Persevering Pioneers

Persevering Pioneers

Over the last 160 or so years, there have been a number of intrepid and hearty pioneers who came to wrest a living from the West Desert. Some were associated with the various efforts like the Jackass Mail, the Pony Express, the Overland Stage, and the Lincoln Highway that sought to move mail, freight and people across a harsh environment.

Others came to take advantage of the infrequent water sources to begin the first cattle and farming operations. They developed irrigation systems, grew hay, raised cattle and horses and were, for the most part, relatively self sufficient operations.

I like to introduce you to the first pioneers of the Fish Spring National Wildlife Refuge. Arriving on the scene quite a bit later then many pioneers, in 1959 shortly after the Refuge was first established, Lynn and Judy Greenwalt, were, nonetheless, pioneers by any modern day standards. They would arrive at a location with great raw wildlife habitat, no housing other than a 20' trailer, no indoor plumbing or electricity and would leave it almost three years later as a thriving management refuge with houses, an office, dikes and water control structures being built and a generally a great deal more civilized then they had come to it!

Refuge Manager Lynn Greenwalt and son Mark in 1960



If Santa can find you at Fish Springs I guess he really does find all the children!



The entire Refuge HQ in 1960!

Mind you, the pair were well prepared for the trials and tribulation of being the first on site, living so far from civilization and enduring the lack of what most of us, even in the West Desert, now regard as normal amenities. They were prepared for this daunting task, you see, because both were the children of Refuge Managers. Lynn, in fact spent some of his youth at the Last Chance Ranch on the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in NW Nevada. Those who have been to that area know full well that it is still a pretty wide open and untamed piece of the world. The two would meet when Lynn's father, Ernie would transfer to the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma, where Judy's father was already on the staff.

So in the fall of 1959, this intrepid pair, along with their four year old son Mark, would arrive at Fish Springs full of enthusiasm and with only a little bit of shell shock at the facilities that awaited them. Their home would be a vintage 20' travel trailer. An identical travel trailer would serve as the office while an old surplus military single airplane hanger would serve as the shop. They started off with a drilled well and a 1.5 KVA gas generator! After a few weeks they would advance to the luxurious level of a 7 KVA generator and, at least when the generator was running, a pressurised water system and even got a septic system complete with a cesspool! Mind you, that they could only run the generator three hours each day.

Judy has related to me that during those three hours she would wash clothes like a mad woman, oftentimes to hang them out just in time for one of our famous west desert salt storms! When those infamous salt storms did come in, the left a fine layer of dust over everything inside of the trailers!

The cold front commeth!

And not a vacuum cleaner in sight!



The roads leading out of Fish Springs were, during those days, much poorer then what we know today. The Pony Express Road, at least that portion in Juab County, was particularly infamous. The sign below, posted at the county line in the early 60s when headed west on the Pony Express Road, pretty well sums up the situation! It is hard to read here but the top portion says "Juab County." The bottom piece reads "This Road Not Passable. It's Hardly Jackassable."

Only the intrepid beyond this point!


One of the ancestors of our "talcum powder" blowouts of today!


During Lynn's tenure, the Master Plan for the development of Fish Springs was completed under his guidance. This plan would ultimately be the guiding force behind the vast array of dikes, pools, and buildings that have served the Refuge so very well for nearly 50 years. It is a real twist of irony, that after all of the efforts of planning and overseeing the construction of the first two Refuge residences (and believe me it was a contracting and oversight nightmare for him!), the Greenwalts would only have the tremendous luxury of living in one of the new homes for a couple of months before the next assignment took them away. However, I'll bet after two years in a 20' trailer, those two months were absolute bliss for them!

A great advancement in progress!

Preparing to pour a water control structure

Many thought that Lynn was insane for taking on this assignment initially but he would respond by telling them that "The Manager finds the opportunity to pioneer a new area stimulating and challenging -- and a not inconsiderable honor."

In 1963, Lynn and his family would leave Fish springs for an assignment in the Regional Office in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There would be other assignments to follow, culminating in his becoming Director of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, the Department of Interior agency that would become U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. He would lead the agency from 1973 to 1980.

Lynn and Judy have returned to Fish Springs three times during my 18 years as the
Refuge Manager here. After nearly 50 years of having left Fish Springs and the west desert, it still possesses them. If you asked them of all the Refuges they grew up on and worked at, which is their favorite, they both still answer, without a trace of hesitation, "Fish Springs." It always makes me smile because I am among a very select few who really understand why.