Contributed to Family Search by bkjohns
By 1905 more modern machinery was becoming available and N.M. Hodges purchased the first steam thresher in this part of the country.
Some of the early winters were very severe and it was not uncommon for the ice on the lake to freeze over three feet thick. One winter when some people of the ranch and community, ran short of hay, they purchased hay from ranchers on the east side of the lake and this hay was hauled by teams and sleighs across Bear Lake on the ice. During the wintertime, the men saved large blocks of ice, which were stored in ice houses filled with sawdust, which would preserve the ice for summer use.
The end of the next decade brought about many improvements. Many homes were equipped with electric light and had telephones, also acreage of land had increased to over 2000 acres during years from 1892-1915 under the ownership of N. M. Hodges. After the organization of Hodges Land, Livestock, and Milling Co. in 1905 some of the sons shared certain divisions of the ranch property, also sales were made to many individuals to build homes and live on the “Hodges Ranch”.
It was during the year of 1910 that the saw mill burned, which had been located on the lake shore property below Charlotte’s home. The burning of the mill was a great loss financially and caused considerable worry, it also was a loss of a special interest that N. M. Hodges had cherished through the years. Milling business seemed to be an outlet for his fondest ambitions.
During the years that followed with the many changes in the business procedures and division of the properties etc. created a vast difference in the personnel of the Hodges Company. Many of the brothers sold their interests and moved away to find homes in other valleys and states- even into Canada.
These changes brought ill health to N. M. Hodges and with his death 14 April 1915 the remainder of the estate was sold to various parties and more homes were built, and new families moved in on the ranch properties.
In 1915 James W. Neil of Kemmer conceived the idea of obtaining property on the shore line and to build a resort. He with the help of business men of Kemmerer, bought the lake shore property which had been used for lambing grounds by N. M. Hodges and Sons. This proved to be an ideal location for such a venture- and was given the title “Ideal Beach” because of the beautiful sandy beach and the view of the magnificent colorful Bear Lake.
The next 27 years brought many changes in the lives of the people who lived in the Hodges Ranch community. Summer cabins were built on the shore to entertain tourists-the Ideal Beach resort became very popular- and was known throughout the state.
In 1937, during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, the little community(known as HODGES RANCH) succeeded in incorporating and availed themselves of the opportunity of installing a culinary water system with the aid of Government funds through the Public Works Administration.
In trying to get the project approved originally, and meet all the government requirements necessary for their support, it was necessary to go through a lot of “red tape”, the town didn’t have a large enough population to meet the necessary requirements for a project of this type and there were several other things that made it look like the government would not approve and give their support to the water system. Just when things were looking the darkest, one of the officials by the name of Mr. Pickle (first name not available) who had to do with the promotion of the project, said that if they would name the town after him he would see that the whole project would get government approval, and today Hodges Ranch is called PICKLEVILLE.
No comments:
Post a Comment