I grew up in the town of Heber, Arizona. Heber was settled by pioneers who moved from the early Mormon settlements on the Little Colorado River like Joseph City. My grandfather was one of the early settlers. He and his brothers homesteaded land near Heber and his family, including my father, spent the summers in Heber.
Heber is in a valley and is surrounded by hills on all sides. It is located at the junction of two creeks called Buckskin and Black Canyon. Black Canyon is on the west side of town and Buckskin is on the east side of town. Our home was located on the main street of Heber which at that time ran right in front of our house. Today that road ends in front of “The Rock House Museum” which is now at the end of a dead end street.
Heber was initially settled as a farming community, but later sawmills were set up and forestry and lumbering became the major industries. My father worked in the sawmill for a few years and then got a job with the U.S. Forest Service working as a fire guard on one of the lookout towers (Gentry Tower) used for spotting forest fires. Later he worked full time doing timber stand improvement (pruning the trees with long saws so that the lumber would have less knots and be higher quality) and in fire control. He was responsible for fire crews of twenty to forty men who fought the forest fires by hand. The crews were hauled around in large trucks that had a tarp over the back. The crews sat in the back with their equipment (axes, shovels and hoes). Most of the men in Heber either worked in the “woods” (cutting logs or hauling logs) or in the sawmill. One of the sawmills was owned by Uncle Donnie Porter and his brothers, and the other was owned by a company we called “Southwest”. I believe the full name was Southwest Forest Industries. In the 1960’s , a paper mill was built between Heber and Snowflake and many of the men took jobs there because it was year round work. The logging woods jobs were seasonal. When the snow got too deep, the woods closed down or if the woods got too dry in the summer, the woods were closed down. People worked hard while the woods were open and then managed through the periods when there was no work in the woods. Dad’s job was year round and our family missed out on a lot of the difficulties other families faced at times of unemployment.
The Heber I grew up in was mostly a “Mormon Town” as were most of the towns in the northern part of Arizona at that time. Latter-day Saints (LDS) members made up the majority of the population but there were families that were members of other denominations as well. Most of them were Baptist. The non LDS were mostly from Oklahoma or Arkansas. They were good lumbermen and found work in the woods around Heber.
At that time, because most of the population was LDS, most of the activities in town were sponsored by the church. Softball games, basketball games, weekly movies, rodeos, dances, plays or other activities were church sponsored. There were some school sponsored activities as well but they were less frequent. The LDS church building was the largest building in town so that is where most of the activities were held. I believe most of the non LDS felt comfortable participating in the activities and did. The only thing they didn’t do was attend the LDS church meetings.
There weren’t very many businesses in Heber at that time. There was the general store, a post office, a service station and a small café. If we needed any other services, we had to go to Snowflake, Show Low or Holbrook. It was not uncommon at that time for families to make a monthly trip to one of the larger towns to buy groceries, see doctors or do other business.
Because of its isolation, Heber was a quiet town where we entertained ourselves or went without. At that time, it was very difficult to travel to the valley. To do so one had to travel via Globe and Superior on highway sixty. Such a trip took about five hours so people didn’t go to the valley all that often. We usually went once or twice a year because that is where Grandma Scott lived.
When I was growing up in Heber there was only an elementary school. The school was located at the end of the road that goes south behind “The Rock House”. That street is now called Reidhead Street. The school had first to eighth grades. There were three rooms. Two teachers handled two grades and Mr. Capps had three. The principal of the school was Mr. Brown Capps. He taught sixth, seventh and eighth grade. His wife, Mrs. Capps, taught first and second grade. There was no kindergarten at that time. The other teachers changed over time but Mr. and Mrs. Capps were almost institutions. They taught all of my brothers and taught for years after I graduated. At that time we had to travel to Snowflake to attend high school. Each of the classes in elementary school had about eight to ten students. The teachers would teach one class a subject and then teach the other class a subject and alternate back and forth all day long.
The two largest buildings in Heber were the LDS church and the school house. The school house did not get a gym until I was in the sixth grade. Prior to that time, the school teams used the church gymnasium for practice and games. Up until then, we had to play outside for recess. When I was in sixth grade a gym was built onto the school. It had a stage on one end and had a basket mounted on the wall on the other end. We thought we were pretty lucky. We could play games indoors when the weather was bad. When I was about eleven or twelve, the LDS chapel burned down. For several months we held church meetings in the school until a new building could be constructed.
One very important feature in the Heber I grew up in was the ball field. For years the baseball field was located down close to where the current LDS chapel is located. It was adjacent to the rodeo grounds. When I was thirteen or fourteen the church leaders decided to build a lighted ball field. Land that had been two dirt cow tanks was repurposed and a lighted ball field was built at the end of the road that runs in front of “The Rock House”. The ball field became the site for entertainment during the summer evenings. Prior to the construction of a lighted ball field, the Heber teams had to travel to one of the other towns like Snowflake, Taylor, Show Low or Holbrook to play ball games at night. Once we got a lighted ball field, the other teams traveled part of the time to Heber to play.
For years, the rodeo grounds were across the creek and up Black Canyon a ways. Finally the church leaders decided to build a new rodeo grounds down near where the current Rim Community Library stands. It was a much nicer rodeo grounds and had a grandstand for people to sit in. Prior to that, people sat in their cars or on the fence to watch the rodeo that was held each Fourth of July.