"Page Pioneer" Sonja Poulson Jones (May 31, 1938 - Sept 18, 2014) came to Page in 1958 with her husband, Kerry Grant Jones, of Richfield, Sevier County, Utah, who was 18 when Sonja (16) married him in her home town of Redmond, Sevier County, Utah, on September 3, 1955. Kerry was a salesman for the Paris Company, a department store known to generations of shoppers at 28 E. Broadway, between Main and State Streets in Salt Lake City, Utah, where they were living in 1957 at 856a East 3rd South. (The Paris Company was an anchor for the downtown's thriving shopping district until it fell victim to new indoor malls in the 1970s.)
She was born on May 31, 1938, the second of her parents' four children:
1. Renee Poulson (1935 - 2006)
2. Sonja Poulson (May 31, 1938 - Sept 18, 2014)
3. J. Donald "Don" Poulson
4. Breck William Poulson
She died on September 18, 2014, in the place she helped to birth -- "America's Last Frontier" -- Page, Arizona.
Her residence had been at 801 Oak St. in 1986 and at 228 Aero Avenue in Page.
She was survived by her sons:
1. Shayne Kerry (12/14/1956) Jones (58)
& wife, Becky, of Page, Arizona;
2. Casey G. (1/4/1966) Jones (49)
of Billings, Montana,
and her granddaughters:
Cori (George) Jones of Tucson, Arizona and
Michelle (Robby) Steele of Ivins, Utah.
On April 15, 1940, Sonja (1), Renee (4), and their parents, Jewel (31) & Bessie (24), who both had 8th grade educations, were in Redmond, Utah, where her dad was a Mine Operator in a Salt Mine.
Sonja's stepfather was Lawrence "Larry" Peterson, Find A Grave Memorial # 36097998.
Sonja's younger brother, Don Poulson's 2007 interview on how Sonja, he, and their younger brother, Breck Poulson, came to Page, Arizona:
"My brother [Breck Poulson] and I have been involved in the river since around '71, but we grew up in Redmond, UT, which is up by Richfield. Our sister [Sonja Poulson Jones], who's older than us, married a guy [Kerry Jones] from Richfield, and his father [Grant (Flora) Jones] had a shoe store up there. And when Page started, the Government put out contracts for businesses to move to Page. It was a Government town, so everything like the shoe store, the grocery store, the barber, everything, that's what you did, you made a bid on it, and then they awarded you a contract, and that's what you moved to Page. So he packed up and moved from Richfield to Page in 1958. Well, my sister and her husband came with him, and so they also came here to Page [in 1958].
My brother and I, the first time we came to Page just to visit, the bridge wasn't built. We came over the Kaibab and then around that way and up to Page and back. We were just kids... Then, when I was getting out of high school, I came down here and worked as a dispatcher for the Page Ranger station in the summers when I was going to college. And Jerry Sanderson and Bill Diamond were both Page Rangers, which was the police force. They were U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Rangers. They talked to me at that time about this river thing they had going on in the Grand Canyon, and it sounded interesting to me, but it wasn't something that I thought, "Man, I need to go..." What they were doing, it was more like a family vacation type thing, at the time. It wasn't really a business yet. They were just starting to get a business going. In 1965, '66, '67, in that era somewhere, is when they started saying, "Wow, maybe se got something going here that we can do as a business." Anyway, I had no idea what it was to go down the river in the Grand Canyon, but I had heard about it through them, because Sanderson's family had been doing it through his father, Rod Sanderson. Diamond got involved through Jerry. I'd heard about it, but it just didn't light my fire too much. Then my girlfriend in high school got pregnant, so I ended up getting married, and I had that to deal with, too. So I was going to college; Vietnam was going on; but I got a deferrment because I was married with a kid. Anyway, I ended up getting out of colelge, went to work for my uncle out in Michigan for a little while--a couple of years, 1-2 years. In the meantime, my wife decided to leave, so we ended up getting a divorce. Then I became available for the draft, and this is like '69, '70, right in that era. When the very first lottery came out for the Vietnam draft, I was available, so I went and got the physical. I still remember my number was 209. This is the first one they ever did. They were going to draft up to 150 for sure--from 150 to 250 probably, and I thought, "Man, I'm going, no matter what." So I kind of just partied all year pretty hard. They ended up only taking up to 196, so I didn't get drafted and didn't know for sure what I was going to do, so I came back to Salt Lake--was working up there. I actually moved back down to Redmond, was working a construction job. My brother said, "I think I'm gonna go down and talk to Sanderson or Diamond about doin' that river thing." I went, "Oh year, wow, that'd be cool. I think I might do that, too." So I came down--actually went to Bill Diamond's house in the winter, talked to them about doing a river trip. I remember he said, "Man, you're big enough to hand pull a wagon." But he liked my size for running the river. I left--he didn't say, "Yes, you're gonna be hired," or "no, you won't", and I went back up there to Utah, working in the winter--never knew what was gonna happen. Finally, I came home, and Pat Diamond had called my sister who was living in Page, said, "Does your brother still want to do the river?" When I got the message I said, "Yeah, dang straight, I do! I'm goin'! When?" This was on a Friday, and she said, "Monday." I said, "Okay, I'm domin'; tell him I'll be there." So I packed up my stuff, quit my job up there, came down here, drove down on Sunday night. I didn't even get here to help 'em rig or nothin'. They had the boats rigged. I went and talked to Sanderson, I think, and said, "I'm here," and went to orientation that night. Had no clue what was going on. Went and got in the back of the truck the next morning, drove down to Lee's Ferry. We used to pack our ice and all that stuff in the back of the truck in those days. Loaded up the boat, and went down the river, and I thought, "Wow, man, what a place!" I was just in awe of it. I couldn't believe it was there. The guy I was with, Kim "Grub Worm" Rawlins (Kim Rawlings '69???), and the second boatman was Ken Hawkins--he had been the maintenance guy at Lee's Ferry for years. About the sixth day, they said, "We think we'll tell Sanderson that you're okay, that we're gonna hire you, that you would work out for the river." I said, "I hope so! I quite my other job--just thought I was already hired when I came down here. I didn't realize this was a test trip!" I finished out that summer, and my brother came down and started working with us. Went into the next summer....When they needed another lead, I took the lead the next summer, and then just ran lead the rest of my career, 'til I quit. I never quit entirely. I kept comin' back and runnin' a trip or two every summer. That's kind of how we got involved. My brother came in; he would run some, go away for a year or two, come back. He could just never get away from it entirely, and now he's the downriver manager for Wilderness. He's been doing that for quite a few years. (Interview in 2007) My whole career as a trip leader for twelve years was $55 a day, and that never changed, never went up--until in my last years, I talked and whined and cried to Sanderson a lot--and Diamond(after they split up)--but Jerry offered to pay me, and Wyatt Woodard and Karl McDonald and Hoss Sanderson, I thin, were the four leads he had, and he paid us in the winter, too. He paid us a thousand bucks in the witner. Steiger: A retainer. Paulson: Yes. And this was back in '81, '82. Steiger: You could get by on a thousand bucks a month. Paulson: That, and then most of us were workin' at ski areas or whatever. I was workin' up at Brian Head. Steiger: We had free room and board from Fred Burke during the season. Paulson:....Anyway, that's brief on how I came into the river and got started on it. Just blown away by it, couldn't wait to do it. I loved it; it was the best thing I ever fell into--still the best thing I ever did in my life, now, lookin' back on it, by far. Really enjoyed it, enjoyed bein' there. Had a lot of fun, some heartaches, but a lot of fun. I just wouldn't trade it for anything. It's just a unique place. I never had the spiritual or religious experience I think that a lot of people have had or talked about. For me, I had a lot of fun; it was a great place to be; it was a great job; I loved every minute of doing it. But it was a job, and I felt very fortunate to be there. It never made me "see the light" or anything, either. I just really enjoyed what I was doing, a lot of fun, good times. Steiger said in 2007: "We JUST went up there (Grand Canyon) and scattered Fred and Carol's ashes on top of the Paria Plateau with this little bunch of people who had worked for these guys thirty years ago. Paulson: When I was working dispatch in Page, I drove over to the North Rim and looked down. Actually, I'd been to the South Rim once, too, as a kid, with my family. We were going to California to see some relatives, and we came through Page, visited our sister [Sonja Poulson Jones], and then went around the South Rim. I've been like the regular tourist. I stopped and looked off. I had been to Lee's Ferry once before, too. And we drove around through--again, coming with my family, coming from Utah, we drove around through Marble Canyon and Vermillion Cliffs and that stuff, and looked at it. One of the big things, too, for me, is the people I've met, and the friendships and the bonds that we've all got. They never go away, ever. I mean, the people we worked with in our era, I still hear from some of them. If I ever do see them--man, it's old home week, and we all just bonded really tight. The new people I've met, same thing. I mean, everybody's got this bond that's going on from being a Grand Canyon boatman. It's a real good feeling, and a real unique experience, I think. Fred and Carol were there that evening the first we watched the Super 8 video of the flip. Fred and Carol, DIAMOND, Sanderson, me, whoever. We all said, "Oooh! Ahh! Wow!" Yeah, I liked those guys. Bill Sanderson and Dr. Bob Euler (archeologist). When I came in, they had gone to the pontoons. 1974 was the first flip I saw. Mark "Spooner" White was the guy runnin' the boat. Helen Diamond was with me on my boat. Jeremiah Jett was a swamper on that trip, too. Steiger: That's a good lookin' dog there. Paulson: Oh, that's my old dog. I loved him. He died eventually. (Looking at pictures of water level through the saddle. Paulson: Breck went through here in his life jacket once. (He did?) Yes. Back to flip (boat still upside down with Mark holding on. All his passengers swam to shore on left & Paulson on right. So I hollered over at them, above the rapid. I'm wired to the gills, too. I'm all excited and shook up. I asked them if everyone was okay, if they'd got everybody, "Yeah, everything's fine; everybody's okay." All's good; life's good. I went, "Okay. Well, now what I need you to do is, I need you to swim this rapid in your life jackets." They're like, "Are you out of your mind?!" They said, "What?!"I repeated, "I have to have you swim this rapid in your life jackets." And I heard back, "No!" I said, "What do you mean, 'No!'?" This is all being hollered back and forth across the river. They said, "We're gonna wait for another boat!" I said, "There are no other boats! There will be no other boats until at least tomorrow; I don't know when. It could be two days. I don't know, but there are no other boats today. You can't stay there overnight. I've got the other boat downstream with a guy on it. I've got to get you in here and go." I finally said, "Give me two people, the bravest ones..." I don't think I had my jacket on. I think I'd left mine back at the boat, but I said, "Swim, and swim hard over here to the right, and then I'll be down here on this beach, and swim to me; swim to me on this beach here." So, finally, two guys said, "Okay." And they jumped in and they didn't swim; all they did was float, and they went right into the rapid and they went right against the wall, and I lost sight of them, and I went, "Oh, no! They're gone! I just killed two people." Well, eventually they popped out down below, and I'm hollerin', "Swim to me, swim to me!" And they floated on down, out of my sight. So I walked back up and I said, "Okay, two more come." Finally two more got in the water, but they wouldn't swim. They would just float. Once they got in, it was like...They were so scared, and I can understand that, they just floated through. But they made it, but man, it was killin' me. I'd lose sight of 'em against the wall. Anyway, I went back up and I said, "No more two at a time--all of you at once! All of you get in the water and come through to me. And swim to me; swim over here." So finally they all got in and came in one bunch, and I'm yellin', I'm runnin' up and down that beach, "Swim! Swim over to me! Swim! Swim! Swim!" And most of them go floating by. But Jett, and one kid he had with him, managed to swim over to me. But all the rest of 'em went on down. At least they're through Little Lava. I'm hoping they're all okay. Helen and the rest of the people got the rest of them before going by Helen. Got them all down to the boat, got 'em safe. So it was great. She and the rest of the people were down there, gettin' them and gettin' them warmed up. There was a little bit of shock goin' on, but not anything major. They were all in pretty good shape. I got 'em all in my boat, loaded 'em up, and then drove down. I had to go find Mark on his boat. Went clear down to, straight from Lava about three miles -- Hell's Hollow, go left, the water goes left in that notch, and Mark was past that. On that point right below those rocks, there's two or three rocks that stick out, and he was hung on those rocks. Georgie White used to have a helicopter pad there or somethin' right there. He had been sitting there for two or three hours, just stressing out, because he didn't know what had happened to his people. First thing I said, "I've got everybody; everybody's okay, it's all gonna be all right." We got the boat flipped back over with the tubes still on. We got up and went down to camp; lost stuff; lost some bags, probably some ammo cans. I had the food on my boat, so we were okay that way. Cooking stuff was all on my boat--most of it."
She was born on May 31, 1938, the second of her parents' four children:
1. Renee Poulson (1935 - 2006)
2. Sonja Poulson (May 31, 1938 - Sept 18, 2014)
3. J. Donald "Don" Poulson
4. Breck William Poulson
She died on September 18, 2014, in the place she helped to birth -- "America's Last Frontier" -- Page, Arizona.
Her residence had been at 801 Oak St. in 1986 and at 228 Aero Avenue in Page.
She was survived by her sons:
1. Shayne Kerry (12/14/1956) Jones (58)
& wife, Becky, of Page, Arizona;
2. Casey G. (1/4/1966) Jones (49)
of Billings, Montana,
and her granddaughters:
Cori (George) Jones of Tucson, Arizona and
Michelle (Robby) Steele of Ivins, Utah.
On April 15, 1940, Sonja (1), Renee (4), and their parents, Jewel (31) & Bessie (24), who both had 8th grade educations, were in Redmond, Utah, where her dad was a Mine Operator in a Salt Mine.
Sonja's stepfather was Lawrence "Larry" Peterson, Find A Grave Memorial # 36097998.
Sonja's younger brother, Don Poulson's 2007 interview on how Sonja, he, and their younger brother, Breck Poulson, came to Page, Arizona:
"My brother [Breck Poulson] and I have been involved in the river since around '71, but we grew up in Redmond, UT, which is up by Richfield. Our sister [Sonja Poulson Jones], who's older than us, married a guy [Kerry Jones] from Richfield, and his father [Grant (Flora) Jones] had a shoe store up there. And when Page started, the Government put out contracts for businesses to move to Page. It was a Government town, so everything like the shoe store, the grocery store, the barber, everything, that's what you did, you made a bid on it, and then they awarded you a contract, and that's what you moved to Page. So he packed up and moved from Richfield to Page in 1958. Well, my sister and her husband came with him, and so they also came here to Page [in 1958].
My brother and I, the first time we came to Page just to visit, the bridge wasn't built. We came over the Kaibab and then around that way and up to Page and back. We were just kids... Then, when I was getting out of high school, I came down here and worked as a dispatcher for the Page Ranger station in the summers when I was going to college. And Jerry Sanderson and Bill Diamond were both Page Rangers, which was the police force. They were U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Rangers. They talked to me at that time about this river thing they had going on in the Grand Canyon, and it sounded interesting to me, but it wasn't something that I thought, "Man, I need to go..." What they were doing, it was more like a family vacation type thing, at the time. It wasn't really a business yet. They were just starting to get a business going. In 1965, '66, '67, in that era somewhere, is when they started saying, "Wow, maybe se got something going here that we can do as a business." Anyway, I had no idea what it was to go down the river in the Grand Canyon, but I had heard about it through them, because Sanderson's family had been doing it through his father, Rod Sanderson. Diamond got involved through Jerry. I'd heard about it, but it just didn't light my fire too much. Then my girlfriend in high school got pregnant, so I ended up getting married, and I had that to deal with, too. So I was going to college; Vietnam was going on; but I got a deferrment because I was married with a kid. Anyway, I ended up getting out of colelge, went to work for my uncle out in Michigan for a little while--a couple of years, 1-2 years. In the meantime, my wife decided to leave, so we ended up getting a divorce. Then I became available for the draft, and this is like '69, '70, right in that era. When the very first lottery came out for the Vietnam draft, I was available, so I went and got the physical. I still remember my number was 209. This is the first one they ever did. They were going to draft up to 150 for sure--from 150 to 250 probably, and I thought, "Man, I'm going, no matter what." So I kind of just partied all year pretty hard. They ended up only taking up to 196, so I didn't get drafted and didn't know for sure what I was going to do, so I came back to Salt Lake--was working up there. I actually moved back down to Redmond, was working a construction job. My brother said, "I think I'm gonna go down and talk to Sanderson or Diamond about doin' that river thing." I went, "Oh year, wow, that'd be cool. I think I might do that, too." So I came down--actually went to Bill Diamond's house in the winter, talked to them about doing a river trip. I remember he said, "Man, you're big enough to hand pull a wagon." But he liked my size for running the river. I left--he didn't say, "Yes, you're gonna be hired," or "no, you won't", and I went back up there to Utah, working in the winter--never knew what was gonna happen. Finally, I came home, and Pat Diamond had called my sister who was living in Page, said, "Does your brother still want to do the river?" When I got the message I said, "Yeah, dang straight, I do! I'm goin'! When?" This was on a Friday, and she said, "Monday." I said, "Okay, I'm domin'; tell him I'll be there." So I packed up my stuff, quit my job up there, came down here, drove down on Sunday night. I didn't even get here to help 'em rig or nothin'. They had the boats rigged. I went and talked to Sanderson, I think, and said, "I'm here," and went to orientation that night. Had no clue what was going on. Went and got in the back of the truck the next morning, drove down to Lee's Ferry. We used to pack our ice and all that stuff in the back of the truck in those days. Loaded up the boat, and went down the river, and I thought, "Wow, man, what a place!" I was just in awe of it. I couldn't believe it was there. The guy I was with, Kim "Grub Worm" Rawlins (Kim Rawlings '69???), and the second boatman was Ken Hawkins--he had been the maintenance guy at Lee's Ferry for years. About the sixth day, they said, "We think we'll tell Sanderson that you're okay, that we're gonna hire you, that you would work out for the river." I said, "I hope so! I quite my other job--just thought I was already hired when I came down here. I didn't realize this was a test trip!" I finished out that summer, and my brother came down and started working with us. Went into the next summer....When they needed another lead, I took the lead the next summer, and then just ran lead the rest of my career, 'til I quit. I never quit entirely. I kept comin' back and runnin' a trip or two every summer. That's kind of how we got involved. My brother came in; he would run some, go away for a year or two, come back. He could just never get away from it entirely, and now he's the downriver manager for Wilderness. He's been doing that for quite a few years. (Interview in 2007) My whole career as a trip leader for twelve years was $55 a day, and that never changed, never went up--until in my last years, I talked and whined and cried to Sanderson a lot--and Diamond(after they split up)--but Jerry offered to pay me, and Wyatt Woodard and Karl McDonald and Hoss Sanderson, I thin, were the four leads he had, and he paid us in the winter, too. He paid us a thousand bucks in the witner. Steiger: A retainer. Paulson: Yes. And this was back in '81, '82. Steiger: You could get by on a thousand bucks a month. Paulson: That, and then most of us were workin' at ski areas or whatever. I was workin' up at Brian Head. Steiger: We had free room and board from Fred Burke during the season. Paulson:....Anyway, that's brief on how I came into the river and got started on it. Just blown away by it, couldn't wait to do it. I loved it; it was the best thing I ever fell into--still the best thing I ever did in my life, now, lookin' back on it, by far. Really enjoyed it, enjoyed bein' there. Had a lot of fun, some heartaches, but a lot of fun. I just wouldn't trade it for anything. It's just a unique place. I never had the spiritual or religious experience I think that a lot of people have had or talked about. For me, I had a lot of fun; it was a great place to be; it was a great job; I loved every minute of doing it. But it was a job, and I felt very fortunate to be there. It never made me "see the light" or anything, either. I just really enjoyed what I was doing, a lot of fun, good times. Steiger said in 2007: "We JUST went up there (Grand Canyon) and scattered Fred and Carol's ashes on top of the Paria Plateau with this little bunch of people who had worked for these guys thirty years ago. Paulson: When I was working dispatch in Page, I drove over to the North Rim and looked down. Actually, I'd been to the South Rim once, too, as a kid, with my family. We were going to California to see some relatives, and we came through Page, visited our sister [Sonja Poulson Jones], and then went around the South Rim. I've been like the regular tourist. I stopped and looked off. I had been to Lee's Ferry once before, too. And we drove around through--again, coming with my family, coming from Utah, we drove around through Marble Canyon and Vermillion Cliffs and that stuff, and looked at it. One of the big things, too, for me, is the people I've met, and the friendships and the bonds that we've all got. They never go away, ever. I mean, the people we worked with in our era, I still hear from some of them. If I ever do see them--man, it's old home week, and we all just bonded really tight. The new people I've met, same thing. I mean, everybody's got this bond that's going on from being a Grand Canyon boatman. It's a real good feeling, and a real unique experience, I think. Fred and Carol were there that evening the first we watched the Super 8 video of the flip. Fred and Carol, DIAMOND, Sanderson, me, whoever. We all said, "Oooh! Ahh! Wow!" Yeah, I liked those guys. Bill Sanderson and Dr. Bob Euler (archeologist). When I came in, they had gone to the pontoons. 1974 was the first flip I saw. Mark "Spooner" White was the guy runnin' the boat. Helen Diamond was with me on my boat. Jeremiah Jett was a swamper on that trip, too. Steiger: That's a good lookin' dog there. Paulson: Oh, that's my old dog. I loved him. He died eventually. (Looking at pictures of water level through the saddle. Paulson: Breck went through here in his life jacket once. (He did?) Yes. Back to flip (boat still upside down with Mark holding on. All his passengers swam to shore on left & Paulson on right. So I hollered over at them, above the rapid. I'm wired to the gills, too. I'm all excited and shook up. I asked them if everyone was okay, if they'd got everybody, "Yeah, everything's fine; everybody's okay." All's good; life's good. I went, "Okay. Well, now what I need you to do is, I need you to swim this rapid in your life jackets." They're like, "Are you out of your mind?!" They said, "What?!"I repeated, "I have to have you swim this rapid in your life jackets." And I heard back, "No!" I said, "What do you mean, 'No!'?" This is all being hollered back and forth across the river. They said, "We're gonna wait for another boat!" I said, "There are no other boats! There will be no other boats until at least tomorrow; I don't know when. It could be two days. I don't know, but there are no other boats today. You can't stay there overnight. I've got the other boat downstream with a guy on it. I've got to get you in here and go." I finally said, "Give me two people, the bravest ones..." I don't think I had my jacket on. I think I'd left mine back at the boat, but I said, "Swim, and swim hard over here to the right, and then I'll be down here on this beach, and swim to me; swim to me on this beach here." So, finally, two guys said, "Okay." And they jumped in and they didn't swim; all they did was float, and they went right into the rapid and they went right against the wall, and I lost sight of them, and I went, "Oh, no! They're gone! I just killed two people." Well, eventually they popped out down below, and I'm hollerin', "Swim to me, swim to me!" And they floated on down, out of my sight. So I walked back up and I said, "Okay, two more come." Finally two more got in the water, but they wouldn't swim. They would just float. Once they got in, it was like...They were so scared, and I can understand that, they just floated through. But they made it, but man, it was killin' me. I'd lose sight of 'em against the wall. Anyway, I went back up and I said, "No more two at a time--all of you at once! All of you get in the water and come through to me. And swim to me; swim over here." So finally they all got in and came in one bunch, and I'm yellin', I'm runnin' up and down that beach, "Swim! Swim over to me! Swim! Swim! Swim!" And most of them go floating by. But Jett, and one kid he had with him, managed to swim over to me. But all the rest of 'em went on down. At least they're through Little Lava. I'm hoping they're all okay. Helen and the rest of the people got the rest of them before going by Helen. Got them all down to the boat, got 'em safe. So it was great. She and the rest of the people were down there, gettin' them and gettin' them warmed up. There was a little bit of shock goin' on, but not anything major. They were all in pretty good shape. I got 'em all in my boat, loaded 'em up, and then drove down. I had to go find Mark on his boat. Went clear down to, straight from Lava about three miles -- Hell's Hollow, go left, the water goes left in that notch, and Mark was past that. On that point right below those rocks, there's two or three rocks that stick out, and he was hung on those rocks. Georgie White used to have a helicopter pad there or somethin' right there. He had been sitting there for two or three hours, just stressing out, because he didn't know what had happened to his people. First thing I said, "I've got everybody; everybody's okay, it's all gonna be all right." We got the boat flipped back over with the tubes still on. We got up and went down to camp; lost stuff; lost some bags, probably some ammo cans. I had the food on my boat, so we were okay that way. Cooking stuff was all on my boat--most of it."
"Page Pioneer" Sonja Poulson Jones (May 31, 1938 - Sept 18, 2014) came to Page in 1958 with her husband, Kerry Grant Jones, of Richfield, Sevier County, Utah, who was 18 when Sonja (16) married him in her home town of Redmond, Sevier County, Utah, on September 3, 1955. Kerry was a salesman for the Paris Company, a department store known to generations of shoppers at 28 E. Broadway, between Main and State Streets in Salt Lake City, Utah, where they were living in 1957 at 856a East 3rd South. (The Paris Company was an anchor for the downtown's thriving shopping district until it fell victim to new indoor malls in the 1970s.)
She was born on May 31, 1938, the second of her parents' four children:
1. Renee Poulson (1935 - 2006)
2. Sonja Poulson (May 31, 1938 - Sept 18, 2014)
3. J. Donald "Don" Poulson
4. Breck William Poulson
She died on September 18, 2014, in the place she helped to birth -- "America's Last Frontier" -- Page, Arizona.
Her residence had been at 801 Oak St. in 1986 and at 228 Aero Avenue in Page.
She was survived by her sons:
1. Shayne Kerry (12/14/1956) Jones (58)
& wife, Becky, of Page, Arizona;
2. Casey G. (1/4/1966) Jones (49)
of Billings, Montana,
and her granddaughters:
Cori (George) Jones of Tucson, Arizona and
Michelle (Robby) Steele of Ivins, Utah.
On April 15, 1940, Sonja (1), Renee (4), and their parents, Jewel (31) & Bessie (24), who both had 8th grade educations, were in Redmond, Utah, where her dad was a Mine Operator in a Salt Mine.
Sonja's stepfather was Lawrence "Larry" Peterson, Find A Grave Memorial # 36097998.
Sonja's younger brother, Don Poulson's 2007 interview on how Sonja, he, and their younger brother, Breck Poulson, came to Page, Arizona:
"My brother [Breck Poulson] and I have been involved in the river since around '71, but we grew up in Redmond, UT, which is up by Richfield. Our sister [Sonja Poulson Jones], who's older than us, married a guy [Kerry Jones] from Richfield, and his father [Grant (Flora) Jones] had a shoe store up there. And when Page started, the Government put out contracts for businesses to move to Page. It was a Government town, so everything like the shoe store, the grocery store, the barber, everything, that's what you did, you made a bid on it, and then they awarded you a contract, and that's what you moved to Page. So he packed up and moved from Richfield to Page in 1958. Well, my sister and her husband came with him, and so they also came here to Page [in 1958].
My brother and I, the first time we came to Page just to visit, the bridge wasn't built. We came over the Kaibab and then around that way and up to Page and back. We were just kids... Then, when I was getting out of high school, I came down here and worked as a dispatcher for the Page Ranger station in the summers when I was going to college. And Jerry Sanderson and Bill Diamond were both Page Rangers, which was the police force. They were U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Rangers. They talked to me at that time about this river thing they had going on in the Grand Canyon, and it sounded interesting to me, but it wasn't something that I thought, "Man, I need to go..." What they were doing, it was more like a family vacation type thing, at the time. It wasn't really a business yet. They were just starting to get a business going. In 1965, '66, '67, in that era somewhere, is when they started saying, "Wow, maybe se got something going here that we can do as a business." Anyway, I had no idea what it was to go down the river in the Grand Canyon, but I had heard about it through them, because Sanderson's family had been doing it through his father, Rod Sanderson. Diamond got involved through Jerry. I'd heard about it, but it just didn't light my fire too much. Then my girlfriend in high school got pregnant, so I ended up getting married, and I had that to deal with, too. So I was going to college; Vietnam was going on; but I got a deferrment because I was married with a kid. Anyway, I ended up getting out of colelge, went to work for my uncle out in Michigan for a little while--a couple of years, 1-2 years. In the meantime, my wife decided to leave, so we ended up getting a divorce. Then I became available for the draft, and this is like '69, '70, right in that era. When the very first lottery came out for the Vietnam draft, I was available, so I went and got the physical. I still remember my number was 209. This is the first one they ever did. They were going to draft up to 150 for sure--from 150 to 250 probably, and I thought, "Man, I'm going, no matter what." So I kind of just partied all year pretty hard. They ended up only taking up to 196, so I didn't get drafted and didn't know for sure what I was going to do, so I came back to Salt Lake--was working up there. I actually moved back down to Redmond, was working a construction job. My brother said, "I think I'm gonna go down and talk to Sanderson or Diamond about doin' that river thing." I went, "Oh year, wow, that'd be cool. I think I might do that, too." So I came down--actually went to Bill Diamond's house in the winter, talked to them about doing a river trip. I remember he said, "Man, you're big enough to hand pull a wagon." But he liked my size for running the river. I left--he didn't say, "Yes, you're gonna be hired," or "no, you won't", and I went back up there to Utah, working in the winter--never knew what was gonna happen. Finally, I came home, and Pat Diamond had called my sister who was living in Page, said, "Does your brother still want to do the river?" When I got the message I said, "Yeah, dang straight, I do! I'm goin'! When?" This was on a Friday, and she said, "Monday." I said, "Okay, I'm domin'; tell him I'll be there." So I packed up my stuff, quit my job up there, came down here, drove down on Sunday night. I didn't even get here to help 'em rig or nothin'. They had the boats rigged. I went and talked to Sanderson, I think, and said, "I'm here," and went to orientation that night. Had no clue what was going on. Went and got in the back of the truck the next morning, drove down to Lee's Ferry. We used to pack our ice and all that stuff in the back of the truck in those days. Loaded up the boat, and went down the river, and I thought, "Wow, man, what a place!" I was just in awe of it. I couldn't believe it was there. The guy I was with, Kim "Grub Worm" Rawlins (Kim Rawlings '69???), and the second boatman was Ken Hawkins--he had been the maintenance guy at Lee's Ferry for years. About the sixth day, they said, "We think we'll tell Sanderson that you're okay, that we're gonna hire you, that you would work out for the river." I said, "I hope so! I quite my other job--just thought I was already hired when I came down here. I didn't realize this was a test trip!" I finished out that summer, and my brother came down and started working with us. Went into the next summer....When they needed another lead, I took the lead the next summer, and then just ran lead the rest of my career, 'til I quit. I never quit entirely. I kept comin' back and runnin' a trip or two every summer. That's kind of how we got involved. My brother came in; he would run some, go away for a year or two, come back. He could just never get away from it entirely, and now he's the downriver manager for Wilderness. He's been doing that for quite a few years. (Interview in 2007) My whole career as a trip leader for twelve years was $55 a day, and that never changed, never went up--until in my last years, I talked and whined and cried to Sanderson a lot--and Diamond(after they split up)--but Jerry offered to pay me, and Wyatt Woodard and Karl McDonald and Hoss Sanderson, I thin, were the four leads he had, and he paid us in the winter, too. He paid us a thousand bucks in the witner. Steiger: A retainer. Paulson: Yes. And this was back in '81, '82. Steiger: You could get by on a thousand bucks a month. Paulson: That, and then most of us were workin' at ski areas or whatever. I was workin' up at Brian Head. Steiger: We had free room and board from Fred Burke during the season. Paulson:....Anyway, that's brief on how I came into the river and got started on it. Just blown away by it, couldn't wait to do it. I loved it; it was the best thing I ever fell into--still the best thing I ever did in my life, now, lookin' back on it, by far. Really enjoyed it, enjoyed bein' there. Had a lot of fun, some heartaches, but a lot of fun. I just wouldn't trade it for anything. It's just a unique place. I never had the spiritual or religious experience I think that a lot of people have had or talked about. For me, I had a lot of fun; it was a great place to be; it was a great job; I loved every minute of doing it. But it was a job, and I felt very fortunate to be there. It never made me "see the light" or anything, either. I just really enjoyed what I was doing, a lot of fun, good times. Steiger said in 2007: "We JUST went up there (Grand Canyon) and scattered Fred and Carol's ashes on top of the Paria Plateau with this little bunch of people who had worked for these guys thirty years ago. Paulson: When I was working dispatch in Page, I drove over to the North Rim and looked down. Actually, I'd been to the South Rim once, too, as a kid, with my family. We were going to California to see some relatives, and we came through Page, visited our sister [Sonja Poulson Jones], and then went around the South Rim. I've been like the regular tourist. I stopped and looked off. I had been to Lee's Ferry once before, too. And we drove around through--again, coming with my family, coming from Utah, we drove around through Marble Canyon and Vermillion Cliffs and that stuff, and looked at it. One of the big things, too, for me, is the people I've met, and the friendships and the bonds that we've all got. They never go away, ever. I mean, the people we worked with in our era, I still hear from some of them. If I ever do see them--man, it's old home week, and we all just bonded really tight. The new people I've met, same thing. I mean, everybody's got this bond that's going on from being a Grand Canyon boatman. It's a real good feeling, and a real unique experience, I think. Fred and Carol were there that evening the first we watched the Super 8 video of the flip. Fred and Carol, DIAMOND, Sanderson, me, whoever. We all said, "Oooh! Ahh! Wow!" Yeah, I liked those guys. Bill Sanderson and Dr. Bob Euler (archeologist). When I came in, they had gone to the pontoons. 1974 was the first flip I saw. Mark "Spooner" White was the guy runnin' the boat. Helen Diamond was with me on my boat. Jeremiah Jett was a swamper on that trip, too. Steiger: That's a good lookin' dog there. Paulson: Oh, that's my old dog. I loved him. He died eventually. (Looking at pictures of water level through the saddle. Paulson: Breck went through here in his life jacket once. (He did?) Yes. Back to flip (boat still upside down with Mark holding on. All his passengers swam to shore on left & Paulson on right. So I hollered over at them, above the rapid. I'm wired to the gills, too. I'm all excited and shook up. I asked them if everyone was okay, if they'd got everybody, "Yeah, everything's fine; everybody's okay." All's good; life's good. I went, "Okay. Well, now what I need you to do is, I need you to swim this rapid in your life jackets." They're like, "Are you out of your mind?!" They said, "What?!"I repeated, "I have to have you swim this rapid in your life jackets." And I heard back, "No!" I said, "What do you mean, 'No!'?" This is all being hollered back and forth across the river. They said, "We're gonna wait for another boat!" I said, "There are no other boats! There will be no other boats until at least tomorrow; I don't know when. It could be two days. I don't know, but there are no other boats today. You can't stay there overnight. I've got the other boat downstream with a guy on it. I've got to get you in here and go." I finally said, "Give me two people, the bravest ones..." I don't think I had my jacket on. I think I'd left mine back at the boat, but I said, "Swim, and swim hard over here to the right, and then I'll be down here on this beach, and swim to me; swim to me on this beach here." So, finally, two guys said, "Okay." And they jumped in and they didn't swim; all they did was float, and they went right into the rapid and they went right against the wall, and I lost sight of them, and I went, "Oh, no! They're gone! I just killed two people." Well, eventually they popped out down below, and I'm hollerin', "Swim to me, swim to me!" And they floated on down, out of my sight. So I walked back up and I said, "Okay, two more come." Finally two more got in the water, but they wouldn't swim. They would just float. Once they got in, it was like...They were so scared, and I can understand that, they just floated through. But they made it, but man, it was killin' me. I'd lose sight of 'em against the wall. Anyway, I went back up and I said, "No more two at a time--all of you at once! All of you get in the water and come through to me. And swim to me; swim over here." So finally they all got in and came in one bunch, and I'm yellin', I'm runnin' up and down that beach, "Swim! Swim over to me! Swim! Swim! Swim!" And most of them go floating by. But Jett, and one kid he had with him, managed to swim over to me. But all the rest of 'em went on down. At least they're through Little Lava. I'm hoping they're all okay. Helen and the rest of the people got the rest of them before going by Helen. Got them all down to the boat, got 'em safe. So it was great. She and the rest of the people were down there, gettin' them and gettin' them warmed up. There was a little bit of shock goin' on, but not anything major. They were all in pretty good shape. I got 'em all in my boat, loaded 'em up, and then drove down. I had to go find Mark on his boat. Went clear down to, straight from Lava about three miles -- Hell's Hollow, go left, the water goes left in that notch, and Mark was past that. On that point right below those rocks, there's two or three rocks that stick out, and he was hung on those rocks. Georgie White used to have a helicopter pad there or somethin' right there. He had been sitting there for two or three hours, just stressing out, because he didn't know what had happened to his people. First thing I said, "I've got everybody; everybody's okay, it's all gonna be all right." We got the boat flipped back over with the tubes still on. We got up and went down to camp; lost stuff; lost some bags, probably some ammo cans. I had the food on my boat, so we were okay that way. Cooking stuff was all on my boat--most of it."
She was born on May 31, 1938, the second of her parents' four children:
1. Renee Poulson (1935 - 2006)
2. Sonja Poulson (May 31, 1938 - Sept 18, 2014)
3. J. Donald "Don" Poulson
4. Breck William Poulson
She died on September 18, 2014, in the place she helped to birth -- "America's Last Frontier" -- Page, Arizona.
Her residence had been at 801 Oak St. in 1986 and at 228 Aero Avenue in Page.
She was survived by her sons:
1. Shayne Kerry (12/14/1956) Jones (58)
& wife, Becky, of Page, Arizona;
2. Casey G. (1/4/1966) Jones (49)
of Billings, Montana,
and her granddaughters:
Cori (George) Jones of Tucson, Arizona and
Michelle (Robby) Steele of Ivins, Utah.
On April 15, 1940, Sonja (1), Renee (4), and their parents, Jewel (31) & Bessie (24), who both had 8th grade educations, were in Redmond, Utah, where her dad was a Mine Operator in a Salt Mine.
Sonja's stepfather was Lawrence "Larry" Peterson, Find A Grave Memorial # 36097998.
Sonja's younger brother, Don Poulson's 2007 interview on how Sonja, he, and their younger brother, Breck Poulson, came to Page, Arizona:
"My brother [Breck Poulson] and I have been involved in the river since around '71, but we grew up in Redmond, UT, which is up by Richfield. Our sister [Sonja Poulson Jones], who's older than us, married a guy [Kerry Jones] from Richfield, and his father [Grant (Flora) Jones] had a shoe store up there. And when Page started, the Government put out contracts for businesses to move to Page. It was a Government town, so everything like the shoe store, the grocery store, the barber, everything, that's what you did, you made a bid on it, and then they awarded you a contract, and that's what you moved to Page. So he packed up and moved from Richfield to Page in 1958. Well, my sister and her husband came with him, and so they also came here to Page [in 1958].
My brother and I, the first time we came to Page just to visit, the bridge wasn't built. We came over the Kaibab and then around that way and up to Page and back. We were just kids... Then, when I was getting out of high school, I came down here and worked as a dispatcher for the Page Ranger station in the summers when I was going to college. And Jerry Sanderson and Bill Diamond were both Page Rangers, which was the police force. They were U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Rangers. They talked to me at that time about this river thing they had going on in the Grand Canyon, and it sounded interesting to me, but it wasn't something that I thought, "Man, I need to go..." What they were doing, it was more like a family vacation type thing, at the time. It wasn't really a business yet. They were just starting to get a business going. In 1965, '66, '67, in that era somewhere, is when they started saying, "Wow, maybe se got something going here that we can do as a business." Anyway, I had no idea what it was to go down the river in the Grand Canyon, but I had heard about it through them, because Sanderson's family had been doing it through his father, Rod Sanderson. Diamond got involved through Jerry. I'd heard about it, but it just didn't light my fire too much. Then my girlfriend in high school got pregnant, so I ended up getting married, and I had that to deal with, too. So I was going to college; Vietnam was going on; but I got a deferrment because I was married with a kid. Anyway, I ended up getting out of colelge, went to work for my uncle out in Michigan for a little while--a couple of years, 1-2 years. In the meantime, my wife decided to leave, so we ended up getting a divorce. Then I became available for the draft, and this is like '69, '70, right in that era. When the very first lottery came out for the Vietnam draft, I was available, so I went and got the physical. I still remember my number was 209. This is the first one they ever did. They were going to draft up to 150 for sure--from 150 to 250 probably, and I thought, "Man, I'm going, no matter what." So I kind of just partied all year pretty hard. They ended up only taking up to 196, so I didn't get drafted and didn't know for sure what I was going to do, so I came back to Salt Lake--was working up there. I actually moved back down to Redmond, was working a construction job. My brother said, "I think I'm gonna go down and talk to Sanderson or Diamond about doin' that river thing." I went, "Oh year, wow, that'd be cool. I think I might do that, too." So I came down--actually went to Bill Diamond's house in the winter, talked to them about doing a river trip. I remember he said, "Man, you're big enough to hand pull a wagon." But he liked my size for running the river. I left--he didn't say, "Yes, you're gonna be hired," or "no, you won't", and I went back up there to Utah, working in the winter--never knew what was gonna happen. Finally, I came home, and Pat Diamond had called my sister who was living in Page, said, "Does your brother still want to do the river?" When I got the message I said, "Yeah, dang straight, I do! I'm goin'! When?" This was on a Friday, and she said, "Monday." I said, "Okay, I'm domin'; tell him I'll be there." So I packed up my stuff, quit my job up there, came down here, drove down on Sunday night. I didn't even get here to help 'em rig or nothin'. They had the boats rigged. I went and talked to Sanderson, I think, and said, "I'm here," and went to orientation that night. Had no clue what was going on. Went and got in the back of the truck the next morning, drove down to Lee's Ferry. We used to pack our ice and all that stuff in the back of the truck in those days. Loaded up the boat, and went down the river, and I thought, "Wow, man, what a place!" I was just in awe of it. I couldn't believe it was there. The guy I was with, Kim "Grub Worm" Rawlins (Kim Rawlings '69???), and the second boatman was Ken Hawkins--he had been the maintenance guy at Lee's Ferry for years. About the sixth day, they said, "We think we'll tell Sanderson that you're okay, that we're gonna hire you, that you would work out for the river." I said, "I hope so! I quite my other job--just thought I was already hired when I came down here. I didn't realize this was a test trip!" I finished out that summer, and my brother came down and started working with us. Went into the next summer....When they needed another lead, I took the lead the next summer, and then just ran lead the rest of my career, 'til I quit. I never quit entirely. I kept comin' back and runnin' a trip or two every summer. That's kind of how we got involved. My brother came in; he would run some, go away for a year or two, come back. He could just never get away from it entirely, and now he's the downriver manager for Wilderness. He's been doing that for quite a few years. (Interview in 2007) My whole career as a trip leader for twelve years was $55 a day, and that never changed, never went up--until in my last years, I talked and whined and cried to Sanderson a lot--and Diamond(after they split up)--but Jerry offered to pay me, and Wyatt Woodard and Karl McDonald and Hoss Sanderson, I thin, were the four leads he had, and he paid us in the winter, too. He paid us a thousand bucks in the witner. Steiger: A retainer. Paulson: Yes. And this was back in '81, '82. Steiger: You could get by on a thousand bucks a month. Paulson: That, and then most of us were workin' at ski areas or whatever. I was workin' up at Brian Head. Steiger: We had free room and board from Fred Burke during the season. Paulson:....Anyway, that's brief on how I came into the river and got started on it. Just blown away by it, couldn't wait to do it. I loved it; it was the best thing I ever fell into--still the best thing I ever did in my life, now, lookin' back on it, by far. Really enjoyed it, enjoyed bein' there. Had a lot of fun, some heartaches, but a lot of fun. I just wouldn't trade it for anything. It's just a unique place. I never had the spiritual or religious experience I think that a lot of people have had or talked about. For me, I had a lot of fun; it was a great place to be; it was a great job; I loved every minute of doing it. But it was a job, and I felt very fortunate to be there. It never made me "see the light" or anything, either. I just really enjoyed what I was doing, a lot of fun, good times. Steiger said in 2007: "We JUST went up there (Grand Canyon) and scattered Fred and Carol's ashes on top of the Paria Plateau with this little bunch of people who had worked for these guys thirty years ago. Paulson: When I was working dispatch in Page, I drove over to the North Rim and looked down. Actually, I'd been to the South Rim once, too, as a kid, with my family. We were going to California to see some relatives, and we came through Page, visited our sister [Sonja Poulson Jones], and then went around the South Rim. I've been like the regular tourist. I stopped and looked off. I had been to Lee's Ferry once before, too. And we drove around through--again, coming with my family, coming from Utah, we drove around through Marble Canyon and Vermillion Cliffs and that stuff, and looked at it. One of the big things, too, for me, is the people I've met, and the friendships and the bonds that we've all got. They never go away, ever. I mean, the people we worked with in our era, I still hear from some of them. If I ever do see them--man, it's old home week, and we all just bonded really tight. The new people I've met, same thing. I mean, everybody's got this bond that's going on from being a Grand Canyon boatman. It's a real good feeling, and a real unique experience, I think. Fred and Carol were there that evening the first we watched the Super 8 video of the flip. Fred and Carol, DIAMOND, Sanderson, me, whoever. We all said, "Oooh! Ahh! Wow!" Yeah, I liked those guys. Bill Sanderson and Dr. Bob Euler (archeologist). When I came in, they had gone to the pontoons. 1974 was the first flip I saw. Mark "Spooner" White was the guy runnin' the boat. Helen Diamond was with me on my boat. Jeremiah Jett was a swamper on that trip, too. Steiger: That's a good lookin' dog there. Paulson: Oh, that's my old dog. I loved him. He died eventually. (Looking at pictures of water level through the saddle. Paulson: Breck went through here in his life jacket once. (He did?) Yes. Back to flip (boat still upside down with Mark holding on. All his passengers swam to shore on left & Paulson on right. So I hollered over at them, above the rapid. I'm wired to the gills, too. I'm all excited and shook up. I asked them if everyone was okay, if they'd got everybody, "Yeah, everything's fine; everybody's okay." All's good; life's good. I went, "Okay. Well, now what I need you to do is, I need you to swim this rapid in your life jackets." They're like, "Are you out of your mind?!" They said, "What?!"I repeated, "I have to have you swim this rapid in your life jackets." And I heard back, "No!" I said, "What do you mean, 'No!'?" This is all being hollered back and forth across the river. They said, "We're gonna wait for another boat!" I said, "There are no other boats! There will be no other boats until at least tomorrow; I don't know when. It could be two days. I don't know, but there are no other boats today. You can't stay there overnight. I've got the other boat downstream with a guy on it. I've got to get you in here and go." I finally said, "Give me two people, the bravest ones..." I don't think I had my jacket on. I think I'd left mine back at the boat, but I said, "Swim, and swim hard over here to the right, and then I'll be down here on this beach, and swim to me; swim to me on this beach here." So, finally, two guys said, "Okay." And they jumped in and they didn't swim; all they did was float, and they went right into the rapid and they went right against the wall, and I lost sight of them, and I went, "Oh, no! They're gone! I just killed two people." Well, eventually they popped out down below, and I'm hollerin', "Swim to me, swim to me!" And they floated on down, out of my sight. So I walked back up and I said, "Okay, two more come." Finally two more got in the water, but they wouldn't swim. They would just float. Once they got in, it was like...They were so scared, and I can understand that, they just floated through. But they made it, but man, it was killin' me. I'd lose sight of 'em against the wall. Anyway, I went back up and I said, "No more two at a time--all of you at once! All of you get in the water and come through to me. And swim to me; swim over here." So finally they all got in and came in one bunch, and I'm yellin', I'm runnin' up and down that beach, "Swim! Swim over to me! Swim! Swim! Swim!" And most of them go floating by. But Jett, and one kid he had with him, managed to swim over to me. But all the rest of 'em went on down. At least they're through Little Lava. I'm hoping they're all okay. Helen and the rest of the people got the rest of them before going by Helen. Got them all down to the boat, got 'em safe. So it was great. She and the rest of the people were down there, gettin' them and gettin' them warmed up. There was a little bit of shock goin' on, but not anything major. They were all in pretty good shape. I got 'em all in my boat, loaded 'em up, and then drove down. I had to go find Mark on his boat. Went clear down to, straight from Lava about three miles -- Hell's Hollow, go left, the water goes left in that notch, and Mark was past that. On that point right below those rocks, there's two or three rocks that stick out, and he was hung on those rocks. Georgie White used to have a helicopter pad there or somethin' right there. He had been sitting there for two or three hours, just stressing out, because he didn't know what had happened to his people. First thing I said, "I've got everybody; everybody's okay, it's all gonna be all right." We got the boat flipped back over with the tubes still on. We got up and went down to camp; lost stuff; lost some bags, probably some ammo cans. I had the food on my boat, so we were okay that way. Cooking stuff was all on my boat--most of it."
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