Campfire Stories Told At The Heritage Museum Pavilion

By CHERYL JENSEN

The Progress

Virgin Valley residents were furnished with an evening of Campfire Stories of early life in Virgin Valley during a special outdoor program held at the Virgin Valley Heritage Museum Pavilion on Wednesday, October 5.

Local history buff David Leavitt entertained the audience with tales of swimming holes, how to keep cool without AC in 120-degree weather, self-reliance of the early settlers, and uses for native trees and bushes.

Following the program everyone was treated to five different kinds of Dutch Oven Cobbler and homemade ice cream thanks to Mike Van Houton, and Val and Carol Woods.

Leavitt, whose grandfather came to this valley at the age of 18 driving the first wagon, said that the first thing the settlers did was to start building a ditch to divert water from the river. They came in January, 1877 and knew they had to get the crops in and growing before the heat of summer.

The men and young boys built a dam 2 or 3 miles above the town using shovels; then dug a ditch along the side of the hill to divert the water to the fields. At the end of the fields there was a drop off and the water flowed into a big dug out area. Many years later this dug-out area was cemented and became a swimming hole for Leavitt’s generation.

“It was a great place to cool off day or night when temperatures were 118 or more,” Leavitt said. “We spent a lot of time cooling off there.”

The early settlers kept food cool in root cellars that were built under nearly every home. They were crude structures with rock walls and dirt floors and would be 20-30 degrees cooler.

In the hot summer evenings, people slept outside in the newly watered orchard or near the fields. One could just walk by a field and feel the difference in temperature if it had just been watered.

They also built slat sheds draped with burlap. The children were tasked with pouring water over the burlap to keep it cool enough for the fruit or to keep the butter from melting. It was 50 years before the valley had electricity.

Leavitt brought branches from native plants: cottonwood trees, arrow weed, tamarisk, Mesquite trees, Russian thistle, Manzanita and desert trumpet. He told some positive or negative aspects of each.

The “salt cedars” as they were nicknamed may have come from Asia and are the Tamarisks that are very invasive and have taken over the river in places. The river used to have lots of cottonwoods, willows and sand bars where the owls nested around the willows.

The arrow weed is aptly named as it is straight and was used by the Indians and settlers for arrows.
“If you shoot the larger end, it will go straight but if you point the short end the arrow will just go end over end,” Leavitt explained.

Bottle stoppers or desert trumpets that can be found in early spring are “soul food” and have a tart sour apple taste. Leavitt said every spring when they are purple and are chubby and fat is the best time to pick them. “I can hardly wait!” he exclaimed.

Juniper trees, often called Cedar Trees, were brought from nearby mountains to make fence posts. They were ideal because are hardwood and will not rot with weathering. Cedar is great firewood also.

The Mesquite Tree has thorns that curl back like a cat claw. “If you put your arm into this tree, it is never coming out!” Leavitt said. “It will bite you!”

The screw bean plants has straight thorns and curly beans and is often referred to as the Mescrew.
Manzanita bush has red bark and was used by the ladies to make decorations. They would put purple plastic grapes on the limbs and make a display for their door or wall.

Brigham Tea can still be found on the mountain and can be brewed for a tea and it replaced the English tea that many had enjoyed in their native land.

Leavitt demonstrated a figure four trap to catch quail. He said that his father taught him how to use it. “Quail was a staple when I was growing up in Bunkerville,” Leavitt said. “I would run home from school every afternoon and check his trap. I was so excited to find out if he caught some quail.

Another favorite food for Leavitt was bread dough. “My mom would put little pinches of dough on the counter while she was kneading the yeast dough and I would pretend to sneak a taste and she would never say a word!” Leavitt said.

The settlers couldn’t go to the store to buy yeast so they made their own using flour and water and a little sugar. “They would set it outside and capture the wild yeast,” Leavitt said. “After a few days it would foam. They would take some out to make bread and feed their starter again.”

Leavitt’s mother, Ethel Leavitt, loved the taste of yeast. When she was sent to her aunt’s home to get a quart jar of the brown liquid yeast, she would eat most of it before she reached home.

The settlers had to be self-reliant in treating illness and wounds. They would use whiskey as an antiseptic or painkiller. Near the end of her life, Ethel told her son to get rid of the 1950’s bottle of whiskey she had for medicinal purposes because she didn’t want anyone to find it in her house when she was gone and think she drank alcohol.

Leavitt displayed the bottle, which is still half-full with the date of 1950.
“Ethel lived to be 92 and if she hadn’t consumed it by then, people would know she was not a drunk!” he chuckled.

The program was sponsored by the Virgin River Coalition and the city of Mesquite Heritage Museum. Each Wednesday in October will be another program at 6:00 pm at the Pavilion about river water in Virgin Valley.