Oral History Program Lee Rue Allen Interviewed by Carmen Anderson 17 July 1972 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Lee Rue Allen Interviewed by Carmen Anderson 17 July 1972 Copyright © 2012 by Weber State University, Stewart Library Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. 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These oral history assignments were created to help Weber State students learn the value and importance of recording public history and to benefit the expansion of the Weber State oral history collections. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. 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It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Lee Rue Allen, an oral history by Carmen Anderson, 17 July 2012, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Lee Rue Allen Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Lee Rue Allen, conducted by Carmen Anderson on July 17, 1972, at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. Mr. Allen began working at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in 1935 and has been employed there for sixty-one years. His first assignment involved a Civilian Conservation Corp project. In this interview, Mr. Allen discusses who surveyed and planned the refuge, the types of equipment used in the management and upkeep of the refuge and hunting regulations in and around the refuge. CA: Mr. Allen, would you tell us a little bit about your background and how you came to hold this position? LA: I started as a C.C.C. enrollee in the Brigham City C.C.C. camp in 1935. After two years there, I took the Civil Service examination and got a job with the Bureau of Sports Fisheries working at the research lab at the Bear River Refuge, first as an assistant technician and later as a clerk-typist. I worked there from 1937 until 1961. From 1961 to the present time, I've worked as a clerk at the Bear River Refuge. CA: Very good. Has the federal government always owned the land that the Bear River Refuge is on and how was it obtained? LA: The land that the Bear River Refuge is on was obtained in various manners. Some of it was acquired by executive order through purchase. Some of it was acquired by exchange with the state—the federal government giving to the state certain lands that were outside the boundaries of the refuge and then receiving lands from the state that were inside the proposed areas of the refuge. A similar 1 exchange was made with the Bear River Land and Silt Company when exchanging their land for land that was within the proposed boundaries of the bird refuge. Some of the land was exchanged with the Bear River Gun Club in like manner, while other land was received through easement—that means there is no ownership of the land and the government took possession of the land. CA: Who surveyed and planned the refuge? LA: L.N. Windsor from Salt Lake City was the federal surveyor for the Bureau of Biological Survey in that day. Working with him were Van T. Wilson and McBride from Salt Lake City. These men and others surveyed, laid out, and mapped the land. CA: Are the boundaries of the refuge marked and is it necessary to patrol the refuge? LA: All the boundaries of the refuge are marked. The boundaries that are not covered by water are marked by a fence line. Other boundaries that are covered with water are marked with markers, signs, and such as that. CA: Who were the C.C.C. boys and what did they do on the refuge? LA: The C.C.C. boys were members of the Civilian Conservation Corp that was set up by President Roosevelt in the early 1930s. They were men who did not have means of economic livelihood or money to support themselves or an income. They were unemployed in other words, and needed work. They were taken into these camps. The boys who worked in the Brigham City camp came from various parts of the United States. They worked out on the bird refuge hauling gravel to the roads, building buildings, control structures, walks, dikes, and many other projects in relation to the maintenance, operation, and building up of the 2 refuge. Also, we worked on biological projects such as nesting surveys, census work, disease research work, and various other projects that the boys could be used for. CA: Is there a charge to visit the refuge? If so, what are the funds used for? LA: The Bear River Refuge was set up and came under the Land and Water Conservation Act of 1965. The user’s fee charged to visit the refuge and to make the twelve mile drive around the Unit 2 loop is a dollar per car. The money taken in from this is put into the federal government general fund and used for various projects in regards to recreation throughout the United States. CA: What types of equipment are used in the management and upkeep of the refuge? LA: There are various types of equipment used, all the way from draglines, tractors, mowing machines, trucks vehicles, and equipment of that nature along with maintenance equipment such as drills, presses, and various things to repair equipment. Also used to a very great extent is the airboat, which is the short word used to designate the air thrust boat which was first made by Cecil Williams in the early 1940s. It is an aluminum boat with an airplane motor on the back of it, which allows the boat to travel over very shallow water and mud surfaces. It is much better to get around the refuge with that than any other type of boat because of the nature of the terrain we have to travel over. CA: What are the draglines used for? LA: The draglines are used to build channels and dikes, to clean out channels, construct ditches where you can control the water or extend the water out on to 3 dry land, build up dikes to retain the water and make impoundments, and such things as that. CA: Is it necessary to change the channels from time to time? LA: The channels were originally built and laid out with the early plans of the refuge. The only other thing we do now is to clean out some of these channels, or, in areas where the water is not getting to land that can be reclaimed to build up a marsh, we might build a new channel to such areas. CA: How much upkeep is there on the dikes and the channels? Is it just the things that you've mentioned, or is there more? LA: The dikes and channels require considerable maintenance work such as the roadways have to be regarded as the gravel continues to disappear down into the mud underneath. The muskrats sometimes dig holes in the dikes. It's necessary to haul considerable gravel onto the dikes to keep them up where they are in good shape for people to travel over, particularly the area open to the public. CA: How are these dikes constructed? LA: They are originally constructed by a dragline throwing the mud up out of the channels, digging the channels and throwing the mud up along the channels. After the mud has settled and dried out to a point where you can get on to it with a vehicle, then the gravel was put onto the surface of the dike. CA: How much of the area is developed for waterfowl use? 4 LA: The refuge contains approximately 65,000 acres, approximately 25,000 acres is in water impoundments, and approximately 15,000 is undeveloped outside the impoundment area. The rest is mostly dried mud flats. CA: What is meant by a closed area? Is anyone allowed in such areas? LA: A closed area is an area outside the units that are set up for waterfowl hunting. It's closed to the entrance of any person upon this land. Generally, the hunters have a designated area that they can go into to carry out their waterfowl hunting activities. The area beyond that is closed to hunters and set aside as a sanctuary for the birds for nesting and resting purposes. In such a manner, the birds have their free area to go into where they will not be molested by human intrusion. CA: Do visitors such as bird watchers and photographers harm the birds in any way? LA: Generally, they do not harm the birds except in some minor cases. They may prohibit the bird from being on her nest to keep the eggs warm, or they might scare away the birds, or cause some predator to come along and get the eggs before the mother bird can return to her nest, but those instances are minor. CA: What time of the day is best to see the refuge and why? LA: Normally, the early morning hours are a good time to visit the refuge or the evening hours. During the middle part of the day, the birds are usually resting. You do not see as many around when it is a hot day as you do when it is in the earlier hours of the day. The best time to visit the refuge, I would say, is in the morning. 5 CA: How is hunting on the refuge regulated and controlled and what are some of the regulations? LA: Hunting on the refuge is regulated by federal regulations. Hunters sign a register, then go out and do their hunting in the open areas where they are allowed to go hunting. They return after the hunt and record their kill, report back into the office, and then continue on their way. These regulations are set up to protect the birds. They are to see that the hunter did not kill over his limit and that he did not kill the wrong kind of birds or molest the birds in the closed area. This is regulated by employees who have law enforcement authority to check the hunters and see that they are in line with the regulations and the hunting program. CA: Are there some ducks that are not allowed to be killed? LA: They can kill most any duck that is on the refuge except in some years we have had regulations where they were not allowed to kill the Canvasback, or if they could kill the Canvasback, it was only in certain numbers. They were allowed to kill the Redhead only in certain numbers. In some cases like that, where some species of ducks have been regulated by federal regulations, other birds that they are not allowed to kill are shore birds. The Wilson Snipe is not hunted on the refuge, and many of the other shore birds that people mistake for the snipe. CA: Are these Canvasback and Redhead ducks easy to distinguish from the other ducks? LA: For the average duck hunter they are distinguishable. The man who is in the field for the first experience may mistake the Redhead and Canvasback, not 6 knowing the species, but after a few times in the field hunting, the duck hunter should be able to identify these ducks very readily. CA: What would happen to someone that got them and didn’t realize that was what they were? LA: We have to write a citation and they are turned over to our game agent who prosecutes the case before a judge. They have to pay a fine. CA: I see. How many people are employed here at the refuge and what are their duties? LA: There are eight people, at the present time, that are employed at the bird refuge. We have two maintenance men—Vernon Velasquez and Leonda Hansen. We have one automotive mechanic, Arnold Johnson; one foreman, John Valcarce; and two assistant managers, who are Bill Zimmerman and Robert Furlow; and the refuge manager, Lloyd Gunther; and myself, as refuge clerk. CA: What are some of the changes you have noted in the years you have worked here, such as equipment or management, or conditions of the refuge itself? LA: When I first started working at the bird refuge, there were only three or four people who worked at the refuge—a clerk, a manager, an assistant manager, and one maintenance man. They did not have very much heavy equipment to operate the refuge. We did not have any draglines or graders, road graders, or trucks to help maintain the refuge. It was maintained on a very minor scale. Not as many people visited the refuge at that time, so there were fewer visitors to the refuge. A person used to see more birds around, particularly around the headquarters area. Since then, as the years progressed, there have been more 7 people and fewer birds. We have a lot better equipment to maintain the refuge now. In recent years, the trend has been more towards multiple uses of the refuge. That is, where people can come in and see the various things of the refuge, and be conducted around to get acquainted with more of the program of the refuge. CA: When was the road constructed to the refuge and who did it? LA: As I understand it, the first road to the bird refuge was built in about 1934 by the W.P.A. It was just a very shallow road graded up over the flats between Brigham City and the refuge. A few years later, the C.C.C. camp graveled the road and built it up higher and then resurfaced it in1939. In 1948, the county proceeded to oil the road and in the early 1960s, the county rebuilt the road and made it into as good a condition as it is today. 8