Our Pioneer Heritage

I have always had a love for my pioneer heritage and I have to admit, have been a bit too proud of it at times. You see, on both sides of my family I have ancestors who sacrificed much to 'come to Zion' to be able to worship according to their conscience. 

My mom's maternal Great-grandfather, Jens Neilson, joined the Church in Denmark and was in the Willie Handcart company. He suffered the loss of his only child and the child who had been entrusted to his care, as well as the use of his toes. He walked with a limp and canes ever after. In 1879 he joined the Hole-In-The-Rock party to settle the San Juan company in the SE part of Utah. That was a six month journey that was only supposed to be 6 weeks. More on that story here. My mom's grandparents on her father's side were chased out of Mexico by Pancho Villa, settling in 1915 in San Juan Co. UT. 

My father's Great-grandfather was also in the Hole-In-The-Rock party and was the owner of the team of blind horses that were the first down the "Hole" as they couldn't see what they were heading into. He settled in Bluff and later, in Verdure. He was a judge and the postmaster. His cabin is still standing on the Bluff Fort historic site property. My dad's great-grandpa on his mother's side was a pioneer in the company of Saints that were called to settle in the Big Horn Basin in Northern Wyoming. That is where I'm going to start my story.

In 1900 the Church called a number of families from Bountiful and Morgan Ut areas to go to Wyoming to settle in the Big Horn Basin. They were to build a 30 mile long canal that would irrigate 17000 acres of land. 

James Crossley Sessions was born in 1862 to Perrigrine Sessions and Sarah Crossley. Sarah had been in the Martin Handcart company and had survived but suffered the ill effects of that journey the rest of her life. She married Perrigrine Sessions, the missionary who had converted her family, a few years after arriving in SLC. James was her first son. James and his family went in the spring of 1900 to the Big Horn Basin. He was the first man in the company to plant trees in the basin. Unfortunately, even though they hauled water for them, they did not survive. He stayed in Wyoming for 5 years but returned to Utah because his wife, Selena Holt, suffered from diabetes and needed better medical care.

(No photo of James available)

There was another man in the Big Horn Company by the name of Charles A. Welch. He was born in 1860 In SLC. He married Mary Louisa Hinckley and in 1900 they moved their family to Wyoming from the Morgan UT area. Charles stayed in Wyoming for the rest of his life, and was a prominent member of the community serving in many capacities. He served in political and church roles as well as being a business owner.

Charles and Mary(Mamie) Welch

James Sessions had a son named Arvil Sessions, who had a daughter named Nina Sessions Barton, who had a son named Karl S. Barton, who had a daughter named Kassie.

Charles A Welch had a son named Charles Golden Welch, who had a son named Ford M. Welch, who had a son named Michael S. Welch, who had a son named Curtis Welch.

In 1986 I was living in Provo in the Raintree apts. Into my ward moved a handsome young man named Curtis Welch. We dated for about 8 months before becoming engaged and married in Aug 1987.

After we married I was looking through a book that Curtis had about the Big Horn settlement. In it there were little paragraphs about the early settlers of Cowley Wyoming. As I looked through them I found James Crossley Sessions. It was then that I realized and pointed out to my husband that our ancestors likely knew each other nearly 100 years before we met. We have often wondered if our pioneer ancestors helped in any way in our meeting and marrying. We like to think they might have!

Joining Cocoa for Wordful Wednesday!

Silver Anniversary in Silverton, CO

2012 marked 25 years since Curtis and I were married. Wow! 

Where does the time go?

 We decided to go on a little get-away to celebrate and thought that Silverton CO would be a great place to spend our silver anniversary!

We left the Sunday after returning from our family vacation. We reserved a room in Cortez because the rooms in Durango and Silverton were pretty expensive. We wanted to do more on our trip than sit in a hotel room. Food would be good!

Just looking over a beautiful green valley on the way to Silverton.

On Monday morning we drove to Durango and on to Silverton. I have not been clear to Silverton before and let me say, 'Its quite the drive!' I think they paved a deer trail. It clings to the steep mountains and goes over several high passes before arriving in Silverton.

We had cool cloudy weather almost the whole trip. That was nice. Unless we were walking around and it started to rain.

We had cool, cloudy weather throughout our trip. 

                                         

Looking up Main Street in Silverton.

We decided to grab lunch before wandering and found ourselves in a bright pink building having a delicious pulled BBQ pork sandwich. 

Thee Pits BBQ-as seen on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives with Guy Fieri.

                                         

We spent the afternoon wandering through town, window shopping and being tourists.
We sprang for some yummy funnel cakes, taking Curtis back to his Ozark roots. 

I have always wanted to go into a mine. I don't know why, I don't particularly like cold, dark holes in the ground, but they intrigue me. When I was looking at what kinds of things we could do on our trip I saw that there was a mine tour just outside Silverton. Decided that would be one of our activities. (couldn't afford the Zip Line thing we looked at) After paying our fee and getting outfitted in hard hats and raincoats, we climbed onto the mine train and chugged our way into the mine. Not a big group, just us and a boy with his dad. Our tourguide sure had a good time with the little boy. At one point he was showing us how they drilled the holes to put the charges in and he had the little boy come hold the drill and then he swung up the sledgehammer. This was a really big man. He would count and the little boy kept dropping it fearing that his hands were going to get smashed. It was all in fun, but I don't think the little guy knew it. Our guide explained the bell system and lingo used in mines as well as the tommyknockers in the mines.

Heading into the Old Hundred Mine.

It was really damp and drippy in the mine. We were glad to have the overcoats. 

Some of the old mining equipment and my groom of 25 years!

After emerging back into the sunlight we hung up our gear and spent a few minutes panning for gold,(fool's) in the sluices they had set up there for that purpose. It seemed harder than I thought it would be. I kept swirling everything off my pan.

Curtis has always had a hankering to pan for gold. 

Any color?

Looking up the mountain from the mine entrance. There is a boarding house up near the very top that the miners lived in. I believe they said it was accessed by elevator from the mine. CRAZY!!

We left the mine and Silverton and drove back to Cortez, tired and hungry from our adventures. We decided to eat Mexican food that night. We both love it and it had been a while since we had had some. We ended up eating at Fiesta Mexicana and we liked it enough to plan to go back again.

Fiesta Mexicana

I'm in Utah taking a picture of Curtis in New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona!

We decided to take the long way home on Tuesday and we drove quite a ways up McElmo Canyon, admiring the farms and vineyards, before heading for the Four Corners Monument. I've lived a lot of my life in San Juan County and had never been there that I could remember. It was much more touristy than I thought it would be. We met a very interesting Navajo man there, Joe Begay, who was selling jewelry but who was also an actor. He spent quite a bit of time talking to us and showing us his scrapbooks of his career. He was on Little House on the Prairie once and I'm sure I saw him.
We took the obligatory pictures of ourselves standing in four states at once and then headed on to Bluff.

Mom and her childhood 'flame', John Wayne! (Gouldings Museum)

When we got to Bluff we found that Uncle LaMar, Aunt Colleen, and Aunt Erma were there and had plans to head to Monument Valley. They invited us along so we hopped into the van and off we went. We went to the Navajo Tribal Park and walked around their gift shop. It was a busy place and there were loads of foreigners there. Then we went to Goulding's to go through their museum and then we had dinner at Goulding's restaurant. Had a really good Navajo Taco. After driving up past the hospital between the rocks, we headed back to Bluff and home.

It was lovely to have no schedule and be able to spend 3 days together. I am so blessed in my marriage and I look forward to the next 25 years, and beyond! Hopefully, we won't have to wait 25 years for our next trip together.

Montana's Reunion

We were sad that Montana would not be with us for our big Welch Reunion. I joked with him that I would make a life sized cutout of him and take it with us. He thought I was weird.
But the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea. I looked all over the Internet and found some places that will make one, but it was very expensive. I just couldn't justify the cost of it. Then there was the space issue. The suburban being out of commission left us with very little cargo space.
So instead I blew up a headshot picture I had of him to approximately life sized and glued it to some cardboard. We attached a little handle and he was set to go with us!

When we left the reunion we sent  Montana to Rexburg with Jordan to see what college life is like.

Jordan and Montana renewing their acquaintance in the main lodge.

Not sure what Jordan was doing here.....Jordan?

Hallelujah! My, what long arms you have....

Pass along cards for Elder Welch....nice photobomb Ford.

Mmmm, Doritos tacos from Taco Bell for lunch.

Family Picture at Cove Fort

Knock, knock! Who's at the door? Looking through the peekhole.

Look closely, it's Elder Welch rolling a hoop!

Elder Welch checking out all the antique furnishings in the rooms of Cove Fort.

What a wagon-load!!

Cascade Falls Hike

On the day we left the Cedar Breaks Lodge, our own little family decided to spend the day together before we all had to separate again. I had heard about this hike years ago from Sis. Higley, our former bishop's wife. I knew that some day I wanted to go on it with my family. This seemed like the perfect time since we were in the area. We drove up into the mountains, stopping at the Cedar Breaks overlook. It was drizzly and quite cold so we didn't stay there long and drove on to Navajo Lake and then to the trailhead. The Cascade Falls are the water from Navajo Lake that drains through the rocks and falls at the edge of the mesa. It was an easy hike(Dad did it in his sandals/slides) and not too long, but it had awesome views and it was cool to see the water flowing out of the rocks.

Cambria and Soren at the Cedar Breaks overlook. This is July?

The trailhead to Cascade Springs.

See those low hanging clouds? They were with us almost our entire vacation. No one got too hot for sure.

We forgot to get James a jacket, so he's wearing Charlie's PJ top.  It worked.

James has the best vantage-point, Dad's shoulders.

Are we really tired, or what?

What??

Soren watching the water shoot out of the rocks. As a parent I was really thankful for the fenced view area.

Showing Dad's bare toes in his slides. Nice hiking attire.

Of course my eyes are closed. Would it be a real picture of Mom if they weren't.?

Oh Yes!! Cambria gave us some really good pictures on this hike. More to come!

It is exceedingly difficult to get 8 kids to look at the camera at the same time with a decent smile on their faces. I guess this is much more realistic. 

1st attempt at a kid picture....fail. Charles not looking.

2nd attempt at a kid picture....fail. Hannah and James not looking.

3rd attempt at a kid picture.....fail. Sadie's eyes closed, Soren being a goof, and James not looking.

4th attempt.....what the heck?? FAIL

5th attempt.....fail.......

After all the picture taking fun, it was time to head back to the vehicles. It was a bit harder going back, but it was worth the hike. Maybe someday we'll do it again.

Just showing how the trail was built to prevent slips and erosion.

Mountains to climb.

Ford looks a little too bouncy!

An interesting bush we saw on the trail. I liked how the leaves are situated vertically. Don't know what it is.

Lanscape reminiscent of home, red dirt and evergreens.

the water rushing away from the falls.

Another interesting tree. Very bristly looking. Not sure what kind of evergreen this is.

The water as it gushes from the rocks. The moss was cool.