| Maribelle Wareham displays pottery and artwork. |
The Emery County Historical Society presented “A Night of San Rafael Heritage” recently at the Museum of the San Rafael. JoAnn Behling welcomed the crowd and announced that on July 31 and Aug. 1-2, the museum will host a Folk Art Festival. Those interested in displaying their woodcrafts, beading, iron works weaving, pottery and other related crafts, can call Jan Petersen at 381-5252.
Kent Petersen introduced the book “Cowboy Poetry from the San Rafael.” The book is a collaborative effort of not only the poets and authors, but Shirley Spears, Dottie Grimes and Kathleen Truman. These three ladies, along with Petersen contributed the hours to put the book together. Petersen then read several of the poems from the book, including one of his own.
Jay Frandsen entertained the group with one of his original songs, “Do They Let Cowboys in Heaven, I Sure Hope They Do.”
Shirley Spears from the Emery County Archives was the first guest speaker of the evening. Spears spoke of the archives now being in jail. She said that the archives had been housed in a building owned by the school district and they had to move. Now the archives has relocated to the old jail building as a temporary home while they continue to search for a permanent residence. Spears displayed some of memorabilia and historical antiques she had brought from the archives collections.
Spears spoke of the Emery County Progress newspapers which have been donated to the archives by the library. She informed the group that the earliest years of the publications are being digitalized now, and the goal of the archives is to digitalize all of the newspapers to make the information more accessible to the public for research purposes. Spears also reported that one of the archives projects is to start a Green River Branch.
The Emery County Archives has recently been given the Frank Lemmon collection including various items such as poetry, photos, and a large petrified tree called the “Lemmon Tree.” Lemmon planted a large orchard in Ferron and each year hosted a Blossom Festival that may have been the predecessor of today’s Peach Days.
Spears is focusing on her current goal of obtaining more BLM and Manti forest service historical records. The archives needs photos and histories of settlers dugouts and cabins so this information can be preserved before it is all gone or lost.
Kathleen Truman says the archives is celebrating the 100 years of the Manti National Forest and have adopted the same theme as the county fair for this year.
After another musical respite from Frandsen, “Run Cowboy Run” about Butch Cassidy and the Robbers Roost bunch, Ray Petersen from public lands council was introduced. Petersen distributed a letter concerning the consideration of a heritage area. He requested input from the people of Emery County, about ideas and suggestions on how to accomplish a heritage area designation. The idea behind this movement is to create responsible use of the resources of public lands. Any suggestions or ideas can be submitted to Petersen at the public lands office in the courthouse or calling 381-5552.
The next historical society meeting will be April 24.