Going
camping is always a fun and exciting experience for me. This
past weekend I gathered with my cousins on my father’s side and
we all went up to Wolf Creek Pass (9,500 feet above sea level) and
camped out where my grandfather herded sheep a century ago in Utah.
Grandpa Ern
The
highlight of the trip was to get in our cars and drive out to where
his sheep wagon would have been parked and then think of what it was
like for him when he was herding sheep here for so many years.
Friday
night as we all gathered around the campfire, my cousin Ernie played
a tape that was created 25 years ago, when the family gathered at
Liberty Park in Salt Lake City, and our father and his brothers and
sisters told their stories about what early life of being raised by a
strong mother (Lizzie) and a hard-working sheepherder (Ern) was like
in the early 1900’s.
Grandma Lizzie and Grandpa Ern on their wedding day.
I
never met my grandfather, who passed away about eight years before I
was born, but I have always heard about his challenging life.
Grandpa John Earnest Thomas was born in Center Creek (near Heber,
Utah) on November 5, 1783. He was the eighth child of Joseph and
Margaret Thomas.
Great
Grandpa Joseph was born in Council Bluff, Iowa, and came to Utah with
the Bryant Jolley Company, arriving on September 9, 1852. After he
married Margaret Watson they homesteaded a farm in Center Creek and
built a two-room house to live in. My grandpa Ern was the eighth
child. Uncle Hal, as I always heard him referred to, was born about
18 months later.
In
the winter of 1886, when my grandfather Ern was two years old, his
father Joseph became ill with pneumonia and died after a short
illness, leaving Margaret to raise the small family that ranged from
6 months to the oldest being 18 years old. Two weeks later Margaret
became ill with pneumonia and died, leaving the nine children to
raise themselves.
Saida,
the oldest one, married John Austin and took my grandfather Ern to
live with them. The rest of the kids got farmed out to relatives,
and as the older children got married, they took a younger child in
with them to raise.
School
was a challenge because they had to walk to school, which was two
miles away and the winters were cold.
When
he was nine years old, Ern went to work at the sheep camp for his
brother-in-law. His duties were to cook the meals, care for the
camp, bring the water, then to pack up the horses and move the camp
to another location when the herd moved.
He
used to say he had to put the packs on the packhorses when he was so
small that he had to stand on the water bags to reach the saddle
bags.
With
years of practice and experience he graduated to a sheepherder. He
married Grandma Lizzie and they together raised six children. My
father Julian was the second-oldest.
Here
I was at the top of the world to learn about Grandpa Ern. I could
see that he took what was given to him and made the best out of each
situation.
When
we got up Saturday morning, my brother Jared cooked Grandpa Ern’s
famous sheepherder pancakes. I could see that my love for the
outdoors was well nurtured right here by my grandfather for years.
My brother Jared presided over the pancake station at last week’s camping trip.
The
love and appreciation for nature was the magic that was passed down
to my father Julian, who was a Forest Ranger for his career. It was
then passed to me on all the outdoor trips and adventures I went on
with my family as I grew up.
My
entire career has been dedicated to teach others to love the outdoors
and to go and enjoy them as my grandfather Ern did.
This
short camping trip gave us all time to reflect on this simple but
humble man who gave his entire life so that his family could be
blessed in so many ways.
Sheep still graze where my Grandpa Ern was a sheepherder more than a century ago.
Dian
Thomas has spent her life writing books and being in the media
demonstrating her creative ideas. Now she is a tour leader, leading
adventure trips to such fun places as South Africa, Peru, China, and
Europe.
To
learn more about her trips, go to www.dickjensentours.com
or call the office at (801) 917-1131. Tell them that Dian sent you
and they will give you a discount on your next trip. She
will be leading a trip to Peru that leaves in September.
Dian Thomas was blessed with the good fortune to be born near and raised in
the remote, breathtaking Manti-La Sal National Forest in southeastern Utah,
where her father was the forest ranger. She took the skills she learned in the
outdoors and turned them into a New York Times best-selling book, Roughing It
Easy. Her appearance on the NBC's "Tonight" show with Johnny Carson
boosted her into the national media scene, where she became a regular on
NBC's "Today" show for eight years and then ABC's "Home Show" for six years.
After more than 25 years of media exposure and 19 books, she now shares her
practical insights and wisdom with audiences who want to savor life.
A former Relief Society president, Dian is currently serving as a visiting
teacher. Visit her website at www.DianThomas.com