People Profiles

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  • Beginnings
  • Development
  • First People
  • Gateway to Canyonlands
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  • Spirit & Grit
  • Today
  • Uranium Boom

“Tex” McClatchy

A legend among Colorado River outfitters and acknowledged as one of the fathers of Moab's recreation industry.

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Addie Maxwell

Moab’s first successful female entrepreneur, “Aunt Add,” managed the Maxwell House Hotel, Maxwell’s Millinery, and Maxwell’s Navajo Shop.

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Bates Wilson

Bates Wilson arrived in Moab in 1949 to begin his career as National Park Service Superintendent of Arches and Natural Bridges National Monuments.

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Bill Hedden

Because of Hedden’s scientific expertise, he became a citizen member of a Governor-appointed task force to study nuclear waste disposal, a Grand County Commissioner, and former Executive Director of the Grand Canyon Trust.

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Carol Balsley Hines

Carol Balsley Hines

Carol’s life was filled with activity as wife of William Hines, as the mother of 9 adopted children, and as grand- and great-grandmother of their many descendants.

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Charlie Glass with horse and dog

Charlie Glass

What would life be for an African-American cowboy at the turn of the 20th century in the American West? Charlie Glass’ story gives us a clue.

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Charlie Steen and Family

Charlie Steen

Charlie Steen’s search for uranium led him to southeastern Utah. His luck changed when an ore sample that broke his used drill was tested on a Geiger counter that “went off the charts!”

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Essie White

Essie White

Essie White was a horsewoman who loved riding, racing, and ranching, and especially her job as telephone operator for the Midland Telephone Company.

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Heidi Redd

Heidi Redd is an accomplished adventurer: skydiving led her to ranching. She is credited with co-creating an innovative partnership between working ranches and land conservation organizations.

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Helen M. Knight

Helen M. Knight

Appointed in 1936, Knight’s challenging tenure as Grand County Schools Superintendent lasted for 25 years.

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Howard Balsey

Howard Balsley

Balsley, after 13 years as Clerk/Auditor of Grand County, he devoted his time to mining and buying uranium ore long before the 1950s boom.

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J.A. “Al” Scorup

When cattle was king in southeastern Utah, John Albert “Al” Scorup was the “Cattleman of the Canyons.”

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J.N. Corbin

Justus N. Corbin

A New Yorker by birth, J.N. Corbin arrived in Moab in 1896 where he quickly created a legacy of “firsts.”

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Larry Cesspooch

Larry Cesspooch (Ute)

Ute spiritual leader Larry Cesspooch grew up on the Uintah & Ouray Ute Reservation in northeastern Utah.

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Bish Taylor & JW Williams

Loren “Bish” Taylor

After purchasing the Times and its competitor The Independent, the renamed Times-Independent became one of the most influential newspapers in southeastern Utah.

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Lydia-Taylor Skewes

Lydia Taylor Skewes

A daughter of one of the earliest families to settle in Moab, Lydia Skewes grew up watching Moab grow up.

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Micah Loma’omvaya (Hopi)

Honwungwa of the Hopi Bear Clan was born on Second Mesa’s Songoopavi (Shungopavi) Village in Arizona.

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Mitch Williams as 2nd Lt

Mitchell “Mitch” Williams

After flying 89 combat missions in the Pacific during World War II, the son of Moab’s first doctor returned home to carve out a living and raise his family.

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Otho Murphy

Otho Murphy

Murphy worked in farming, ranching, prospecting, and surveying – and was an accomplished artist and singer-songwriter.

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Regina Lopez Whiteskunk
(Ute Mountain Ute)

Regina is an enrolled member of the Weminuche band of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, and co-chair of the Inter-Tribal Coalition on Bears Ears

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William Grandstaff

William Grandstaff was one of the Moab area's first long term nonnative residents and an early Black pioneer. In the 1870s, he ran cattle up the side canyon of the Colorado River that now bears his name, before moving to Colorado.

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