Hansel and Gretal

John D. Lee was an old time pioneer and Indian man who was a contemporary and friend of Jacob Hamblin. He was the scapegoat who bore the brunt of blame for the "Mountain Meadow Massacre." The Feds executed him by firing squad to appease eastern Mormon haters. He had been able to evade apprehension for a number of years and I had heard of a spring of water where it was said he sometimes camped. This spring was located high up on the side of a ridge east of where the road passes over the Black Ridge and winds its way to Pintura and Toquer.

One afternoon of a nice fall day when Randal was nearly 4 years old and Mike was just 5, I drove with Clay, Mike and Randal along the old road to a place in line with where I could see the light green leaves of the quakin' asp' trees high on the ridge above. We all walked up a shallow draw a ways to where the steep rock and brush covered mountain side started. The boys were too little to climb that difficult grade so I started a small campfire and placed a couple of rocks for them to sit on nearby. I explained to them what we were going to do: that the climb up there was too hard for them; that they should stay by the fire and we would be back in a little while. I told them that I would call to them every few minutes so they would know that we were nearby.

They sat down with solemn little faces and I could tell that they were apprehensive about staying alone. This was their first time out in the mountain country. With assurances that they would be all right and that we would be gone only a short time, Clay and I started to climb up the mountain side. We had gone only a little ways when I heard them crying. Calling back to them, we continued to climb. I kept calling all the way up.

There was no decent place where a man could camp at the spring and very little water. I double if John D. Lee had spent much time there, if any. We were gone about 20 or 30 minutes. As we walked back to where we had left the boys we found Mike sitting on a rock about 6 inches high, holding Randal on his lap. They were both sobbing. Randal was about as big as Mike then, only by age was Mike bigger and that by 14 months, but he provided his shoulder for his younger brother to cry on. A most heart rending picture that I will carry with me all my remaining years. never again would I leave young ones like that alone, even if they could hear my voice.

Their mother had read them the story of Hansel and Gretal and Randal said, much later, they thought the same thing was happening to them.