The Henry Mountains Project

Katie Saad was awarded an IMR faculty/student summer research grant under my supervision. Here’s her first update.Update, 3 August 2017

By Katie Saad

For the Henry Mountains Oral History Project this summer of 2017, I have been working on gathering background information to help further prompt discussion throughout the interviews that I will be conducting. I have done this through different forms of research that include looking for past oral histories, reading different books and articles, and studying maps all on the Henrys and the surrounding areas. I have reached out to a variety of people to inquire about interviewing them, many of the names coming from Martha Stockham and Al Labs, the owner of the Cat Ranch and the man largely responsible for helping to maintain the ranch respectively. Up to this point most of my work has been finding these potential interviewees and reaching out to them, and I am now starting to shift into the interview phase. We are planning a trip down to the Cat Ranch where I will interview the rest of these individuals who, for the most part, live in Hanksville, which is near the Cat Ranch and the Henry Mountains.

I held my first interview the morning of Thursday, August 3 with Martha Stockham. We talked for around one hour and fifteen minutes about the Henry Mountains, mainly concerning the Cat Ranch and history surrounding it as well as the main functions keeping it up and running. Although our time was cut a bit short, Martha offered plenty of information to spark conversation in my future interviews and to encourage more research on my part. I look forward to maintaining contact with Martha as well as interviewing other Henry Mountain “old timers” to find out more about the rich history surrounding the Henrys and the people who live there.