Lonely Dell Ranch at Lee’s Ferry, Arizona

From the 1870s to the 1890s, this ranch was home to the families who operated Lees Ferry They needed to be self-sufficient and grew food for themselves and their animals. It was hard labor and a difficult challenge but the Lees, Johnsons, Emmets, and others made a good life here. The original buildings have been preserved by the National Park Service.

From the parking area, the main ranch buildings are only about 700 feet ahead. The pioneer cemetery and the Paria Canyon trail are a quarter mile further up the road. The complete self-guided tour is about one mile, round trip. There are picnic tables and shade trees at the ranch. If it is a hot day, take plenty of drinking water with you. The only restroom is here at the parking lot.

Located at Lee’s Ferry, Arizona

Fort Douglas Officers Club

First constructed in 1875 as Fort Douglas Post Headquarters, this historic structure built of Red Butte sandstone was converted into an Officers Club in 1942. Again remodeled in the 1950s, it was the social center of Fort Douglas, where events of many kinds were held for more than half a century. Today, it carries on its tradition as a gathering place for the University of Utah and the community.

Fort Douglas was operated by the U. S. Army from 1862 to 1991. During the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, this and other Fort Douglas facilities were part of the games’ Athletes Village, where Utah welcomed visitors and athletes from around the world. Today, the fort’s historic and new structures comprise Fort Douglas Heritage Commons, a living and learning center for the University of Utah, which continues to welcome community participation.

Located on Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Israel and Elizabeth Haven Barlow

Located at This Is The Place Heritage Park at 2601 Sunnyside Avenue in Salt Lake City, Utah

Anson Call

Located at This Is The Place Heritage Park at 2601 Sunnyside Avenue in Salt Lake City, Utah

Related:

• Anson Call Grave
• Anson Call House
• Anson Call
• Call’s Fort

Jane Elizabeth Manning

Jane Elizabeth Manning was born in Wilton, Connecticut, around 1821. Jane and her siblings were unusual in never knowing the bonds of slavery. After embracing the gospel, her family joined a caravan of Saints traveling to Nauvoo in 1843, but were forced off a boat in Buffalo, New York, because of their race.

Determined to gather with others of their faith, Jane said, “We started on foot to travel a distance of over eight hundred miles. We walked until our shoes were worn out, and our feet became sore and cracked open and bled until you could see the whole print of our feet with blood on the ground. We asked God the Eternal Father to heal our feet and our prayers were answered forthwith.”

After Jane’s arrival in Nauvoo, Joseph Smith’s immediate response was, “Sister Emma, here is a girl that says she has no home. Haven’t you a home for her?” Jane lived with the Smiths and became close, like family.

After Joseph Smith was martyred, Jane and her husband Isaac James, with their sons Sylvester and Silas, joined others and would soon embark on yet another treacherous journey to escape religious persecution.

The groundwork laid by Green Flake, Hark Wales, Oscar Smith, and the rest of the vanguard company helped make it possible for families like Jane’s to survive the hardship of the journey. Jane was expecting her third child Mary Ann, when she and her family entered the Salt Lake Valley in September 1847. Jane remained a faithful and respected Latter-day Saint until her death in 1908.

Located at This Is The Place Heritage Park at 2601 Sunnyside Avenue in Salt Lake City, Utah

Related:

• Jane Elizabeth Manning James
• Legacy of the Black Pioneer

Green Flake

Green Flake was born into slavery on January 6, 1828, on the Jordan Flake plantation in Anson County, North Carolina. At the age of ten, Green was separated from his mother and given to James and Agnes Flake. The Flakes moved to Mississippi, where at age sixteen, Green heard the testimony of a Latter-day Saint missionary promising the reunification of families for eternity.

As a new convert to the church, Brigham Young assigned Green to the vanguard company that led the trek west. Green was joined by his future brothers- in-law, Hark Wales and Oscar Smith. The group of forty-two men and twenty-three wagons blazed the trail for tens of thousands to follow. Green is known to have driven the first wagon into Emigration Canyon under the direction of Orson Pratt. They arrived at Parley’s Creek on July 22. The first pioneers of 1847 plowed the land and planted crops for those who came in the following days and months.

Green remained a well-respected saint throughout his life. He spoke at multiple Pioneer Day celebrations alongside church leaders. Brother Flake and many others like him trusted in God’s promise of a reunited family after this life. Many of the enslaved were buried in unmarked graves. Knowing that, Green carved his own headstone which reads, “In my: Father’s house are many mansions.” He was laid to rest next to his wife Martha in the Union Pioneer Cemetery in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, in 1903.

Located at This Is The Place Heritage Park at 2601 Sunnyside Avenue in Salt Lake City, Utah

Related:

• Legacy of the Black Pioneer

Hark Wales & Oscar Smith

Brothers Hark and Oscar were born into bondage and lived on John Crosby plantation in Mississippi. While still an adolescent, Hark was separated from his family and gifted to newly married Sytha Crosby and her husband, William Lay.Oscar was inherited by William Crosby. The enslaved brothers then became known as Hark Lay and Oscar Crosby, even though Hark chose Wales as his surname once freed and Oscar chose Smith.

Pioneer John Brown was later assigned to be the chargehand, taking Hark and Oscar to Council Bluffs, lowa, where they were all selected to be part of the advanced team in Brigham Young’s vanguard company. They were tasked with charting a course and improving the trail into the Salt Lake Valley.

As enslaved men, Hark and Oscar were keenly aware of what it felt like to desire freedom, even if the freedom the Saints sought was that of religious worship. The first Pioneers of 1847 consisted of many brave souls including former soldier Lewis Barney, church clerk Thomas Bullock, and the enduring Hark Wales, Oscar Smith and Green Flake. They reached the Salt Lake Valley on July 22, 1847, two days ahead of Brigham Young.

Located at This Is The Place Heritage Park at 2601 Sunnyside Avenue in Salt Lake City, Utah

Threshing Machine

The threshing machine is a piece of farm machinery that combines four separate operations in one unit.

1. Threshing
2. Separating
3. Cleaning
4. Stacking the straw

Power for the machine was furnished through a long belt connected to a tractor power take-off pulley.
The threshing machine in front of you is an example of several such machines that served the farmers in southern Utah. The machines were privately owned by individuals or groups who contracted with farmers. As their grain ripened, the machine was moved into their field and operations set up. The thresher would move from one farm to another throughout the summer months until all the wheat, barley, oats, and sugar beet seeds were threshed out and put in gunny sacks.

The manpower for the threshing operation required a crew of five men who usually worked throughout the hot summer at this most strenuous job. Most of the workers were school teachers who, year after year, spent their off-teaching months working on the threshing crew.

Wagon or sled loads of grain or sugar beet shocks would be hauled to the thresher’s loading chute and pitched onto the conveyor belt. The machine did the rest.

The clean grain or seeds poured out of one spout, and under the supervision of a “sacker,” one-hundred-pound capacity sacks were filled. The “sacker” then sewed the tops closed. An acre of land produced up to fifty bushels of cleaned wheat. The chaff, or straw, was ejected from the thresher by a blower sending it through a twenty-foot cylinder to an area where it formed a huge stack. The straw was then used throughout the year as bedding for farm animals.

Eventually these threshing machines gave way to the combines which did a complete harvest in one operation.

This is located at the Heritage House Pioneer Center / Heritage Park / Museum at the Bradshaw House-Hotel at 85 South Main Street in Hurricane, Utah.