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Rangely Page 2

Quondam Rangely: The Halcyon Days

A view of Rangely in 1945, looking north up main street.

Raven A well, drilled in 1933, capped and produced in mid 40s.

Rangely the boom town, 1946.

Art Smith's Guam Trailer Park in 1946.

Post Office in 1946.

Real Estate office in 1946.

Tent City in 1946.

Nichols Store, 1946.

Main Street, 1946.

1947 flood.

Tent City in 1947.

Art Smith's tent motel, 1947.

Flooding at Cramer Bell Court, maybe 1947.

Swimming in White River, 1947, by the old bridge.

Silver Dollar Club and Tiny's Cafe, early 50s.

Ace Hi Club taken in early 50s.

Main Street in early 50s.

Another view of Main Street in early 50s.

Dinosaur in Jensen, Utah.

New Jr Hi built in 1953.

Stroud Well at Eddy Farm, about 1955.

California Camp, 1951.

California Camp, 50s.

California Camp, 50s.

Flash flood in 80s.

Hale Bobb Comet over Rangely pump, 1997.

Ice Jam on White River, 1983.

Oil Well, 1968.

Another Oil Well, 1968.

A view of Rangely in 1945, looking north up main street.

Raven A well, drilled in 1933, capped and produced in mid 40s.

Rangely the boom town, 1946.

Art Smith's Guam Trailer Park in 1946.

In the mid to late 1990s, a marvelous Rangely website was launched. It's been gone for years, but the miracle of the Wayback Machine allows us a glimpse of what it was like. If some of the links are broken, you can poke around a little and try a different date of archival. Or search the Wayback Machine for the site. Check out the Guestbook for some vintage Rangely comments.




Kathy Hurt, former Rangely resident, has written the definitive, and maybe only, comprehensive history of the Rangely Area. It may not be available. There is a site claiming to offer it as a PDF download but this has not been verified because the site is registered in the New Zealand .tk domain, which is notorious for bad actors. Below are a few reputable links that at least have heard of the book.





Post-1946 Clippings

The pictures on this first page are mostly salvaged from the original Rangely website (published in 1996-1998 by Sandi Woodard, see nearby), with a few others cribbed from elsewhere off the web.

Driving into Rangely from Meeker, in 1945, the new boom town looked like this.

This is the trailer park started by Art Smith in 1945. He'd been stationed in Guam during WW II, and he called it the Guam Trailer Park.

The Joe Trachta Jr. family drove from Richmond, California to Missouri in late 1946 and stopped for Christmas in Rangely to visit my grandparents, Joe and Glenn Trachta. We traveled in a 1935 Plymouth, and, although I don't remember it, we might have visited Art Smith and family since Art was the husband of my father's cousin, Virginia Jones Smith. That car on the left side of the Guam Trailer Park, above, could easily be mistaken for a 1935 Plymouth.

By 1946 when my family and I went through Rangely, Main Street looked like this. We drove in from Vernal, though, so this would have been the scene looking back as we left in early 1947.

In 1946 families were living in Tent City. Picture courtesy of Virginia Eddy via Original Rangely website.

Photo of the tar-papered real estate office in Rangely, 1946. Picture courtesy of Virginia Eddy via Original Rangely website.

Picture of old Rangely Post Office, 1946.The lady in the doorway is probably Mabel White, Postmaster at the time. Picture courtesy of Virginia Eddy via Original Rangely website.

Picture showing people living on Main Street, 1946. Picture courtesy of Virginia Eddy via Original Rangely website.

Ravin "A" #1. (California Co.) Drilled in 1933. Shut in until 1944. Discovery well, in the Weber Sand. . Picture courtesy of Virginia Eddy via Original Rangely website.

Tents and more tents in Rangely in 1947.

Run by A.B. Smith in 1946, the tent motel was filled with cots and was never empty - there were even millionaires staying in this tent!. . Picture courtesy of Florence Jones (Smith) Moore via Original Rangely website.

Nichols Store on Main Street, 1946.

The old swimming hole, found down by the old bridge. Picture courtesy of Harold and Flossy Eddy, via Original Rangely website.

The Silver Dollar Club and Tiny's Cafe, taken in the early 1950's. Picture courtesy of Florence Jones (Smith) Moore via Original Rangely website.

The Ace Hi Club, early 1950s. Picture courtesy of Florence Jones (Smith) Moore via Original Rangely website.

Main Street in the early 1950's. Picture courtesy of Florence Jones (Smith) Moore via Original Rangely website.

Early California Camp, probably early 1950's. Picture courtesy of Robert Sullivan via Original Rangely website.

Another view of Main Street in the 1950's.

The California Camp, in February 1951.

Another view of the Early California Camp, probably early 1950's. Picture courtesy of Robert Sullivan via Original Rangely website.

View of the Eddy Farm, 1955. Earlier owners included Harold Crandall and John Stroud. Mead Drilling was drilling a water well. Picture courtesy of Virginia Eddy via Original Rangely website.

One of the few existing photos of the "brand new" Junior High addition to the old K-8 grade school (right side, below the old Cramer Bell Court). Picture courtesy of Ken Bailey, via Facebook.

Picture of flooding at the Kulman's Trailer Park, early 1960s. Picture courtesy of Harold and Flossy Eddy, via Original Rangely website.

Picture of flooding at the old Cramer Bell Court, early 1960s. Picture courtesy of Harold and Flossy Eddy, via Original Rangely website.

Picture of Rangely Oil Well, one of many, in 1968. Picture courtesy of Florence Jones (Smith) Moore via Original Rangely website.

Picture of Rangely Oil Well, one of many, in 1968. Picture courtesy of Florence Jones (Smith) Moore via Original Rangely website.

Picture of Ice Jam at the new bridge west of Rangely, 1983. Picture courtesy of Harold and Flossy Eddy, via Original Rangely website.

Picture of flash flooding at Headquarters. Picture courtesy of Harold and Flossy Eddy, via Original Rangely website.

There used to be a big green dinosaur in Jensen Utah. The name of the store it advertised is temporarily forgotten. Picture courtesy of Virginia Eddy via Original Rangely website.

The Hale-Bopp Comet of 1997, streaking through the sky below a Rangely Oil well. Picture courtesy of the Original Rangely website.

Joe Trachta began his oil drilling career in Rangely in 1902. Click the picture below to go to the next series of pictures from his family archives.

According to Kathy Hurt, "Roads to Rangely," oil discoveries in the Rangely area began around 1890. The California Company came in 1901 and began drilling test holes. The first shallow well, using cable tools, was drilled around 1902 with George Eldred as driller, and my grandfather, Joe Trachta, as tool dresser. They had various problems of crooked holes, lost bits, and cussed luck. I recall my grandfather talking about these failed attempts several times, but I was about nine years old, and had no clear notion of what he was talking about.

Bridge over the White River in Rangely. This picture was in the Joe Trachta family album and someone dated it 1902, an apparent error since there was no such bridge at that time. The picture links to the next page of pictures and notes, the Really Old Days.

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