i Oral History Program Ralph Keoppel Interviewed by Rachel Haggerty 24 March 2015 ii Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Ralph Keoppel Interviewed by Rachel Haggerty 24 March 2015 Copyright © 2015 by Weber State University, Stewart Library iii 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. The working files, original recording, and archival copies are housed in the University Archives. Project Description The Ogden Union Stockyard was a key fixture in the largest livestock market west of Denver during its heyday from 1916 to 1971. The activities at the yard brought Ogden national attention as a livestock center; the rise of the livestock shows, auctions, etc. at the site spurred the local and regional livestock industry, physically shaping the development of the agricultural landscape both near and far. This project documents some of the stories of the stockyard workers and visitors. ____________________________________ 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 This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Keoppel, Ralph, an oral history by Rachel Haggerty, 24 March 2015, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. Ralph Keoppel March 24, 2015 1 Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Ralph Keoppel, conducted by Rachel Haggerty on March 24, 2015 in Huntsville, Utah. Ralph discusses his recollections and experiences with the Ogden Stockyards. Also present is Sariah Horowitz, the videographer. RH: Mr. Keoppel is telling us about his experiences with the Ogden Stockyards. What year were you born? RK: Twentieth of October, 1928. RH: You said that your family had moved here from Logan. Can you tell us about that? RK: Yes, it was right after the war started. We moved down here to Ogden because my dad had a job with the railroad. RH: What year was this? RK: It was the spring of ‘42. Right after I got out of school we moved down. RH: Tell me how you got interested in the stockyards. RK: We lived about three blocks from the stockyards, and being a curious kid, I walked down there and it was fascinating to me to see how it worked; to see how the farmers and ranchers brought the cattle in. How they unloaded and separated them and kept them so that each farmer knew his cattle. And also how they put them in the pens so they would keep them separate from one family to another. And then they would start the auction and they’d bring the cattle in, out of each pen, and auction them off. And then they’d go out and they’d bring in more. 2 RH: You told me that you had talked to some of the ranchers. Can you tell me about that? RK: Well, mostly I was interested in where they were from. You know some of them were from Idaho and Wyoming, and around the upper part of Utah. They’d just come in and they’d have these auctions. RH: Did you hear anything about how the war affected the stockyards? RK: Well, I think what happened is more cattle came in during the first part of the war. And it was really a busy place when more batches of cattlemen brought their herds in to have them auctioned off. RH: You told me, last time that we talked, that Mondays were auction days. RK: Well, that’s what I think. I’m not sure, but it’s in my mind that might be it. But I’m not sure. RH: Can you tell me more about the auctions? RK: Okay. What do you call it? It wasn’t a square but it’s, you know, it’s like this (makes motion with his hands). RH: Like a half circle? RK: Then they brought cattle in down here and most of the guys that bid on them sat down in the front rows. And so I was clear up at the top row and then they’d just auction them off. And when they wanted to buy them they just raised their hand. So they told me and all of the other guests down there not to raise our hands, because we might go off with a cow or something. RH: That would be interesting. 3 RK: So it lasted quite a while you know. It started in the mornings and it would go until probably early afternoons. RH: What time in the morning did it start? RK: Oh about eight o’clock. Of course, the ranchers and all of them brought their cattle in first, and they had to unload them and get them ready for the auction. RH: What were some of your favorite animals to go see when you were at the stockyards? RK: Well, some of the cows and stuff that came in were really, really nice looking. They’d been really well-fed and taken care of, and I think that’s what some of them were bidding on, they wanted some of those nice cattle. And that’s about all I can say about it. It was interesting to me because I was just a young teenager. RH: Right. You told me last time that your wife worked at the packing plant that was close by. RK: There were two parks in it. There was Swifts, it was the last one that went, and I can’t think of the one that was before that. But I think that’s where they got all the cattle to butcher. They had a walkway that went across the river and they’d bring the cattle in across the river and into the packing place. And my wife she worked with taking orders from all over up in Idaho and everywhere. People would phone in orders and she’d take the orders and they’d fill them and ship them up there in the trucks. RH: Did she just take orders from Idaho or were there orders from other places? RK: No, it was around the west here. Some were from Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah. 4 RH: What is your wife’s name? RK: Janet Allen. RH: What years did she work there? RK: Well, let’s see she graduated in ’48, so it must have been right after that. Maybe ‘49. She worked there until she went on her mission. She made a lot of friends there that worked with her and I met some of them. RH: Do you know who some of her friends were who worked there? RK: No, I can’t. I can’t remember their names. RH: How often did you go to the stockyards; was it just on Mondays or was it every single day? RK: No, it wasn’t every day because it wasn’t busy some days. But they did have a few cattle in there during the week. But the busiest is when they had the auction. And I can still see all the vehicles that were parked in that parking lot that was just west of there. It had trucks and cattle and trailers, and it was a busy place. RH: Can you explain to me how they did unloading again? RK: They came into an unloading dock and then they’d get the cattle out and then they’d come out of that. They had a walkway that was up above and you could look down and see where they put them. And they had them so the gates swung one way and closed the runway where they came in and they could go. Then they’d put them in these separate stalls. And each farmer or rancher had his cattle in a certain place so they wouldn’t get mixed up. RH: Was there a certain amount that each rancher had or did it just vary by person? RK: Anywhere from about one to about ten or twelve different cattle. 5 RH: Did each rancher have just cattle or did they have other animals too? RK: Well, I think they had an auction some other time or some other day for horses, but I’m not sure. I’m not quite sure on that. Most of it was cattle. And then inside the exchange building there was kind of a lobby. You went in the door and it was just full of ranchers and cowboys. And I just walked around, and I was curious where most of them were from. So I'd just ask them where they were from. Some of them were from Idaho and Wyoming, and the upper part of Utah. And I’m not sure, there might have been some from Nevada. RH: Did your family have feelings about you going to the stockyards? Did they like it? Did they dislike it? RK: No, they didn’t care where I went. They didn’t. They figured if I was down there I would be out of trouble. But I never got in trouble. I was the kind of kid who kept away from getting into trouble. So I’d go down there and I’d spend the biggest part of the day there until it closed. But it was really busy inside the building and they had different offices up and down the hallways. RH: Do you remember what some of the offices were for? RK: Well I talked to this one lady and she kept track of the different checks that went to the different people that auctioned off their cattle. I remember that. And I talked to her and she explained to me what she was doing. And how she kept track of which rancher or farmer auctioned off a cow and how they’d changed. That’s I guess why they called it exchange. They exchanged cows for money. RH: That would make sense. Is there anything that we haven’t talked about that you would like to tell me about? 6 RK: No, that’s about it. It was, like I said interesting to me, because I was a young teenager. And I was curious about how it worked. The auctions and everything, and I learned quite a bit. I never did have any cattle that I had auctioned off but it was interesting to me to see how it worked. RH: What’s the most interesting or exciting thing that you learned while going to the stockyards? RK: Well, I guess it was the auction. The way they worked it. And I don’t know if you’ve ever been to an auction or not but the auctioneer he knows how to talk fast. RH: Yeah, I’ve been to one. RK: And that was interesting. The thing is he’d get going along and one of the ranchers or farmers would just raise his hand and then they’d go over and then they’d add more onto the bid to get it up, up, and they’d just go back and forth. And finally they’d sell it and say who it was sold to and take that group out and bring in some more, and go through the same thing. I remember sitting there, oh golly, almost all the time the auction was going on because it was fascinating to me. RH: How do you think the stockyards affected the economy around here? RK: Oh it was one of the biggest things they had back then because of all the farmers they had coming. I think it helped the economy a lot. During the first part of the war and, well, going quite through the war. But after I got to be an older teenager I didn’t go down as much. RH: When did you stop really going down? 7 RK: Oh, probably about when I was about fourteen or fifteen because I had a job then, so I couldn’t. RH: What year was that? RK: That would be about ‘43 somewhere in there. RH: Was it just one summer that you went down? RK: I think I went two summers. I would just go there when school was out. RH: Just during your free time. RK: Yeah, because then I got a job delivering papers. And that kept me from going down there as much. RH: Right. RK: So that’s about it. RH: Alright, well thank you for sharing your memories with us. RK: Well, you’re welcome. RH: I’m glad to learn what you had to tell us. RK: And I’m glad that I can still remember some of them.