‘They belong with the Democrats’: Inside the GOP split
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Escalante and Zions
I previously wrote of the Ross family excursion in March 2021 with the Hemsley family to Junction, Utah. With them we hit Bryce Canyon National Park and some other locations. I previously wrote of our visit to Capitol Reef National Park. Here are a few photos of our visit to Escalante, Utah and Zion National Park.
We spent the night in Junction, headed to Capitol Reef National Park, and then spent that night in Escalante. It was a long day of driving and we covered many miles.
I wish we had time to hike up the trail to the Natural Bridge.
We spent the night at the Canyon Country Lodge for the night. It was pretty cold outside. The photo at the Heritage Center doesn’t look cold, but we did not stay very long.
The next day we drove to Zion National Park. It was generally pretty empty, both due to middle of March and being cold.
Zion was its usual beautiful self. Ageless.
We decided to go up the Riverside Walk.
We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked. No pioneer children were singing though.
We went as far up the trail as we could go before without getting wet.
From this point the trail became known as The Narrows. It was too cold and wet to go any further. But the hike back provided pretty views too.
We spent the next day or two in St. George and visited various sites there before heading home. At least it was warmer in St. George. I only had a couple of pictures from St. George I wanted to share.
The temple was under renovation during this time, so we could only walk around some of the grounds.
We visited Thunder Junction in St. George. We had to ride the train.
Last, we also hit the Children’s Museum in the old Dixie Academy.
Republican Winter Meeting 2025
Last week was the Idaho Republican Party’s Winter Meeting in Boise, Idaho at the Riverside Hotel. Fortunately, the whole family could go and enjoy the swimming pool and other activities in Boise.
I appeared in one of the official photos of the Winter Meeting. It is my better side.
I serve as the Cassia County Republican Central Commitee Chairman. As such, I serve on the Idaho Republican State Central Committee. I have also been appointed to serve on the Idaho Republican Rules Committee. Mr. Regan is the Rules Committee Chairman.
We made sure to stop and take the kids to the Idaho Capitol.
Wandering near the rotunda, we stumbled upon a fellow Cassia County citizen, Scott Bedke. Mr. Bedke also serves at Idaho’s Lieutenant Governor. He brings honor to Cassia County.
We also paid a visit on a friend in his office.
We also made a visit to the Meridian Idaho Temple while in town.
Benson Sets Quarterly Conference
I wrote previously of a book I have that belonged to my Great Grandfather, Joseph Nelson Jonas. The book was given to me by Ellis Jonas along with a couple of others. Inside the book was this clipping, presumably put there by my Great Grandmother, Lillian Coley Jonas. I have no clue about its significance, if any. It was clipped and put there in the book for some reason. Richmond, Utah, was in the Benson Stake at that time. The article indicates this was 1935.
Bishop David A Smith to Attend Richmond Services
Bishop David A. Smith, first counselor to Sylvester Q. Cannon presiding bishop of the L.D.S. church will represent the general authorities of the L.D.S. church at the quarterly conference of the Benson stake in Richmond Saturday evening and Sunday, according to information given out at the office of the first presidency in Salt Lake City.
The first meeting will be held Saturday evening at 7:30 o’clock. The Sunday sessions will begin at 10 a. m. and 2 p. m. with the quarterly meeting of the M.I.A. convening at 7:30 o’clock Sunday evening under direction of Ellis Doty stake superintendent of the Y.M.M.I.A.
President H. Ray Pond will preside at the general sessions of the conference. Amplifiers have been installed in the Richmond tabernacle to insure perfect audition.
Stressed during the conference sessions will be the two major projects of Benson stake for 1935; larger attendance at sacrament meetings and more efficient ward teaching.
The stake presidency is urging a large attendance at all sessions of the conference especially at the Saturday evening meeting. Special music for the conference has been prepared.
Jazz v 76ers
As part of a goal for those who attended the temple every month for the 2024 year, the Burley 8th Ward treated those successful youth to a game with the Utah Jazz. We decided to make it a family event as well! We did baptisms at the Bountiful Utah Temple on 28 December 2024. Afterward, we all went to the Delta Center to attend the game. Aliza, Hiram, and I drove separately and arrived plenty early.
We wandered around the entire arena before locating our seats in the nosebleed section.
The rest of the family and Amanda’s parents sat in a different section than where our Ward was seated.
Bryce Canyon
In March 2021 the Ross family went on a little excursion with the Hemsley family to Junction, Utah. With them we hit Bryce Canyon National Park and some other locations. I previously wrote of our visit to Capitol Reef National Park. On that same trip, before Capitol Reef, we hit Bryce Canyon National Park.
Here are a few photos of that excursion.
We entered from the north side of the Park through Bryce Canyon City.
You can probably tell from the photos. It was pretty chilly with the fairly new snow. The snow created some beautiful contrasts in color.
Some of it was a bit harrowing with the long drops from either side of the trail. Thank goodness we had Grandma and Grandpa, and aunts and uncles to help shepherd the children through.
These photos are all from the trails near Sunrise Point and Sunset Point.
Some of the hoo doos were definitely interesting.
Of course, I had to get a picture of Queen Victoria in the Queen’s Garden.
Once you hike down a trail, you must invariably hike back up. The Navajo Loop Switchback of course was our choice to return.
We may have been huffing and puffing, along with exhausted and moody children, at the end of the loop switchback.
Some of the rock formations were simply amazing.
In the middle of the day I had to sequester myself to the van for some 341 bankruptcy hearings. After the day, we started heading toward Capitol Reef National Park and spending the night in Escalante for Escalante National Park.
Newspaper’s Hello Gal Will Retire Wednesday
Another photo clipping from those of my grandmother, Gladys Maxine Donaldson Ross. This one is more apparent to me why it was clipped. Minnie Wallace is Glady’s first cousin. Minnie’s mother is Johanna Hermina Van Leeuwen Edsinga (1884-1958), sister to my Grandmother’s mother, Berendena Van Leeuwen Donaldson (1898-1959). Johanna Hermina also went by Minnie.
“The voice of Mrs. Minnie Wallace will be missing from the Ogden Standard-Examiner after the veteran PBX operator retires Wednesday. The date at the top shows 8 March 1976.
“One of the best known voices in Ogden retires next Wednesday.
“Mrs. Minnie Wallace is hanging up her headphones after almost 29 years as the switchboard operator for the Ogden Standard-Examiner.
“She becamse the “telephone girl” for the newspaper in September 1947 after she and her late husband returned to their native Ogden from Sacramento, Calif.
“While in Sacramento, Mrs. Wallace had worked as a bench chemist in a sugar factory.
“Before her marriage she had worked as an operator for the telephone company in Ogden and still was intrigued by the work.
“So when she heard of the opening for a PBX operator at the newspaper, she applied for and got the job.
DIM LOVE
“”And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it,” Mrs. Wallace said with her almost perpetual infectious grin as she looked back over those 29 years.
“She hasn’t let the frustrating aspects of the switchboard operator dim her love for people.
“And it can become somewhat frustrating when an irate reader wants to pour a complaint into her ears or an impatient reporter can’t understand why his long distance call isn’t completed immediately.
“It can also be humorous when a caller wants to talk to a reporter he’s seen at a meeting but can’t remember his name and tries to describe him. Sometimes Mrs. Wallace passes the description on to the report – and sometimes she doesn’t.
“And there are times when her ingenuity in completing a seemingly impossible long distance calls brings a rewarding glow of satisfaction and a compliment from an amazed reporter.
“Like the time two buffalo showed up in the local railroads en route from Great Falls, Mont., to the West Coast.
NAME OF RANCH
“The name of the ranch that shipped the buffalo was on the bill of lading but not the address and there were indications it might be some distance from Great Falls.
“A confident reporter asked her to find the ranch and get the foreman on the phone. Twenty minutes later, she had located the ranch in North Dakota and had the reporter connected with the foreman.
“This is not an unusual example of the resourcefulness of a switchboard operator who has won the admiration and affection of countless Standard-Examiner employes and readers.
“An outstanding mother herself, Mrs. Wallace has shown a genuine interest in the children of numerous newspaper employes – keeping up an acquaintance with many even after they are grown and their parents gone elsewhere.
WON RESPECT
“The respect of her fellow PBX operators is just as great as that of her fellow Standard-Examiner employes.
“Mrs. Wallace has served as president of the Ogden PBX Club and represented it at meetings in Mexico and Canada. She has been an active member of the Atoka chapter of the American Business Women.
“After hanging up her headphones, Mrs. Wallace plans to do a bit of travelling, play some golf and tend her grandchildren from time to time.
“She has five grandchildren.
“She has a son, Robert Wallace of Bountiful, and daughter Mrs. Harold (Gloria) Hegstrom of South Ogden.
Residents Defend Fire Crew Skills In Pleasant View
PLEASANT VIEW – Rumors that this city’s volunteer fire department was inefficient at a recent house fire were refuted Thursday night by officials and residents.
To the contrary, testified Fire Chief Terry Call, volunteer firemen did an “outstanding job” at the scene of the blaze.
The fire gutted the home of Harold Ross at 975 W. 3800 N., Friday night. It also destroyed a boat before being brought under control. The family was gone at the time.
BACKS MEN
Chief Call was backed by a group of residents appearing before the City Council on other matters.
Two residents, Don Amidan and George Sant questioned actions of the volunteers and requested information about their training and skills.
They also questioned purchase and installation of a pool table in the fire station saying they did not feel firemen “have time to play pool during training sessions.”
Chief Call said the department has the finest equipment in the county and that he would match his volunteers with any in the state.
He said the pool table is not used during training sessions and pointed out that its purpose is to encourage volunteer firemen to spend time at the station during off-duty hours.
PLAYING POOL
“There have been a number of occasions when two, three or four volunteers have been at the station playing pool when an alarm has come in,” he said.
“As a result, it has been only a matter of seconds before the equipment is rolling and firemen are on their way to the fire,” he added.
Chief Call, supported by several residents, said firemen and equipment were on the scene in almost record time.
He said records showed the alarm was called in at 10:18 p.m. and fire crews were at the scene and in operation nine minutes later at 10:27 p.m.
THAT FAST
“I doubt if any other department in the country could respond as fast, even those manned 24-hours a day,” Chief Call declared.
Reports that firemen arriving at the scene did not even have a wrench to open the fire hydrant were denied by Chief Call and residents.
It was explained that a resident at the scene did put his own wrench on the hydrant as firemen arrived, but crews had one on the truck available for use.
Residents who flocked to the scene on foot and in vehicles were blasted by officials who said their actions impeded fire fighting activities.
As a result, Mayor Richard Diamond said a plan has been worked out by police departments in Pleasant View, North Ogden and Harrisville to hold back crowds at fires or other disasters and all officers will be empowered to make arrests.
DRIVE TRUCK
Chief Call said the department has 20 out of 25 volunteer firemen who can drive and operate the fire truck.
He said the five who do not are recruits who have expressed their desires not to operate the equipment until they are more qualified.
Mayor Diamond said the city is purchasing additional fire hose as funds will permit. It also was pointed out there is a need for more fire hydrants in some areas.
Chief Call, said Mayor Diamond, will be asked to make a list of such areas by priority. Fire hydrants also will be color coded according to the water pressure available in each.
ALL HYDRANTS
A program is presently under way to check the operational condition of all hydrants in the city.
Mayor Diamond was asked to have Chief Call coordinate the program with the public works department which has been conducting the checks.
Sagacity 