We're having a wonderful summer of getting to spend lots of time with family. After Brinlee and Ashley left us last week, we headed to the Jones cabin for a Jones reunion.
I couldn't resist on last cute picture of Brinlee I found on my camera. Look! Brinlee's pigtail looks only slightly thicker than mine!
This reunion is for Stan and his parents, siblings, spouses. Everyone was able to come except for Stan's brother Mark and wife Kathy, who are in the final transitioning of retiring.
We spent a day driving from Red Lodge to Wyoming, as Grandpa Jones described some of the places and events of his youth. I learned, among other things, that as a boy, Grandpa and his family drove from Byron to Red Lodge on July 4th and had a picnic along the river in Red Lodge, which always including a watermelon cooling in the water.
This is the site of the Smith Mines near Bear Creek and just past Red Lodge. In 1943 there was an explosion that killed 75 miners. It was a huge tragedy, and the mine was never reopened. Our kids may remember Bear Creek town, just beyond the mine, where they went to the pig races.
A little further on, we passed the Heart Mountain Japanese Internment camp. Like other WW II internment camps, it housed hundreds of Japanese Americans. Most of the Japanese who were sent here were from California.
Imagine how excited those former Californians were with this fabulous Wyoming view. I bet it was even more thrilling in the winter, buried under 5 feet of cold, blowing snow.
Around the 1933, the Jones family moved from Nephi, Utah to Byron, Wyoming. Grandpa Jones was in second grade, and in addition to his sibling and parents (Enos and Zelda), his grandparents (Edward Evans and Mary Ellen Jones) and Uncles, Aunts, and cousins also lived on this land. This is a view of the family homestead. Grandpa said his mom cried when they got there and cried again when they left and moved to Billings around 1938.
Grandpa's Dad (Enos) said "Isn't it beautiful?" Grandpa's mom (Zelda) said "Beautiful? What's beautiful about it?" Enos said, "It's the spirit of the land, not the view that's beautiful."
I had the impression Zelda was not a convert....
Grandpa's house was in the area of this oil derrick.
Grandpa and his cousin used to play along this ridge. They found dinosaur bones, and when they went home and told their parents, they were poo-poohed and their moms and dads told them it was just the bones of cattle or wild animals. Within the last five or ten years, dinosaur bones were (re)discovered, and they were excavated and taken to a museum. There was also a big article in a magazine about the (re)find. Grandpa Jones and cousin were, sadly, not mentioned.
Grandpa Jones-dinosaur hunter!!
Kim has a voice recorder, and as we traveled around, Grandpa talked into it so that most of the information is recorded.
Grandpa's Grandparents' (Edward Evans and Mary Ellen Jones) home was where those tan buildings are now. There is a creek beyond that, down by the trees you see, also part of the Jones property.
When the Joneses homesteaded here, they were told by a visiting apostle never to sell the rights to their land or they would die broke. They still have their mineral rights, and as you can see, there are still several active oil derricks on their property. Like our Kenison oil checks, they fluctuate a lot. Grandpa told us his dad loaded his tanker truck with green crude oil and drove it to farmers in the area, and as a consequence, they family didn't see much of him.
Marathon is the company currently leasing the land and pumping oil.
Next, we went to large city of Byron (population 157) and visited Jones Memorial Park. Originally this was the "Edwards Evans Jones Memorial Park", named after Stan's great grandpa (Grandpa's grandpa), but a few years ago they dropped the Edwards Evans.
Stan, Dad, Mom, Cliff, Kent, and Konni.
We had a nice picnic lunch in the pavilion at the park. It's a great park, amazing in such a small town, with several modern play areas with swings, slides, and climbing equipment. Hailey and Makayla would love it.
Kent and Kim had gone into Lovell to find a grocery store and came across this WW II memorial, tucked along the back of the store, honoring all of the local boys who served in the war.
In the center were the pictures of the 18 men killed in the war, including Grandpa's brother, Que, who left behind his young widow, Aunt Vera, pregnant with Stan's cousin, Craig.
She later married Bill Poe, shown here in this larger picture.
There were also pictures of several of Grandpa's cousins, including Wayne in the sailor uniform, and Max to his left,
and Orin. You can sure see the Jones DNA in all of them. Although Grandpa was in the War, he was in Billings by the time he joined up, and as a result, his picture is not here.
The store also had this gracious invitation. I didn't have time to take advantage of it.
Grandma has been having a few health problems, and the following day her children managed to talk her into going to the Red Lodge clinic for an evaluation. Among other things, she has pneumonia. While she was gone, Stan and Cliff took the opportunity to demolish Grandma and Grandpa's bedroom. Their bed was so high Grandma needed a stool to climb in and out.
Cliff and Stan removed one level of drawers from under their bed,
rebuilt things,
and put it all back together. Grandma is happy about the results--she can now use her bed sans stool.
While we were gone, Megan and David B. were camping in Bozeman with the Singles Ward.
Megan is burned to a sizzling bright-red crisp. Upon seeing her, I gave her a first class lecture, which included the phrase "skin cancer", the admonition "skin cancer", and the prediction "skin cancer". If she calls and tries to get sympathy from you, resist. I've given her that lecture at least a billion times.
