In 1951 or 1952, I worked as a lineman for a contractor building REA power lines. J & J Construction Co. from Oklahoma was building lines for Trico Electric. Trico Electric Coop was named Trico because parts of three counties it served.

The first lines were built in the Marana area, a generating station also a substation fed by high voltage transmission lines, probably Bureau of Reclamation lines. Trico has two distribution voltages, 14,400v and 7200v. The 7200 lines were for near areas and the 14,400 lines were for outside areas, like Sasabe, Sells, Arivaca, Madera Canyon. To the best of my memory, I believe Mt. Lemmon had 7200 volts and was rebuilt and reinsulated to 14,400.

My first trip to Mt. Lemmon was in 1952. Trico borrowed me from the construction company, as they were short handed. My company had a new contract in Sidney, Montana, but because of the cold winters it didn't start till spring. Mt. Lemmon, here comes the lineman Jayhawker. Working for Trico now I was assigned to work with a good lineman on Mt. Lemmon. They were power lines down on the very west side of Mt. Lemmon, very near where the lines dropped down towards Marana. Trico had this army jeep with 4 wheel drive. We drove over the road that followed the ridge to the west side of the mountain. When we got there the line was down in a canyon that was near where the line dropped down the west side, and I do mean dropped. We could stand on the edge and look straight down and the next pole was almost directly below us.

Note - Later on when we walked the lines for faults we would have to go down with our tools in a gunny sack and slide down on our rear ends. Now you all didn't think I was going to slide down on my belly. - end of note. My pole buddy was Ben Turner a very good lineman, but a little on the reckless side. He said I'll drive the jeep down there, and I said Ben you will never get it back out of there.

He laughed and took off, as I bailed out and walked down. Ben made it down to the bottom ok and we repaired lines and called Trico on our walkie talkie to turn the electricity back on. They did and the lines held, sure was happy they held, as it was nearing sundown. My buddy Ben started back out of there, and that old jeep made it about halfway up and no further. So I got out some guy stran and hoists attached guy stran to a tree stump and jacked the jeep up about four feet at a time, then kept repeating. We were doing ok, slow but sure while I was hooking to another tree stump. Ben was suppose to stay in the jeep with the brakes on, but he got in a hurry and the jeep was high centered. He got out of the jeep to help me and when he did the jeep came off high center, and started rolling down the hill. He ran, caught and jumped in the jeep and braked it all he could. The jeep kept going with all four wheels dragging as it went down the hill. Then one front wheel hit a stump and the steering wheel jerked off his hands. The jeep stared rolling and bouncing down and then I saw Ben go flying thru the air, as he landed ahead of the jeep. Had the jeep made one more roll, Ben probably would have been killed. When I got to him I saw he was hurt and had a broken foot and the other leg was badly bruised. Now how in the hell could I get him back out of there and down to a hospital. We had two walkie talkies, but they were not working, as some of the cable wires were shorting out. I used dry pine needles between bare wires and got to the Marana Plant. I figured that it would take them a couple of hours to get up there, so I asked them to call the forest service and tell them where our location was and to bring a stretcher and to hurry. They got there about dark and we got Ben down to TMC, around 9:30 that night. Ben recovered from this ok, but around three years later was killed while working for a contractor.

"Tony's Horses"

"Rosebud and Charley" we rented them to take us over the top when snow was deep. When the snow was too deep for the horses we tied them with bridle and halter to a pine tree. We then put on our snow shoes, which were also rented from Tony. One time we had the horses tied and when we went back to them they had stripped their bridle and halter and had gone back to Tony's barn. We cussed and went down the big snow.

One year came a big snow, well about 5 or 6 feet deep. It was so deep I could step over the fence around the substation, and that fence was 7 feet high. We had to go over the top to repair broken lines, many broken lines. It had iced the lines before it snowed, and down they went and got buried under all the snow. I called for some help and they sent me another lineman and groundmen. We had to pull the copper lines up and on top of the snow so we could splice them and string them back up on the poles and tie them in. After that break I suggested to Trico big shots, we needed to go up in the summer and place rolls of wire and splicing sleeves six foot up pine trees, approximately every 400 yards. That is what we did and also we brought extra crossarms and hardware. The next winter was much easier and, we also cut our repair time in half. On another time we were working at the bottom of one of the canyons pretty close to Summerhaven. I was up on top ridge and they called me and they told me what they needed. When I started down the canyon a very hard wind was blowing, it flat knocked me down and I slid all the way to the bottom, thankful that I missed all the tree trunks. At another time near where the air base is now, on that day it was very windy, I climbed up this 40 foot pole belted in and started working. I felt something not natural and quickly I unstrapped and jumped backwards and hit the ground, just as the pole went down the slope. The winters were rough on power lines, we had to climb the poles, do the work and come down. No high reach or cherry pickers in those days. Now they have all this equipment and large snowmobile to haul the men and tools, which is better as it is faster and safer. We kidded the young lineman later, that we could do the work standing on our heads, and they just laughed.

"Tony the line wrecker"

One day I went on a call that Tony had called in, and he said that the 3 phase line east of Summerhaven road was down. I told Tony to keep his men and himself away from the down lines and started up that big hill, named Mount Lemmon. When we got up there, Tony cut down a large tree and dropped it across the 3 phase line. We got the 3 phase line up and in service, and Tony was happy. Tony called me aside and asked me to file on my report that wind had blown the tree down, so Trico wouldn't bill him. So I did hoping Trico's big shots would not come up and see the tree had been cut down, not blown down. More things could be added here if only I could remember, oh well I think you have a little idea what it was back then.

"Funny Happenings"

Tony's saw mill was high priority, so we had to get it back in operation as soon as possible. A few years later I bought some nice big juicy watermellons at Benson, AZ., and the next day I took two up the mountain.

Tony's Busy"

Tony was operating the saw mill that day. There was some large logs lying away from the mill, and I went over and motioned Tony to come over and instead he just kept on sawing. Well I figured Tony wasn't coming over, so I went To my pickup truck and got a large mellon and knife and went over to one of the logs and cut the mellon. Tony flipped that saw switch and shut it down in nothing flat. He was laughing and held his hands out for a piece of the mellon. We sat and ate mellon and visited and ate some more mellon. "Boy, he said this is a really good mellon, where did you get it." I told him that the watermellon came from the Kaw River Bottom in Kansas, he said he figured that by the taste. Walt never did tell Tony it came from Benson. He took the other mellon to his store and restaurant for later.

Mt. Lemmon had some charcters back then, some were - Squire, Ben Lee Reed, Buster Baily, to name a few, oh yeah and Harvey Martin. One night Squire was pretty "well oiled", he always carried a pistol in a holster, and one of the guys at lodge south of Tony's asked Squire why he carried that pistol. Squire promptly pulled out the pistol and shot out the lights in the lodge. Tony's worker Ben could get more cans of beer in his four levi pockets than anyone. He would wait till Tony was busy cooking and took the beer to the big water tank up west of Summerhaven. There he'd hide them and Sunday when they couldn't sell beer he had a supply up at the water tank, he was up there most of the day. Monday morning Tony had a time getting him to go to work. Ben had another guy living with him, I forgot his name. Buster Baily was Tony's mechanic and all around hired hand. He had a real nice good saddle horse he could make the horse bow, get down on his front knees, also trained to stand with bridle raines dropped, he would stay there till Buster came back. One night Buster was drunk and he rode his horse in the lodge for a beer, he would pour some beer in the palm of his hand and the horse would lick it up and noddled for another.

"Sena Took Over"

While standing there the horse decided to have a B.M. and when he was finished there was a large pile of horse apples on the floor. About that time Sena came in and I'll tell you for sure she cleared Buster and his horse out of there and told Buster to clean up the mess.

There were a few accidents on the highway, cars rolling off curves, etc. The one I remember best was this guy-(I forgot his name), had a large german shephard Police dog, who lived on north Oracle, and on his way down he rolled on one of the curves with his dog inside with him. He climbed up and out to the road, not hurt, just a few bruises, but his dog was gone they couldn't find him. When he got back to his house his dog was there waiting for him.

"Walt, Tony and the Girls"

One of the big snows rolled in on all of us on the mountain, we were snowed in and the road was closed. It was a pretty good blizzard and blowing wind and kept the roads closed for a couple of days. Walt and his groundman were stranded as well as about twenty girls from a Tucson church. There were only about seven or eight services needed up there when storm hit. The two outside phases power lines were down, the center phase was still hot so I put the transformers all on the center phase and told everyone that if the center phase went we were on our own, just coal oil lamps and a large fire in the fireplace. Trico Co. had to pay us while we were up there and we were having a ball with the juke box playing. We danced, drank beer and Tony and I had many good pitch games by the fire place. When we were able to go back down, I'll bet when the girls left they were not as religious as when they went up the mountain. Things were rough, but everyone knew how to have fun, work and make the best of everything. I made many good friends up on the hill and never will forget the work, fun, wind, storms, ice, and snow, we had them all. When the mountain burned I didn't go up for awhile, I just didn't want to see it burned and bleak.

Yours truly did much moonlight electrical work for Zimmermans, Pam Wendt's (Waechters my cousin) and ski run. Rose Quigley also had me rewire a few cabins and I enjoyed every moment of it. One more before I secure this. A lady who worked for Fran in the realty office, I can't remember her name, her electric stove service was off. She told me that the cable feeding the stove was in around the space under the house. On the east side of the house was an opening to enter under the house, I took my light and crawled in. I checked the stove cable and it was ok, I heard a noise and figured there might be a skunk under there so I got the hell out of there. I was out brushing the dirt and dust off my clothes, behind me a noise drew my attention. I turned and there a black bear came out the same hole I had left, I eased over to my pickup followed by that bear, I got the hell out of there. Don't you know if that bear and I had got together there would have been a hell of a battle. I read Mary Ellen's book that got me to start this. Now I'm going up the hill soon and see the changes the fire caused and see if Pam will give me a large piece of pie. Also talk Bob and Fran into taking me out to lunch.

Best Wishes till next time, I'll stay the Jayhawker lineman, retired and will have a birthday soon. Eighty two years young and thanks for everyone's friendship.

Adios, Walt H. Haag