coming. He was only a few yards away when Mitt shot him in the head with the last bullet and then shoved another cartridge from his gun belt into the chamber and pulled back the hammer. At the last second the rifle blasted into the bear's open mouth, knocking him down.
Lying practically at his feet was the huge animal about the size of Mitt's saddle horse in weight and bulk. Just to make sure the bear was dead, Mitt reached out to cut his throat when the bear’s hind foot came forward to catch Mitt and throw him about 20 feet into some brush that cushioned his fall. Mitt carefully climbed over to his gun and shot the bear again through the ear. It took a team of horses to get the bear to the Pine Valley ranger station where it was dressed out. It weighed 1,000 pounds or better and the women of the town rendered out more than 100 pounds of bear grease.
Because Mitt was a public employee and had killed the bear while on duty, he could not accept the reward money offered by the stockmen but earned the thanks of the area. The skull and hide of the bear were sent to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC where it was mounted and proved to be one of the largest Silver Tip Grizzly Bears ever killed in the United States.
Monday, July 27, 2015
Heritage Day Celebration
On Saturday, the 25th of July the Pine Valley Heritage Center hosted their annual Heritage Day Celebration. It was a fun packed day with such activities as music, pack mule demonstration, traditional crafts and lots of delicious food. A big crowd of locals and guests enjoyed a day of connecting to their heritage.
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Heavy Rains in the Valley; Check Your Basements and Yards
Due to extensive rains this past week some homes in Pine Valley have had flooding in their basements and/or yards. If you a have not been in the valley during this time, you may want to contact neighbors or friends and ask them to visit your property and assess any water or damage that may have been done.
If you have any questions and we may be of assistance, please call us, your Block One Captains Sharron Northington 435-574-3167 or Laura Bergeson 435-574-0220
Saturday, July 4, 2015
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Locally Produced Jams or Jellies Wanted
Vicki Engle has asked me to pass along the information that if you are a jam or jelly maker and would like to sell some of your produce at the Heritage Center, please go to the center on a Saturday and discuss the specifics with the lady in charge. I guess the rest of us who might like to buy locally produced jams or jellies will also know that they will be available this summer!
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Community Emergency Response--Earthquake Awareness
Some of you may have
heard that in a few days thousands of individuals, government agencies, faith-based
organizations, community groups, schools and others in northern Utah will
participate in “The Great Utah ShakeOut” which is a drill to help Utah be
prepared for possible earthquakes. 90% of Utah, including Pine Valley is
located in the “seismic belt,” that is described in the ShakeOut literature,
and while we hope that an earthquake will never occur in our valley, it is
always better to be prepared. Future CERT training will focus on earthquake
preparation and response, but below are some links that you can look at to help you
be prepared.
Monday, March 23, 2015
Invitation to Honor Lee Bracken for Service to Our Community
This Thursday, the 26th of March, several extraordinary individuals from the Southern Utah Area will receive Red Cross Community Heroes Awards for courageous acts and humanitarian service. Among these will be Lee Bracken who has faithfully served our community as an EMT for many years. Please join us in saying thanks for all of his years of dedicated service to our community!
- Thursday March 26, 2015 Luncheon 11:30-1:00
- The Hilton Garden Inn
- 1731 South Convention Center Drive, Saint George
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Let it Snow!
Laura Burgeson sent these pictures of the recent snow that Pine Valley has been experiencing. Even from far away Africa, we are happy to see the moisture there in the valley. I'm sure that we are all thankful for the snow we've received and hope for even more before the heat of summer comes. From 10,000 miles away, we'll hope you're all staying warm :)
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