Early
Law Enforcement
Law Enforcement in the High Uintahs
By Ray Haueter - former UPOA Historian,
UPOA President 1970 - 1971, now deceased
By
popular request, we reprint Ray's stories of Early Law Enforcement for
your pleasure
Reprint - The Utah Peace Officer, Volume 59,
Issue 1, 1982
The horses lunged and struggled against the deep snow but were unable to
make much headway. The trail was invisible and
the footing was stick and treacherous as they finally came to
a halt, panting and gasping for air. Two officers from the State
Fish and Game Commission, dressed in heavy clothing, climbed
down from the tired mounts and stood looking at the deep
snow that lay ahead.
Earl turned to his partner and said, "There's no use trying
to go any further on the horses. I'll go on ahead on snowshoes.
You take the horses back down to Stewart's Ranch and meet me
back up here in about three days. I should be back by then.
If I'm not, you wait until I do make it back cause I don't know
how long I'll be in there. It may take me some time."
He then shoved some food and supplies into a sack, fastened
his snowshoes to his feet, took his rifle from the saddle
scabbard and started into the Grand Daddy Lakes region of the
High Uintahs. This was in the winter of the late 1920s. The
two officers had started out from Stewart's Ranch early that
morning but had only made it as far as the head of the trail near
Great Grand Daddy Lake. Earl had received information from an
informant, that a trapper was operating in the Lake region
and was taking furs illegally. The two officers had taken the
trail in an attempt to locate him and make an arrest.
FIRST FISH PLANTED IN GRAND DADDY LAKE REGION IN 1920's
The snow was over six feet deep in many areas, however, there
had been no new snowfall for several days and Earl was
hoping to cross the trappers tracks somewhere in the country
that lay ahead. He was very familiar with the Grand Daddy
Lake Region as he had spent several summers in this area, making
the first fish plants in the many lakes that lay in this
heavily timbered section of the Uintahs. There had been no fish
in any of these lakes prior to 1920 and Earl had completed
the last of this original fish planting program in 1924.
He was a skilled out-doorsman and knew this country well. He
also knew the dangers he was faced with traveling in the
High Uintahs in the winter time. Temperatures usually dropped
well below the freezing mark at night and he would have to
depend upon his knowledge of the outdoors to survive.
He was deep in thought as he traveled smoothly over the snow,
thinking of the summers he had spent in this area and
watching intently for any sign that might indicate human presence
ahead of him.
EARL FINDS IGLOO-TYPE LOG HUT
Earl had been on the trail for over four hours when he crossed
the tracks of another person on snowshoes. The tracks
indicated that whoever it was, was pulling some sort of a sled
behind him.
He changed his course of travel to follow the direction of the
tracks. They soon led him into a heavily timbered pine grove
where he discovered a small igloo-type log hut hidden in the
grove. Upon carefully approaching the small hut he found no
one there, so he crawled inside the shelter and decided to wait.
He had every reason to believe that this was the hut of the
trapper he was looking for.
The hut was constructed of timber, logs forming a small shelter,
with the roof approximately four feet high. On one side of
this small hut were two large rocks, upon which had been placed
a steel plate which served as a cook stove. There was a small
chimney pipe running up from the rocks through a small hole in
the roof which allowed the smoke to escape from the hut.
Earl realized that he could not build a fire, as the smoke or
the smell of the burning fire might warn the suspect, so he lay in
the cold of the shelter for some time. It was getting dusk when
he heard the sounds of someone approaching the shelter. The
canvas covered doorway was suddenly pushed aside and a man crawled
into the hut. His surprise was quite apparent when he
realized someone else was in the shelter. Earl warned him not
to move, then quickly searched him for a weapon. He removed
a knife from the trapper's belt and took the mans rifle. He unloaded
the rifle and told the trapper he was under arrest. He
then crawled outside with his prisoner and examined the furs
that had been brought in with the suspect.
The pelts were tied to a toboggan type sled and consisted of
Pine Martin, Bobcat, Badger, Weasel, and any other type of fur
bearing animal the man had been able to trap. In questioning
the suspect, he was told that there were three more such huts
built in the region that were used by the trapper in following
his trap line, and that he had additional furs in caches in the area
of each shelter.
WITH NIGHTS DOWN BELOW THE ZERO MARK . . .
Earl Clyde was faced with several problems at this time. He
had a prisoner that had to be watched carefully, and he had to
travel to the other huts to pick up the furs that were cached
at each one. It was also necessary to pull all the traps that were set
and take them in for evidence as well as the furs. This would
take considerable time and travel and several days to complete.
In the meantime, he had to watch his prisoner, which would mean
a number of sleepless nights. He did not want to tie the
man up as this might result in injury to the trapper. With nights
down below the zero mark, a persons hands and feet might
freeze if proper blood circulation was impaired.
He realized that a mutual agreement must be made as he would
need the help of the trapper to pick up the traps and furs and
to pull the heavy load to the trail head above Stewartís Ranch.
The trapper proved to be very agreeable to helping work out
the problems if allowed to be left untied and seemed to be quite
remorseful over the whole affair.
The first night was spent in comparative comfort, with a warm
fire. Both men slept fretfully through the night, but after a
good breakfast they took to the trail, the prisoner pulling the
sled and Earl following along behind. After several hours on the
trail they arrived at the second hut where a large cache of furs
were packed on the sled, the traps recovered and they moved on
towards the third hut.
Upon arriving at the third shelter, Earl and his prisoner prepared
to spend the night. Most of the night was spent in
conversation. The trapper told of working all summer the previous
year, in the Grand Daddy lake region, at which time he
had constructed the huts and brought in provisions of flour,
bacon, beans, coffee and other food stuffs to see him through the
winter. Early the next morning they were on the trail again,
finally reaching the fourth hut where they remained for another
night.
It was a two day trip out of the Uintahs, pulling the heavy
sled with several thousand dollars worth of furs and traps. When
they arrived at the meeting place above Stewartís Ranch, Earl
had been gone for six days. His partner had gone back to the
Ranch and enlisted the aid of another man, who had then returned
to the meeting place and erected a tent to wait for Earl's
return. By this time Earl and his prisoner had become quite good
friends, having worked together on the trail. The trapper
was brought to trial, was found guilty and paid a healthy fine
in addition to a minor jail sentence, part of which had been suspended
due to his cooperation.
Such was law enforcement in the early twenties. No helicopters
to drop you into an area and then pick you up. Earl had to
depend upon himself and his knowledge of the outdoors to perform
his job.
PUNISHMENT FITS THE CRIME
Earl Clyde, sometimes known as "Bull" Clyde, was a dedicated
law enforcement officer. He became a member of the Fish
and Game Department in 1922. If there was a law on the books
regarding fish and game violations, that law was to be
enforced with no exceptions. Earl believed in making the punishment
fit the crime as many youngsters in Wasatch County
could testify to. This - on many occasions - was the heavy boot
of Earl's right foot on the rear end of the violator as he
marched him home to his parents, where the parents then held
Juvenile Court on the offender. Maybe the violation was
fishing out of season, snagging fish, too many fish or using
the wrong type of gear to catch the fish. These matters were
usually handled out of court by the action of the parents.
But, when an adult was involved, it became a different story.
Acting on a tip he had received, concerning a rancher and his
son who were taking deer out of season in Spanish Fork Canyon,
he stopped the two as they came out of the canyon with a
load of wood on their truck. He told them that he wanted to search
the truck. At this time the rancher lost his temper and
began calling Earl every kind of name he could lay his tongue
to. Earl said nothing but continued to unload the wood on the
truck. Under the load of wood he found a spike buck and a doe.
The next day he took the rancher and his son before a
Justice of the Peace, at which time the justice told the two,
"I fine you $299.00", at which point the judge was interrupted by
the rancher who said "O.K., I've got that much right here in
my back pocket." The judge continued by saying "and thirty
days in jail - maybe youíve got that in your back pocket, too."
HE HAD COMPASSION TOO
Earl was also a compassionate man. One day, during the Depression
years, he arrested a man for fishing out of season on
the Provo River. The man was out of work, had very little money
and several children. Earl took him before a Justice of the
Peace and the man was fined $30.00. During that time, thirty
dollars was a lot of money. Earl paid the fine himself and
allowed the offender to pay him back a dollar at a time or whenever
he had money enough to make a payment.
A Game Warden's job in law enforcement is quite unique. Not
only must he enforce the fish and game laws, but he must be
able to perform many other services. He may be a guide on a hunting
trip for out-of-state hunters or V.I.P.'s from the state
of Utah. He helps feed the deer and other wildlife during the
hard winters when food is scarce for the game. He helps
regulate the number of deer, elk, moose or other animals in any
particular area by live trapping and transferring of the animals
to other areas. He assists with the on-going fish planting program
for Utah and establishes checking stations throughout the
state to assist in statistical information to be used in conservation.
Most of his life is spent out-of-doors in all kinds of
weather in all parts of the state. Earl took to this work as
a fish might take to water.
Speaking of fish and water, it was the year of 1924 when the
original fish planting program for the High Uintah lakes was
completed. Earl, his son Bill and a small group of other game
wardens and their families worked to complete this program.
At that time there were no roads east of Trial Lake. The fish
or "fingerlings" were brought to Trial Lake by means of a flat
bed truck loaded with ten gallon milk cans full of trout, two
or three inches in length. The fish were then transferred to pack
horses, two cans to the horse. The constant bouncing and movement
of the cans on the horses caused the water to splash
inside the cans, giving additional oxygen to the fish as they
were being carried into the high lakes. In addition to the lakes of
the Grand Daddys, this group of workers planted the Haystack
lakes, Scout Lake, Booker and many other lakes, one of
which now bears his name of Clyde Lake.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN HORSES ARE LED INTO BEES NESTS?
While making one of these fish planting trips, a man by the
name of Allen Hallstrom was leading a string of six pack horses
into the high lakes when he led them into a bee's nest. The horses
began to run and buck and in Earl's words "fish were
planted from Hell to breakfast that day."
After the fishing program was completed in the fall of the year,
the horses had to be moved from the Uintahs at the head of
the Provo River, to Mount Nebo for the Elk hunt. Earl and his
son Bill, who was eight years old at the time, were responsible
for moving the animals. Earl would saddle up a horse for Bill,
tie up 18 head of horses head to tail and start Bill on the road
to Mount Nebo. Earl would catch up with Bill at the end of the
day, make camp and then start him out again the following
morning. The trail led from the head of the Provo River, through
Heber City, to Payson, Utah and over Nebo to Salt Creek
where camp would be made for the hunt. This was a 150 mile trip
performed by an eight year old boy and his father.
HE ALSO WAS A SPORTSMAN
Earl Clyde was a big man, standing six feet two inches tall
and weighing in at over two hundred pounds. He was a
sportsman in addition to being a law enforcement officer, and
a master with a rifle, what we term an "instinctive shooter." He
could throw his rifle to his shoulder and fire without seeming
to look at the sights, with deadly accuracy. He retired from the
fish and game after many years of service. After his retirement
he served for a number of years, as Sgt. at Arms at the State
Legislature.
On the 25th of August, 1978, after spending the day with his
daughter, he returned home, enjoyed a good dinner, and sat
down in his favorite chair to enjoy television. A short time
later he was found to have died while sitting there. He was 85
years old.
I knew him well. I married his daughter, Deaun.
