Diary, 1914 May 27-1915 April 20

File — Box: 2, Volume: 19

Identifier: II

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

There is no indication of Woodbury's activities during the interval between his resignation and the first entry in this diary. The diary begins abruptly suggesting that a diary covering the period October 13, 1913 to May 27, 1914 may have existed. When the diary begins, Woodbury is once again employed by the Forest Service, apparently in the lands office in Ogden. The style of entry is quite different from previous books indicating a definite change in his employment position. The entries are usually very brief--one or two lines--and appear irregularly. There is no daily and monthly tally of hours worked and no inspection stamp from the supervisor.

The work Woodbury performed appears to have been a survey of homestead entries on forest land througout Region Four, which included forests in Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona and Wyoming. Woodbury travelled constantly throughout these states returning frequently to the Ogden office to prepare reports. During June he worked with a survey crew on a road from Kamas to Stock-more.

There is no indication of Woodbury's activities during the interval between his resignation and the first entry in this diary. The diary begins abruptly suggesting that a diary covering the period October 13, 1913 to May 27, 1914 may have existed. When the diary begins, Woodbury is once again employed by the Forest Service, apparently in the lands office in Ogden. The style of entry is quite different from previous books indicating a definite change in his employment position. The entries are usually very brief--one or two lines--and appear irregularly. There is no daily and monthly tally of hours worked and no inspection stamp from the supervisor.
The work Woodbury performed appears to have been a survey of homestead entries on forest land througout Region Four, which included forests in Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona and Wyoming. Woodbury travelled constantly throughout these states returning frequently to the Ogden office to prepare reports. During June he worked with a survey crew on a road from Kamas to Stock-more.
In July he surveyed homestead entries in Idaho and in August he travelled throughout Idaho and Wyoming. Woodbury returned to St. George on annual leave for several weeks in September and then returned to his survey work in Idaho and Wyoming. From mid-October to November 29, 1914, he surveyed homestead entries in the Dixie National Forest. He spent the final month of 1914 in Ogden preparing the reports on his survey work and on land classification.
The homestead entry survey and land classification report was completed in March and Woodbury began other kinds of survey work for the Ogden office including boundary surveys and timber reconnaisance. These surveys were undertaken throughout Region Four. Through most of April, 1915, Woodbury was surveying near Trumbull, Arizona.
15 June-10 July. Surveying the Kamas to Stockmore road with Mr. Kendall and Mr. Gardner of the State Engineer's office.
15 July-5 August. Surveying homestead entries in Idaho. He visited Preston, Dayton, Idaho Falls, Hiese, Victor, Thornton, and Driggs. Joe Flack accompanied him on this survey.
6 August-2 September. Surveying homestead entries along the Wyoming-Idaho boundary.
3-6 September. Surveying near Spencer and Rexburg, Idaho.
7 September. "A large fire developed east of us...Upon returning to Kilgore, we found Mark Anderson, hired a rig and drove out to the fire line about 20 miles east of Kilgore. Fought fire all night."
8 September. "Fire practically out this morning, along the west side where we were working so we returned to Kilgore. Went to bed."
12-24 September. Woodbury was in St. George. No reason given.
26 September-11 October. Surveying in Idaho and Wyoming, visiting Preston, Redford, Afton and Montpelier.
16-17 October. While in Ogden, Woodbury took the Civil Service exams for Surveyor-Draftsman.
20 October. Woodbury returned to Enterprise, Utah.
21 October. Woodbury made claim corrections at Spring Creek And Calf Springs while waiting for instructions.
22 October. Woodbury and Kendall went "over the road proposition here."
23 October. "I rode up thru Cottonwood Canyon with Kendall and the country road commissioner and decided upon a route for the road."
9 November. "Telegraphed Ogden for instructions."
14-28 November. Surveying near Panquitch.
30 November-19 December. Woodbury was in Ogden "at work on entry survey notes and plats."
24 December. En route to Provo where he was to meet his family, Woodbury stopped in Salt Lake City to visit the Surveyor General.
20 February, 1915. "Finished up my entry survey work. Got them all sent off to Sur. Gens."
Canyon, in Ephraim, Joe's Valley and Castle Dale. There is no entry for the period December 16, 1915 to January 17, 1916. In January, February, March and April Woodbury attended a series of ranger meetings in Richfield and Provo, Utah; Elko and Las Vegas, Nevada; Idaho Falls, Blackfoot, and Mackay, Idaho. Woodbury usually discussed land classification at these meetings. During May he spent most of his time in Nevada. In June he worked on the intensive land classification of the Uintah National Forest and in July on the Sawtooth National Forest. From mid-July to mid-September Woodbury worked on boundary surveys in Ashley, Wasatch National Forests and in Yellowstone National Park.
11 June. Woodbury made preparations to survey the townsite of Boulder City, Utah. "Talked with some of the men here. Then made some preliminary measurements and made two plans for laying out the townsite. In the evening, I had a meeting with about 20 of the Boulder people that were gathered together during the day. I outlined the plans for laying out the site and they decided upon one plan of survey. I also outlined the policy to be pursued in allowing the people to acquire title to the lots."
28 August. Woodbury revised the land classification circular for use on the Nevada Forests. "After sending it out, I made plans to follow it to the Nevada, Ruby, and Humbolt for personal conferences with the field officers before starting them to work on the classification."
31 August. In Ely, Nevada Woodbury discussed land classification with the district supervisor, Mr. Thompson and George Larson, the ranger who was going to do the actual classification. "The perplexing point raised here is to decide where the limit between watershed protection and pure grazing lands. I made it clear that the reports must show the conditions as they actually exist. He [Larson] seems to think that the boundaries as they exist are in general as satisfactory as practicable to get and that if eliminations are started, there is no place to stop. He also thinks that there is very little agricultural land and much of what there is in narrow strips along canyons and that it is impractical to establish minimum farm units because people do not farm primarily for the sake of farming, but as a secondary issue to supplement his stock raising."
2 September. Woodbury travelled from Ely to Deeth where he met Supervisor Ryan to discuss the preparation of the land classification reports. Ryan thinks the outline in the circular of August 16 [which Woodbury had written] is not clear and definite enough for the rangers to follow, and I agree with him." The following day Woodbury revised the circular.
23 February-23 March. Preparing the land classification report.
25 March. Woodbury went to the Surveyor General's office in Salt Lake City to talk "over the instructions in the Dixie & Powell cases..." They also discussed "the forms for writing instructions, and in view of the recent criticisms that they have received from the commissioner, they were more than anxious for suggestions for improvements, of which I gave several." Thoresen, the Surveyor General, commented that he "thot that he could give the F. S. surveyors authority to extend the public surveys." After he had spoken to Thorensen, Woodbury informed Hoyt that John Raphael was going to have a conference with Preston Nutter concerning the piping of Big Spring on the Arizona Division of the Dixie National Forest. Raphael needed to know if it would be proper to inform Hutter about the status of the lands in the Arizona Division. "Hoyt replied that Hutter might be informed that the Secretary of Agriculture was seriously considering the elimination of a great deal of that land but it was not definitely decided and might be blocked by the Interior Dept. or the stockmen affected."
1 April. Woodbury drove to Trumball, Arizona "with a view to deciding whether it should be returned to the Forest."
2-10 April. Arizona boundary survey continued.
11 April. "We all took a trip into the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River and 5 of us went down to the water."
12 April. "This morning, we all went over to the top of the ledge to view the Grand Canyon from another point."
14-16 April. Arizona boundary survey completed.
27-30 April. Woodbury returned to St. George to prepare his report on the Arizona boundary survey.

Dates

1914 May 27-1915 April 20

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