Oral History Program Claude Malan Interviewed by Sandra Hunter 02 March 1971 i Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Claude Malan Interviewed by Sandra Hunter 02 March 1971 Copyright © 2014 by Weber State University, Stewart Library ii 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. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. Archival copies are placed in University Archives. The Stewart Library also houses the original recording so researchers can gain a sense of the interviewee's voice and intonations. Project Description The Weber State College/University Student Projects have been created by students working with several different professors on the Weber State campus. The topics are varied and based on the student's interest or task for a specific assignment. 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. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Stewart Library of Weber State University. No part of the manuscript may be published without the written permission of the University Librarian. Requests for permission to publish should be addressed to the Administration Office, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408. The request should include identification of the specific item and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Malan, Claude, an oral history by Sandra Hunter, 02 March 1971, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Abstract: This is an interview done in conjunction with a Utah History class taught by Dr. Sadler, Winter Quarter, 1971. Sandra Hunter will ask the questions and Mr. Claude Malan will give the answers. SH: Can yon tell me some interesting childhood experiences? CM: Oh yes, I could tell quite a number of them. At this time I would like to tell my relations with Malan Heights, which is a tract of land east of Ogden. The north boundary would be approximately at 29th street and the south going on to the Weber Campus which would be around, probably clear to 39th. The Heights was bought by my grandfather, Bartholomew Malan in 1890, I think it was, off the United States Government, and it was approximately two square miles, a little over two square miles in fact. It was fourteen hundred and forty acres. It joined on the east end of Ogden and went from Taylor's Canyon over to Strong Canyon and then up over into the basin and in the east end connected just below the Mount Ogden line, Observatory Point. There was some timber up there and my grandfather decided to utilize that so he put a sawmill up there, he and his boys. And it was quite a feat to take that big boiler up there, and the saw. They first had to build a road. They built a more or less a trail to start with, but found it wasn't adequate to haul this heavy machinery up and it wouldn't serve their purpose, so later on they revised it and built a much better road that had five switchbacks to it. And it went up Taylor's Canyon and it was quite a difficult job, but they were determined people, and hardworking and it was practically all done with pick and shovel. Some teamwork but there was nothing like today with our big back hose, and graders, and power equipment. The sawmill was quite a rig. It wasn't a sawmill as we are 1 accustomed to today. It was more or less of a jigsaw. The blade went straight up and down where now we use a circle blade or a ban saw. And this was powered with a steam boiler, and, incidentally, today I have a board that was up there, a plank. My father gave it to me. He wanted to build a, use it as a table top. It's about thirty-two inches wide and eight feet long, an inch and a half thick. But he didn't live to make a table out of it. I still have, but I don't know whether I'll live to do that or not. Malan Heights was a resort place here for Ogden for many years. My grandfather and his boys built a hotel there, and a number of cabins. And they used to pick up passengers at the end of a street car line at 25th and Iowa Avenue and take them up there in a surrey or a buggy or light wagon, and my grandmother served them in this hotel dining room, chicken dinners and they boarded and roomed there. I think some meals were thirty-five to fifty cents. On weekend’s board and room was six dollars. This hotel was about twenty feet long and twenty feet wide and forty feet long or fifty, two story and built out of hewn logs. These logs were more or less squared off with a broad axe and a hatch, which was quite a feat in itself. The roof was made of tin and it had a large dining room, fairly large kitchen on one end and sink where my grandmother and her daughter prepared the meals for their guests and friends. The hotel was used for a good many years until my grandfather became ill, and he rented it out to a party by the name of Madsen. They tried to operate it but times were very difficult and they weren't able to carry on, so the hotel and operation was closed in about 1905, and I was born in 1904, so I never did see the hotel. When I was small my father took me up there and all that was left was some rock foundation and some tin from the roof, of course, and part of a stove and bedsteads, that part of metal, yon see, didn’t burn up in the fire. Vandalism 2 was bad in those days just as it is now and people were very destructful. They destroyed the sawmill and it was very heartbreaking, I'm sure. I remember going up there, there was one large tree up there, the largest I've ever seen in my travels. Of course, not as large as the giant redwoods in California, but three men can't reach around it and so we figure it's over twenty feet around this big pine up there. That was one of the highlights of going up to the basin. On the point of Malan Heights my grandfather, at one time, had a telescope and yon could see even people walking on the streets of Ogden, and some of the guests up there got so accurate at it that they could even distinguish some of their friends walking on the streets in downtown Ogden through this telescope. It was quite interesting. At one time during the First World War they rented the heights out to a cattleman by the name of Hansen. It was Hansen Land and Livestock. They put about a thousand head of cattle up there. SH: Can yon tell me some of the interesting people who visited the motel? CM: The motel was visited by a great number of people. Even those coming from back east on the trains were taken up there in horse driven vehicles to spend a weekend or the day. There was sometimes as many as a hundred guests up there. And many prominent people from Ogden utilized the facilities there for playing games. The Weber Club was established there at one time. My grandfather built a building, a lodge for them, about a quarter of a mile from the hotel, and the Weber Club used that for many summers. Some of the prominent people from Ogden that went up there were the Wright’s, the Glasmann’s, the Browning’s, the Bigelow’s, Feeny’s, Terry’s, Pingree’s, Moore’s, and it was very well known and appreciated vacation area. SH: What upkeep had to done with the hotel, and how was the road up there? 3 CM: The road going up through the Taylor's Canyon, you see, would be washed out. Practically every spring in places had to have extensive care, and up the Dugway some places would cave off and so every spring that was a major operation, to put the road in usable condition. One place an Indian had me call it, it was a limestone outcropping just beyond that first turn as you would go up and there was a spring just below it, and this place was very hazardous. As at times, I recall one time, one of the camp trainers for a band of sheep we had up there, had a date with his girlfriend, and he was in a hurry to keep this appointment and it was always the wisest thing to take these pack saddles off your horses when you came around Indian Head Point but he was in a hurry that evening and thought he could get by but the saddle crowded his horse over the cliff and it was killed. A good many years after that one of the parties that keep horses at my place at east 29th, someone stole his saddle mare and rode her up the Malan Heights and turned her loose and in coming down the road she was excited all by herself and this outcropping of rock crowded her over the cliff and she was killed. And I remember at this point too, when the student body from Weber College, or Weber Normal College were going to put this flagpole up on Mount Ogden. They had to build this section of road. They cut trees and laid them down and then covered that area over with shale and rock and built it adequate so that these pack horses could carry the cement and flagpole up to mount it on Mount Ogden, where it stood out for many years. We used to could see it from downtown Ogden when the sun would shine on this metal pole. I was up there at the time when they installed the pole. In fact I went to Weber Normal College when I was of that age. SH: How was the motel advertised? How did the people find out about it? 4 CM: Oh, I think mostly by the good meals that my grandmother served them and the accommodations. But the following is taken from a pocket card advertising Malan Heights. From this lofty elevation, 7,000 feet above sea level, Malan Heights commands an unobstructed, magnificent view of Great Salt Lake and valley, west Salt Lake City on the south to Brigham City on the north. And from Observatory, Mount Ogden Point, scenery of indescribable grander, including Logan on the north and Salt Lake on the south. East the beautiful mountains as far as the eye can reach, west into Nevada. The drive to the hotel, five and one half miles from Ogden is no less so delightful company in a forest of stately pines beside a stream of pure and sparkling water, away from noise, heat and dust. Ample hotel accommodations with a good cook and table service. Board and lodging six dollars per week, single meals thirty-five to fifty cents. Comfortable carriages in charge of careful and experienced drivers leaves the east end of twentyfifth street car line at 8:15 every morning. Fare for round trip one dollar per person, children one half fare. Parties of three or four persons furnished a carriage at any hour named. Orders may be mailed to Malan Heights. SH: Can yon tell me how Ogden has changed from the way yon remember it as a child? CM: Well, Ogden has changed immensely because I was born in 1904 over on Robison Street which is now Capitol Avenue. My family built a home on 28th and Marilyn Drive the same year I was born, we moved in. Our barn was right in the middle of 28th just east of Marilyn Drive. I can remember attending the, my first school was the Quincy School on 26th and Quincy at five years in the kindergarten. And, of course, there were just dirt roads, and there was a canal, an open canal went along the west side of it, and from there I moved into the Lorin Farr School. I attended Lorin Farr School the first year 5 that it was opened on 22nd and Harrison. And you could 160k right from there right on up to our place. There was just winding roads, no paving. The Dee Hospital was quite a small building at that time and had just two or three houses scattered here and there through the hills. I can remember the horse and buggy days. I never drove a car until I was twenty three years old, in fact there was very few cars and trucks in Ogden for a long while. When I was a young man, we were in the cattle business and sheep business. And our barn was consisted of east of Harrison Avenue up to the mountain. I can remember herding sheep down as far as 27th and Quincy Avenue and, of course, clear from Ogden River over in through the Birch Creek area, we herded cows. I'm quite sure I was the last man to ever plow where Ogden High School is. We had barley planted in there. There was none of these streets open up in here, just a trail or two. Our pasture fence went down 29th street and along Harrison Avenue and up Marilyn Drive and over into Lake Street and took in all the east end of this east Ogden. I one time herded a, two herds of cows, one summer. I remember, our herd and one owned by the Mount Ogden Dairy that was owned by John M. Mills. His dairy was located east on 25th street. His home was just below Fillmore and his barn was about on Fillmore. I remember one time we were called over there. His big barn was burned down and some of his cattle, his dairy cattle was killed. He had one of the first jersey herds in this part of the country. And my father was one of the first to own jersey. They were, some of them shipped from the Isle of Jersey in here. He and the Judge Murphy bought those cattle. Then Mills moved their operation over to where the Weber campus is now and they had a large dairy there for a good many years, until they sold out to the college property. I remember going over there and helping them harvest their corn silage. And 6 I've seen many changes in Ogden in my lifetime. Some of them, I don't think are for the good. My occupation and livelihood has been in the various vocations. I started out as a young man doing teamwork. In the summertime we would dig basements and landscape and haul gravel and topsoil for the people. In the winter time we'd take out the snow plow clean off the sidewalks and take out bob sleigh parties. It was quite a full life but quite a struggle too. I remember working as a contractor in the building of homes. Fred Swaner, who built Swaner Courts and I was the last man to work for him. He moved to California. I worked on the Pine View Dam as a stone mason and a foreman and on the bridges there. I built a good many homes in Ogden and specialized in stone and marble work. At one time I contracted and built the stone columns at the entrance to the Weber College, at that time, now Weber State College. I've enjoyed my labors in the construction work. In 1943 I bought property in Island Park, Idaho, and concentrated on retirement. The place up there, our cabin, or summer home which we enjoy very much. The stone that we used in constructing the post and sign at the entrance of Weber State College, isn't it now, was quarried from the Sniderville Park City area, Bamburger Quarry. Had it trucked in here, and it was all cut by hand. It was several years later that we were able to get machines out in this area to help us with the stripping and facing this stone, so we used big hammers, single jacks, chisels, and feather wedge chipping hammers and pitches to face this stone. I also worked on many of the walls up Ogden Canyon. Some of them had to be constructed in the worst kind of weather, when the mortar would freeze as soon as the rocks were placed in. I worked on the Pine View Dam when the temperature was down to 22 degrees below zero, in order to complete that before the spring runoff I worked on the clubhouse, the Ogden 7 City Clubhouse, made those big arches and most of the stone came out of South Fork. We squared it up with stone hammers and chisels. All the work was done by hand. SH: I understand your grandfather had a blacksmith up at the hotel. CM: Tim Malan, or Bartholomew Malan the man who developed Malan Heights, he was partners with the first plumbing shop in Weber County. And in this same building they had saw filing, locksmith and blacksmith shop. My father worked in there and later on he helped to build the cutoff across Great Salt Lake. He was what they call a saw filer and it was a very necessary and particular job. He told me at one time he saved a man's life. He jumped over in the water and tried to commit suicide and my father was a good swimmer and he jumped in and pulled him out and the man was very mad at him, he wanted to die. My father was well liked and he used to bunk with the superintendent, he didn't even have to live in the bunkhouse. 8