Birth of Blue Mountain Shadows

A pivotal moment in San Juan history occurred in 1980’s when Blanding educator K.C. Benedict attended the Fife Folklore Conference in Logan, UT. 
She invited Janet Wilcox, a Blanding newcomer, to go with her.  Writers and storytellers from all over the West attended the conference sharing their stories and research. 
By the time the two returned to Blanding, the seed of historical preservation had been planted and dozens of ideas were generated.  They contacted Bob McPherson, LaVerne Tate and Shurrell Meyer to join them in the new venture. 
At that time, Janet was teaching school at San Juan High and Jessie Embry, from Brigham Young University, came to San Juan High and instructed students on how to conduct interviews by asking open ended questions in order to generate more details..
All students in her English classes were required to interview someone they knew who had an interest in history and most chose older family members.  Because of the diversity of cultures at San Juan High, this included Anglo, Ute and Navajo sources. 
The Charles Redd Center, as well as the San Juan County Commission, helped provide money to purchase tape recorders and tapes for students to use.
Students also generated several possible names for the magazine they hoped to create and Blue Mountain Shadows was the top choice.
Once the interviews were conducted, a team of dependable students were hired to listen to and type up the information from the interviews. They were paid $2 an hour and they worked all summer! 
Once typed, manuscripts were taken back to the person interviewed and corrections and new information was added and, in many cases, photos were taken.   
Hundreds of interviews were conducted and those tapes are currently at the USU library.  Because students secured written permission from those interviewed, that information is available for others to use. 
Those interviews became the backbone of initial articles written for Blue Mountain Shadows, along with articles written by professional historians which resulted in 43 issues of the magazine!  
The San Juan County Commission was supportive of the project and helped financially, along with grant funds.
The San Juan County Historical Commission is working to generate money to publish future magazines. They hope to sell a large quantity of Blue Mountain Shadows at a discount price of $6, with part of the money going to the library. 
If you don’t have a complete set, or are looking for particular issues, the Blanding library will help you find the issues you want.