Photos donated by George and Thelma Mavrakis. Contact Michael Francis. The photo appeared in the Sun Advocate, Price, Utah on Thursday, July 26, 1973 along with the names of the individuals. A copy of this newspaper article was donated by Don Butler.

Almost a third of the men who posed for this photograph taken August 28, 1951 have passed away as well as the Geneva Steel Mine in Columbia, where they worked. All but six of this shift have been identified. They are:

Front, left to right: Clarence Craig, Vard Rich, Sherman Polson, Frank Lee, Garen Whitlock, John Richie, Ike Evans, Tom Nickolovi, George Bell, Dan Stevenson Sr., George Stubbs, John Adams, Bernard Taylor, Ed Montoya, Lupie Quintana, Jack Perea, Archie Beveridge, (?), Jimmy Morris, Freeman Elliott; Leonard Rich

Second row, left to right: Luke Brandon, Frank Puglajen, Willy Keener, Earl Lacy Sr., Joe Calley, Hugh Bailey, Fred Mooney, Bill Kennick, Joe Thomas, Tony Pacheco, Ben Coomer, Ed Alger, Arland Gumbrick, Dominic Poloni, Don Braby, Jack Pressett, Melvin Sharp, Howard Pierce

Third row, left to right: Manuel Quintanna, Robert Swinburne Sr., Ray Link, Bill Quinn, Art Munn, Dick Taylor, Tom Holdaway, Bill Brandon, Tony Gallahagos, Floyd Seal, Earl Lacy Jr., Claude Lacy, (?), Premo Eckley, Robert Rasmussen, Wade Hill, Jim Zuball, George Trujillio, Joe Cruz, Claude Jones

Top row, left to right: Victor Lipsey, Lee Barney, Joe Merchant, Don Allred, Elmer Menchow, Tom Coleman, George Cosellos, Pete Oviatt, Ralph Dominic, Henry Knorp, (?) John Katine, Ray Abata, Dean Peterson, Frank Coletti, Bob Beveridge, (?), (?), Paublo Jaramillo, (?), Homar Landram, Rheuban Jaramillo, (?).

Photo was donated by Don Butler.

1955 Geneva Steel Day Shift

The Garden

I, Melvin A. Sharp, moved to Columbia in the middle of my freshman year in high school and enrolled at East Carbon Junior High School. We had lived in Southwestern Wyoming where my father worked for the Union Pacific Coal Company in various engineering and management jobs. He had worked with Frank Hicks there and when U. S, Steel was taking over Columbia, Red O'Conner was going to retire and my father was offered the job. Shortly after we moved to town, we moved again to the big house at the end of the circle. My folks later purchased that house from Galbreath when the steel company wanted out of the housing business. I think they paid $6000.00 cash for that house. It sat out on a point surrounded by a canyon which was beautifully landscaped. It had a wonderful vegetable garden and many fruit trees. The difference between Columbia and Rock Springs, Wyoming was night and day.

The garden truly was unique and beautiful. To begin with my family has no claim to anything more than trying to preserve what was there. Mrs. O'Conner told us that originally the garden was developed by a Japanese couple that lived in the little apartment in the basement of the superintendent's house. They were a perk for the superintendent and as such were maintained at the expense of Columbia Steel. I don't have any idea when that took place but I think it was before O'Conner's coming to Columbia. They truly did an amazing job of using the canyon walls to supply material and every square foot was eventually landscaped. In size there were probably 4 or 5 acres of canyon walls and another couple acres of the canyon floor. A major portion of the floor section was dedicated to a huge vegetable garden. Mrs. O'Conner apparently also was an avid gardener and she perpetuated the flower and tree section. When we moved into the house, the gardener that had been supplied by Columbia Steel to the O'Conners was a man named Tony Guadinola. He lived about half way between Price and Wellington on the South side of the highway and commuted to Columbia to work. He was one of those people who could grow anything and he grew the most wonderful vegetables of all kinds.

The garden had three cherry trees, 10 peach trees, two apple trees, three plum trees and the lower fence was covered with Thompson seedless grape vines. We had no experience with growing anything. My dad had grown up in Oklahoma and his mother had a large vegetable garden so he had a little experience with the veggies. Fortunately Tony was a good teacher. U. S. Steel continued to let him work part of his day in the garden for the first two summers. There were seven sections of grass which varied in size from room size to a fairly large spot on the canyon floor. Those became my job and I cut one section each day with a push mower. As Tony's time was phased out (the General Superintendent who lived in Dragerton found out about him) my mother and we kids took over. We spent many hours working in the garden but the payback was being in our own beautiful world and it was a real learning experience for all of us. As long as my family lived there it survived but when I visited it in later years it had reverted back to its natural state.