STAR VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

HISTORICAL BOOKS INVENTORY DETAILS

1. Overview

Title: Memories of Sam Young, Jr; 50 Years on Greys River

Author; Janet S. Osmun

Subject: Person History

Publisher:

Publishing Date: 1978

Number of Pages: 5

ID#: 271

Location: Website

2. Evaluation

Evaluator's Name(s): Kent and Polly Erickson

Date of Evaluation: November 2014

Key Words: Youngstown, Ohio; Covey Pass, Greys River, Deadman, Box Y Ranc,Blind Bull Mine, Vail Mine

Included Names: Samuel Rexford Young, William Robbins, Jim Moffatt,Charles Haderlie, Orson Treloar, Ila Thornton, Glenn Simmons, Bob Brown

3. Synopsis

The Young family started their Greys River experience in 1927. Sam, Jr.married Ila Thornton in 1937. Their experiences were many and varied andincluded homesteading, running a mercantile business, and hunting. They helpedwhen the Vail Mine exploded and when an airplane crashed in the Greys Riverarea. They experienced the sorrow of losing two baby boys. After they retired, Samand Ila spent summers on Greys River and winters at their home in Afton.

4. Other

*Letter from Janet Osmun to the editor of the Star Vallev Independent

*Sam Young's story was printed in the Star Vallev Independent in two issues- September 21 and September 28,1978.

MEMORIES OF S.AM YQUNG, JK,.; 50 Years on Greys RiverBy Janet S. Osmun

Sam Young, Jr. of Greys River is a rugged fellow with steel-blue eyesand a shock of grizzly hair—a 65-year-old remnant of the days of buckskins,webs and six-shooters. For 50 years Sam and his family have lived on theGreys River drainage where winter temperatures dip to 55 below and sevenfeet of snow cover the Forest Service roads. As Sara puts it, "There are twoseasons on Greys River: July and August, and winter."

Sara was born in San Francisco on August 5, 1913, and spent his boyhoodon U. S. Army bases. In 1926 the infantry career of his father, SamuelRexford Your^, Sr.; ended when the gruff old sergeant was caught sellinghis 160-proof moonshine on Old Ft. D. A. Russell's Pole Mountain raarv(J^ergrounds 34 miles west of Cheyenne. Since Sgt. Young was caretaker of the56,000-acre cavalry and artillery g^i/unds, the offense was especiallyserious, and he took his wife, Helen and 10 and 12 year old sons. Rex andSam Jr., and sneaked aboard a westbound train to evade a sticky situation.

Sgt. Young, whose ancestors founded Youngstown, Ohio, had joinedthe U.S. Army at age 16. He'd served in the Phillippines and battled theevasive Pancho Villa from El Paso^s Camp Cotton. He was 42 years old andhad given some thought tOj^tirement; since it was being forced on him,he decided'^to try his lu^ck at an old interest - trapping.

Old Sam Yound had heard of Western Wyoming's Big Grey^ River country -it was 65 miles of virgin tributary creeks with an abundance of wildlifeand a shortage of people. And so it was settled - the Youngs got off thetrain at the nearest railhead, Montpelier, Idaho. The men found jobs stackinghay, trapping, and managing a Crow Creek freighter^ feedbarn. By springthey'd saved enough for a team, wagon, saddle horsejand supplies.

In May, 1927, the Youngs drove north through Star Valley, tradingfurs for groceries, and on May 18{0^amped for the first time on the bankof Grey's River near Alpine. As the family slept that night a vibratingroar rolled through the darkness. They would later learn that the GrosVentre Slide Dam had broken, sending a wall of water down to wipe out Kelly,Wyoming, killing six people and causing $500,000.00 in property damage.The Youngs moved on upriver to White Creek yhere the Greyfe River road ended.They built a cabin and hauled in supplies before October snows closed thewagon trail.

Life in the isolated mountains suited the family. Mrs Young hadbrought along books to school her sons, and Old Sara taught the boys tofashion 10-foot skiis from a bird's-eye pine and weave webs from stripsof deerhid^^and steam-warped limbs of a service-berry tree. The huskyboys strung a trapline and caught beaver, coyotes, otter, marten, bear, andmink. When the snow melted that spring, the Youngs sold the cache of fursand bought clothing and sup^ies.

Old Sam learned of a^i20-acre homestead belonging to William Robbinseight miles upriver on Deadman Creek. He got Robbins' address and wrote tooffer the man $1,000.00 for his land. Robbins accepted, the sale wasarranged, and the Yotmgs promptly finished the cabin Robbins had built tothe square. ^

In 1930, Old Sam paid homesteader(y Jim Moffatj^) $3,000.00 for 160acres'five miles upriver on Meadow Creek. They bought cattle and packeda horse-drawn mower and rake over Covey Pass east of Bedford to cut a cropof meadow hay. In 1931 Old Sam brought his wife to Thayne where she gavebirth to a daughter, Jime, in the home of Charles Haderlie. Dr. OrsonTreloar delivered the baby.

In the raid-thirties the Forest Service opened roads to two coal minesnear the Young's ranch. The Blind Bull mine 5^ miles east proved rich inslack coal and the Young family build a roadside grocery store and cafeand installed gasoline pumps to serve the miners and truckers. Business

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was brisk and O^Sam went to Afton to find a girl to help his wife.Blue-eyed Ila Thornton, 20, was glad to find a job, even if it meant

living 30 miles from nowhere. In six weeks' timejSam Jr.^^J^ad asked thehard-working girl to be his wife. "I was 24 when we got married," Samrecalls, " And beginning to dou^t Mother Goose and wonder about Esquir_e."

On November 15, 1937, the couple repeated their vows before a justiceof the peace in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Sam placed a ring of two tiny elks'teeth set in Black Hills gold on Ila's finger. They settled in a one-roomcabin behind the store^and Sam trapped and worked in the Blind Bull mineuntil it shut down for the winter. j

On Friday, February 11, 1938, tragedy struck snowbound Greys River.John Baker, his wife, and son, Bill and Rulon Ivie, Denver Holbrook andHenry Ash were wintering at the Fail Mine on the headwaters of DeadmanCreek stockpiling coal for summer shipment. Around 4:30 the mine exploded.Four men were killed instantly. . Henry Ash, who was outside, under thetipple, lived long enough to give Mrs. Baker directions to the Young Ranchsix miles west.

Mrs. Baker had never skiied and the temperature that night dipped to30 below. With her little dog tagging behind, she floundered along forseven hours before collapsing a half-mile from her destination. The littledog went on ahead to bark outside the Young's cabin. Rex Young recognizedthe dog, wetbed up canyon^and found Mrs. Baker. While Old Sam, Mrs*Young^and Ila c^ed for the woman. Rex and Sam Jr. skiied to the mine. "Thehillsidetswere black with soot and the tunnel was blocked by the ccuttpledtipple," Sam recalled. "We knew there was no hope of anybody being alive."

Old Sam notified the Forest Service over the telephone. Inspectorsand rescue personnel gathered at Afton were flown over the Salt River Rangeto land on the Young's meadow. Rex and Sam Jr. readied skiis and webs andled each incoming party up to the mine. Lincoln County highway crews openedthe Greys River road with Caterpillar Tractors and transported the bodies toAlpine.

Mrs. Baker recovered, grateful to the Youngs and her little dog thatshe had not perished as well. Inspectors reported miners had used finecoal or "bug dust" rather tha^ damp compactible rock dirt to pack the blackpowder into the bore. The "windy" shot blew back out, igniting coal dustin the tunnel from previous blasts. Vail mine was never reopened,

Part 2

In 1942 Sam and Ila paid Old Sam $3,000.00 for the upper 160 acres,wrote to Cheyenne to register the Box Y brand, and began digging up andburning the sagebrush and building barbed wire fences. By 1943 a 16'x24'two-room cabin was finished, made of logs Sam and Ila cut together withaxe and cross-cut saw and mortared with a mixture of cement, hardwallplaster, and sawdust.

In March 1944, with Dr. Orson Treloar at Afton, advising over theMeadow Creek Ranger Station telephone line, Ila gave birthVto twin boys,the sons Sam had hoped for. Twice before Ila had deliver^a son. Bothdied within hours. Sam's mother worked quickly to snip the umbilical cordsand clean and blanket each child.

Dr. Treloar gave his congratulations and hung up. All seemed well.But as the afternoon passed, life ebbed from the infants, and by nightfallboth were dead. Sam shoveled the snow from the spot not far from the cabinand chiseled through the frozen ground to bury his sons. Though threehealthy daughters were born to the couple, doctors speculate that a fatalsex-linked genetic defect occurred in each male child.

The chilly evening shadows had crept across the Box Y meadow on March2, 1945, when the forest service telephone began clanging. Ila was peelingpotatoes for supper. Sam, back from his trap-line, lifted the receiver."Hullo?"

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It was a Jackson forest ranger. A plane with three aboard flyingthe Greys River Drainage on an elk count had not returned. "I'morganizing a search party now," the ranger said grimly. "We need yourhelp, Sam. We'll pick you up with snowcats. Wait there."

By noon the following day Sam was still waiting. Precious time waswasting so he set off downriver to meet the search party. By mid-afternoonhe was webbing across Moose Tlat eight miles north of the Box Y. As hetramped along the ribbon of snow-covered road, a dark object appeared ahead.It was a pair of snowshoes stuck in the roadway.

Sam wipes his sweaty brow. "Funny," he thought. "A man goes nowherewithout his webs." He drew the six-shooter he always carried and fireda shot. A cry echoed above the roar of the river,

Sam Young clambered down the road bank, and there, battered, lying atthe water's edge, was Game Warden Bob Brown. "It wasn't a sight for theweak," Sam remembers, "The man's nose was smashed and his face was torn. WhenI'd made him a bed of pine boughs, I built a fire on either side and coaxedhim to swallow chicken broth from my backpack Thermos. He kept passing out,but did mumble that the plane had crashed and the other two were dead inthe wreckage up Moose Creek."

Sam gathered dry branches to stack where the injured warden could keepfire while he webbed back to his folks' cabin to telephone the Forest Service.By nightfall Sam returned with blankets and more chicken broth. Sam kneltbeside the man, stoking the fires, coaxing him to sip whiskey to ease thepain, listening to the fitful breathing. The hours dragged on.

At 1 a.m. a chugging sound echoed through the deepness of the moonlessmountain night. Sam left the delirious warden and hurried to the road to flagdown -bureau of Reclamation official Glenn Simmons of Jackson, whose snowmachine was the only one in the search party caravan able to dim® thesteep road grade 14 miles down canyon. Bob Brown was carried on a snowsledtied behind the machine and taken to Alpine for the trip to St. John'sHospital in Jackson. The game warden had suffered a broken nose, smashedright hand, fractured ribs and two crushed vertebra plus multiple cuts andbruises.

The bodies of Forest Service agent Orange Olsen, and pilot Dick Johnson,were removed later that day from the wreckage. The pilot had been flying upMoose Creek and was unable to gain enough altitude to bank or top the ridgeahead. Bob Brown was the only man not wearing a seat belt and was thrownthrough the side of the aircraft. When the plane came to rest he was lyingbeside the engine in a tangle of struts, braces and wires with his right handpinned beneath-a-cy^nder. Hours later he regained consciousness and managedto pullAhe fro^en^Ja^^raLed——He_sp£iit_gn^ night near the wreckage,

—tryingVto keep ^e^een periods of unconsciousness.^-^^ By morning a foot^oi^ new snow had fali^j covering the plane and

/^i'ruining the chance of being sighted from the air, so the warden retrieved aI pair of snowshoes from the wreckage and struggled for nearly three miles

to the Greys River road. Acutely thirsty from eating snow, Brown left hiswebs stuck in the road and staggered down the bank to the river. He wasbarely able to lift his head from the icy water. Had Sam Young been 10minutes earlier, he'd have missed the tracks and those snowshoes, andGame Warden Bob Brown likely would have frozen to death.

After World War II, interest in big game hunting brought sportsmenflocking to Greys River. Sam and Ila began building a series of sevenguest cabins and in 1950 finished a 32' xl6' lodge with a rock fireplaceand cathedral ceiling. They piped water from the hillside spring Into thekitche'tf'and bathhouse and Sam rigged a generator for electric lighting inthe lodge. They bought tack and a dozen gentle horses, and in 1952 became

'licensed outfitters. In winter Sam trapped and worked for the Game and FishDepartment, scattering baled hay for hungry- deer and elk.

The Young family's store and cafe had closed in the mid-fortieswhen the veins of the Blind Bull mine petered out. Rex bought the lower120 acres (Deadman Ranch) from Old Sam, but lived and worked in StarValley. June was married, living in Colorado. Old Sam died in 1959in Cheyenne's Veterans' Hospital, and Mrs. Young moved to Salt SpringsIsland, British Columbia, and later married Herb Skuce.

By 1970 their three daughters were grown and Sam and Ila were readyto retire. They sold all but 5 7/10 acres of the Box Y and built a newlog home with modern kitchen and bath, walls covered with elk horns andarrowheads, and a view of the meadow stretching off to the pine-shroudedriver.

The couple now spend winters in Afton and summers on the river.Sam makes custom pine furniture' Ila maneuvers her four-wheel drive pickupto the best fishing holes. Pan-fried trout at Ila's table is mouth-wateringand the pot-boiled coffee suits everyone but Sam. "It don't take near asmuch water to make good coffee as most people think," he complains. Thetwo often drive the rutted dirt road looking for wildlife and reminiscingabout their 50 years on Grey^s River,

Reprint from the Star Valley Independents - September 21 and September 28, 1978

Editor's Note: The following letter was received from Janet S. Osmun ofArvada, Colorado and the story she has written of the Sam Young family willbe published in two parts, beginning in this issue of the Independent.

Dear Editor:

As the years go by the ranks of the "old-timers" who shared in theinfancy of the Star Valley area dwindle and their pioneer memories are oftenlost for lack of being written down. Though not solely for this reason,I enjoy readinO the Independent articles by S. Edwin Cazier.

One subject about which little or nothing has been written is thestory of the family of Sgt. Samuel Rexford Young, Sr., of Greys River,Sgt. Young and his family fled old Ft. D.A.Russell (Cheyenne) to avoidprosecution for making and selling moonshine.

The Youngs reached Montpelier by train in 1926, and in 1927 camethrough Star Valley via team and wagon. Old Sam bought out two homesteaderson Greys River and they made the mountains home, spending countless snowbound winters 30 miles from the nearest neighbor.

It was the Youngs who found Mrs. John Baker, lost and freezing, afterthe February 11, 1938, explosion of Vail coalmine on Deadman Creek. Likewise,the Youngs found Game Warden Bob Brown, sole survivor of the March 2, 1945,plane crash on Moose Creek.

I have written the attached two-part article based on an interview withMr. and Mrs. Sam Young, Jr. of Afton, and research in the files of the U.S.Geological Survey in Rock Springs, U.S. Forest Service (Gros Ventre, GreysRiver and Jackson Districts), Warren Air Force Base Historical Committee(Old Ft. D.A.Russell), an interview with Game Warden Bob Brown of Wheatland,Wyoming, and an interview with genetic specialist Dr. Eva Sujanski, DenverUniversity School of Medicine.

Sincerely,Janet S. Osmun

Arvada, Colorado

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