San Juan barriers to entry... and exit

BREAKING NEWS—December 1908, San Juan County College Students Enjoy a Sub-Zero Night on the Riverbank in Moab.
Each year, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the news is filled with horror stories of travel-related woes endured by folks scurrying home to spend the holidays with family.
If it’s not a picture of the endless lines at airport security, it’s a bomb cyclone storm covering a large portion of the country. If you think travel troubles magically appeared in the modern age, think again. (see Luke 2).
In its 1908 Christmas issue, The Grand Valley Times in Moab reported that a group of BYU and University of Utah students from San Juan County spent a cold night camped on the north bank of the river in Moab.
The ferry was frozen, and the bridge wouldn’t be built until 1912, four years later. The night on the cold ground followed a 200-mile train ride to Thompson, then 35 miles in a wagon to the river’s edge. From there, it was only 50 miles to Monticello, plus 50 miles after that to Bluff for Ernest.
From the article, “...the young ladies received a number of well-deserved compliments on their display of ‘pluck’ in making the hundred-mile wagon trip in zero weather, to spend Christmas at home.”
Zoe and Bert Adams were in the group. They are the daughter and son of “Ev on the old Chuckline” in Fred Keller’s Blue Mountain Song. Another passenger was Ray Redd’s big sister Vivian, who would give birth to church leader Bruce R. McConkie seven years later. My grandfather, Ernest Adams from Bluff, rounded out the group.
The Four Corners has always been isolated from the rest of the world. It doesn’t matter which of the four states is home: you’re isolated. But don’t complain; the isolation is more of a blessing than a curse. Indeed, many early wives and mothers got their start in San Juan County as school teachers.
Blue Mountain Shadows Volume 9 includes the stories of a few of these young women who came here to teach.
Louise Elliott described how, in 1913, she and Alice Hunter made it to Blanding for their first teaching job.
They began on the train from Salt Lake to Thompson. At Thompson, they traded the comforts of a rail car for the bounce of a stagecoach to finish the trip. Because of damaged track, plus having to wait an extra day in Monticello, as no stage ran on Sunday, the journey took five days for a trip that takes that many hours today.
Over the next few years, travel to the county improved; from Thompson on, the wagon and the stage were replaced with automobiles. Elizabeth Kelly, Reta Page, Jesse Bradshaw, and Ruby West came in 1927, followed by Beth Park in 1928.
These teachers and scores of others like them rightfully claim a significant portion of the credit for building the communities of San Juan County. All but one of those mentioned married local men and became part of us.
My mother often speaks of the quality education she received from Afton Johnston, one of those early teachers. From her, my mother adopted the rule that her children would always use good grammar at home.
As a young man, I hated this rule, but gratitude replaced that hatred as years passed. Finally, I hear grateful comments from friends taught by my grandmother, Garda Gee, at Blanding Elementary.
Space constraints prevent mentioning all the women who came here first as teachers, married local men, and stayed. Many of my closest friends and cousins were born into families created from these marriages. Following is a list of the teachers in this article and the men they married.
Louise Elliott married Ancil Redd.
Alice Hunter married Ancil’s nephew, Leland.
Elizabeth Kelly married Ken Summers.
Reta Page married Kenneth Rone Bailey.
Ruby West married Orson Hawkins.
Elizabeth Park married Erv Guymon.
Afton Johnston married Brig Stevens.
Garda Gee married Ernest Adams.
Althea Williams married Lloyd Adams.
Only Jesse Bradshaw never married, locally or otherwise. However, she is an aunt to Dale and Kenneth Maughan, who taught and raised their families here.
As I ponder the contributions of all who came to San Juan County through the years, isolation remains one of the county’s greatest assets, if only because, once here, it is too much work for them to leave.
From that isolation, the character of the place and its people was forged into strength.