Introduction

My maternal grandparents, Victor Moses Iverson and Leoma McCain were married 23 December 1916 in Overton, Nevada. After their marriage they moved to Las Vegas, then homesteaded in Parashant, Arizona. They wandered from Arizona to Kaolin, Nevada, where their first child, Bernice was born 6 January 1918. From there they went to Idaho and Montana. Their second child, my mother Marie, was born in St. George, Utah 6 December 1919 while they were living in Mount Trumbull, Arizona. When she was 10 days old her father took them back to Mount Trumbull by team and wagon. It was the middle of December, so it was cold. They spent one night on the trail, sleeping under the wagon and a canvas tarp.

My grandfather was a wanderer. He would work in a place for a few months then move on. After my mother was born they moved many times, even living in Death Valley. They were living in Kaolin, Nevada when their third child Alvin Levi was born on 27 July 1922. Their first child Bernice died of diphtheria 29 September 1922, while they were living in Las Vegas. Their second son, Grant was born 24 March 1924 in Jean, Nevada. Another son, Keith was born 18 November 1926 in St. George. Their last son, Archie, was born 22 June 1934 in St. George. A daughter they named Sharon Alene was born on 1 April 1941 in St. George

They moved so often that it is hard to determine where they were living at specific dates. I knew that they lived in Mount Trumbull for a few years, but I was not sure when. My mother told me that when she was born, they were living there and yet in her history she states that is was after Keith's birth that they decided to buy a 640 acre homestead from Leoma'a parents in Mount Trumbull.

The homestead had one large hill surrounded by small rounded hills, some of which were covered by cedar and pinion pine trees, cactus and brush. It was fenced with barbed wire. The home was on a hill about a quarter of a mile west of the road from Mount Trumbull to St. George. Their life there was primitive and hard. The only time of the year when they saw flowers was in the spring when the rains came and the Indian Paint Brush and cactus would bloom. My mother's history tells of Sweet Williams and Snowballs also blooming then.

The land was open to homesteading because the only thing it was useful for was livestock grazing. It was arid, so it was hot during the summer months. The elevation was above 5,000 feet, so it was cold in the winter. Their home had only two small rooms and was not insulated. It was built from old wood that Victor had purchased in St. George. He had hauled the wood to the homestead over the dusty, rutted roads. They had no electricity, so they had no modern conveniences such as indoor plumbing. They had no spring or creek nearby so they had to haul their water from miles away. Later they built a pond which captured rain water. Their few pieces of furniture included a bed, a table and a small wood burning stove.

They milked about 10 cows, drank some of the milk and used the cream to make butter. Each day the mail carrier would take the butter to St. George, where it was sold. They also raised about two dozen Holstein replacement heifers.

I have been to see that homestead. The home is gone and the only proof of its existence is a few stones in a line where the foundation was. On one trip, my sister found an arm from a small doll. The doll had to be my mother's. It was strange to be in that place after her death and see proof that she had lived there. I also visited the places of my great-grandparents and the others that belonged to my mother's family. Each time I was there I was struck by the strong feeling of isolation. I also began to have the feeling that I did not know enough about their lives.

Memebrs of my family standing on the foundation of the home

My son, Caleb gave me a deck of playing cards that was printed in 2016 to commemorate 100 years since the first homesteads were claimed there in 1916. Each card showed the name of one or more of those homesteaders. When I looked through the cards I realized that I really did not know very many of them.

I wanted to know more about the land features of the Strip. I also wanted more information about the Native Americans who lived there and the white people who explored it, the locations of the homesteads of each of my relatives and the others in the area. So I did the research and wrote these pages to help me and my family understand this part of my mother's family history.

First, I reread my mother's writings and histories written by family members. Then I read a book called Footprints on the Arizona Strip by Nellie Iverson Cox and Helen Bundy Russell. Those sources told me more, but they were not complete. I still had many unanswered questions. So I searched the following sources for more data.

The rest of this article is about the results of my research.

Laron Waite - 2020

A Description Of The Arizona Strip

The area is known as the Arizona Strip. The name comes from the fact that it is a strip of land wedged between the political boundaries of Nevada on the west and Utah on the north and the geological boundaries of the Grand Canyon and Lake Mead on the south.

Two thirds of it covers the northwest part of Mohave County and the other third is in Coconino County on the east. Depending on who you believe, it covers from 7,000 to 8,000 square miles. The elevation ranges from 1800 feet along the Virgin River in the northwest to above 8,000 feet on Mount Trumbull. Most of the plateaus are above 4,000 feet.

Most of it is arid and covered with desert plants. There are canyons and mountains with large ponderosa pines and groves of quaking aspen trees. It is also dotted with springs of water such as those at Wolf Hole and Pipe Spring

Written by Nellie Cox and Helen Bundy Russell in Footprints on the Arizona Strip:

The Arizona Strip is that portion of the state which is cut off from the rest by the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. It occupies the entire northwest comer of Arizona and contains some 8,000 square miles of territory. The eastern one-third lies in Coconino County, and the western, or Big Horseshoe Bend area, in Mohave County, the Kanab Creek serving as the dividing line. The Strip sits atop the Shevwit and Colorado Plateaus and consists of canyons, ledges and upland valleys covered with cedar, pine, cactus, sage and more recently, Russian thistles, all the type of vegetation able to survive on an uncertain and scanty rainfall. It was once the habitat of countless mustangs, deer, antelope and bighorn sheep, as well as cougars, coyotes and rattlesnakes. The first-named are either missing or in short supply. The coyotes and rattlers are still around.

Towns near the Utah border are Colorado City (Shortcreek), Fredonia, Cane Beds, Moccasin and Littlefield, only the first two being large enough to merit the name town. Bundyville is the only bona fide town ever to exist in the interior of the Arizona Strip. It is now a ghost town, although former residents still own their property there and spend time in the area caring for their cattle.

The official name of this little ghost town is Mt. Trumbull, but Bundyville is the term dearest the hearts of those who have lived or visited in the spot and know the Bundys who settled it in 1916. At that time, Grandpa Abraham Bundy counted twenty-nine members of his individual family. Today (1973), there are possibly between six and eight hundred Bundys and Bundy descendent's. There are a lot of Iversons, Van Leuvens and Alldredges around, too, these families having helped swell the population of Bundyville during its brief but lively lifetime.

From an article in the August 1983 issue of the Arizona Highways:

Bundyville, near Mt. Trumbull, is by air a hundred miles from its county seat. By road, the distance is 414. For Bundyville is deep within the geographical oddity nicknamed the Strip, that portion of Arizona lying north of the gorges of the Colorado River.

All around the Strip the greatest migration in the history of man implies a Westward Tilt toward Southern California, but the sparsely populated Strip seems to be getting emptier. Years ago there were 50 farm and ranch kids and three teachers at the Bundyville school and now there aren't enough pupils to qualify for state funds. The white frame schoolhouse with the bell in the peak huddles empty and alone, all that remains of Bundyville.

And so it remains today. Known as the Arizona Strip, it is 8000 square miles of mesas, plateaus, piney woods, sagebrush flats - and breathtaking beauty.

A Map Of The Strip

Shortly after the first European settlers arrived in North America in the 1620s, they began to claim some of the land as their property. Some of them simply took the land; others purchased it from the Native Americans. They also began trading and selling the land to each other. To keep track of their property they used the British system of Metes and Bounds. This system describes property lines based on local markers and bounds drawn by humans, often based on topography.

The descriptions under this system would include things like the bank of a creek, a tree, a fence post, a building, a junction of roads or paths. The obvious flaw of the system is that those and other bounds created by humans can move or disappear, which would make the boundaries meaningless.

After the Revolutionary War the U.S. government developed a new system to measure the land west of the original thirteen colonies. They based the new system on positions on the land instead of man made positions. In 1785 the Land Ordinance became the law which was the beginning of the Public Land Survey System(PLSS).

The PLSS called for the land to be surveyed from a specific starting point. All of the boundaries of the land are in relation to that starting point. The starting point used is on private property on the border between Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The PLSS divides the land into sections that are a mile square. It is really much more complicated than that, but for my purposes, that is all that is needed. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management(BLM) administers the PLSS.

The map that I will use for this project was created by the BLM in 2016 and covers the western half of the Strip. It shows the land sections, township and range used by the PLSS to designate a position on the land in Arizona. It uses a color code to show which entity owns the land. The parts colored white are privately owned. The ranges go from R7W to R16W and the townships from T27N to T43N.

06 05 04 03 02 01
07 08 09 10 11 12
18 17 16 15 14 13
19 20 21 22 23 24
30 29 28 27 26 25
31 32 33 34 35 36

There are six sections between each range(north-south lines) and six sections between each township(east-west lines). The box on the right shows the numbering system for the sections between each township and range.

The map is 5000 pixels wide and 5400 pixels high. You can scroll it left, right, up and down to see the parts not showing now. Some place names on it representing geographical or historical features are overlayed with a transparent green box. Sites important to my family are overlayed with the same box and a name representing what it means to the family. The homesteads shown on the map are randomly colored and overlayed with the names of the owners. There are links in the text that will scroll the map to the places and homesteads.

The People And Places Of The Strip Before 1916

Native Americans

There are many Internet sites that discuss in detail the people who lived on the Strip before 1850. I won't try to duplicate or add to them here. The largest groups in the area are the Navajo and Paiute. The Shivwit band of the Paiutes is the most prominent group in the Strip.

Their first encounter with Europeans was probably when the two Franciscan priests, Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante traveled through the area looking for a route from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Monterey, California in 1776.

Early European Explorers

In 1776 the Dominguez-Escalante party entered Arizona from New Mexico and traveled northwest across the Strip. They crossed the Virgin River and went north into Utah.

Jedidiah Smith was a fur trapper in the Rocky Mountains in 1822. He traveled to many places in the west and kept notes and drew maps as he went. Some of his material was published. In 1826 he went through Utah, across the northwest corner of the Strip and into the Virgin Valley in Nevada.

The John C. Fremont party with Kit Carson as a guide traveled through the north western part of the strip in 1844.

Virgin River

The Virgin River flows about 160 miles from an area just north of Zion National Park in Utah and enters Lake Mead in Nevada. It enters the Strip though a narrow, winding canyon called The Narrows. It flows across Arizona into Nevada south of the town of Beaver Dam. The Beaver Dam Creek flows into it.

It is named after Thomas Virgin who was a member of the 1826 exploring party led by Jedidiah Smith. Virgin was the first member of the party to reach the river. The name was given to the river later by John C. Fremont when he was making a map of the area in 1842.

The river was an important part of the lives of my parents. My mother's family lived on its banks in Price, Utah. Her father was born in an adobe house next to the river in Littlefield, Arizona, and my father was born and raised in Bunkerville, which is on its south bank in Nevada.

Old Mormon Wagon Road

The Old Mormon Wagon Road is a designation given by the BLM to a trail that started in Salt Lake, Utah, went across northwest Arizona and southern Nevada into southern California. It crosses the Strip in the far northwest corner. It follows part of the routes that Spanish explorers, John C. Fremont and Kit Carson followed when they explored the western U.S. It was first used by a group of Mormons led by Jefferson Hunt.

In October 1847, Hunt's party of 18 men with 130 pack animals and one wagon traveled to southern California to obtain supplies needed in Salt Lake. It took them 45 days to go from Salt Lake to San Bernardino, California.

Members of the Mormon Battalion going from California to Salt Lake followed it. Many other groups used the same road. It was also called Old Southern Road and Immigrant Road.

Beaver Dam

In 1847 when the Jefferson Hunt group went through northern Arizona they camped along a creek with a beaver dam in it. They called the spot Beaver Dam. For many years freighting wagons traveled through the area. Later the wash the creek followed was given the same name. By 1863 Mormon colonists had settled on the creek. In 2020 Beaver Dam had a population of about 2000 people.

In the fall of 1934, my mother, Marie Iverson left her home in St. George to attend high school in Bunkerville, Nevada. There, she lived with some friends of her father's. By that time the old road was a paved highway. A motel was built along it in Beaver Dam. Motor coaches carrying tourists traveled along the highway and sometimes would stop at the motel. My mother worked as a waitress at the motel during the summer of 1935.

Jacob Hamblin

In 1854, Brigham Young called Jacob Hamblin of Tooele, Utah to move south near present day Santa Clara, Utah and begin a mission to develop friendly relations with the Native Americans living in the area. Jacob asked my great-grandfather, Dudley Leavitt and others to serve with him. Jacob spent much of his time from then until his death in 1886 exploring the Strip and meeting the people of the area.

The following is from the August 1983 edition of Arizona Highways:.

In 1858, Young sent Jacob Hamblin from southern Utah onto the Strip and toward the land of the Moqui-today's Hopis-to open trade and create friendly relations. With Chief Naraguts of the Kaibab Paiutes and a handful of Mormons, he began the adventuring that would make Hamblin a legend in that land.

He was big. He was bright. He was fearless in the face of a savage land and its often fearsome people. For nearly three decades, Hamblin was a white man Indians could trust-a man of his word.

Exploring their way into Arizona, below the escarpments of Utah's high plateaus, Hamblin's bunch came across the best and most reliable-water supply on the Strip.

Camped at the spring, Hamblin's brother got to bragging about his shooting skills. "Gunlock Bill," he liked to be called-a real sure-shot. If you're so good, challenged some of his friends, let's see you shoot this silk scarf from a tree branch.

Bang! Missed. Bang! Missed again.

Then it occurred to him: his bullets were blowing the scarf out of the way instead of tearing the cloth. Time to try a real target. He'd shoot Dudley Leavitt's pipe out of his mouth at 25 paces. No thanks, said Leavitt-he'd put it on a rock. They bet Bill he couldn't blow away the bottom of the pipe without breaking the bowl. They lost- and the place won a name: Pipe Spring, in honor of Gunlock Bill Hamblin's fancy shooting.

Later, Dr. James Whitmore and Alexander Mcintyre started a cattle ranch at the spring. They lived in a dugout on the side of Moccasin Canyon. They were killed by marauding Navajos in 1866.

The grasslands west of Kanab Creek were attractive cattle country, while Pipe Spring, spewing 60,000 gallons of pure water a day, was pure gold- and well worth protecting, as sporadic wars went on between Mormon and Navajo during the 1860s.

In 1870, Anson Winsor started building a fortified house with the spring inside its walls so attacking Indians couldn't divert or poison the water.

It's quite a fort. Sandstone from the cliffs above was towed down by oxen pulling "rock lizards"-forked logs with tines dragging, the forks holding the stones. Gun slots were set high on the walls so people could move around inside without risking a lucky-or unlucky-shot.

By the time the fort was completed, the Mormons didn't need it. Not a shot was fired at it or from it. Hamblin had ventured all the way to Fort Defiance, on the New Mexico border, to sign a peace treaty with the Navajos. It never was broken just bent plenty by hotheads on both sides. Whenever an Anglo or an Indian would cry for blood, there was big Jacob Hamblin, peacemaker, talking sense and cooling tempers.

At Hamblin's side during some of his toughest moments was another Western legend: John Wesley Powell. The major made a name for himself with two daring voyages down the Green and Colorado rivers. The first, in 1869, was adventure of the highest order, as the one-armed hero of Shiloh and his handful of roughnecks braved a wild river that might have swallowed them up at any minute of the trip between Green River, Wyoming, and the mouth of the Virgin River.

Powell knew gallantry when he saw it. He became a friend and admirer of the Mormon "Leatherstocking" and was with him at Fort Defiance. When Powell turned his second voyage down the Colorado into a mapping survey of surrounding lands, Hamblin was a guide.

Their travels took them to Pipe Spring, where they talked long into a night. Powell loved the way the place got its name. To Hamblin, "Treachery Spring" would have been closer to the mark after the murder of Whitmore and Mcintyre.

This land may be treacherous, Powell believed, but- as travelers today still know- it's intoxicatingly beautiful. "You cannot keep them away," Powell warned of outsiders. He knew they'd be drawn to the eerie beauty of the Strip.

"Perhaps", said Hamblin,"but few will stay."

"Why so sure?"

Hamblin's answer is part of Paul Bailey's book, Jacob Hamblin, Buckskin Apostle: "What arable land there is has been taken. What water is left flows wild and uncontrolled down a canyon a mile deep in the earth . You can't sprout beans on slick rock. You can't grow corn in the desert. You've got to know this country to live in it."

Hamblin proved prophetic. The Arizona Strip today is home to about 3200 people-many of them descendants of the Mormons who ventured here a century ago and more.

Littlefield

Littlefield was settled about 1865 by Mormons. As the name implies it is a small group of fields along the Virgin River. My great-grandfather Hans Peter Iverson moved some of his family there in 1890. My aunts Mable Vinda and Velma Leila Waite lived there with their families in the early 1900s.

Cowboys and Sheepmen

As early as 1870 ranchers had begun to herd sheep and graze cattle in the Strip. Some of the cattlemen mentioned in the Footprints On The Arizona Strip are: Anthony Ivins, Ben Blake, James Nixon, Willard Sorenson, B. F. Saunders, Thomas Jefferson Pearce, Preston Nutter and Helaman Seegmiller.

From the Footprints on the Arizona Strip.

James Guerrerro, a cowboy in the early 1900's, also knew Anthony Ivins and many of the red men of that day. In 1970, when he was eighty-five, he said, "When they started putting cattle out on the Strip, Tone Ivins said the Indians should have the right to kill some and eat them, since it was their grass that was being eaten, and it was their game that was being frightened away. Tone could see there was going to be trouble, so he went to see Old Shem, the chief. Shem asked him where his gun was, and Tone said he didn't need one, since he had just come to talk. Then he asked if Shem would be willing to move his people to the Foster Farm out along the Santa Clara Creek, if he could get it for him. Shem nearly had a fit he was so tickled. So Tone took an option on the land, and in six weeks had the Indians settled there. Even Old To-ab moved in, when he saw the others were being well-treated. (This was in 1891, with additional land being added in 1916, to total 26,800 acres.)

To-ab was at Parashaunt when I went out to work for Preston Nutter as a boy of seventeen. Tone Ivins was there, and I used to work with him. Well, right across from the ranch house at Parashaunt, a knoll ran down to a point, and Ivins said that was where Powell's men had been killed. He told me, ''I used to ride my horse up there and could never get more than half-way up, when my horse would whirl and go back.' Tone wanted me to see if I could find where the men had been killed and their remains buried'.

'I think To-ab was the one who killed them. He never gave me any trouble, though. I would cuss the h-----out of him, every once in a while, and he would say, 'Little bishop alla time talk, talk, talk.' he figured I was chief around there and always treated me nice. Of course, we would bring him in and feed him. One day, he was sitting there eating, and began telling me about Powell's men. 'I was just a little bitty boy then, and they just begged and they cried,' he said. I said, 'To-ab, you were anything but a little bitty boy. You were the one who struck the match.' He said, 'No-no-- But I think I touched the right man.'"

Wolf Hole Spring

Apparently John Wesley Powell mis-translated the Paiute name of Coyote Spring as Wolf Hole Spring. From 1918 to 1927 the postal service maintained a post office near it to serve the ranchers in the area with Dexter Parker as the postmaster. Dexter and his wife Gertrude owned land and ran a gas station there.

Main Street Valley

There is an area on the BLM map labeled Main Street Valley. It is a valley running from northwest to southeast. It starts east of Wolf Hole and goes to Little Tank. I have read about it in some histories but none of them tell how it got its name. Nellie Cox and Helen Russell talk about it it Footprints on the Arizona Strip, but never address its name origin. I asked my Uncle Keith Iverson about it and he told me the story in the audio file below.

Listen to Keith discuss Main Street.

Hurricane Valley and Cliffs

The Hurricane Cliffs are a line of cliffs about 135 miles long. They are made of red limestone and run from a point near Cedar City, Utah south through the strip and end just north of the Grand Canyon. Hurricane, Utah is named after them. The valley floor on the west of them is called Hurricane Valley.

When I looked for the derivation of the name, I found only one source, which said that a group of immigrants were traveling through when a strong blizzard came and they had to stop an wait for it to move on, so they called the area Hurricane.

Temple Sawmills and Trail

From 1874 to 1876 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints operated two sawmills on the south side of Mount Trumbull near a spring to process giant ponderosa pine trees for the frame of the St. George Temple. The lumber was hauled about 80 miles to St. George on wagons pulled by oxen. The route went from Mount Trumbull, over the Hurricane Cliffs and north into Utah. The BLM lists it as the Historic Temple Trail.

The sawmills were later sold to James Nixon. A spring in the area is named after him.

Honeymoon Trail

I found the following material on the BLM website:

The Honeymoon Trail During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a primitive wagon road was the principle travel route between the Mormon settlements in northeastern Arizona and southern Utah. In the late 1870s, Mormon colonists had been sent by church leaders to pioneer new settlements along Arizona's Little Colorado River. As the new settlements were remote and isolated, many goods and services could only be obtained from the established Mormon communities of southern Utah. After 1877, the Arizona Mormon settlers also traveled to St. George, Utah to conduct church business and have their marriage vows solemnized in the newly-completed St. George Temple. So many newlyweds traveled the wagon road that it came to be known as "the Honeymoon Trail".Couples would travel in small groups for safety and companionship to make this long-distance trek across the varied and rugged terrain of northeastern Arizona and southwestern Utah. This journey typically began in mid-November and required many weeks of hard travel to complete. The wagons jolted across deep dry washes and slick rock, bogged down in deep sandy soils, and became mired in muddy stream crossings. At Lee's Ferry, John D. Lee and his wife Emma provided regular ferry service for travelers, at one of the few feasible crossings of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Their journey then took them to Kanab, Utah, south to Pipe Springs, Arizona, finally heading north into Washington County. Here, the Honeymoon Trail followed Fort Pearce Wash and headed north through the Warner Valley into St. George. The spring at the historic Fort Pearce site was a popular overnight camping spot for these travelers, some of whom inscribed their names and the dates of their visits on the rocky cliff faces at the spring. After their marriage ceremonies, the newlyweds would often spend the winter months in St. George, enjoying the social activities of this established community and purchasing needed supplies. They began the long trip home in the early spring. The Honeymoon Trail continued in use well into the 20th century, when modern highways were finally constructed across northeastern Arizona.

Mount Trumbull post office and school

After 1916 when homesteaders came to the area there were enough living in the Upper Hurricane Valley to warrant a post office and a school. My mother and some of her brothers attended the school. The U.S. Postal Service named the place Mount Trumbull after the mountain to the east. The locals called the community Bundyville after the largest family to settle there.

Toroweap Overlook

The Toroweap Overlook is on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. The name comes from the Paiute word Tuweep, meaning the earth. From there the visitor can see the Colorado River in the bottom of the canyon. Most of the people who lived on the Strip stood on it and marveled at the scene below at least once while they lived there. I was there in June of 1968 during an Iverson family reunion.

My Relatives Who Lived On The Strip

Four different families joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1800s and found their way to The Moapa Valley in southeastern Nevada. The area included the communities of Overton, Logandale, and Kaolin. The Muddy River ran through it. The Bundy family from Nebraska, the Iverson family from Denmark, via Washington, Utah, the McCain Family from Tennessee and the Van Leuven family from Canada and Missouri all came together between 1890 and 1913.

Hans Peter Iverson and his second wife Juliane Johanna Dorthea Christensen moved to Littlefield, Arizona in 1890, and Abraham Bundy and his wife Ella Anderson moved to Beaver Dam, Arizona in 1895. In 1897 Newman Van Leuven and his wife Mariah Elizabeth Durfee were living in Aurora, Utah.

In 1897 the Van Leuven family moved to the Mormon colonies in Mexico. The Bundy and Iverson families moved there in 1901. They were there until 1912 when the Mexican authorities force them to leave. By 1913 many of all three families were living in Kaolin, Nevada.

Albert Alexander McCain and his wife Rhoda Elizabeth Chamberlain had moved from Tennessee to Jensen, Utah. Their oldest daughter Artie had married Ephraim Snyder and the second daughter, May Belle, had married James Hiatt. Rhoda suffered from the cold weather in Jensen, so they decided to move to Arizona for the warmer weather. They and their children, Mary, Leoma, Harold and Archie left Jensen in 1913 and traveled south by wagon. Artie and her family went with them. Belle and her family stayed in Jensen. They traveled to Overton, Nevada and decided that was where they would settle. Later in 1915 Belle and her family joined them.

During the Bundy, Iverson and Van Leuven families' travels around Arizona, Mexico and Nevada, some of their children intermarried. In 1916 Victor Moses Iverson married Leoma McCain in Overton forging a link between the three families and the McCains.

I found the following in Doretta Iverson Bundy's history:

In the summer of 1916, Grandpa Abraham Bundy, James Bundy, and Roy decided to spend a couple of weeks up in the mountains while it was so hot. They were anxious to see what was on other side. We camped in a beautiful spot among the pines on a Mr. Stutznegger's ranch. James' wife, Chloe (Van Leuven), and I stayed close to camp and enjoyed the shade, while the children had a good time. The men climbed to the highest peak to see what was on the other side. It was late that night when they dragged themselves into camp. They were as thrilled and happy an any boys would have been if they found a nest of coyotes. On the highest peak they could see over into a valley which was all beautiful and green... an ideal place for a home.

When we went back to Kaolin, Jim, Martin (my brother), and Roy made a trip over there, going by the way of St. George. They found the country green and beautiful with grass up to the horses' stirrups. Here they staked out their homesteads, and in the early part of 1916, Roy and his father went out to Mount Trumbull, which is what it has been called ever since.

They built a dugout, my first home, and built a fence around to hold the grass for our cattle as there were lots of sheep in the country. Then Roy left his father there and came back to Kaolin to move his family, me and the four little children, our two cows, one calf, four horses and a wagon load of provisions and household goods. Roy's younger brother came with us to drive the cattle.

Within a short time most of the Bundys and Iversons and some of the McCains and Van Leuvens homesteaded in Mount Trumbull.

The rest of this document is about those four families and the others who lived on the Strip after 1916.

Abraham and Ella Bundy are the parents of nine children. Seven of those homesteaded in the Strip. Their fifth child, Ina married Cyrus Gifford and they lived in Mount Trumbull in 1923 when their daughter, Beulah Mae was born. While they were there Cyrus worked at a sawmill for Walter Stout. However they never took a homestead there and left before 1930. Abraham's and Ella's sixth child, Mamie married Ernest James May in 1917 and they never lived in Mount Trumbull.

Abraham and Ella and the families of their children who lived in the Strip and are listed here according to age. Most of the information comes from the 1920, 1930 and 1940 census records and the BLM land records. I have also found other information on the playing cards and Footprints on the Arizona Strip that I added.

Abraham Bundy and Ella Anderson

As can be seen from Doretta Bundy's history, Abraham and Ella were among the first homesteaders in Mount Trumbull. Abraham and his son Roy staked out claims for 320 acres each on Thanksgiving Day 1916. Roy returned to Kaolin to get the rest of the family and Abraham stayed in Arizona to protect their claim. Later Roy claimed another 320 acres. The most acreage that could be homesteaded was 640. Abraham had already homesteaded 160 acres in Nebraska, so the most he could get in Arizona was 480. By the end of 1917 thirty-two members of their family were there.

At first they got their water from snow. Then in the summer of 1917 they had to haul it in barrels from ponds and springs, some as far as twelve miles away. To earn the money to get started building their homes some of the family worked as cowboys for Preston Nutter who had a large cattle herd in the area. Some also hauled freight for the Grand Gulch Copper Mine.

Abraham and Ella hauled the water for other members of the family. They also operated the first store in the area.

Shortly after the Bundy's arrived in Mount Trumbull the Church organized a Mount Trumbull branch that was part of the St. Thomas, Nevada Ward. Later the branch was made part of a ward in St. George. Abraham was the first Presiding Elder in the branch. In 1928 the branch was made a ward with Roy Bundy as the bishop, Martin Iverson first counselor, James Bundy second counselor and Albert McCain Sunday School Superintendent.

Peter Martin Iverson and Lillie Belle Bundy

Martin is my mother's uncle, the second child of Hans Peter and Johanna Iverson. In 1944 he suffered a stroke while herding cattle on his ranch in Mount Trumbull and was taken to St. George, where he died.

Martin was the first postmaster in Mount Trumbull. Lillie was deaf by the time her sixth child was born.

Vernon Martin Iverson and Nora Alldredge

Vernon is the son of Peter Martin Iverson and Lillie Belle Bundy. Their homestead was divided into two parts about 7-8 miles apart. The part in township 035N-010W was near the mountain. Vernon herded sheep for Fred Schultz.

Vearl L Iverson and Mary Sue Gray

Vearl is the son of Peter Martin Iverson and Lillie Belle Bundy. Mary Sue was a school teacher.

Roy Bundy and Doretta Marie Iverson

Doretta is my mother's aunt, a child of Hans Peter and Hannah. Roy was a cattle inspector, a Justice of the Peace and the Bishop of Mount Trumbull Ward.

Roy suffered with arthritis, by 1929 he was crippled and couldn't stand up. He was able to walk with crutches. Their oldest son, Iven was planning to serve a mission but he gave it up to stay home and help with the ranch. On 19 April 1931 Iven and his cousin, Floyd Iverson were herding their fathers' sheep on the Colorado River when they tried to swim the across. Floyd made it but Iven drowned.

Bessie Bundy

Bessie is the daughter of Roy and Doretta Bundy. She married Henry Albert Faught. I have not found any evidence that they lived in Mount Trumbull after they were married. They were living in Snowflake by 1940.

James Bundy and Chloe Geneva Van Leuvan

Chloe is the seventh child of Newman and Mariah Van Leuven.

In 1932 their house burned down.

Omer Bundy and Rowena Whitmore

Omer served a mission in the Western States from 1916 to 1918. They lived in a tent next to Abraham and Ella while they built their home.

Vivian August Bundy and Edna Wilson

Edna was raised in Hurricane, Utah and Vivian must have gone there to court her. According to family lore, he could start walking from Mount Trumbull at sunup and reach Hurricane before sunset.

Chester Marion Bundy and Genavieve (Curtis) Bundy

When James Bundy married Chloe Van Leuven she had two daughters, Mildred and Genavieve. I don't know if she was married to their father. One of the records for Genavieve lists Curtis as her surname.

Ensign Cloy Griffiths and Edna Bundy

They lived in an adobe house with a tin roof. Ensign drove the mail truck to St. George.

Newman and Maria Van Leuven are the parents of nine children. Their seventh child, Chloe married James Bundy and homesteaded in the Strip. Two of their sons, Lafayette and Cornelius also took homesteads there.

Newman Van Leuvan and Mariah Elizabeth Durfee

Before they moved to Mount Trumbull, Newman injured one of his legs and had to have it amputated. That didn't stop him from going to Mount Trumbull to try dry farming. I have not found a record of them claiming a homestead, but family records say that they had one west of Lafayette's.

Newman died died in 1919 and was the first person buried on land that he had donated for a cemetery. Later many other Mount Trumbull residents were buried there.

Lafayette Van Leuvan

Cornelius Van Leuvan and Annie Rogers

Hannah Iverson lived in Littlefield, Arizona with her husband, Hans Peter, six living children and his third wife Dora and her children. Family histories don't agree whether it was 1909 or 1910 that the Virgin River flooded twice and destroyed their buildings. Hans Peter was seventy-five years old by then, Hannah was fifty-one and Dora was sixty. They were having a hard time taking care of themselves after the floods. Hans Peter's first wife Annie was seventy-five and living in Washington with one of her daughters.

By then Hannah's children Martin, Willard and Doretta were living in Mexico with their families. Victor was there visiting for a few months. All of Dora's children except the youngest, Wallace, were living in Delta, Utah.

It was decided that Han's Peter would build a new home and sell it to Wallace. Hans Peter and Dora would live with him. Hannah and her younger children moved to Mexico to live with her children there. Hans Peter died in 1921 in Littlefield. Dora died in Delta in 1938.

Hannah and her children stayed in Mexico until 1912. They went from there to Douglas, Arizona and by 1914 were in Kaolin, Nevada. Willard's wife, Frances died in 1914 in Kaolin. When Abraham, Roy and James Bundy with Martin Iverson decided to homestead in Mount Trumbull in 1916 the rest of the family followed them.

Information about Hannah and her children are listed below.

Juliane Johanna Dorthea Christensen

While in Mount Trumbull she helped her children with hauling water and washing clothes. She also cooked at a sheep camp owned by Fred Schultz.

She lived with Roy and Annie Whipple and died in their home on 6 January 1937. Her body had to be taken to the cemetery on a horse-drawn sleigh. A large bonfire was built to thaw the ground enough to dig her grave.

Listen to her grandson, Keith Iverson discuss her burial

Willard James Iverson and Frances Jarvis

Willard raised potatoes and corn in Sink Valley

Victor Moses Iverson and Leoma McCain

These are my mother's parents. They had a 640 acre homestead. To gain ownership of it they had to live on it so many months of each of seven years, fence it and build a house on it. I know that they moved to other places during that time, For a few years, Marie, Bud, Grant and Keith went to school in the school house south of the homestead.

The following paragraphs are about some family events I found in family histories.

Victor and Leoma lived in a tent in Penn Valley after they were married.

Victor raised potatoes and corn in Sink Valley

The family had summer parties in a quaking aspen grove with homemade ice cream

Victor and Leoma hauled water from the Cold Spring tank in Whitmore Canyon when everything on top dried up. Once they saw a little calf standing by its dead mother. How they longed to take it home and save its life. But it didn't belong to them, so they went on by.

Leoma and her four children, Marie, Bud, Grant and Keith rode with James Bundy to St. George from Mt Trumbull. Marie, Bud and Grant on the flatbed of the truck. Leoma and Keith were in the front with Jim. As they traveled down a rough wash on Quail Hill, they hit a bump and Marie fell off. Bud and Grant brought Jim to a quick stop. Marie climbed back on, not much worse for wear.

Bud and Keith were sent by their father to gather yellow soil samples. They rode on the mail truck from St. George to this spot alongside BLM Road 1069. They camped by a big rock for three or four days. They filled sacks with yellow soil, hauled them to the roadside in an old wheelbarrow, and stacked them. One night there was a thunder storm with a few big drops of rain. Bud turned the wheelbarrow upside down over Keith to keep him dry and he huddled up by the big rock to wait out the storm. They didn't think about the danger of lightning. They were lucky the storm turned out to be very short! Keith went rabbit hunting several times while they were there, and furnished cottontail meat for food. When the mail truck returned from Mt. Trumbull, they loaded their soil sacks and climbed on.

When Keith was 15, he worked on Seegmiller Mountain for nine days digging a trench through black rocks. He earned $2.00 a day, for a grand total of $18.00. His employer was Don Seegmiller, a school teacher who once taught at Pipe Valley School. He was Helaman Seegmiller's son.

Bud lived at Uncle Levi Iverson's ranch in the 1936-37 winter and attended school at Little Tank School. Weather conditions became so severe that school had to be discontinued for a time. That winter, Bud's grandmother, Hannah Iverson died and was buried in the Mount Trumbull Cemetery

Listen to Keith discuss Little Tank

In 1938, Keith, age 11, rode an old mare for his Uncle Willard Iverson from Mount Trumbull to St. George. He gave the following account of that trip to me:

I camped on Main Street with two old cow punchers, Claude Morris and Reed Sorensen, who had purchased the last of Preston Nutter's cattle from Nutter's widow. As we trailed along behind the cattle, a storm threatened with sharp lightening, loud thunder, and a few big wet drops. I asked them, What if it rains? Claude Morris answered, Good hell kid, we won't melt! I never asked any more questions. I camped with them that night and went on my way early the next morning.

I stopped at Parker's store in Wolf Hole. Mrs. Parker gave me a drink of water and a box of cookies; brown on one side, vanilla on the other, with white icing in between. She asked me what I was doing out there. When I told her I was riding a mare into town for my Uncle Willard Iverson. She responded with, Why doesn't the old SOB ride his own horse into town!. She didn't seem too fond of Uncle Willard.

Listen to Keith discuss his trips by Wolf Hole.

The CCC boys worked on roads, built fences etc. Most of them were from back east. I met a group working on the road at Quail Hill. They said it would be unheard of where they came from for an eleven year old kid to ride 60 miles alone. I let one guy get on the old mare so he could say he had ridden a horse. They gave me a drink of water and filled a hat full of water and offered it to the mare, but she refused to drink.

I stopped at Lewis Black's camp and ate a piece of mutton. Lewis said, You must be Bud Iverson's brother; you're riding his old saddle.

Levi Aaron Iverson and Estella Wharton

Levi was a brand inspector, a mail carrier and a county grader.

Clement Leroy Whipple and Annie Ream Iverson

Clement was born in Connecticut and wanted to be a cowboy. Annie is the daughter of Hannah Iverson and sister to Peter Martin

They ran the post office for a time.

In 1913 Albert and Rhoda McCain were living in Jensen, Utah. Rhoda had poor health and and the cold winters bothered her. Their two oldest daughters Artie Frances and May Belle were married. Artie's husband Ephraim Albert inherited a mine in Arizona from his father. Artie and Ephraim decided to move to Arizona where he could work the mine. Albert and Rhoda decided to move with them because the weather there would be better for Rhoda. Belle and her husband stayed in Jensen.

Albert and Rhoda got as far as the Moapa Valley in Nevada and decided to live in Overton.

Their third daughter, Mary, met Wilbert Cromwell in Overton and they were married there on 16 February 1916. By then Hannah Iverson and her children had arrived from Mexico. Victor Iverson met the McCain's fourth daughter, Leoma and they were married in Overton on 23 December 1916 in Overton.

For a while Albert and Rhoda and their sons Harold and Archie lived in Mount Trumbull. They are not on the 1920 for Mount Trumbull. They traded their homestead to James and Esther Jones in 1926 for a home in Bloomington, Utah. Their daughters Artie and Leoma also lived there with their families.

My mother's history says that her parents bought their homestead from Albert and Rhoda, but that doesn't make sense. Victor and Leoma were in Mount Trumbull in 1920 before Leoma's parents were.

Albert Alexander McCain and Rhoda Elizabeth Chamberlain

Their third daughter, Mary never lived at Mount Trumbull but her two sons Robert and Arthur lived there with them. Both Robert and Arthur were killed in World War II.

Ephraim Albert Snyder and Artie Frances McCain

Their house burned down twice when the stovepipe blew off the roof. They lived in a dugout built by the Christmans and it burned down too. They held a celebration each June 10 just because. Artie is a daughter of Albert and Rhoda McCain.

Their son Milas is buried in Penn Valley.

Clarence William Force and Eva Snyder

They ranched at New Spring. William is buried in Penn Valley. Eva is the daughter of Albert and Artie Snyder.

Arizona Strip People Not In My Family

The members of my family that lived on the strip all had homesteads. There were many others who also homesteaded there. There were also those who worked for the homesteaders or ranchers. There were many single men who worked for a few months or years then moved on.

It appears that even the homesteaders did not stay there all the time. Many of them had homes in others places and traveled back and forth from there to their ranches.

The rest of the people that appear in this document are not part of my family. They appear in the following places and are listed alphabetically by surname.

David Ahlstrom

David worked for Fred Schultz.

Daniel Ahlstrom and Minnie

Charles W. Alcorn

I found the following story in Footprints on the Arizona Strip:

The Alcorns, homesteaders near Bundyville, were originally from Oklahoma, and there is reason to think that Mr. Alcorn had been considered quite a gunman in his home state. At least, certain parties on the Arizona Strip had heard the rumor and wished to stir up a little excitement at a dance down at Little Tank by getting him down there, unarmed. Listen to Bud Bundy tell it:

Alcorn had been having some trouble with James Terry Gray, a young school teacher from Texas. Just what started it, no one seems certain. But Gray is supposed to have said that he intended to beat the sox off of Alcorn.

The affair was cut-and-dried the fellows who wanted to stir up the trouble figured Alcorn would have to fight or take a whipping. But Alcorn smelled a rat. When these guys came to take him to the dance, they found him ready and waiting, and apparently without a gun. Then he told them that he had to go back after his tobacco. What they didn't know was that he pocketed a 32 pistol at the same time.

Gray acted pretty brave at the dance, being sure that Alcorn had no gun. He kept stepping on the older man's toes, so to speak, as had been planned. Alcorn kept saying, I am an old man; I m no match for you in a fist fight. You're a young fellow; I'm not going to fight you.

Gray said, You will fight, or I'll tromple you without a fight.

Alcorn said, No you won't. You lay hands on me and I'll sure kill you!

Gray said, And just how are you going to do that?

I have ways and means, Alcorn informed him. Keep on bothering me and you'll find out!

Being so positive that his enemy was not armed, Gray grew more abusive than ever. Suddenly, Alcorn jerked out his hidden gun and fired. The bullet passed through Gray's coat, beneath the arm. Gray was convinced; he got out of there fast.

But the trouble-causers did not know what might happen next. Gray has gone after a gun, they told Alcorn. You had better make yourself scarce!

Apparently it did not appeal to Alcorn to be in a well-lighted schoolhouse when a man you have just shot at comes after you with a big 30-30. He left in a hurry. And not knowing how much damage he may have done or what the follow-up might be, he decided to make himself scarce for a while, thus earning the sobriquet, 'The lightning gunman'.

Isaac Alldredge and Delila Van Leuvan

They milked 15 goats twice a day. They would kill five goats each winter and live on beans and goats for winter food.

Irving Alldredge and Dorothy Young

Dorothy had come to Mount Trumbull from Minnesota to teach school. My mother and her brother Alvin (Bud) were some of her pupils. Irvin was called to serve a mission from the Mount Trumbull Ward from 1927-1929.

Enoch Beach

According to various records Enoch had four children living in Mount Trumbull, Joseph, Jack, Arizona and Alma.

Enoch Joseph Beach and Charlotte Harrington

Joe was known for racing his horse against his brother Jack Enoch. Jack played the fiddle for dances at Little Tank and was a horse breaker.

Oliver Belnap and Anna

They had a daughter named Olive who also lived on the Strip.

William Brink and Edna Jane Shew

The following paragraphs from Footprints on the Arizona Strip tell about the Brink family:

When the Walking X Outfit began ranching operations a dozen or so miles north of Cactus Flat, they brought with them a very pleasant, likable young man of Indian extraction—Billy Brink. This was a short time before the Bundys and Iversons arrived in the area.

Billy was married to an attractive young woman named Edna, who had been a school teacher on the Reservation and was qualified to continue that career on the Arizona Strip. All those who knew the Brinks were impressed by their many worthwhile qualities.

Billy was a very courteous person and very much opposed to foul language, we are told by Annie Iverson (Whipple), who tended their baby, Lloyd, while Edna taught at Mt. Trumbull in 1918-1919. And Edna wasn't afraid of rattlesnakes like I was. She came home one day to find a big snake in the yard and me scared to kill it. She got rid of it in a hurry!

Billy was an extrovert, a real go-getter, laughing and talkative, says Vemon Iverson, who worked for him when Billy was foreman of the Walking X, where they kept several hundred head of steeldust horses which they had brought from the Clay Springs Cattle Ranch across the Colorado. And here, on a section of ground henceforth to be known as Big Tank, Billy had built a huge reservoir by throwing a dirt dam across a big wash, using teams and scrapers.

He was an expert horse breaker; he played the fiddle for many lively dances in the huge barn there at Big Tank, and he wore a gun.

Billy never stood in front of a window, Annie recalls, even when he was armed. He was Cattle Inspector and Deputy Sheriff, too.

The Brinks expected to make their home on the Arizona Strip, having a nice house at Big Tank. They were very hospitable. Hyrum Cox once said that he was with a bunch of wood haulers when he was a kid, and they came to the Brink home. The boy was completely famished. Mrs. Brink noticed his condition and brought him some hot biscuits, a kindness he was never to forget. Their home was equipped with running water, piped down from a cistern built into a nearby hill

Jocky Hale, boss of the Walking X, decided to dispose of the horses and stock the ranch with cattle. So he told Chester Bundy and others who worked for him to take them to Indian Springs, west of Las Vegas, Nevada, and turn them loose, selling as many as he could before doing so. Martin Iverson and others of the dry farmers acquired some of these animals. They trailed the horses right down Fremont Street on their way to Indian Springs.

The reservoir known as Big Tank did not last long, the first big flood which roared down the huge wash slicing through it without any difficulty, leaving a broken, ragged bank on what is now the Levi Iverson property.

It was the spring of 1921, early and still quite cold, when Billy Brink and quite a few others rode to Pearce's Ferry to receive the large herd of cattle being brought to the Walking X Ranch. The river was high and the cattle refused to enter the stream, which was swollen with the spring run off. With Billy on the north side of the river were Henry Ferguson, Luther Swanner, Walter Pymm, Jack Welch, and others. On the south side, with the herd, were Harold and Archie McCain and probably quite a number of men whose names we have not been able to determine. All were riding good horses, though they were weak, since the grass had not yet come. Billy determined, finally, to ride across the river and force the cattle to swim the current. The men had already spent a number of fruitless days at the spot. Billy asked Walter Pymm to change horses with him, Old June, the mare he was riding, not being as strong as Dixie, the one Walter was on. He then took off his gun and other articles and told Pymm he could have them in case he, Billy, did not make it.

The horses were no more anxious to venture into the dangerous flood than were the cattle across the river. According to some reports, Billy made several attempts to get Dixie into the water and finally rode back a ways and then went at a run toward the water, plunging immediately into its murky depths.

Dixie was a good horse and tried his best to swim across, but in the middle of the wide stream an undertow caught him and pulled him under. As is always the case in such an occurrence, there were various opinions as to just what happened. Some say that Billy pulled on the rein, causing the horse to tip side wise. Others claim that the man climbed up on the horse's head and pushed him under. No one knows the exact sequence of events. Neither is anyone sure just what it was that Billy Brink called out in those last few desperate seconds before he went under for the last time. Some declare that he called upon God, whose existence he had previously denied. But with the frightful noise made by a river in flood, it is doubtful that his exact words could be made out. No lasso rope could possibly be thrown far enough or accurately enough to reach him. And a log ridden into the stream by Jack Welch did not reach him, either, the horse and rider disappearing into a rapid some distance below.

When news of the tragedy was made known, a net was placed across Black Canyon and Billy's body recovered. Edna Brink positively identified her husband's body by the collar and a fragment of the shirt he was still wearing. It is thought that he was buried at St. George.

Arthur Brown and Cora

Irvin Bryner and Loa Belle Demille

They homesteaded on the mountain. He was a brother to Fern Kenworthy and Bessie Terry.

Henry Carnes and Josie

Benjamin Franklin Childers and Bertie Virgina Miller

Edward Childers and Zola Blanch Sweazea

He was born in New Mexico and had a brother, Frank. Zola was the daughter of Arizona Beach Sweazea.

Otto Christman and Helve

Peter Collins

Honore Cook and Ruth

Arthur Ray Corley and Alma Beach

He is buried in Panaca, Nevada. Alma is a daughter of Enoch Beach.

Albert Weston Craig and Mary Elizabeth Sloan

They lived in Lake Valley with two daughters. Albert's mother, Almeda owned homesteads to the west and south of them and lived with them.

Almeda Craig

Joshua Alma Crosby and Sara Jones

Joshua rode his mule to church and raced it against a man on a bicycle. He had a homestead on the mountain.

William Joseph Jr. Cunningham and Edna Alger

They lived at Tuweep and taught the Bundys how to barbecue.

Dottie Davis

A school teacher at Little Tank.

Charles Duncan

David Esplin and Lucy Heaton

They lived at Little tank for 15 years. Lucy wrote poetry. Their son died from a gunshot wound on 6 September 1939.

Henry Fergeson

Edward Franklin and Winnifred

Ed was the forest ranger.

Charnel M. Hallmark and Evelyn C.

Chithauta Lawatatha Hallmark and Florence Weaver Wharton.

They were married 23 November 1932 and lived near Poverty Mountain. Florence is a sister to Estella Wharton Iverson.

Floyd Hallmark and Leila Wilcoxson

John Mygnett Hallmark and Emma Elizabeth Blevins

John built a school house in Main Street Valley in 1923. He was from Arkansas. Their son Claude C. Hallmark died in a flash flood near Big Tank, Arizona.

Oliver Asa Higley and Heneritta Cartwright

James Simkins Jones and Esther Alice LeFevre

They took over the Albert and Rhoda McCain homestead in 1926. James played the violin for the dances.

Lavon Jones and Eva Marie Iverson

They were married 22 April 1930. Eva is a daughter of Martin and Lillie Iverson. Lavon is a son of James and Esther Jones.

William Jones

John Alma Keller and Harriet Rebecca Cowan

She was a school teacher. They Lived in a dugout.

John Kenney

He was widowed and homesteaded near Diamond Butte.

Bowden Lakin Kenworthy and Fern Bryner

They lived in a place called Sink Valley and grew turnips weighting 7.5 pounds. Fern was a sister to Irvin Bryner and Bessie Terry.

Bernard La Battle

A cowboy who worked for Preston Nutter and filed on water on the Strip.

Auda Loveday and Lizzie

Robert Marshall

Homesteaded Boney Hollow. He had been an entertainer in California

Frank Minters and Barbara

Perlie Benjamin Morris and Matilda May Yost

He was the stock inspector. He made 14 arrests in one year for cattle rustling with only three convictions.

Dexter Mitchell Parker & Gertrude Margaret Painter

Dexter and Gertrude operated a store and gas station and had rooms and corrals to rent. On 3 July 1918 Dexter was appointed postmaster.

Many of the people of Mount Trumbull bought items from them as stated in Footprints on the Arizona Strip:.

Rowena Bundy: When my twins were born we had a hard job finding milk that would agree with Ellen. Milk in St. George seemed to be all right; but out on the Strip, where the cows browsed for their feed, there was too much curd in it, and the baby couldn't digest it. Nothing we tried seemed to help. Then I thought of a doctor up in Springville, Utah, where I was raised, who had given his little girl Mellon's Food. And I wondered if we could get it. Mr. Parker said he would order some for us, and he did. I mixed it with cow's milk, which dissolved the curd, and it agreed with her. We had to buy it by the case, which was so expensive that my husband had to go to Zion's Park to work, in order to afford it.

Chloe Bundy: Mr. D. M. Parker had a little store at Wolf Hole and kept a supply of drugs. Just what was needed, perhaps was not always available, as I wanted some Doan's Little Liver Pills once when Daddy was carrying the mail. So he asked for them when he got down there. I've got six hundred dollars worth of drugs here, Mr. Parker exploded, and here you ask for something I've never even heard of. But I'll get it—I'll get it.

Vernon Iverson: Mr. D. M. Parker got a battery-powered radio and I was so intrigued that I decided I was going to have one right away. It was the old dry cell kind that needed a whole flock of batteries in order to work. The stations would fade out, and you had to keep tuning it to get it back again.

Willard Iverson had hired Albert Snyder to carry the mail for him, being unable to do it himself. Albert used a pack animal and stayed at Parker's overnight, also taking meals there. When it came time to pay the bill for Albert's board, it was unbelievably high. As Willard said later, That Snyder sure isn't any canary bird!

Luther Swanner: Bill Shanley and I and another fellow wanted to go to a rodeo in Cedar City, one time. We rode horseback from Parashaunt to Wolf Hole, hoping to borrow D. M. Parker's car to take us the rest of the way (about seventy-five miles). Knowing Parker might be leary about lending it to Bill, he asked me to do the borrowing, saying he would pay for any damages. I asked for it and Parker let me have it. Shanley had his jug along (as always), keeping it down on the floor by his feet. He kept taking a drink from it, but finally let it fall out the open door and break. Being pretty much under the influence, by this time, he leaned back, lifted both feet and put them against the windshield, and shoved. Of course, this completely shattered the glass. When Parker saw the damages, he made out three equal bills. I paid mine, and the third fellow paid his. But as far as I know, Bill Shanley didn't. He already had too many unpaid bills lying around!

Johny Pointer

Earl C Presley

He was born in New York, was a widower and had a homestead on the mountain.

Sam Radliff and Flora

Clyde Rosenberry and Anna Laura

They drilled a well that was dry, so they put their outhouse over the hole. They had drawings on their walls. He is the son of Randolph and Emma Rosenberry

Randolph Rosenberry and Emma Chatterlain

They were married in Wayne, Ohio and are the parents of Clyde Rosenberry

Charles Ross

Albert and Ed Schulz

Frederick S. Schultz and Edna Marie McEwen

He was born in 1893 in Nebraska. They raised sheep.

Seegmillers

William Shanley

Brother to Jim Keen. Had a homestead on the mountain

Van Sheek

John Abijah Shelley and Ellen Angeline Welch

John was known as a trader. they built a circular corral of Octillo cactus. They lived in New Mexico and California. Annie is a sister to Thomas Hezekiah Welch.

John Alvin Shelley and Mildred Bundy

John is a son of John Abijah & Ellen Angeline Shelley. Mildred is the daughter of James and Chloe Bundy.

Walter Jerome Shelley

He chased mustangs with a stripped down Ford. He was known for war whoops during the dances. He is a son of John Abijah & Ellen Angeline Shelley.

William Elmer Shelley and Edna Alberta Shull

William is a son of John Abijah & Ellen Angeline Shelley. He left Mount Trumbull to work at a mine in Kingman, Arizona.

Mable Simpson

Miles Snyder

His land in section 26 is a narrow strip between that owned by Lafayette Van Leuven and James and Chloe Bundy.

John Sturzenegger and Caroline

Robert Sullivan

He was Born in Kansas. He raised hogs on a homestead on the mountain.

Timothy Sullivan

Arizona Sweazea

Arizona is the daughter of Enoch Beach and was divorced. Her daughter, Zola married Edward Childers. Thelma Rose a teacher in the school lived with her as boarder.

Her father, Enoch lived with her. He was 68 years old in 1920, had been born in Arkansas and was a widower. He was a fur trapper.

Malvin Deloss Terry and Bessie Bryner

Homesteaded on the mountain by All Craig's place. He died at Little Tank in 1933 at the age of 45. Bessie was a sister to Fern Kenworthy and Irvin Bryner.

Edith Tuttle

A school teacher at Little Tank.

Jonathan Waring

Charles Joshua Welch and Rebecca Jane Holmes

He played the harmonica for the dances. He dug ponds and was a mustang chaser with his cousins, the Shelley's.

Thomas Hezekiah Welch

He helped make Hannah Iverson's casket. His Sister was Annie Shelly.

Lucy A. Wells

A school teacher at Little Tank.

Thomas Wharton and M. Cordelia Beard

They lived at Kaolin, Nevada and took the trip to Parashaunt and camped at Stuzneggar with the Bundys. They had many parties with molasses candy pulls. Parents of Estella Iverson and Florence Hallmark.

James White

The story of 'Old Man White' from Footprints on the Arizona Strip:

It was well-known around Bundyville that Old Man White, otherwise known as 'the hermit of Trumbull Mountain', was interested in Bessie Bundy, and she was often teased about him. One time, Bessie had been down in the canyon and had acquired deep tanning of the skin as a result of sun and wind. On her return, she was bemoaning how black she had become. "Don't worry, Bessie", said Reva Wood, a local wit, "You'll soon become 'White'!" And Uncle Martin Iverson, when helping Bessie build a house on her homestead, loved to comment that it would be plenty big enough for her and Mr. White to live in!

Mr. White thought himself a ladies' man, and was known to warn young fellows to 'keep out of his territory', where certain girls were concerned, even if they did not reciprocate his affection. He once told Vera Snyder that she would look better in brown than in the green she favored. She didn't think any more of his advice about what she should wear than of his offering her dad one hundred dollars if he would persuade Vera to marry him. She didn't.

But one woman was not so choosey! Mr. White acquired a fiancee through a Lonely Hearts Club, to which he and Josh Crosby, another lonely old fellow living on Trumbull Mountain, subscribed. Clarence Bundy played a part in that romance and kindly tells us about playing cupid for Old Man White:

I was eighteen, old enough to have a Driver's License, when Mr. White asked me to go to Oceanside, California, to get the woman he was going to marry. He had never seen her, but had got acquainted with her through one of these catalogs containing the names of women who wish to get married. He didn't have to talk too hard to get me to go.

I took the bus to Oceanside and stayed at her place a day or so. She took me sightseeing to San Diego and Tia Juana, and we took turns driving back in her old car, a Buick or a Packard.

Mother and some of the other folks out on the Strip went up to his old house and tried to clean it up. But it was a pretty discouraging job, being nothing but an old shack. In addition, they had to drive the dogs out. It was mighty pitiful when they began to take some of his old letters and things out to a little shed he had. The old fellow just broke down and started to cry. It seemed about to break his heart to give these things up.

When I and this lady got to Bundyville, Mr. White was at my Grandpa Bundy's place. My dad was there, too, since he was Justice of the Peace and also a Mormon Bishop, and was going to marry them.

The cattlemen around Nixon Mountain, where Old Man White had homesteaded, considered him a nuisance and a troublemaker. But to most of the dry farmers he was a valued friend. Where he was born, where he spent his younger years, and what drove him to a solitary mountainside on the Arizona Strip, no one seems to be aware. The Shelley family knew him in Reardon, Arizona, before 1920. He could have been fifty or more years old at the time, which might make him seventy or more at the time he was killed, in 1938, soon after he had married his mail-order bride

Yes, Mr. White had many friends among the homesteaders at Tuweap and Bundyville. But they did not approve of him! He was considered dirty; he allowed his menagerie of dogs, goats, and pigs free access to his shack; and he seldom bathed or changed clothes, merely putting one ripped garment on over the top of another. But the same critics would hasten to say that he was a fine old man!

Says Doretta Bundy, Mr. White walked from his place up on the mountain down to ours many a time, bringing us vegetables or melons that he had raised. And he bought pack­ages of flower seeds or trinkets for the kids.

Verl Alldredge had a sort of hero-worship toward the old man and said:

One year we stayed up at the spring on White's place. And I would often go to his house and spend an hour or two. I was fond of the old boy—he would take time to talk to me, and I was fascinated with his stories. He was so good-hearted, even if he did keep his goats in the house with him.

Mom would get plumb out of patience with me because I liked to be around such a dirty piece of trash, and she would holler, "Go in the house. It's all right to be friendly with him, but you don't want to live like he does".

I would ask, "Why not? I think that would be swell to live just the way he does". Boy, would that upset her!

When Old Man White would come down to Hurricane Valley to spend the night, Mom would let him camp out behind our corral. I would sneak out and talk to him until ten o'clock at night. Or if I saw him coming on that big red mule and leading one with the packsaddle on, I'd meet him down to the gate. He was as big, almost, as one of his mules. Well, one time, he came real late, and Mom had him come in to eat some bread and milk. He washed up, I guess Mom told him to and went out to his camp, first turning his mules loose in the pasture.

He had these two yellow dogs, and you could hear them all over the hills at night, barking and chasing foxes. He had an old shepherd's horn, which he would blow in the morning, and those dogs would hear it and come tearing in. That used to fascinate me: I always thought that the kind of life he lived made him the happiest man in the world: he lived such a peaceful existence.

But the facts are that Mr. White was killed—shot, Ben Bundy says, because another man refused to let him have water from the spring and White grabbed an iron rod to protect what he considered his rights. The jury said, "Self Defense," and turned the other man loose.

Fern Kenworthy says:

I was there when the trouble started, a girl came driving a bunch of horses to water, and Mr. White's dogs began barking at them. The girl said, "Get away, you dam dogs!" And Mr. White said, "You may be a lady, but you better act like one, or I'll treat you like a man!"

I don't think he used one swear word at her. Bobby and I were in the car going to Tu­weap for the mail, and we had no idea that Mr. White would be dead soon after.

Then we went over to Craig's, and I saw a quilt with two shoes sticking out and a hat at the other end, and I said, "What's that?"

Mr. Craig said, "It's Mr. White; he's been shot." I guess this girl had gone home and told her folks that Old Man White had talked abusively to her, and her dad had gone over there and had taken up the quarrel and had shot him. They had a hearing on the case, and I had to testify. But nothing ever came of it. Mrs. White sold the property and soon went back where she came from.

Clarence Bundy voices the opinion held by most of the Bundyville people at the time of the tragedy. "Mr. White was an eccentric old fellow", he says, "but he had a heart of gold. I can remember him walking down to our place with a sack of melons he had raised. It must be fifteen miles, as the crow flies."

Once Mr. White accidentally shot himself in the armpit. He had an overcoat on at the time, luckily, as it absorbed much of the force of the shot. He stayed alone overnight, be­fore going to a neighbor's for help. The doctor wanted to remove the arm, but the old man would not allow it. And it did get well enough for him to use it. Roy Bundy and Albert Sny­der helped him to care for the wound and dress it many times. He never complained.

Once he kept a rabbit he had killed for his dogs in a pocket until it got so ripe folks couldn't stand him!

"La yes, I knew Old Man White," exclaims Edna Cunningham. "He would come to the post office at our place, and the big fire in the fireplace would bring out the goat smell till it would almost kill me. I'll never forget him!"

William Erwin Wood and Elise

Roy Wood and Mary

Taylor Moore Woodward

Edward Zumwalt and Georgia

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