A SIGHT TO BEHOLD ~~~ Elizabeth Jacobsen

 Elizabeth Jacobsen Story 

1513 Madison Avenue Cheyenne, Wyoming 82001

 Non-Professional Division Honorable Mention Anecdote

 In the early days before the turn of the century and up until 1903, the sheep owners and cattle owners of Sanpete could graze their flocks of sheep or their herds of cattle on the Wasatch Plateau east of Sanpete County absolutely free. Then in the winter, they would move the herds down from the mountain pastures to the East Desert -- or to the West Desert. 

The West Desert was Jericho where most of the Mt. Pleasant livestock were taken. The sheep were herded by young men from Mt. Pleasant, some of whose families owned the livestock.  

It was a pleasant job for a young man to spend his summer on the mountain and to have his own horse and sheep camp wagon, with a white canvas cover for his shelter and, inside, a stove and table and bed. Each herder had his sheep dogs to help him control the herd.

 In the morning there was much work to be done and also in the evening to get the herds bedded down for night time, but in the afternoon there was time for the herder to spend as he pleased while the sheep were resting in the shade of the trees. 

Some boys rode their horses, some rested and some spent hours foolishly carving names on the lovely white-barked Aspen trees with their pocket knives; but there was one boy from Mt. Pleasant who did not waste his time or talent. Each afternoon he got out his paints, brushes, and turpentine and painted lovely things -- birds, trees, horses, small animals, and his dogs and sheep and the lovely mountains and streams.  

Then at the end of the summer when it was time to bring the herds west to Mt. Pleasant and over to the West Desert, they all came with their sheep—camp wagons down to the valley. Some wagons and herders were not needed on the Desert. Many of the camps were left in Mt. Pleasant until needed again in the springtime of the next year. 

The young herder I most admire was the one who had painted lovely things on the entire space of his new white canvas wagon top. Both outside and, would you believe it, inside as well. It was truly a "Sight to Behold." 

This painted wagon was pulled into the Madsen ranch barnyard, and needless to say, the artist was very proud of his work., Every- one came from far and near to see it - it was very colorful and T, for one, wish I could have seen it. It should have been saved along with many other lovely things from the past that we have lost.