Oral history interview with Dorothy Slayton [with transcript], July 15, 2006.

              DOROTHY SLAYTON INTERVIEW
Ecological Oral Histories Collection
Collection number: NAU.OH.2005.111.18

[BEGIN TAPE 2005.111.18] 

Martin: My name is Robin Slayton Martin [phonetic], and I am interviewing Dorothy Slayton at Dorothy’s house in Flagstaff, Arizona. Today is July 15, 2006, and this interview is being recorded for the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University.

So Dorothy, I’m just going to ask you a little bit of background information first. We’ll get started on that, and then we’ll move into other things. Tell me what your maiden name was. 

Slayton: Smith. 

Martin: And you were born where and when? 

Slayton: I was born not right here at Flagstaff, but out fifteen miles east, at 6-12-23 [on June 12, 1923]. 

Martin: Okay, 6-12-23, and fifteen miles east, close to.... (microphone jostled) 

Slayton: There’s a house there. 

Martin: Out near the Winona Exit? 

Slayton: No, Cosnino. 

Martin: Cosnino Exit. Okay. So how did your family wind up coming to the area? Tell me a little about that. 

Slayton: My dad’s health. He had asthma in Oklahoma, and he came to Arizona for his health. 

Martin: Okay, did he come straight to Flagstaff first, or did he go down south first? 

Slayton: No, they came on a train to Flagstaff. 

Martin: What was he planning on doing here for a livelihood? 

Slayton: Well, farming. That’s all there was, practically, right then. 

Martin: Where did he buy his first farm? 

Slayton: [unclear] Yep, out there, where they lived their whole life that they were here, yes. 

Martin: Okay, [unclear] Cosnino Exit then. Okay. And what kinds of things were they farming? 

Slayton: Beans and corn, hay--you know, like Suzanne grass and oats, wheat. But pinto beans was their money crop. (microphone jostled) 

Martin: Tell me what it was like, some of your earliest memories of being on the farm. [unclear] (microphone jostled) as a child? 

Slayton: Well, I walked two miles to school. That was not fun a lot of days. And we had summer school, because we couldn’t get there in the wintertime because of the snow. We all went to the little country school on Cosnino Road on the north part of it, towards old Highway 66, because I-40 was not there. And just workin’ on the farm. I rode a horse a lot. 

Martin: Tell me again how many brothers and sisters you had. 

Slayton: I had three brothers, no sisters. 

Martin: Okay, now let’s move into, then, when you first came into farming, and then further in ranching as an adult. In other words, how did you move from your parents’ farming into doing that yourself? 

Slayton: I got married. 

Martin: To? 

Slayton: Paul Slayton. And we bought a ranch. Well, we farmed the first two years. He farmed his dad’s place, [unclear] Slaytons. 

Martin: When did you get married, what year? 

Slayton: In ’41. And then in ’43, we bought the ranch, which is eight miles south of Winona, and moved up there in the fall. It was a cattle ranch, and so we had cows. And then he raised our hay for the cows. He had three places that he could farm and raise hay on. 

Martin: Okay, eight miles from Winona, you’re talking about a [unclear]. 

Slayton: It’s at the foot of the mesa. 

Martin: Which mesa, in fact? 

Slayton: Anderson Mesa. 

Martin: So what was it like, access, when you first bought the ranch there? Tell me a little bit about that. 

Slayton: Wasn’t very good. For eight miles on a dirt road. We would have to, when we would come to town, we would get up early one morning--in the wintertime--now in summer, it was just a rut dirt road--but in the wintertime, we’d get up and come out, and then stay at my folks’ that night, then go back home early the next morning while all that mud was frozen. Several times it took us eight hours to get back home. 

Martin: Wow. And access to the ranch now, I know.... When was the last time you were actually out on the property? 

Slayton: It’s been quite a while, but the grandkids have been up there just a couple weeks ago, and the road was terrible. 

Martin: Okay, so that hasn’t changed much. 

Slayton: No. And the people have went and tore, cut the fences, and tore things down. Our house burned out up there--burned down. They just nearly tore it up. 

Martin: These are the present owners, then? 

Slayton: The grandkids are the present owners. 

Martin: So when people have taken down fences and things, who? 

Slayton: They just.... 

Martin: People coming in the area? 

Slayton: Uh-huh. They’ve just got to go, you know, and that fence is not gonna stop ’em. They just cut it. There’s a barn door off, layin’ in the mud. My grandson was up there not too long ago, so he took it and laid it on the inside. He didn’t have anything to fix it back with. They just literally tear things up. 

Martin: How many head of cattle did you and Paul run, about? 

Slayton: About 200 grown stock. Of course the yearlings and the babies. 

Martin: Tell me a little bit about daily ranch life in those days. I mean, maybe a typical day in the life when you were out there working. 

Slayton: Well, I enjoyed every bit of it, even though it was rough sometimes. Our kids were little. Elaine was a little over a year old. Richard was only three, four months old when we moved back there to a little two-room house. We built onto the rooms, and had a garden. The wintertime, it was just take care of the cows, because Paul would get ’em all in towards the barn, and we fed ’em--we had a barnful of hay every fall--and cottonseed meal. And he fed the cows all winter. Of course my job was to take care of the kids and take care of the house. 

Martin: You talked a little bit about it being rough sometimes. Tell me a little bit about rough times. 

Slayton: Well, you know, it was kerosene lamps. It was just wood cook stove, wood heater, and we carried the water from the cistern to the house. I’ve still got proof of water bucket carryin’--broken blood vessels in my hands. Just, you know, the only time we could play the radio would be like in the morning, because it was battery, and we had to save that battery, because it might.... And when we’d get snowed in, why, yeah, we had to have the battery to see what the outside world was doing . And we got snowed in six weeks one time. 

Martin: That sounds like a memorable event. 

Slayton: Oh, it was! 

Martin: We’ll talk about that in a few minutes, in a little while. The other thing I wanted to ask you was if you had ever felt pressure. You were a woman helping your husband around the ranch, but as a women there weren’t a lot of women that were in that kind of livelihood. Was it ever different for you, being female and doing that? 

Slayton: No. I don’t think so. Uh-uh. No, because, well, just like when we was--we had a tractor, and when I was raking hay, I drove the tractor with one kid on one knee, and the other one on the other. We just had the two then. And Paul rode the rake, and I drove the truck. We worked together the whole time. 

Martin: Okay, let’s talk a little bit about maybe some climate and just rainfall and weather patterns and things like that. You can talk a little bit about--you just talked about Anderson Mesa. Do you have any recollections of [unclear] or even later on when you were living in Winona, talk about those, too. Just rainfall patterns, snow patterns, any change from your earliest memories to when you left the ranching livelihood. Just talk a little bit about that. 

Slayton: It has changed. We used to have some tremendous snowstorms. And rain, where all the tanks would be full and all. But anymore, we don’t. Well, just like here in Flag, it hasn’t snowed like it used to, at all. 

Martin: Tell me what was the last year that you spent out at Anderson Mesa before you stopped ranching? What period of time was that? 

Slayton: When Elaine got old enough to go to school, which is in ’48, we had to move. Of course you could get a school bus to Flag to school. But then the ranch, we operated it until twelve years ago, ’til Paul.... And then we still had a few cows. I can remember--of course he was with me, but there wasn’t much he could do--and we took ’em to the auction in Holbrook, what was left. And that was twelve years ago. 

Martin: And what year did Paul die? 

Slayton: Twelve years ago. 

Martin: [unclear], right? 

Slayton: I think so. I get so confused. 

Martin: Well, it’s okay. Twelve years ago, it would be about 1994. Does that sound about right? 

Slayton: Uh-huh. 

Martin: All right. Were there particular dry and wet periods during the time that you were running cattle out there, that you can remember? Any draught periods you can elaborate on? 

Slayton: Yeah, but I don’t know what years they were. But we did have. Yeah, the tanks--we hauled water from Angel. 

Martin: And that is--tell me again where. 

Slayton: There was a section house east of us, on down, and they brought water in there by the carload for people like us that had to haul water to their cattle and what not. 

Martin: Via the railroad? 

Slayton: Yes. And we hauled water from Angel to our cows. And that was in the summertime. No, that would be in the early spring and the early fall, because we moved ’em to Ashurst Lake in the summertime--they had water. But the wintertime, down below, they didn’t always have water. 

Martin: Any memorable windstorms or rainstorms that you can remember? 

Slayton: Not wind so much, but we had some rainstorms, yes, just like a flood. It’d wash the tanks out. You know, just take that dam and wash a big hole in it. It’d just fill it up and go over the top and cut it out to where it would wash it out. Yeah, it did that more than once. 

Martin: What about any other effects, over time, to the land? Erosion or.... 

Slayton: Oh, yes. 

Martin: Can you talk a little bit about that? 

Slayton: It washed our road out more than once. (laughs) You know, ’cause it always ran down the road, and it was downhill all the way out of there. A lot of times we just didn’t have a road left. It’d wash it away. 

Martin: Did you notice that the rain and snow had any effect on, if you can remember, grass growing patterns? 

Slayton: Oh, yes. If we had a good winter, a lot of snow, a good wet snow in the winter, then we had wonderful grass. But if not, it wouldn’t be so good. And then the summer rains, boy, if it didn’t start raining in July, why, it’d just be brown by fall. 

Martin: How many times do you think that happened, when you didn’t get rain in summer? 

Slayton: Not very many. Just three or four, I’d say. 

Martin: Three or four years? 

Slayton: Uh-huh. 

Martin: Let’s talk a little bit about water sources. We’ll talk about Doney Park, too, because I know that you had some that you farmed for a couple of years at least, off of--was it Slayton Ranch Road, right? 

Slayton: Uh-huh. Big Rock House was his dad’s house. 

Martin: Right, the original Slayton house. Talk a little bit about where you got the water for that farm, and then where the water came from for the ranches. 

Slayton: It was dry-land farming. If it didn’t rain, there was no water. But everybody had cisterns in the ground, and the water piped off of their buildings into the cisterns. Once in a while you’d have to haul water. And in the wintertime, I can remember when I was at home, my dad and brothers, if there’d come a snow, they’d fill the cistern up with snow, and then it would melt. 

Martin: Was there any water source from the nearby springs? 

Slayton: Doney Park had a water system from.... It wasn’t Mendota [phonetic], was it? Anyhow, a few years later, because my brothers worked on it, they put a pipeline from up there and down through a lot of Doney Park, ’cause it was a spring. 

Martin: And did you get the benefit of that water then, at the Slayton house? 

Slayton: We didn’t, no, because it was too far. 

Martin: Okay, so the pipeline didn’t come down that far? 

Slayton: No. 

Martin: Okay. What about the ranch--water sources for the ranch out on Anderson Mesa, your ranch? 

Slayton: If there was a spring--well, not mine--but I was thinking of Metzgers. I think they had a spring, and they piped it into the buildings. But we just relied on the cistern. We used the roof of the barn, because it was such a big barn, and had it piped into the cistern. 

Martin: Okay, so there was no windmill pumping up water? 

Slayton: No. It was hand-over-hand bucket, getting it back out. (laughs) 

Martin: Well, what about, as you were out there--you were out there for quite a number of years, at least partially. What about, did you notice any--you talked about some of the springs in the area, even though they didn’t serve your particular ranch. When you were out and about on the land, did you notice any change to the springs? Did they get more water, less water, over time? 

Slayton: Less water. 

Martin: Tell me a little bit about those, if you remember some of the [unclear] with them. 

Slayton: There was one in Mormon Canyon that we went up and cleaned it out and boxed it in, because the deer and what not would drink there. And just filled it in with dirt and mud trucks. But we went up and boxed it in and piped it out and down to a trough. And that lasted, oh, quite a few years, and then the spring just fizzled out. I don’t know if it snowed less, or just what. 

Martin: And when? Can you remember maybe at least what decade maybe you started seeing that change happening to that spring? 

Slayton: Oh.... I’d say in the fifties, I believe. Or sixties, maybe. [unclear] nineties. (laughs) 

Martin: Did the changes in the springs, or that particular spring, did it have any impact on your ability to take care of the cows? 

Slayton: Yeah, because our cows watered there. And then that shut off one of their water places. 

Martin: And what about wildlife? Did you see any impact on wildlife? 

Slayton: They had to change too. And at that time, there was a lot of deer in that country down there. But there isn’t many anymore. I don’t know if it’s just the hunters, or what. There’s a lot of elk there. 

Martin: Right. Well, I’m going to switch into wildlife because we started talking about that. I’m going to ask you a little bit about the pronghorn antelope. When you came to the ranch area, hopefully you remember seeing some of them. (

Slayton: Uh-huh.) 

Martin: Was there any kind of a change in patterns over time, when you finally stopped ranching?, and talk a little bit about that. 

Slayton: There was a lot of elk [unclear]. Not as many elk, okay? But there was a lot of antelope and deer at first. And then they just kept gettin’ smaller amounts and smaller amounts. I don’t know if it was the hunting of ’em or what. And then they shipped a lot of the elk in here from--is that House Rock Valley? 

Martin: Could be. 

Slayton: Anyhow, we had more elk than you could shake a stick at. I hated them--I do to this day! 

Martin: Well, let’s talk about that. Obviously they had some impact on what you were trying to do, so talk about that then. 

Slayton: They’d hit a fence and just take it out, string that wire out for half a mile--or it seemed that long when I’d go gather it back up. You couldn’t have a fence with ’em. They would just.... And this one experience: in the wintertime, when we fed our cows, [unclear] had blocks of salt in front of the barn. And that [unclear] walked out, here was these holes so big around and maybe that deep in the ground, in that hard dirt. Come to find out, it was the elk pawing and eating where the blocks of salt was, [unclear] all that dirt. 

Martin: Well, what about forage? Did they have an impact on that then, too--the elk? 

Slayton: Yeah, they did. 

Martin: What about any other kind of wildlife that you used to see out there? We talked a little bit about deer and elk and the pronghorn, but what else were you used to seeing out there? 

Slayton: Not very much. Of course we had a bear or two, a lion or two. But as far as.... No, that’s about it. 

Martin: Didn’t see any difference between.... You said the bear were fairly rare? 

Slayton: Yes. 

Martin: As well as mountain lions? 

Slayton: Well, the mountain lion, we had problems with them. 

Martin: Tell us a little bit about that. 

Slayton: In the spring, especially. 

Martin: What kind of problems? 

Slayton: They was killin’ our baby calves. Yeah, they killed, oh gee, I can’t remember now. At one time I knew exactly--something like seventeen. 

Martin: [unclear] large amount. 

Slayton: Oh, I tell you, we had lion hunters then to come and hunt ’em. Finally got rid of the ones that was doin’ the most damage. 

Martin: Toward the end of your ranching years, did you see a difference then? 

Slayton: Of the lions? Yes. Yeah, because [unclear] he tracked--not tracked, but brought his hounds. I don’t know how many he got--two or three. And then--he had City Garage in Woodlands. What was his name? This has been a few years--quite a few years. 

Martin: That’s okay. 

Slayton: Well, he came, and got one, I know, for sure. That was quite a deal. He went up, stayed all night at the ranch, and then early morning he got his dogs and went over on Mormon Canyon. So he let ’em out. Well, they smelled lion, so they went to bayin’ and carryin’ on in the trailer, so he let ’em out and [they] took off. They treed it, and he had his horse. I can’t think if he was by himself or not--I don’t remember. So he saddled up and took out followin’ his dogs. Well, they got across the canyon there and treed him. So he used a little gun--just a little pistol--and so he shot the lion and made him fall out of the tree. Well, he wasn’t quite dead, so when he hit the ground, this dog was after him, and he bit the dog right near the jaw. So when we got over there then, why, the dog was in the pickup, holdin’ his jaw. So they went and packed the lion out. And I’ve got pictures of my Tanner Paddy [phonetic] grandson holding that lion. And he had to stretch to reach up to get him. He was across the saddle. 

Martin: That’s a big cat. 

Slayton: Yes, it was. And there was one, an older lion, and his teeth was all broken. And he come right in by the house, right there at the tank, and got a calf, but he didn’t kill it. He couldn’t bite it hard enough. His teeth would slide off. But the calf died. We doped it and doctored it and all, but it died anyway. We had all kinds of stuff up there. 

Martin: Sounds like quite a struggle sometimes. 

Slayton: It was, it was. I tell you ranching was not fun--not like you see on television. (laughs) 

Martin: Exactly. Tell me why you stuck it out, ranching. 

Slayton: We had to make a living out of it. We kept our kids out of town. When we moved back to Winona, we had four kids then. And it was just--Paul had always been a cowboy, you might say, and I was raised on a ranch and a farm and rode a horse my whole life, and it was just something we loved. 

Martin: I remember you told me a story earlier in our conversation. It was a couple of years ago, about Paul, when he died, and what you put in his casket. 

Slayton: Uh-huh, his hat. (laughs) 

Martin: Did you put in a picture of his cows, too? 

Slayton: Yes. Owens gave me a picture that he had taken of our cows at the ranch, because he went up there and we pulled him out of the ditch two or three times. He’d go up there getting wood and what not. And it just fit the lid of the coffin. That went in the coffin with Paul. 

Martin: I remember that. I thought that was a nice story. Okay, let’s see, invasive species. I’m talking about non-native grasses and plants and things like that on the ranch. Talk a little bit about that, tell me what you remember. Did you have to do some eradication of them so that your cows wouldn’t get into them? We’ll talk a little bit about that. 

Slayton: Not a whole lot. 

Martin: What kind of species--well, maybe you weren’t having to fight any of them. 

Slayton: At Ashurst Lake, no--yes. I’m getting mixed up. At Holt [phonetic], at the ranch, down in the lower part of the field, was this bush of some kind. It had thorns on it. Well, that was.... But we just kind of kept it small and didn’t really do anything with it. Then at Ashurst Lake, I can’t remember what that was, but there was a spot, just an area maybe as big as this house, that the cattle--cockleburs. (laughs) They was thick down at the ranch. But not big patches. Near the tanks, where the cows would go in. Oh! their tails would get that short and that big around with cockleburs. 

Martin: Okay, so it looks like they would swell up to maybe three times their size, maybe, with hanging on top of the burrs, right? 

Slayton: Yeah. 

Martin: Loco weed? Any problem with that? 

Slayton: Not much. Some, but not much. 

Martin: Did you see any change with that particular weed over time, more [unclear] than when you started, or vice versa? 

Slayton: Loco would more or less take over if it got real dry--you know, if the season got dry. But oh, yeah, we had, there was some loco, and we had a few cows once in a while that would get loco. It’d just be a patch here and a patch there or something. But in dry years, there wouldn’t be very much--it wouldn’t bloom, anyway. 

Martin: Any change to grass patterns over time? I guess sort of what I’m thinking about is when you began to run cattle on the Anderson Mesa land, tell me about changes of grass. Was there a lot of grass there? How did that work in relation to rain and snow patterns and maybe the way that you even grazed your cattle in different places. 

Slayton: Well, you see, the Forest Service wouldn’t let us overgraze. They kept their eyes on us. Our summer allotment at Ashurst Lake, we had to just split it in half. Now, a lot of the ranchers--which Paul refused to do--would break it up in just little patches here and a patch there, move your cows every time. And those cows will move themselves, if they can. You know, the grass gets dry here, they’ll go. If it rains, the next day there’ll be cows where it rained. They’re not dumb animals. But we did strip ours from Ashurst Lake to Deeplah [phonetic] at Long Lake. It was a divided fence there. We put ’em on down on the east side, if the west side got too dry. We had to move ’em twice a year. We didn’t at first, but they come up with that in years later. 

Martin: The Forest Service? 

Slayton: Oh, yes. Because they told us when we could move ’em on and when we couldn’t, and when we moved ’em off, and counted ’em. They’d make sure we didn’t run more than we were supposed to. 

Martin: Sure. Any change to grass up there over time, that you can remember, from when you started to when you got out of it finally? 

Slayton: No, not really. It depended on the rain and the snow, because we got the snow up there in the wintertime, and then in the spring and summer we’d get the rain. And that--it depends on the moisture, as to what your grass does. 

Martin: Did you and Paul hunt up there on Anderson Mesa? 

Slayton: Not much. I went hunting one time, and that was it. I’ve seen a deer, but I couldn’t shoot it. (laughs) 

Martin: What about Paul? [unclear] 

Slayton: [unclear] so hot. But he was so picky that if it wasn’t a good, big, fat one, he wouldn’t even shoot at it. 

Martin: What was he hunting? 

Slayton: [unclear] deer. Just deer. [unclear] didn’t care for it [unclear]. Well, we had our own beef, so why eat wild beef, when we had all of our own?! (laughs) 

Martin: Makes sense. 

Slayton: I would eat venison, but I could not stand elk. I still don’t. 

Martin: Did you see any other changes in species, in wildlife, over the time that you were there? You didn’t talk about coyotes. 

Slayton: Oh, they were bad at one time. 

Martin: Do you remember about when that was? You don’t have to give me the exact year. We’re just talking a decade maybe. 

Slayton: Well, let’s see, I can’t remember right off when they started poisoning them. But that was in the sixties. But they got bad before that. Then the Game--well, I’m not sure who it was--started poisoning them, and that really helped. 

Martin: So they were pretty thick then maybe in the fifties before they started controlling them? And why do you suppose that was, so many coyotes? 

Slayton: I don’t know. Of course you know when they have their litter of pups, sometimes there’s six or eight in a litter. So it wouldn’t take long for them to multiply pretty fast. 

Martin: Did you see any--other than humans--any other predators on coyotes? 

Slayton: Well, there was a bounty on them there at one time, too. And so they had enough people [unclear]. 

Martin: So maybe when that stopped happening, then they became a greater number? 

Slayton: Yeah. 

Martin: Okay. Trees. Did you see any evidence of piñon-juniper growing over time into areas where they hadn’t been before? Or do you remember any changes to tree patterns growing in and growing up? 

Slayton: Well, they got bigger, yes. They got more dense, uh-huh. The juniper, especially, because that’s what we had at the ranch. That was cedars. We called ’em cedars. 

Martin: Sure. Right. 

Slayton: [unclear] business.... Did the Forest Service do some [unclear]? They did. And I know we had one homestead cabled. 

Martin: And cabled? 

Slayton: Two caterpillars with chains. 

Martin: So it drags along and pulls the trees out of the ground. Okay. Some people call that chaining. So chaining or cabling? 

Slayton: Yeah. Same difference. 

Martin: Why do you suppose, if you could think of any, just surmising--I mean, I know you’re not a scientist, so it’s okay. Why do you suppose the trees started moving into some of those open areas? Any thoughts on that? 

Slayton: No. [unclear] There was a lot of brush, more or less, but there wasn’t very many pines, especially. 

Martin: Ponderosa? 

Slayton: But they would be some cedar and juniper. Part of it had--what was it, Long Lake?--had quite a few pine trees on it. 

Martin: What about fires up on Anderson Mesa? Can you remember any memorable ones? 

Slayton: Not while we was.... Uh-uh. My brother started one, one day, branding a calf, but he stomped it out pretty quick. [unclear] 

Martin: So it didn’t really take out any big acres. 

Slayton: No. 

Martin: Okay. But no lightning-caused fires that you can remember? 

Slayton: No. You know, that was so rocky, the lightning would hit the rocks, but I don’t remember.... Well, I did see a few when we first [went] into the allotment, there was quite a few pine trees. And I have seen where they got struck, but that was it. 

Martin: But while you were running cattle up there, you didn’t ever have to worry about them, because there was not even forest fires, but maybe grass fires? 

Slayton: No, uh-uh. 

Martin: Okay. Well, that’s interesting. That’s a long time. 

Slayton: You know, it was kind of scary riding up there when it was lightning, just like here a while ago [back it?]. Boy, did we get them rocks and sparks and fly! It’s really rocky in spots. I didn’t like that! I usually head for the trailer. (laughs) 

Martin: I don’t blame you! Well, you know, we’ve talked about pretty much everything I think we could try to remember. I’d like to ask you again to tell me why you got out of ranching. I know Paul’s health deteriorated. 

Slayton: [unclear] 

Martin: And your kids--no ranchers in there? 

Slayton: No, they always like to go at branding time and have a good fun day. But then the ranch was so far back they couldn’t make a living just off of the ranch--they needed land. They’d have to work. Well, that was eight miles to the highway, to work, and that’s impossible most winters. But the ranch is theirs, I deeded that to my grandkids. 

Martin: So it’s still in the family. 

Slayton: Yes. 

Martin: Any thoughts on government regulations from the time you started until the time you got out of ranching? 

Slayton: Oh, goodness, a lot. 

Martin: How did that affect you? If you could name an experience as a rancher. 

Slayton: I don’t know. I know we had to--like we wanted to clean a tank out, we had to--well, Soil Conservation done most of that. And if we wanted to build a new tank, that had to all be okayed. 

Martin: Was that always the way it was? You started in 1940-what? 

Slayton: No, there was tanks there when we bought it. So I’m sure they built--whoever had it--a man by the name of Black. Black? No, Roscoe had it. We bought it from Roscoe Gates. He had had it for, oh gee.... I’ve got ’26 on my tongue, but I don’t know if that’s right or now. But he had it, he was a bachelor. I think it was, ’cause I tell ya’, I lived in that little two-room house for twenty-six years, and it never seen a speck of paint or linoleum on the floor. 

Martin: Simple living. 

Slayton: Very simple, yes. 

Martin: What about permitting regulations? Any changes from Forest Service from when you started until [unclear]. 

Slayton: Not a great deal. 

Martin: No ill effects on what you can remember, on what you were trying to do? 

Slayton: We had a problem, because when we first bought it, at the ranch there, that was just our permit, the permit that went with that ranch. But then on the mesa, there was three of us up there, had to run in the same. 

Martin: And that was you, and who were the other two? 

Slayton: Herb Metzger and Bart Dry [phonetic]. And Herb wasn’t [unclear] along with. He went by the book. (laughs) Poor old Bart, he was just a good ol’ soul. 

Martin: He was a little more free form? 

Slayton: Oh, yes. 

Martin: And you were too. 

Slayton: We got Herb out of it just as quick as possible. 

Martin: Out of? 

Slayton: Out of the permit. 

Martin: Okay. So then it was just you and the Drys? 

Slayton: Yeah. And that just worked perfect. 

Martin: Great. Okay, let’s talk last about one or two memorable events that stand out in your mind during your time spent up there on the mesa and on the ranch. If you can think, go back--and we’ll talk about the first one that comes to your mind. If there’s another one you want to add, too, you’ll have a chance to do that. What’s the most memorable event that you can remember happening to you up there, while you were up there? 

Slayton: (chuckles) Granddaughter fell in the cistern. (laughs) 

Martin: Okay, your granddaughter fell in the cistern. What happened? 

Slayton: Well, we went up to water the garden, and we had to pump it out of the cistern into the tank we had sittin’ up here on top, then it gravity flowed into the garden. Well, I don’t know just exactly how it happened, but anyhow, the lid was three feet around, and she stepped on it for some reason or what. Anyhow, down she went. Well, the water was only about knee deep to her, but she went, of course, all the way down. And Paul was--well, that was his last summer to go to the ranch very much. So I told the daughter that was with us--Gale--"Go to the pickup and get the keys to the shed!" Well, she did, slung ’em everywhere. By the time I found the one to unlock the shed and get the ladder out, and get it carried up to the cistern and put down for Crystal to climb out on, that was quite an experience. 

Martin: How old was your granddaughter? 

Slayton: Eight, I think. 

Martin: How deep was the cistern? 

Slayton: Twelve feet. 

Martin: What about, we had a big snow back in 1967. Was it December? It was right before Christmas, wasn’t it? 

Slayton: We had two or three along about then. 

Martin: Okay. Was there a time that you experienced one of those big snows? Tell us about that. That’s probably something we need to record. 

Slayton: Well, we was runnin’ out of hay. We had fed the barnful of hay to the cattle, and we had gotten more ordered. Well, when it got here, they got to Winona, of course, with the big trucks. Well, there was no way they could get to the ranch. So we hired caterpillars. 

Martin: They couldn’t get to the ranch because.... 

Slayton: Of the snow. It was four or five feet deep. 

Martin: Great. That’s good to know. 

Slayton: It was over the four-foot [page?] wire. 

Martin: Okay, [unclear] wire? 

Slayton: That’s what we had around that pallet [unclear]. 

Martin: Okay, that’s a lot of snow. 

Slayton: Oh, it was! And we hired a caterpillar to pull those trucks. Well, they plowed the road some, you know, and all, and pulled those trucks on to the house, with the hay. And it took all day long. And then we lost.... Oh, several snows! One snow we hired--well, not exactly hired--they was just friends--to ride and hunt ’em. We bought a snowmobile, and we had a caterpillar, to go out in that area. See, it was eleven sections, the pasture was. 

Martin: That’s considerable. 

Slayton: And those cedar trees, with that snow, they was just bent over. Well, the cattle could get under there, and then they got snowed in. They couldn’t get out. And so Paul and my brothers and these friends spent, oh shoot, seemed like a month, goin’ up there and ridin’ and goin’ on the cats and the snowmobile, and plowin’ the cows out. They’d been under there so long, and so isolated, that caterpillar would come, we had ’em dyin’ of a heart attack. 

Martin: No kidding! 

Slayton: Yeah. One cow, they plowed her out, she ran down there and dropped dead. 

Martin: Wow. 

Slayton: We had several winters.... 

Martin: Did you ever get trapped out there? 

Slayton: Yeah. 

Martin: Talk about that. 

Slayton: Oh, we were snowed in for six weeks. 

Martin: How was that for you? How did you survive? 

Slayton: Well, when we was livin’ up there, that was before we had to move out for the school bus. In the fall of the year, we went and bought a hundred pounds of flour and sugar, and of course we butchered our own pigs and had our meat, and what canned goods we didn’t raise and can. We went to Babbitt Olds there and bought a truckload of food. So then the reason we had to do something for that six weeks is because the cows was hungry. They’d eaten all their food. We were still gettin’ by. We were milkin’ a cow, and had our meat. Of course the potatoes all froze and what not. 

Martin: How’d you finally get out? 

Slayton: Rode out. Well, Paul and a kid that was snowed in with us up there, a boy, they come out to Winona and brought the two oldest children, which was four and five. 

Martin: Your two oldest? 

Slayton: Elaine and Richard. Brought them to Winona, and then the Pills [phonetic] took ’em up to my folks. And then they got back to the ranch. And then we was comin’ out the next day with the two babies. And the baby was born in October, and that was, I don’t know, December or January--two or three months old. 

Martin: Oh! very young. 

Slayton: Yes. But we was gonna come out the next day. 

Martin: You were going to ride horses out? 

Slayton: Uh-huh. My brother came in. He hired a caterpillar, and he come in. (laughs) I’ll never forget it. He come in there and "God damn it, Sis, you get them kids and you get the hell out of here!" (laughs) That was his exact words. 

Martin: They were probably wondering what happened to you all. 

Slayton: Oh, they knew what had happened, they knew where we were, and why they hadn’t seen us and all. ’Cause my folks lived there on Tall Tales right across Nina Road. 

Martin: Okay, Tall Tales Ranch. 

Slayton: Uh-huh. That’s where I was born. So yeah.... 

Martin: Were you ever worried, when you were out there for six weeks? 

Slayton: Well, I was beginning to worry, because Paul was a nervous wreck, because to hear tell, I think he thought more of the cows than he did me! (laughs) His cows was standin’ out there bawlin’ for somethin’ to eat. 

Martin: So how did you finally get the feed in? They plowed out, and then you were able to access? 

Slayton: That’s when they took the truckload of hay in with a caterpillar. 

Martin: So you were out, and then in come the trucks. 

Slayton: Uh-huh. 

Martin: Well, it sounds like a happy ending then. 

Slayton: It was. When my brother brought me out, then I was out for six weeks before I got back. The kids and I was at my folks’, and Paul was up there by himself. 

Martin: He was up at the ranch by himself? (

Slayton: Uh-huh.) He was probably glad to see you when you came in. 

Slayton: Well, I think so. He rode out once to my folks’ and spent the night and went back. 

Martin: Well, any other things you’d like to add to what we’ve talked about that you can think of today? 

Slayton: Things pop into my mind a lot when I’m here by myself. [unclear] back. 

Martin: Well, if you think of anything else, you can just give me a call, and we’ll talk about that. Pretty much we’ve talked about most of the things that I think will be helpful. And so we’ll end the interview, and I’ll tell you thank you, Aunt Dorothy, for your wonderful interview. So that’s it, we’re done! 

Slayton: I know lots when we moved the cattle in the spring of the year, from home to Ashurst Lake, after the kids got a little bit bigger. At first I was what I called the go-fer girl. I’d get them all off for the morning, and then I’d take lunch and get in the pickup and horse trailers and what not and go around to Ashurst Lake. Had to go through Flag. But then after the kids got bigger and all, I rode myself, and moved cows. I’ve done it several years. First of all, I didn’t hire.... When I got old, I got to ride! (laughs) We didn’t hire any cowboys. 

Martin: No hired hands, just you two. 

Slayton: Uh-huh. And that was wonderful. 

Martin: It’s beautiful up there, isn’t it? 

Slayton: Oh, it is. It’s [unclear] Mormon Canyon [unclear] cows. It was so pretty. 

Martin: That’s great. Okay. Well, I think that’s it. Thank you again, Dorothy. 

Slayton: Oh, I’ve enjoyed it Robin.

[END OF INTERVIEW]