A large car cavalcade will be leaving Santa Fe on Thursday, July 18 to follow the route of Fathers Dominguez and Escalante. The group will be coming through Dolores on Saturday the 20th between 10 and 11 a.m. with plans to wind up their trip in Salt Lake City on July 24th. Jorge Arce Larreta of Salt Lake City, a member of the committee that organized the cavalcade was a recent visitor to Dolores and stated that although they will not stop enroute this time, the group has great interest in Dolores due to the fact that Escalante came through Dolores via Lost Canyon and stopped for two days just north of the present town to rest and recuperate. A later trip is planned by the group to reenact the original expedition with full dress.
The forest fire that was reported on Tuesday of last week near Ferris Reservoir, was brought under control on Friday after consuming 300 acres of San Juan National Forest and about 10 acres of private land. According to forest Service officials the fire evidently started from a camp in Ferris Canyon and spread quickly in the tinder dry forest helped by wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour. At the peak of the fire, a total of 174 men were fighting the blaze. The only casualty during the fire was a helicopter which was being brought in on a standby basis to the Dolores office. In attempting to land the copter hit some power lines and crashed. No one was injured.
The Creative Craft Club will hold their regular meeting Tuesday at the Dolores State Bank Meeting Room. Florella Oakes will demonstrate how to make aluminum can hats.
On July 4 at 5:05 p.m., 8 miles north of Dolores on Highway 145, Clifford Wallace Olin, age 28 of Cortez was driving a '52 Willis Jeep southbound when he went off the right side of the roadway and hit some large rocks in the bar ditch, remaining on its wheels, causing $300 damage. He had complained of shoulder injuries, no seatbelts were in use. The accident was investigated by Bill Wright.
Nancy Grubbs got up Wednesday morning with a note on her kitchen table informing her that her three children, Wendy, Votah and George Jr. were going to pick up trash from the Totten Lake Road to Dolores. When she went out at mid-morning the kids had accumulated enough trash to fill the trunk of her car so she loaded it up and left the kids to finish the chore that they had set for themselves in helping clean up their community.
Light showers scattered throughout the high country last week and did little to alleviate the serious drought in the area. Although Dolores is not contemplating water rationing at the present time, Dove Creek, as of Wednesday of this week, went on a schedule of irrigating four days a week. Cortez imposed a volunteer basis restriction and Summit Ridge was forced to shut off all irrigation water.
In talking to the Montezuma Plywood Plant manager, Henry VandeVoorde this week, it was learned that the employees of Montezuma Plywood, in a vote taken on June 28, voted 90 for and 49 against, joining the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners Union, headquartered in Albuquerque.
Shannon Livick
