Installment 3

Oral History Project    Installment #3

The Pioneers   Donitta Cox Blackstone

“News of the beautiful valley spread to relatives and friends. Soon homesteaders were making the arduous journey in covered wagons. The wagons were roughblocked with chains and held back with ropes wounds around trees down the steeper parts of Mancos Hill. Mormon families made their way across southern Utah, crossed the treacherous Colorado River at the “Hole-in-the-Rock,” and settled in Webber Canyon.”

The Menefee Cabin by Loretta Kieffer

“Dick Giles and Harry Lee built the first cabin in the valley in the spring of 1975. Before the first sawmill was established in 1883. All the cabins were built of round, hand-hewn logs. Some families lived in dug-outs temporarily. After Giles death in 1878, his good friend, Andrew Menefee, acquired this cabin which still stands on the Reddert Ranch. Bill Menefee was the first boy born to a Mancos pioneer family and Mobyn Morefield the first girl.”