Doug Alder, Historian
 |
| Elaine and Doug Alder |
From our nest high on Sweetwater Hill, we can take in Bear
Lake’s greatest resource-- silence.
Occasionally we hear an airliner way up in the sky, seeing it before
hearing it. Sometimes a semi-trailer
shifts down and we can hear it on the highway beside the lake. Usually it is
silence that dominates. That makes it
possible to watch flocks of birds overhead and notice the morning ritual of
deer visits. About four times a year elk
come by to see if our water is spraying and available to them. Every day we see sage hens and occasionally
wild turkeys. Squirrels are always
nearby, occasionally a badger. A pair of
finches make a nest each spring under our roof overhang and we experience the
birth and eventual departure of their next generation. The silence makes all this possible.
Almost every day silence leads to reading. Like most
residences, our home is the depository of many books, but the silence is better
than elsewhere. Of course, I have to
recommend some reading about Bear Lake.
The first is Robert Parson’s “A History of Rich County.” It was published as part of a 29-volume set
to celebrate Utah’s Centennial in 1996.
The State Legislature sponsored the effort and made a full set available
to all high schools, community libraries and academic libraries. This book has been the basis of this series
of articles about Bear Lake. Parson is a
Special Collections Librarian at the Merrill-Cazier Library at Utah State
University in Logan. When I was a
faculty member at USU, my office was in the old Merrill Library. Drs. Merrill and Cazier were my valued
colleagues then. I am very proud of the
new library and it’s honoring of those two scholars.
A second book is “Sons of Bear Lake” that I wrote and was
published in 2003. It is about the
coming of age of young boys who grew up in the villages of Bear Lake
Valley. Some of them became my students
at USU. It has been available in stores
around the lake and is in the local libraries.
Speaking of libraries, it is important to know that
Montpelier, Garden City and Randolph each have a library. There is also one in the school in
Laketown. Each of them is a great value
to their community.
My wife, Elaine, and
I and our children and grandchildren have been patrons of the Garden City
Library since it’s founding by a group of community women. Marie Weston and her friends, including one
from Laketown, initiated an effort to have a library in Garden City. The town leaders made a small room next to
the council room available in the old town office. The ladies solicited donations of books,
videos and tapes. They volunteered to be
the circulation workers each afternoon.
They pressed the council to build a permanent library. The elected leaders considered doing so and
considered a site near the town park.
When the town was able to purchase a motel complex on Highway 89 near
the town entrance, they included the library in their plans. Today the facility includes a medical clinic,
a swimming pool, a community room, a council chamber and the old entrance is
the town library. Citizens rallied and
remodeled the facility, obtained equipment and coordinated with the State
Division of Libraries. The city hired a
professional librarian and Garden City is now up to the standard of Montpelier
and Randolph. So silence is there for
you to read and books are available.
No comments:
Post a Comment