REMEMBERING OLD POOL (KUSD)

I was talking with this guys who was at least 10 years my senior, and with age comes a wealth of experience. I was listening to this guy tell me some of his secrets and tricks he uses as welding fabricator, pipe fitter, etc. He was telling me, "when I try to coach young people in welding, they always tell me that's 

'OLD SCHOOL', I guess when they say that they are trying to distance themselves from my skill and experience." I responded to him with "Young people are foolish most of the time. I remember when I was young I thought I new stuff, but I didn't know thing." I continued to tell him, "I learned that OLD SCHOOL is sometimes better than NEW SCHOOL!" Hahahaha!

With this in mind, Let's GO OLD SCHOOL! OLD POOL! Below is a satellite picture taken by the U.S. Geological Survey (Google Earth) of the old Kayenta Unified School District Swimming Pool back in 1997. I marked the Intermediate School, and the High School Football/ Track Field for location references. This was what it looked like before it was torn down around 2000. The Old Swimming Pool was replaced with the newer Natatorium. 

So I took the above picture, and rotated it for you to get and idea of the old swimming pool layout. You can see we had grass, and this old pool was much larger than the current Natatorium. The School District use to have beautiful green trees, and grass. Oh it was a beautiful time, the GOLDEN AGE of the K.U.S.D. However, I believe they didn't know that clay soil makes a bad foundation. Clay retains water when it gets wet, the ground gets soggy, losing it's supportive properties. This is not good for a foundation. It was during the 1990s the school was dealing with sinking buildings, I guess it was because all the water from the grass was getting under the foundations and the buildings started to shift.

That's what happened to the old swimming pool. I don't really know why they tore down the building, I assume it was due to building was cracking at it's foundation, and the walls were cracking too. It was a good call to tear it down if the foundation was shifting, because this building was a span building, where the loads were placed on the exterior walls of the building. And with the cracks on parts of those walls, structural integrity was compromised. I just remember coming back to Kayenta to find it torn down. It was a sad moment.

So here is floor plan of the old swimming pool, I tried my best to draw it up as best as I could. The measurements are relatively close but not exact, but it gives you an idea of the layout. Below I zoomed in a little more so you could see floor plans of the inside.

Let me talk about this pool.

• The yellow lines indicate all the doors in this image.
• The pool had three Spring Boards, Two were 1 Meter High and One was 3 meters high.
• The diving area was about 11'10'' deep on the sides but in the center was 12 feet deep.
• Part of the deep pool was roped off as you can see the blue dotted line and orange dotted line. This marked off the swimming area and the diving area.
• The Length of main pool was about 25 meters, same as the current pool.
• The width of the main was 6 lap lanes just like the current pool.
• This building had windows on the north east and south west side of the building. People would stand at the windows watching people swim. 
• The windows by the Diving boards people would stand against them to warm up.
• The baby pool was about 2 feet deep, it was maintained at war 86 to 87 degrees.
• The main pools temperature was maintained at a cool 76 to 79 degrees, ideal for swimming and refreshing during those hot summers.
• The basketball goal was a big attraction.

Old Pool Hours:

• Sunday: 1:00 - 4:00PM (4:00 to 5:00 Staff would clean Facilities)
• Monday to Thursday: 3:30 - 5:30PM (5:30-6:30 Staff cleaning)
• Monday and Wednesdays: 6:30 -8:00 PM (Lap Swim / Family Swim)
• Tuesday and Thursdays: 6:00 - 7:00 AM (Lap Swim)
• Monday to Friday: 8:00AM - 3:00PM (K.U.S.D. Student Instruction)

Services Offered:

• Private Swim Lessons
• Aqua-Aerobics (Great low impact workout)
• Community Water Safety Classes
• CPR, FIRST AID
• Pool Rentals by the Hour.
• Party Hosting in the Lounge area by the wading pool.
• Opened to persons and elderly doing rehab (Great Public Service for the Elderly we honor)

Schools that would visit our Pool:

• Kayenta Boarding School
• Chinle School District
• Chinle Boarding School
• Pinon Boarding School
• Red Mesa School District
• Low Mountain School District
• Tuba City Schools
• Black Mesa Boarding School
• Rough Rock School
• Chilchinbeto School
• Shonto Boarding School

It was awesome to hear so many people say they loved out swimming pool. They liked how it was kept clean, and grateful to have this experience for their students. I was proud to work for the Kayenta Unified School District, and Swimming Pool. I enjoyed talking with the teachers from other school and hearing how impressed they were with the Kayenta School District. 

I don't know what else to add, but if you have questions about the old pool I can try to answer it. It was an awesome POOL! I MISS THE OLD POOL!

COAL MINE MESA

 Coal Mine Mesa Chapter house has been abandoned, it's a ghost town that is about 20 minutes miles east of Tuba City on the Hopi Indian Reservation.

 Coal Mine Mesa, I took this picture from the road, it was overcast cloudy day, the sun was about to set.

 I believe this was once a gas station serving the Coal Mine Mesa community at one point.

Additional Notes:
Coal Mine Mesa Coordinates are 35* 57' 36.17" N   by  110* 56' 18.73" W

CLOSING OF KAYENTA TRADING POST

It was cold, wet, snowy day. The snow wasn't sticking, but it was still coming down. It was February 14, 2008, when I took this picture of Kayenta Trading Post. What a welcoming and friendly sight. I loved see the hustle and the bustle of downtown Kayenta.

 Here is a sign, that pointed the way to an old friend. I remember taking friends to the Trading Post once and they were surprised to see this part of town. They really liked having to go down the hill to get to the KTP.

 In this picture, you can see all the cars lined up, this was a familiar sight at KTP, I miss seeing days like this. When I use to walk home from school when I was a Student in the Kayenta Unified School Disctrict, I would always see KTP in the Morning, Afternoon (High School - Open Campus), After school, of in the late evening.

 I walked this veranda thousands of times as a life long resident of Kayenta. I remember there use to be wooden benches, windows along this wall. I remember getting harassed by drunks, older drunks trying to start fights with me. I despise alcohol!

 This picture reads "BIG SALE! at the Kayenta Trading Post - After 75 years of serving Kayenta as a grocery store the Kayenta Trading Post is closing it's doors and reopening as a new auto parts store. To thank all our loyal customers beginning Thursday February 14 we are selling off all our inventory at a huge discount of 20% off (excluding Radio Shack) Radio Shack will be moving to a new location. Do get ready for a new look new great products and a big grand opening. Thank You Ronnie and Melissa."

Reading this for the first time, was like a "Dear John Letter" my heart just dropped. 75 Years!

 This was poster sign was visible as you walked into the store. It yellow and obvious, since I was a loyal customer, I would immediately notice any changes made to the store. I'm sure then customers noticed this sign immediately too.

 A picture of aisle two. Automotive, cleaning tools, house products.

 Aisle three, house cleaning products, diapers, paper towels and so on.

Aisle 4, canned food, pasta, i'm starting to forget what was in this aisle. :(

 Aisle 5,

 The produce section, in the back part of Aisle 7, bread, chips, meats.

 Aisle 7, This store was supper efficient. I loved the layout, I would walk in and grab what i needed, I shopped gracefully, this place was like my pantry, at that time I knew where everything was. I could have worked there.

 Aisle 6, I came here for Oil and Flour. Miss those days.

 Radio Shack, I used to come to this place to get parts for my electrical experiments. I could also rent a movie here.

 Car stereos, amps, speakers, Ipods, dvd players. It was convenient, when your DVD player broke you could roll into this place and buy one.

 The wall of refrigerators, frozen fish sticks, corndogs, vegetables, to sodas, to juice, to cheese, to luncheon meat, this wall was amazing!

 Ah the famous, and revered rotisserie chicken of KTP, I still believe it's the best around, far better than Bashas' rotisserie chicken. Needless to say I bought the last two rotisserie chickens from KTP. When I had a hankering for Rotisserie Chicken, I would walk into the store, hit aisle 7, grab bread, the chicken, chips and walk along the wall of refrigerators grab cold sodas walk to the cashier, pay walk out the door in less than 2 minutes. I can't do that in Bashas'. WHY?!!!! 

 The meat department, small but great prices, fresh meat.

 A display of beauty. I can't help but stare. I am captivated!

 Personal hygiene, hair care, skin care and OTC medication.

 The aisle of temptation, like the sirens of old, they call to you visually, grab me. Darn impulse buys. Hahaha!

 This what the check out would look like when it was busy, but I didn't mind. I loved this place, i loved the atmosphere, I loved this place.

 I would always run into people I knew at this store. It was great!

 I took this picture to remember how stores had to monitor Hair Spray products. I was naive I have to admit , but my mind was not involved in such things. I was educated by an employee at the KTP as to why they kept tight watch over the hair products. She said "Some people buy it, mix something to flavor it, and then drink it." I was like "What?!" She said, "I know!"

Here is the last picture of Kayenta Trading Post, now it's NAPA auto parts.

I've only been to NAPA like 12 times since it opened. If it was the Kayenta Trading Post I would have been stopping by there every few days. Hmmm.

OLJATO TRADING POST

One afternoon in October 2003, I was driving around, at that time gas was around $1.58 a gallon. I wanted to drop in and see the Historic Oljato Trading Post. This isn't the trading post that was started by Wetherills, I believe the trading post they started was about a mile west of this one's location. I have some pictures of old trading post's location that the Wetherills started in the early 1900s. Today all that remains are stumps of the logs they use for walls. I'll post it later when I gather those pictures together.

Here is picture of a product that was sold in the Historic Oljato Trading post. Navajo Land Fine Beverages. I don't know who the bottling company was or where it originated from. When I saw this on display at the Oljato Trading Post, I asked the attendant if they could take it out for me to so I could take a picture of it. That attendant was friendly and helpful, sharing information about the old store. Pretty cool! You gotta stop in check it out if you have the chance.

This old Texaco Gas Pump was inside of the Oljato Trading Post. 

This was another time a year later when I rolled up to the Oljato store and I found this Rez dog, standing on the trunk of this car. Awesome. I love how random the rez can be. If you can't handle seeing stuff like this, the rez isn't for you.

Additional Notes

Oljato Trading Post Coordinates are 37* 02' 10.77" N by 110* 19' 05.53" W

KAYENTA TOWNSHIP OFFICE

Taken in September 2002, you can see the beginning of the Kayenta Township Office. It started out as one half of a double wide trailer, then they started adding to it. I don't know why we all don't take pictures of the changes that happen, perhaps it happens so gradually we don't feel it's note worthy.

Additional Notes:

Kayenta Township Office Coordinates: 26* 42' 42.04" N by 110* 15' 02.47" W

BLACK MESA MINE

Black Mesa Mine's Family appreciation day dinner, September 2003. This happened just before the Black Mesa was schedule for shut down due to variety of issues. The Mohave Generating stations was having complication with Updating and renovating it's smoke stacks and equipping it with scrubbers. At this time Black Mesa Mine / Black Mesa Pipeline was facing issues with water use, as fresh water from under ground N-aquifer was used to slurry the coal as it was pipe lined to Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nevada. Black Mesa mine was eventually shut down.
Here is one of Peabody Coal Company's Dragline. A massive piece of equipment. During Family Appreciation Day, we were allowed to take a tour of the mining site. My dad told me how he the booms of the Dragline would break and he would be called out of the shop to do week long, long hours, repairing the damaged booms. The drag line booms are about 100 yards long.
It was cool to see Parents, Grand Parents showing their children and grandchildren where they worked. I like everyone else was impressed by the gigantic equipment.
I was told this bucket holds 90 cubic yards of dirt. 90 cubit yards of Dirt in one scoop. That's alot of earth.
Here we have an retired employee and current employee looking at the Bull Dozer. I have the Information about this dozer some where, but what surprised me was when our tour guide said this is the smaller one, the bigger ones are working right now in another pit, moving overburden material. I was like what? Big? There's larger one? He looked at me and said "Yeah!" Hahahaha!
Here is the conveyor belt system of the Black Mesa Pipe Line operation.You can see to the right of the white truck a huge pile of ground up coal that's almost prepared to be made into coal slurry. To the right of the picture you can see part of the water tanks where the Coal and Water are mixed, made into a slurry and shot down a pipeline to Laughlin, Nevada to Edison's coal burning Generation Station.
I was here waiting for my turn to take the safety class. We all had to take a safety class before we went on the tour. It was an interesting process. They did this 6 people at a time, it's good thing I arrived early because later in the day the line was long.
Here they displayed how they transport the coal haulers tires around. They have a tire mounting press in back of the shop. You can see that tire is massive. On the tire in white they wrote the price of each tire, $4,200.00 per tire.
Here is a front end loader, I sure wished this was my job, I would love to drive this equipment around. My childhood dream. I envy those guys who can do this.
This picture is from the Employee parking area behind the Black Mesa Repair Shop. This where my dad worked for over 30 Years.You can see families leaving after lunch was served.
Here is an inside picture of the Shop where my dad worked welding and repairing all the heavy equipment. I got to see my dad's locker where he kept all his tools and equipment that he need everyday.

Here my dad is standing by one of the dump trucks, he explained how these truck came in parts and how they had to assemble them. He also explained what were the common repairs he made to the heavy equipment. After all they moving unimaginable amounts of material.

In December 2011, I passed by this mine shop and the everything is quiet, all the garage bay doors are closed, activity has ceased.

Additional Notes:

Black Mesa Mine Repair Shop's Coordinates: 36* 26' 44.96"N by 110* 23' 40.23" W

Black Mesa Mine Pipeline Coordinates as seen in the picture :

36* 26' 38.29" N by 110* 23' 30.12" W

Center of 4 slurry silos coordinates: 36* 26' 26.64" N by 110* 23' 36.90" W

Mohave Generation station operated from 1971 to 2005 in Laughlin Nevada. Mohave Generation station produced so much emissions it polluted the Grand Canyon, failing to meet the EPA's emission standards it was forced to be shut down and dismantled.