Keeping the sheep moving

submitted by: Jay Jones

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This is a story told to me by my Great-Uncle Paul at the time of my Grandfather Ancel J. Adams’ funeral in Parowan Utah in 1983 to highlight some of the qualities of his brother. The story probably took place sometime in the early 1920's.

Paul and Ancel were with their sheep which had just been sheared at Logan’s Corral in the desert west of the Parowan Gap when they saw signs of a major storm moving in.

They moved the sheep into a deep ravine so that the hills would block some of the fury of the storm. They built two large bonfires and with the help of a faithful sheep-dog rotated the sheep around the fires in a figure 8 pattern.

The two traded tasks throughout the night. One of them would keep the fires going while the other helped to keep the sheep moving in the figure 8 motion around the fires.

It turned out to be a very cold and miserable night. Several recently sheared sheep in the Parowan area froze to death that night. Ancel and Paul kept all of their sheep alive by working together in unpleasant circumstances to carry out a simple but effective plan to care for their sheep.