Lee's Ferry Area

explanation of Ranch area

We have visited the ranch area and the gardens.  The also have bee hives in the area that provided polinization and a source for honey.

Old Head Stone in cemetary

 We have been encouraged by the Mission to visit as many of the historical sites in our area.  We went to this settlement by Lees Ferry. This area was originall established to offer transportation for the Mormon Pioneers accross the Colorado River for those headed South into Arizona.   Prior to the ferry operation Arizona was essentially cut off from the development taking place to the North in Utah.  This country of steep canyons and highlands made any journey difficuldt, but one intimidating geographic feature, the Colorado River made it almost impossible.

The Mormon Church quickly realized how a viable river crossing could support their development.  The Church was the first to send men, supplies, and a ferry operator named John D. Lee to a remote outpost at the confluence of the Colorado River and the Paria Rivers.  Here the rivers create a short interruption in the canyon walls by separating geologic features of Glenn and Marble canyons.  This was the only spot for hundreds of miles in either direction where the canyon walls  go from violently sheer to mildly sloping, enabling wagons and livestock to make it to the waters edge. The original ferry was launched in 1872 and was capable of carrying one wagon and team accross the river.  The river was unpredictible and often violent and it was not uncommon to have the load overturned and the property washed down stream.

Johnson Family died of Diptheria brought in by
outsiders

This is Lucy Emmett head stone in the cemetary.  Many
are old and unreadable

The Mormon Pioneers were totally self sufficient due to the difficulty of getting supplies.  There is a huge orchard next to the main house and they allow the residents to pick the fruit.  There are apricots, plums, peaches, apples and pears in the orchard. 
We went on the first trip and picked a few grocery sacks full of apricots and made feezer jam.  We take the jam with us as a means to get in doors of inactives.

Head Stone in Cemetary.  Many of the markers have
weathered abay but are still readable.

 Sister Gardner is teaching several of the young women and sisters to make freezer jam out of the fruit that is available in the orchards.

Early pioneer headstone.  Some of the early pioneer lost loved
ones and they were buried in the cemetary

 One of the garden crops currently planted is Zuchinni squash.  We have made Zuchinni bread and have taken that to homes both as a door entry and as a means to use what they produce in their gardens.   The Winter squash with its hard outer skin is one that keeps for many months and is easily stored.

 Jacob Hamblin was one of the early pioneers that spent a great deal of time in this area.

The Cemetary was made available for many of the area
travelers that came through and used the crossing.

The route along the Echo Cliffs which extend from Marble Canyon to the Gap in the South is also known as the Honeymoon trail.  Many of the early Pioneers used this trail to go from upper Arizona Area to the St George Temple.  The trip usually took two or three months to complete.  That trail follows Highway 89 to the south and goes right behind the present chapel and then followed Highway 89a down to Marble Canyon.  There is about a 3000 foot drop in elevation from the Chapel to Marble Canyon.

The final trip using the ferry was 1928 when the Navajo Canyon Bridge was originally completed.  This bridge still stands today even though a more modern and wider bridge is next to the old bridge.  The years 1876 to 1890 were the busiest years for the ferry.
After the crossing there was a long and ardious journey out of the canyon.  The main road out was known as Lee's Backbone.  This is a trail that paralleled the area now known as Vermillion Cliffs.  With steep, uneven climb with some drops of 350 feet made the journey difficult.

With the river crossing it has been said that there were not many historic events that occured at Lees Ferry but a lot of history has passed through and over this trail

vermillion cliffs

Lucy Begay and her baby on a native baby carring
board.  This is the cutest baby you have ever seen.
The baby always has a smile.  Upper right is Sister
Delgai.  She runs the gardens.

 This is a couple of pictures of our Branch outing.  We cleaned up trash along the highway in front of the chapel for about 1/2 mile in both directions and then had a BBQ.  They have not had many of these events.  It is a different culture.  We have found that they are not real social


















We went to Marble Canyon to get our mail and we noticed a sign that said "Vermillion Cliff - Five Miles" so we went up the road tro see them.   Just beyond Vermillion Cliffs there was next to these Rock Houses.  In 1927 a lady named Blanche Russel was traveling through this area and her car broke down so she stayed the night.  She fell in love with the area so she bought the property and stayed.

North End. This is the formation that you see on
most of the advertisements.  I stretches for about 10
miles.

Cliff Dweller house

Left side of house

Rear view of House

Neighboring house

Potatoes after the Chipmunk attack

We just got our garden going real good and there were 5 or 6 Chipmunks that decided they wanted a meal.  The completely wiped our our Potato vines and all of our Watermelon and Cucumber plants.  We have tried everything imaginable to eliminate them.  The best so far is pour Clorox around the base of the fence.  The smell drives them away.  You can see the rocks at the base.  They would dig down under the fence and come in so we piled rocks in the corners.  They just climbed the screen and went over the top.


Potato row-post chipmunk

The problem comes from the fact that we are in  the desert and on 3 sides there is fields and scrub brush where they live. You can see the water bottle we cut and put around the onion plants.  They just crawl into the bottle and help themselves.





We have to go about a mile off the road up in the hills to meet with one of our contacts.  Tina Nez lives about 1/4 mile futher up the hill behind where we took this picture below.  This is midway between our house and the Gap.  It is interesting that we leave home at 4:00 and arrive 38 miles down the road to our appointment at 4:00.  Tina is about 24. She has the Navajo Tradition as here reference for her belief.  There is no tomorrow only now.  We are going to tak one of the members with us next time.

coming down to the highway after our appointment
with Tina Nez.  You can see the trucks on the Highway





Maria Hope Lane.  We invited her to our
new Seminary program and we are going to
teach her more about the gospel.

Irene Yazzi. Maria's Aunt.  Strong member of
the church.



His is from farther up the hill to Tina Nez house.  Tina lives 100 yards from Maria
and Irene Yazzi.
As you can see we have a 4 wheel adventure each
day we go out.  Note... No paved roads.  They tell us when it rains you
do not go on these roads

Looking up to Mira's house.

Excitement in the Desert.

Helicopter about 75 yards from our front door.

 Wednesday evening real excitement.  Coming home from an appointment we found eight or nine police officers with their dogs.  Our Branch Clerk and his wife Shauna were woking in the building so the officers set up their computers etc.  When we asked what was going on the answer we got for the next five hours was that a young man left home without his "meds" and they were searching the area for him. About 7:00 pm a helicopter landed in our front yard. Dust was flying and our fire alarm went off. The helicopter took off and landed three different times. At about 8:45 pm they all left.



Police units in our parking lot

They found the young man in a canyon not far from here.  It appears that he had slipped and fallen.  He did not survive.  They had his funeral yesterday at his home directly north of the chapel.  A relative of the family, Bishop Yellowhair from Chuba City presided.  We were able to print songs for him before we left for Page on Saturday morning.

Members

Sunday attendance was a little sparce.  Each area has a lottery for the people to draw for being able to sell at roadside stands that are popular.  Just above our house at the cut they draw on the last day of the month.  Each individual puts in their card and $50.  The names are then drawn by day for the right to sell in each location.
This week the Flagstaff area was being divided so many of our people were there.
You would think that they would not do very well selling beads and jewelry. At the cut above us there were two or three bus loads of Orientals. Each stand could make up to $1,000 from a stop like that. They even charge $5 for taking pictures of the stand and the individual.

We have to be careful when we ask to use the rest room.
This is the facility.  Not really a 5 Star Hotel.  The tank is
the source of heat and cooking.

Each week we get new names to visit.  We met Henry Botany.  He lives 6 or 7 miles off the road.  You need a jeep to get to his house.  He has been there every week for the last month.  He cannot read and he has trouble with small print so we cannot teach him.





This small trailer houses a mother and four
kids.  Note the dogs.  They are ever present
at each house.  We have not caught them home
as yet.  They are accross the Highway from the church

coming up the first hill to Daisy.s house.  We go four
wheeling every day.

This is Daisy's house in the distance.  It is about
four miles off the paved road.  The pens in the middle
of the picture are for their cows.  We are going to teach
the girl that lives farther up the hill this week

Daisy Nokodenich aunt.  She has been
through the temple.  She has a lung disease
that means she is on oxygen 24/7. She
does not speak English.

Sally and Ken Fowler.  Garden is in the
background.  Ken's mother has a large corn
field in the hills.  Size is "many acres".  As a family
they will harvest and sell the crop for an income.

Sister Hoover and her grandchildren.  The one
with the A is our first baptism.  His name is Devon
Their garden is in the background

The front door of our mobile home. Our garden
is to the right about ten feet. When you think you have
everything under control you get a new challenge. 
This week it is Prairie Dogs.





Mom was trying to get a picture
with the goat.  Note the hat.  You
will not see her in that after we
get home.

We have been very busy this week.  We put in the tubing for Jimmy;s garden and then we prepared Mary Lou's garden.  That is me bending over.  Running a roto-tiller and laying tubing is hard on some people.  There will be enough food produced from Mary Lou's garden to feed three families.  Jimmy was a Book of Mormon referral.  We took him a book in Navajo but he said he could not read it.  We gave him the first lesson.  He left and got his sister (Mary Lou) while we were working on his garden.  She read the Book of Mormon to him.  He wants us to come back next week when his wife comes home from Pheonix.  You can see his step-daughters trailer in the back.  We are going to teach her also.  We found out that the step daughter is the former husband of a members brother.  The brother was killed some years ago in an auto accident.






This is Jimmy Homer garden.  You can see
his house in the background.  Because he had
already started the garden we just put in the
drip system and mounded the plants. The mounds
are needed to leach out the salt.

The fencing and the plants in the circle is what
they had done.  We did the upper part.  We
will take back chain link fencing for them. The
cows go right through this fencinf



Mary Lou Homer garden.  We prepared the
the upper portion and put in drip tubing.  we took
seeds back for them to plant on Wednesday

We had an interesting event yesterday.  A knock on our door and a fellow said he was having truck problems and he had cows headed for the slaughter house.  I went with him next door to some members to see if he could use their pens to rotate his load of cattle.  We talked for about 45 minutes.  Come to find out he was a member of the church and there was nothing wrong with his truck or cattle he just need to talk.  He was having trouble at home and needed someone to talk to.

 Devon will be our first convert baptism.  I spent time interviewing and explaining about baptism at the request of President Lowman (Branch President) because they thought he was eight.  Come to find out he turned nine 5 days ago.

This is Sister Hoover and her grandkids.  Devon
(the one with the A} will be baptized next week.  His mother
has had a bad experience with a tough huband and has
not been active. We are tryng to get her back into the church.

The Hoover family are  long time member.  They are just a short  ways away from a branch building that burned down many years ago and for some reason they dissolved the branch.  That caused some feelings.  The next generation has fallen away from the church.  we are working with some of the people of that generation.  She has several of her children that live within walking distance of her house.  Some are active and some not.  Lot of opportunity. 
     We have permission to start a family home evening at the church starting in two weeks.  We are going to invite a few families to start with and then increase in number. We will show videos and then teach a short lesson followed by refreshments. The branch needs to have socials to bring them together and have the meet one another so they feel comfortable with asking for simple things like a ride to church.  The Branch President told us at our Leadership Meeting on Wednesday that we know more about the members than he did.  Their Bishop Storehouse is either in St. George or Flagstaff.  We encouraged the President to use those facilities and then have someone go the the Storehouse and pickup all of the orders.  We will see what happens.

Our Area

Road to Jimmy Holmer's home

On May 31st we went to find several member that we were told lived in the area.  We went to deliver a Book of Mormon to one fellow. The picture on the left is the road to his house.  The picture below is the front of his house.  He was not home but he was visiting his family in Phoenix.

Jimmy Holmer's Home

We get to go four wheeling every day.

Delgai Home.  He is 1st Coundelor in the Branch Presidency

View from Daisy Nakadenech front yard. In the distance is another members home

The other adventure that we regularly have is making friends with the dogs.  Every house we go to has at least five dogs.  The society is Matriarchal.  We have found that if Grandma speaks then everybody listens.  We don't know what she tells them but we do know that it produces a change in manner.

We had one member missed church last week.  When we asked her why she did not come she replied,"I lost a sheep". So you can guess what lesson we taught her!

 Most of the land traces back several generations through the Grandmother.  This is the home of our Relief Society President.  It is 4 miles from a paved road.  It took an hour of bumpy roads to find her.  She found us when we were going out.  She was hauling a huge tank of water in her truck so she could water her animals and garden

Evelyn Tsiginninni home

Evelyn Tsiginnini - Relief Society President

We have also found that those living here are very loyal to the area.  We had one sister whose husband is a welder.  The spent a period of time in St. Louis in a nice apartment.  She could not wait to get home.  
We are off to Tuba City, about an hour south of here.  Elder Tad Callister is in the mission and we are going to a meeting where he is talking to the Missionaries.  Tuba City is on mountain time and we are on Page time so we have to leave at 6:30 for an 8:30 meeting.

Going into Canyon

The cave is about a quarter mile from Page.  It was formed by wind and water erosion.  The inside is a site to behold.  We were able to go on our P- Day with another Sr. Couple.

Looking back to entrance

You enter the cave through a large crack in the ground.  The cave was originally found by a young girl looking for her sheep in the early 1900's.

Going down to bottom

First quarter of cave looking up

This couple is serving at Inscription Point which is about an hour south of Page.  They are serving for one year and are from Tremonton.   They are invooved in the Gardening project.

Half way throgh the cave

 There are some interesting formations
inside but they are difficult to make out without someone showing you.  There is a formation of an Eagle and an angel whose hair is blowing in the wind.
   The entire tour takes about and hour and a half.  The Navajo nation owns the rights to the cave.  They charge for a permit for one hour and a fee for going into the cave.


Gardners and Hunsakers

Angel in the wind

Eagle form on right.