It was now early September. The forming and steel work on the spillway setting basin was ready for concrete. I was now going to perform the work that I was hired for; Run the weighing scales. The aggregate bins and scales were located some four miles from the dam site. There were installed on a spur track of the Utah Idaho Central near downtown Hyrum. The sand and gravel for the concrete was shipped from the Ord Bundy pit at Brigham City. The sand and gravel was unloaded into bins by a power clam shell. Cement in sacks was shipped to the siding in box cars from Devil’s Slide, Utah. It was to be unloaded by hand and placed where it could be emptied into the batched material. The total crew to handle this work was four men. Since we were working about four miles from the spillway we were away from supervision. The construction superintendent placed me in charge of the small crew.
The work went something like this. A dump truck divided into four compartments would arrive from the spillway. It would drive under the aggregate bins. I would weigh out the proper amount of sand and gravel; dump it into the trucks first compartment. I would continue this until all four compartments were filled. The truck then moved up to the cement where bags of cement were dumped into the compartments. It was repetition work. No real excitement.
Working with me was a clamshell operator of middle age; two men in their fifties from Wellsville, Utah dumping cement. One young man from the Bureau of Reclamation, the inspector and of course me, a brash young man of twenty-two, running the scales.
Daily, six days a week, we performed the work through September, October, November and part of December. Then one cold early December day, up on arriving at the batch plant we found the sand frozen in the bins. We began with bars to attempt freeing the flow of sand. It was frozen solid. We couldn’t move it; but we continued to try. I climbed to the top of the bin and began digging to free the sand. While doing this I heard a vehicle drive up. Then I heard the voice of the loop, the spillway superintendent, cursing the two cement men for not getting the batches ready. He was very angry and was being belligerent with the two laborers. Immediately I ceased work and ascended from atop the bins. I confronted the superintendent. I asked him to cease being belligerent, and told him he had no right to treat men in that manner. He looked at me; wheeled, entered his pickup and raced away. The four of us freed the aggregate and proceeded to weigh batches. A company pickup drone up. It was a man from the company office. He left the pickup carrying an envelope. He brought it to me and sheepishly announced that the loop had fired me. It did not surprise me nor did it make me feel chagrined. He was the boss. His decision would stand. Anyway I was to enter Utah State on December 25th. I felt I was right but he had the power to fire. Life goes on. It was the only time in my life that I was discharged from employment.