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Wayne County Dee Hatch 1919 – 2023

Standing at 5’7”, Dee Hatch was a giant in the hearts and minds of everybody that knew or heard of him, and there are many, far and wide.

The year was 1919, and World War I had nearly run its devastating course in Europe. What World War I didn’t claim, the Spanish Flu did. Irma Hatch (Dee’s mother) wrote in her diary, “October the 1st, 1919, there was another addition to the Hatch family, and he happened to be a boy, too. We sent for Dr. West that time, He should have been able to bring us a girl, but it was a little white headed Dainishman. We named him Dee Barlow.”

Dee was the fourth child born to parents John and Irma Hatch in Koosharem. Together with his

by Adus Dorsey

Loa and developed a relationship of love and caring on the Big Apple dance floor in Torrey, and at many other dances throughout the area. Any vision of Dee must include Berneal. Together, they were one, inseparable, two peas in a pod, and on and on.

To have the opportunity to go anywhere with Dee and Berneal was an adventure of epic proportions, a trip through time. Everywhere they went, there was a memory and story of a different time in life. It was never just a casual ride with Dee and Berneal; it was a journey, a journey one had better prepare for and work up too. Just when you thought you could see the light of home from the top of the hill, Berneal would say, “Let’s take the long way home,” and off you sandth time. Having grown up in Koosharem, Dee had many stories about the Piute Tribe. He was well acquainted with the wives of Chief Wakara and was welcomed at many ceremonies.

It was the sign hanging on a fence on a piece of property in Caineville that caught the eye of many and read, "The Garden of Weed’in," a simple enough reminder for anyone that has ever stuck their hands in the dirt to plant a seed; they knew exactly what it meant. Dee was a gardener and a good one. As soon as the day came that a tiller could turn up the ground, Dee was out there preparing his plot, and the results were nothing short of miraculous. Come summer when the plants were producing, one never left Dee

executive director of Friends of Pando

brothers Chester, Lloyd, Morris, Zane, Gordon, and sister Cleola, Dee was raised in a house that his father John began building in 1913; the house still stands on the road to Coyote (present day Antimony).

Dee’s dad, John, was a musician and passed that passion onto his children and it was not lost on Dee. If there was music to be played, you could be sure Dee was somewhere near the middle of the pack, squeezing on a box or blowing into a harmonica, and always wearing the grin of a Cheshire Cat. Music was Dee’s happy place.

Dee was a proud veteran of World War II. Dee and Zane, his brother, were on the first Utah Honor Flight to Washington D.C. They were proud Americans and examples of what it means to love America and to be prepared to give it all to protect the freedoms we know and love.

Dee was introduced to Berneal at the bank in would go 40 more miles and 40 stories yet to be told.

Dee often told the story of when he was a kid climbing a hill above Fish Lake to watch, wide-eyed, the [Indigenous people] gathered one last time to do the sacred Sun Dance. As we drove by the area where it happened, Dee was ten years old again, somewhat shy and nervous, peaking over the hill down onto a scene that only a few individuals were ever privileged enough to witness.

Berneal could see it in her mind’s eye too, almost anticipating the moment as we drove by the spot it happened that Dee would share the story again for the thou- and Berneal’s without a full bag of groceries: carrots, turnips, cabbage, peas, you name it. This was Dee’s gift to you, and Dee’s gift to the world.

Dee and Berneal's stories would fill many a bookshelf and will be told for a very long time at family gatherings and in music circles.

Dee Hatch’s life of 103 years gives new meaning to the term, “Live your life to the fullest.” Dee and Berneal did just that, and they were both examples of what life can really be like. Our world is a much better place because of Dee and Berneal.

2022 was a big year for the Friends of Pando, a citizen-science led non-profit dedicated to education, research, and preservation efforts of Pando—a quaking aspen clone known as the world’s largest tree—according to results released from their end of year report this week.

Pando

Cont'd from page 1 goal of the science committee is to bring together researchers from different disciplines and get them to share ideas. The organization aims to help researchers identify study priorities and assist with finding grant opportunities, while also using their various partnerships to encourage research so they can begin to close knowledge gaps.

“We need to understand more so we can take care of the tree,” says Oditt.

Approximately 53 acres of Pando is fenced in to protect new shoots from being grazed on by deer and elk before they get a chance to mature. Several sections of the 10,000 foot long fence were in disrepair so the group undertook three major fence restoration projects and several minor repair projects. A team of volunteers also filled over 100 fence gaps which were created by erosion and small animals to enhance the fence’s protective power.

In the past year, Friends of Pando also launched a recreational monitoring program to measure visitor traffic during peak visitor season between June and October. Visitor data can be used to assess visitor patterns and trends, reduce possible visitor impacts, and aid in future planning.

In 2023, Friends of Pando is looking forward to publishing their work on the Pando Photographic Survey, a full photo inventory of the tree using 360-degree cameras and geolocation data which will be accessible to both scientists and the general public to explore. They also plan to publish an oral history on the grazing history of Fish Lake Basin recorded by local historian Steve Taylor as well as beginning several new research projects and launching a major fundraising effort.

“We’re hearing in the news all the time that it’s [Pando] dying, which is not true,” says Oditt, and he hopes that their organization can inspire local enthusiasm and community stewardship of the tree.