Skijoring, as they called skiers racing while being pulled by horses was quite an event too.  But the horses pulling the snow chariots was an amazing sight They raced two teams at a time but occasionally due to some crowding of events they had three teams  running neck and neck at breakneck pace down the street from Blacks cabins to the Wort Hotel people screaming and going wild, the snow and ice flying out from under the horses Hoofs, their nostrils flaring, top speed,  Ben Hur had nothing on theses cowboys, ranchers and drivers.  Lots of money exchanged hands after the races.  Still get excited thinking about those great horses and the races they ran.  After the investors cleared out  timber on Snow King Mt to build  a rope tow and hold some ski events people became more interested in skiing.  Everyone was talking about “Shushing” the mtn.  Fred Feuz a rancher north of Moran, kept hearing about it.  Fred was from Switzerland and his daughter Hilda, told me he  watched some of the races but kept wondering about this “Shushing” (sp?) the mtn.  He was shocked to find out it only meant to go straight down the mtn.  Fred didn’t know there was any other way of skiing.  While skiing is now the new economy in the winter I loved the old Snow King mtn.  During the mid 30/s the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC boys) built a good hiking trail through the trees two miles to the top  There was a wooden bench they made at the foot, midway and the third one on top.  I have hiked up that old trail so many times, when I couldn’t get someone to go with me to take a book, I went alone.  After the ski tow was built, the City Ski hill mgrs decided to bring in some name skiers to try and give the new industry a lift.  They brought in Alf Engen and his two brothers.  I think Alf was world champion or became world champion.  He offered to carry a couple little girls down the hill while he skied.  He chose Marion Bennet, my friend for one and me for the other as we both weighed under 100 lbs.The Engen brothers were Norwegian and helped to bring fame to the USA ski industry.  One brother became a manager of either Alta or Park City Ski Areas in Salt Lake.  I believe one of the descendents was the Mayor of Missoula MT.  

 

In the 30’s my parents were both Democrats and were very pleased with Pres. Roosevelt and  his Works Projects Administration helped many people in Jackson to keep starvation from the door The boys who became CCC’s sent their money home each month ($30) and  were allowed to keep $5.00 for their spending money.  They built trails in the parks and areas, a few roads,  WPA built the  Teton County Library in memory of Dr. Charles Huff (which in later years I was hired as Library Director) My dream of unlimited books finally came true.  I remember when Social Security was first proposed and my parents were making a decision if they should become members.  I now know that the reason for S.S was so the government could have a “slush” fund to spend or a so-called  Ponzi scheme.   There wasn’t any way in the world they could raise taxes as people had no money. So Roosevelt and  his cronies set up this method of giving something to the workers while using it for their funding of projects they preferred.  Soc. Sec. should have been placed in an untouchable and invested fund for payment back to the people after age 65 yrs.  But it was always in the General Fund Budget and consequently is broke as it became Congress and the President’s slush fund to spend at will.  Now everyone is crying about paying for it.  I think of my Dad and Mom struggling to keep food on the table for six kids, and pay their Soc Sec until they could retire.  My dad lived 3 years after retirement so he benefited very little from his payout. Mom used hers for about 15 yrs.  My brother Darrel only rec’d it one or two years, so someone is benefiting from their investment. Or Congress  has had fun spending their hard earned cash. Many women sewed clothes, blankets for  the needy through the WPA project. Teton Pass remained closed most of the time before  and during  World War II.  Transportation generally went  South through Hoback Canyon Bondurant, Pinedale, Baggs and to the trains going east and west through Rock Springs.  Some effort was made to keep Teton Pass open with Snow Plows but the road at that time was so narrow and steep it was closed many days through the winter and slides would frequently take out the power in town for several days The men who struggled on the pass repairing electric lines trying to open the road with little in the way of warm clothing were to be admired for their courage and fortitude.  Now I see the ski clothes of today and think of my poor dad and his friends out in their underwear, overalls a pair of wool socks over cotton ones, four buckled overshoes, a flannel shirt, a jacket and cap.  Many of the men took their wives worn out hose and made a cap to cover their ears  from the openings at the top to pull over under their hats  Even when my boys were going to school in the late forties childrens clothes weren’t much better, heavier ski pants and mittens and knit caps were about the only improvement.  It wasn’t until the ski recreation that another industry was born, warm outdoor clothing.  And later the Eddie Bauer and L.L.Bean Co. provided insulated clothes with style.   

 

After I married Bob Tomingas, which my mother unhappily accepted, we had a tiny camper and Bob went to work a couple months building  the new asphalt highway to Dubois  Over the same gravel roads that dad worked on so many years before  When the road was finished  we moved to Gillette Wy. and he went to work for the park service  at Devil’s Tower part time  that fall.  Bob had just been released from Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver after spending 7 months recovering  when we were married.  He had been in training camp in Minn and their commander ordered them out with full pack to march 10 miles in 40 below zero weather.  Some of the men didn’t go, but he was an obedient farm boy so he did the march and then came down after a couple days with pneumonia.  Most of them died including the commander. While a doctor came around occasionally no one was there to take care of a pneumonia patient.  Bob laid semi conscious for a week, lost 40 lbs, finally the doctor came around again and told him since he wasn’t going to die they would send him to Fitzsimmons and see if they could get him on his feet again.  I think Bob hated all Doctors from that day forward. When he arrived at Denver they Diagnosed “Empyema” water between the chest wall and lungs from lying immobile and from frostbitten lungs It had turned into not only a dangerous situation but one from which many people didn’t recover.  This was late thirties before penicillin.  He was treated by making an opening between his ribs and inserting a draining tube.  This tube had to be removed and cleaned and replaced often. It was a very painful procedure as he couldn’t have any anesthesia with his lung condition and only a numbing medication for the outer layer of flesh. After the ordeal one day he was lying on the table, bathed in sweat and nearly passing out from the pain, one doctor said, “Hey did I hurt you that bad?”  Needless to say the doctor would have been stretched out on the floor if Bob had but a little strength.  But he did totally recover after months there and didn’t seem to retain any problems from his ordeal. 

 

I mentioned Bensons Pond earlier.  This was more of a  reservoir than a natural pond.  However the clean water flowed in from Cache Creek and flowed out so the pond was good for swimming.  Someone had built a raft and kids could get on and with a long pole push it around the reservoir.  This water may have had something to do with an original power plant up there.  I thought they used generators but it is possible they had some kind of small power supply which needed water for cooling.  The power plant Daddy came west to help build up Flat Creek was only used a few years as REA (Rural Electric Power) companies had built the big Bonneville Coal fired electric plant among others.  They were going around buying up all the small privately owned companies and bringing a bigger power source into many  western  rural areas  for the first time/  They power companies strung wires across the west making life less difficult for so many.  Especially the housewives and mothers.  Gone were the wash boards carrying water as it could now be pumped into the house.  Whatever else went on during the thirties that was one of the biggest blessings of all.  So much druggery through the years to keep a farm and household going..   

 

Many characters and interesting people came to Jackson through the years.  While we lived at the Elk Ranch in Moran during the war  a Countess from Austria, Hungary or Poland was sent to Jackson by her husband to keep her out of their war torn country.  I would see her nearly anytime I went to town as she was very lively,  always dressed from top to bottom in beautiful furs she mingled with everyone.  She was a social drinker and  she loved to play poker.  Since gambling was open in Jackson she made her way to the Cowboy Bar and would  daily sit in on a  high stakes game of poker with the local men.  I believe she lived in the Wort Hotel during that time.  One time she and a cowboy ? (pseudo, maybe)  were going at night from the Cowboy Bar across the alley to the Wort Hotel  The Cowboy Bar as all the businesses and homes each had their own cesspool or septic tank.  This was before they had a sewer system in Jackson.  The Cowboy Bar constantly had trouble with theirs as the pipes would freeze in the winter and have to be dug up as it would flood the alley.  They had barriers around the cesspool which had been dug up for repairs this particular winter night.  However the Countess and the Cowboy went out the back door of the bar taking the shortcut to the Wort Hotel late at night.  Needless to say the Countess was well acquainted with liquor and always imbibed while she was out and about at the bars.  So they walked out into the alley and somehow she missed seeing the barriers and stepped into the cesspool falling flat on her butt.  The cowboy was standing there laughing at her so she reached up and grabbed his leg and pulled him into the  hole where the cesspool sewage had gathered.  When they finally got each other out she stripped off her clothes in an entryway to the hotel, had someone get her a robe and went to her room.   She then called the Lumleys and had them go down and open up their drug store and she bought all of the perfume they had in stock.  She took  more than ten baths dumping a bottle or two of the  most expensive perfume in each bath.  That is the story Florence Lumley and others  told me.  All of her clothes were burnt in the trash.  We weren’t in town at that time but everyone was laughing and shuddering about the midnight swim by the Countess in the Cowboy Bar cesspool.  Most of the females in town didn’t go to Bars alone  without a male escort but the Countess was a law unto herself. It wasn’t until later during the War that ladies started going  into bars without a male with them.  All the men were away fighting the War and there were few escorts for young women    

 

Every winter the Wort Hotel hosted the “Forty niners Ball   This was a big costume ball.  The ladies in town would send to Salt Lake or make a trip down there to get wonderful costumes, Civil War dresses, pioneer clothes, Indian costumes, fur trappers, gold miners with pans for gold, outlaws, cowboys, everyone dressed up/ Bill and Venice Grant usually won as they always wore fabulous costumes from the Civil War.  Bill as a General and Venice as a lovely Civil War lady with elaborate  dress and hair style. Clover Sterling, the western rodeo clown and the “Outlaw '' in the drama played out on the streets at the Elkhorn Arch always came as a gold miner and brought his mule loade with a pack and pans into the hotel while he partied.  Best costumes were chosen. I remember old Mr. Owens who stayed at the Crabtree Hotel in the summer He was one of the first climbers in the Tetons and Mt. Owen is named for him.  It is located around two peaks south of the Grand Teton,  I looked for it on a map last summer but didn’t see it named.  I would see him taking short walks around town. He was quite old then and I don’t know how long before he had climbed the Tetons.  

 

The Crabtree Inn was one of the landmarks in Jackson.  It was operated by Rose Crabtree, one of the pioneer ladies in Jackson.  I think she was on the original all female town council, library boards and was active in just about anything civic that was going on.  Crabtree Inn was a two story small hotel, she may have served the guests meals too, I don’t know   The hotel was painted white and sat on the hill  going east towards the refuge The business district ended there except for Ma Reeds restaurant.  Don’t know much about her but she owned a big one room café with ranch tables sitting around  Her chicken and dumplings were well known and she was very generous to local townspeople with any leftovers she had during the depression.  In so far as I know, she had no family and when she died someone bought it and rented it as a house.  I believe the Charlie Shearer family lived there. Ollie was their son three or four years older than I was.  One time his father let him use the family car to take some kids swimming in a hole at the Grosvent River.  I was invited because I was with Jimmie Richards probably as Ollie had a girlfriend and was a senior in high school when I was a Freshman  Anyway his dad made him promise not to drive over thirty five miles an hour.  Just to mention how most kids paid attention to their parents in those days. Ollie  never went over thirty five miles an hour, and stayed only the two hours he had promised his dad.  The girls changed into bathing suits in the car and the boys went off into the brush.  Most of us were still pretty modest.  Ollie worked for Bruce Porter at the drug store and went on to become a pharmacist, I think.  A really good kid.