Pacuay

Starting out with pleasant creative writing. I was enjoying being in Grafton and starting on Joseph Gibson's Navajo Lake cabin. I stopped and leaned back in my chair. My family is almost convinced that when in that position I am still working.

Felt I needed to know more about the genesis of the lake's name. Certainly, the Paiute Indians that lived there in 1863 didn't call it Navajo Lake. The Navajo were their enemies. Navajo raiders would kidnap Paiute women and children and sell them as slaves to the Mexicans. Research reavealed the Paiute name was "Pacuay", or Cloud Lake.

This is one of those times when the research took on a life of its own. What began as a simple search for a Paiute word became much more.
The genesis:
1. Original name of the lake from the Paiutes is "Pacuay", "Cloud Lake" translated into english.
2. Settlers changed the name to Navajo Lake due to a skirmish between pioneer cattlemen and Navajos that had wandered into the area and were stealing cattle.
3. No more historical facts about the skirmish, so in my mind, the cattlemen were Gibson finding a better place to graze their cattle in the summer than in the summer heat of the Valley around Grafton.
4. Found a commercial lodge on Navajo Lake and contacted the owner.
5. He told me about the temperatures and snowfall at various times of the year.
6. He calls me back to tell me of an out of print book about the lodge and Navajo Lake written in 1931 by the lodge's builder (1925), Dr. Atkin ("The Doc Atkin Story"). He finds artifacts in the dirt of his meadow every time he ventures out there and digs around a little.
7. I call him back to ask about trails from Navajo Lake to the Virgin River Valley and Grafton. Says there is a forest service/national park trail (North Rim Trail) that leaves the lodge and takes two days to get to Rockville. There is also a rough road that leaves from the lodge and goes to Rockville after a two hour drive. For my purposes, the trail that is presently there follows an old Indian trail that Joseph's Indian guide uses to take Joseph to Navajo Lake the first time. It is good enough to travel on foot or riding/leading horses and pack mules. The road will have been built in the track of the road that the Gibsons cut to take a wagon to the lake in one day instead of traveling many miles out of the way to get to the lake from Cedar City, taking three days.
8. Now to get it all in the book!!!!!

Navajo Lake

Been a long time and I have been working on the book, but not as much as I should have. Curses to you, Farmville and Facebook! Most of my work in the last few months has been just transferring data, historical facts. Grinding, not too inspiring or creative work.

Two weeks ago I came to a real blockage. Do I really know what I am doing? Is the present scope of my novel too large? I was actually afraid to get back to work. While my mental dilemna worked itself over and over in my head, it eventually worked itself out. Worked itself out by forcing myself to work on the manuscript. As soon as I started to work, problems cleared up. I realized that I needed to give all my characters as much life as possible and forget my worries about the manuscript. Just work, and things will fall into place. I need to keep myself open to the still small voice that is there to guide me. I am still concerned that the manuscript in its current evolution is too large a scope to be finished by June or July.

Oringinal idea has been to chronicle the struggles of the Gibson family as they carve a settlement out of the desert of southern Utah. To create a page-turning story of this family's life from the first settlers of the Grafton Utah in March 1863 to the death of the family's patriarch, George Gibson, in August 1875.

Then I thought that I would tell the 1863 to 1875 story five times, in five different volumes, each from the aspect of the five sons of George Gibson. Each son had his own struggles, some remarkably different from that of any of his other family members.

Current thinking is that in my writing I will concentrate on the story from one son's point of view. I have chosen Joseph Smith Gibson, who was 18 years old when entering Grafton with his father, mother, brothers, and sisters March 3, 1863. His story contains much fiction, as little is known about him. The facts and history that surround him will drive the non-fiction. I can therefore have as much fun as I want with him without stepping on any historical toes. His mountain cabin is located at Navajo Lake, on the Markagunt plateau 5,000 feet above the Virgin River Valley and Grafton. He is a two day walk, three day wagon ride, or one day horseback ride from his parents in the valley. He lives in the wilderness alongside resident and nomadic Indians that come in and out of his life. He is a loner, but he falls in love. Wouldn't you know it, as soon as he is totally settled and happy with his trapping and hunting lifestyle, he falls in love. He marries amid conflict with his and her famly. Cedar Mountain is no place to raise a family they all tell him. His wife wants to change everything he has in place, and he gets frustrated. When she becomes pregnant, his father in law's, his wife's, and now his own urgings tell him it is time to grow up and become more than he has been. It's not just about him anymore. He comes down off the mountain and becomes a farmer/rancher with his father and his brothers. His father in law offers him a job as well. He becomes a prominent member of the community until he, in a very short period of time, loses his father, mother, wife and children to scarlet fever. He considers a permanent return to his mountain retreat to reclaiming his once happy life. A fantastic personal struggle ensues...not sure how it turns out yet... he could just end up back on the mountain...becoming a crazy old mountain man that everyone learns to avoid.