February 25, 2025 • 30:04
INTERVIEWER
Allie Donnell
INTERVIEWEE(S)
Charlotte Uptain-Pogue, accompanied by son Dennis Pogue

Allie 00:00
Okay. This is Allie at the Moab Museum on Tuesday, February 25 at 1:15pm with.. Can you tell me your name?
Char 00:10
Charlotte, Uptain. [spells it out. U, P, T, A, I N] – Pogue.
Allie 00:25
Pogue, okay, I see the spelling there. Okay, and you live in Green River?
Char 00:32
I do.
Allie 00:37
Okay. The rest of this I can get from you off recording. Tell me about what brings you in today, what you want to tell me about.
Char 00:46
Yes, I would like to tell you about my life with Roy Pogue. I married him on June 26, 2003. He was 17 years older than I. But he found out I was from Glendale, Arizona, and he is from Glendale, Arizona, so we kind of hit it off. I was delivering dinners from the PACT Association in Green River, that’s a Positive Action Community Team started by Christine Monroe and Joni Pace, about a year before I got there. And I joined them to deliver dinners to the elderly, and that’s when I met Roy. I was delivering his dinners and he wanted me to just get my suitcase. I was living with my son Dennis, and he [Roy] wanted me to get my suitcase and just come over there and stay with him so we could talk. And he could talk. I would want to know, or I thought to myself, “when you are you going to stop and take a breath?” [Allie laughs] But he left Glendale, Arizona to work in the copper mine. Pardon me, he had worked in the copper mine in Arizona, where my dad worked when my two oldest brothers were born, in Globe, Arizona. Then he heard about the frenzy and Charlie Steen, and when he first come up there [corrects herself], here, they wanted him and Charlie to be park rangers at the Arches. They were just getting started at the Arches [the park just opened], and they declined because they wanted to prospect in the uranium frenzy. And so he and Charlie Steen were good friends. Charlie Steen lived in Cisco, in a little tar covered house. [He] Had four children, four boys.
Allie 03:43
One of them’s in there [refers to the Museum] right now.
Char 03:44
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Really?
Allie 03:46
Yeah, yeah.
Char 03:49
But anyway, I’d like to meet him.
Allie 03:53
I’ll introduce you.
Char 03:54
But anyway, he left Arizona. He had a wife and three children and a bunch of chickens, and he went down this area, the road lateral 18, carrying these chickens. He wanted to get rid of them so he could come up and meet with Charlie, and they’d go prospecting. So he’d give them to his next door neighbor, he had another 60 acres, who was Bill Hickman, who had the biggest egg ranch in Arizona. And I bought eggs at Sam’s Club, Hickman eggs. He shipped some everywhere.
Allie 04:45
Yeah, that’s funny.
Char 04:47
But Roy was the start of that because he wanted to get rid of them chickens. He had five or six chickens by the legs, carrying them down the road, so he could come up here [to Moab]. [cellphone goes off] But anyway, he came up here.
Allie 05:07
And how did you say that Roy met Charlie initially? Before he moved up to Moab?
Char 05:14
He just heard of him.
Allie 05:15
Oh okay and then he came up here and sought him out, met him?
Char 05:18
Yeah and they offered them a job at Arches, but they wanted to prospect. So they went out to the Yellow Cat Mine, and they developed that. Roy worked out there for many years prospecting, and would go to the parties that Charlie Steen had. They would have, he would serve yellow cake. And he liked his wife. I think her name was ML, or something?
Allie 05:59
Yes.
Char 06:00
But anyway, he told me about wanting to get rid of the chickens. So I kind of, he said, “Do you know, if you, if you write all this down, you could write a book about it. But anyway, I thought I would just give him tribute. Tribute to him, for being adventurous, I guess you’d call it.
Allie 06:28
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Well that happened to a lot of people during that time. What year did you say that he came out?
Char 06:34
About 1920.
Allie 06:35
1920. Or that [was when] he was born? When did he come to Moab? When did he come up to Moab I mean?
Char 06:45
Shortly after that, after he gave the chickens away.
Allie 06:50
Got it, okay. And what was he doing? He had chickens. Was he ranching in Arizona before that?
Char 07:00
I think so, yeah. When the family [Ron’s family] came, you could buy like 60 acres, and they had the chickens. Him being the only one that’s come to Arizona with his family and stayed, he got the ranch. So he was a rancher/farmer.
Allie 07:30
Yeah. How did he hear about the uranium frenzy?
Char 07:35
It was in the Moab Times.
Allie 07:39
Oh in the paper?
Char 07:40
Yeah, in the newspaper. And he heard about it, so he came up probably in about 1920 and him and Charlie was good friends. He talked about him living in the old tar house with four little boys.
Allie 08:06
And he didn’t have any experience prospecting before. How did he learn? Did he tell you what that was like?
Char 08:14
No, he never told me. He just wanted to be adventurous. [He] Met Charlie and went to some of the parties that Charlie would give and his house that he built, the restaurant now.
Allie 08:33
So after prospecting, what did he end up doing in Moab? Roy.
Char 08:39
He retired.
Allie 08:41
Okay, he just stayed like a independent prospector that whole time?
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Char 08:46
Yeah.
Allie 08:46
Okay. He didn’t end up working for Charlie or anything?
Char 08:49
Oh, he did work at the Yellow Cat Mine.
Allie 08:52
Okay, okay, I’ve got that. Alright, what else did he tell you? Anything you can remember.
Char 09:03
Well, he told me, if I could write this down, I could write a book about it. [Allie laughs] And, oh, he told me about what they did in Arizona. His family, he was second of eight children. What else do you need?
Allie 09:30
What was your life like in Green River together?
Char 09:35
Pretty good, pretty good. He won the lottery from Arizona one time. And I said, “When was that?” [He said] “Oh, long time ago.” So he had some money, and when he died, he left a quick claim deed to his girlfriend that worked at the melon stand, the Dunham’s melon stand. And he would go stick $50 bills in her little cut off shorts.[Allie laughs]
Allie 10:19
Oh, oh wow.
Char 10:27
But anyway, he had money, but he gave that all to his friend that worked at the melon stand, the Dunham’s melon stand. When I arrived in Green River and Roy found out that I was from Arizona. Finally, [he said] “well, you could just bring your suitcase, I got an extra bedroom.” I said, “No I can’t” [He said] “Well, let’s get married.”[I said] “Well, I have to ask my kids.” [she laughs]. And so I married him in 2006, in June. But I worked in the Information Center at John Wesley Powell River History Museum for 17 years before covid came to town and they closed kind of. So I worked there in the information booth. And Roy tell me, “Sugar, you don’t have to work.” I says, “Oh yes, I do.” Just because I couldn’t listen to him. He talked from daylight to dark. Talked and talked and talked all night long. That first night we were married, all night long. He said, “Sugar, did I talk you to sleep?” I said, “Yes, you did.” [Allie laughs] And then he would tell me stories about down in Arizona, and he came up here in 1920 heard about the frenzy, Charlie Steen, they’d become friends. And that’s when they were offered the job at Arches, about [19]52, and then he retired and talked. [she laughs]
Allie 12:41
Did he? Did he tell you what it was like prospecting out at Yellow Cat?
Char 12:47
He said it was lonesome out there, yeah, lonesome. Said, “nobody ever came out there. But I had to stay there. I was in charge.”
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Allie 12:58
So he was camping out there? Like living where? What was his living situation like?
Char 13:06
I think he lived in Cisco before he won the lottery and bought, paid cash for his house, got it two acres. That’s what I have now.
Allie 13:18
Yeah, yeah, there’s not a lot going on out there at that time. Not even now. [both laugh]
Char 13:24
No, but the house was built in 1947 and the lady that lived there, her son came over. He says, “Yeah, that was my tree house up there”. Which is still there in a tree. We had a fire in the back. I had a trailer, closed in trailer, and I lost so much in that I kept all my graduating books from college out there, all my birth certificates and death certificates I had. So I lost all that, and it burnt the back of the house, it almost got on fire, but the fire trucks, Green River and Moab came, and Price.
Allie 14:25
What year was that?
Char 14:25
2018.
Allie 14:29
Wow. I’m sorry to hear that. What brought you to Green River in the first place?
Char 14:36
My son, Dennis, he lived here, and my husband and I, he later deceased. [pause] Yeah, we visited Dennis couple times up here. Dennis has been here 40 years in Green River. And we visited my husband, [he said] “you know, I sure would like to live in Green River.” And I said, “what?” he says, “but it’s so far to the VA hospital.” In Glendale, we lived only about seven blocks from VA hospital, and he was ill at the time. So he later died in 2011 but the doctors told him after this esophagus was removed with cancer, that “he’d only, he might not even come off at the table and he might live for a few months.” But he lived 11 years. I said, “that was all that good nursing he got.” [both laugh]
Allie 15:51
From yours truly. [Char laughs] So when you lived in Green River, well, I know you live there now, but when you were working at the Information Center, did you get a lot of questions from people about the mining around there?
Char 16:05
No, no.
Allie 16:07
What did people ask you about most of the time?
Char 16:09
Oh, how far it was to Blanding and how far it was to the border, what was in Arizona, different things like that. Questions about the area. And one man told me he loved Blanding, Blanding Museum, and he’s quite a writer from Price.
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Allie 16:32
Yeah, The Edge of the Cedars Museum? [Char shakes her head yes] Got you.
Char 16:47
So that was his, Bill Price was his name. Anyway, he was there at our second hand shop where he talked and talked to people. So in fact, I was coming out the door, Dennis was waiting in the car for me, and because I like the thrift stores.
Allie 17:09
Is that Once Upon a.. Twice Upon a Time?
Char 17:13
Twice Upon a Time.
Allie 17:14
Yeah, my friend Melinda owns that.
Char 17:16
Oh really?
Allie 17:16
Yeah. Have you met Melinda?
Char 17:19
Mrs. D?
Allie 17:20
Yeah, I think, I think so she’s got long, curly hair.
Speaker 1 17:23
Yeah, yeah. I go in there quite often for stuff, and I, I won’t buy anything from the stores. I did buy a thing on the clearance table at Walmart. Fact, I even bought a dog shirt. Coat.
Allie 17:46
Oh, okay.
Char 17:46
Dog coat.
Allie 17:55
Cute.
Char 17:56
We had three dogs. They’re all great big dogs. Oh, wow. Dennis has got a dog fights with his sister’s dog, so we keep a baby gate between them. So every time I come out into the kitchen, I open that baby gate because the two dogs fight. They’re both female. What is it? What is Allie? [Allie is their dog] The kind of dog. [asks someone else in the room]
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Dennis 18:25
My dog?
Char 18:28
Yeah, what kind is she?
Dennis 18:31
She’s bred, a breed apart. I can’t say, I don’t really know. [he laughs]
Allie 19:03
Maybe a beloved mutt.
Dennis 19:04
That’s a good one.
Char 19:05
Sandra’s, his sister’s is a Labrador. Yellow Labrador, short haired, so we keep the baby gate between them. They look at one another and growl. They fight if they get outside together.
Allie 19:14
Right, right. Is there anything more that you want to say about Roy? Or [I’m] kind of curious. You know, still living in Green River. What vestiges you see of mining there now, if any? Do you think that it’s had any lasting impact on the town?
Char 19:37
Yeah, a lot of people came for the mining and also when they were building I70. One of the girls there, Joanne Chandler, she worked at the museum when I did. She wrote a book about the building of I70. She was a flag girl that stopped traffic when they were building I70. So that’s our national known thing. [both laugh] Dennis, you have anything to add?
Dennis 20:20
Not really. No. Except next big thing in Green River would be the possibility of that nuclear reactor out there.
Allie 20:30
Yeah, tell me. Tell me a bit about that.
Dennis 20:34
Other than, I know that they’re still working on approving the thing and getting all the details straightened out. I guess it’s still in, still in litigation there, whatever, whatever the case may be.
Allie 20:53
What do you think about that?
Dennis 20:55
Oh, it’d be a big boom for Green River here.
Allie 20:59
So you’d be welcoming of it?
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Dennis 21:01
Yeah, yeah. Until something goes wrong. Of course. [he laughs] So I don’t know. It’s just..
Allie 21:06
Do the people of Green River share that sentiment you think? Or is it kind of mixed?
Dennis 21:18
It must be mixed. I mean, it’s hard to say that they share that, certainly not. Would say it’s mixed.
Allie 21:28
With the main concern being safety?
Dennis 21:31
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Allie 21:35
Anything else you think?
Dennis 21:39
No. Other than, I mean, it was just, they would have to build some houses.
Allie 21:47
For, like, employee housing?
Dennis 21:49
Well, you know, just for people working at the refinery, nuclear plant. And, no, I think it would be a big boom for Green River, for sure.
Char 22:06
They are supposed to be building enough housing for 300 families in Moab. So I have this here. I will give that to you. [gives Allie a Green River Observer]
Allie 22:21
Thank you.
Char 22:22
The latest one, and this is all about the power plant over in your Castle Dale. And you can order those.
Allie 22:33
Yeah, we’ve, we’ve got a copy or two of these. Thank you. I’m looking at the Green River Observer, for the record here.
Char 22:40
Information on the back. And then a guy writes, always writes an article about.. where.. Thompson, Thompson Springs.
Allie 22:57
Okay. Oh, here we are. The museum’s in it. That’s funny.
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Char 23:01
Oh yeah, that’s where I..
Allie 23:04
Is that how you heard about the [U92 Exhibition] opening?
Char 23:05
Yeah.
Allie 23:06
Oh, very good. Wonderful.
Char 23:09
Everybody in Green River gets them. They put them in the magazine or Post Office for free. So we get two. Dennis gets one in his mailbox. Dennis, had a tragedy back in July. He’d been down to Phoenix. His son died, and then he had been next of kin. He had to be there, and he died, and he came back. His sister took him down in the car and come back. The very next morning, his son died and his house burned down.
Allie 23:57
So sorry to hear that.
Dennis 24:00
Yeah. Pretty bad.
Allie 24:02
Yeah, sorry. Okay, well, I think that we can go ahead and pause this right now.
Dennis 24:19
[Recording jumps to conversation about Roy] But, and I wonder, was it because we got those chickens from Roy. Roy wanted to give us chickens to come up here to mine it?
Allie 24:31
And Mr. Hickman didn’t have the chickens before?
Dennis 24:34
No, well, I don’t think so.
Char 24:35
No, yeah, he didn’t have any chickens. Said this, “old man came down the road,” and he lived next to him, and a plot 60 acres. Just handed them [chickens] to him, [he was] like, “what do I do?” But he took them home and started new chicken farm.
Allie 24:58
Wow.
Dennis 24:59
Yeah. Became the biggest chicken farmer, or egg producer in Arizona.
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Allie 25:03
Lucky guy.
Dennis 25:04
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I’m gonna come along, give you some chickens. It turns out the big, big baby.
Allie 25:12
Did they stay in contact? Roy and Mr. Hickman?
Char 25:16
No. Bill Hickman was a friend of my brother’s. They both graduated from high school at the same time. Fact, my brother gave me a book, pictures. It’s got Bill Hickman. He about six foot six. And they had a little brother, and they started the farm out of Roy’s chickens.
Allie 25:46
And did Bill talk to your brother about it?
Char 25:49
Yeah, he said, “this old man came down here and just handed him to me.”
Dennis 25:54
Did you tell her my dog’s name?
Allie 25:57
What is it?
Dennis 26:01
Allie.
Allie 26:01
Really, well, how about that?
Dennis 26:08
And I didn’t want to say pit bull, pit bull makes, you know, she but, but she has some characteristics. I think she might be pit bull collie, you know, she doesn’t. Her nose is not quite as snubby as a pit bull.
Allie 26:25
Yeah it’s helpful to have notes. You said you wanted to tell me something about Charlie’s mother, Charlie Steen.
Char 26:32
They were selling penny stocks, and there was a line of prospectors. But anyway, he said, “this lady came in.” Roy told me this. “This lady came in and says, “I’m Rose. I’m Charlie Steen’s mother.”” And Roy said, “I think she thought she was just going to get in the front of the line, because she was his mother.” And the guy that was selling the penny stocks said, “Glad to meet you, ma’am. Now you’re just getting [in] the back of the line with all the rest of the prospectors,” that was buying penny stocks. So that was but she did say she was Rose and she would get in spot, she would get in front line. Yeah, but
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he just told her to go back there and get in line with the rest of the prospectors that wanted to buy penny stocks.
Allie 27:41
Did Roy tell you more about penny stocks? Did he have a bunch of them?
Char 27:45
He got some but he did turn them in later. He didn’t have them when we married.
Allie 27:50
Yeah. Did he get much off of them?
Char 27:52
I don’t think so. Yeah, but he did win the lottery from Arizona.
Allie 28:00
Yeah. You’re more successful in the lottery than the penny stock market huh. [Dennis laughs]
Dennis 28:07
Well he said it was the first time he ever played.
Allie 28:09
Really?
Dennis 28:10
Yeah. 3 million dollars.
Char 28:12
He must of let his son know in Pleasant.. Pleasant View.
Dennis 28:22
Heard about the jackpot and said, “Well I’m going to go in.”
Char 28:30
Roy said, “I’m going to win that lottery.” So he called, I guess his son. I don’t know how his son found out, but his son wanted to know, “well, how much are you going to give me?” [Roy said] “Not a damn rich cent.” He didn’t like his son at all.
Allie 28:50
Oh, no. What was his son’s name?
Char 28:51
Junior.
Allie 28:52
Roy Pogue, Jr. Okay, would you say that, I mean, obviously, I guess, Roy was more successful in that one time playing the lottery than all of his prospecting career?
Char 29:06
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Yeah, and he split it with his his wife’s cousin, she was living with him in Green River. Three bedroom home, and she was living there, but she just came from Arizona and brought her suitcase and moved in. So he split the three million with her. She had a son in Show Low, Arizona that had cancer, so she spent all her money, her half that Roy gave to her for cancer research and trying to get rid of the cancer.
But he died.
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