Charlie Parkhurst and The Whip

CHARLIE PARKHURST 

The Story of Charlie Parkhurst, a very famous stage coach driver for Wells Fargo. This story quickly emerged as on of the signature stories for the show. During the Silver Reef tour we learned of a book about Charlie and then advised to contact the author for an interview.







The Book was called "The Whip" written by Karen Kondazian's.  This sounded simple enough, until we learned that Karen lived in the L.A. area. (Did i mention that our budget for this TV show is practically zero)  

A BIG thanks to Washington County Historical Society for all thier help

Today i was invited by Dick Kohler, to attended the Washington County Historical Society's monthly ‎  The society consists of people in the community who maintain historical sites for county and/or are local historian. During the meeting, i was able to speak with the committee members about the Silver Reef TV Project. They were very receptive of it and are willing to help out as much as possible.

Their website is: www.wchsmn.org/

I THINK I FOUND MY INTERVIEWEES!!! YEAH 

After the meeting, I was given then names of 10 people the society considered experts on the Folklore and History of Silver Reef.   I was also told about an interview Dixie State University filmed of a Archeologist Professor at Penn who has studied Silver Reef for over 30 year, and has performed numerous digs in Silver Reef.  That interview plus Karen's gives me 12 interviews I will have to choose from for our one hour show...

This was by far my biggest worry so far.  I was afraid i was not going to have enough variety in my interviewees.  I have watched historical documentary before where they only interview two or three experts. Then use multiple clips the same people... I didn't want this show to be like that.  I believe that variety will not only substantiate the folklore, but move the show along at a much faster pace. 

This month has been AWESOME: we were able to 

• get approval for the TV show, 
• lock down the topics, 
• create a list of potential interviewees 
• gain access to all pictures, papers, documents and oral interviews collected by the WCHS and affiliated resources.

Goal for February:  

1. Schedule and film all interviews 
2. begin using the interviews to piece together a working story line for the Show
3. Begin collecting

• Music
• Sound effects
• B-roll 
• VO material.

Field Trip to Silver Reef

Headed out to Silver Reef to film a tour of the museum and snap some pictures of the local scenery.  our idea was two fold, It was to get a better understanding of the Silver Reef and the material we truly had to work with.  and get a feel for what challenges we would face producing this show.  So I and my co producer Ashlee set out to explore silver reef.

We really didn't know what to expect. Neither of us had ever really explored Silver Reef before. I remember eating at the Cosmopolitan when it was a restaurant a few years ago, but other then that, I had a goal but no real expectations for the day. 

Our goal: Identify 7 or 8 of the most interesting and attention grabbing folk, history stories that could capture the interest of our audience. Our audience:  First and for most it is Washington and Iron County. Then Utah and Victorian era historians.

 After all, they would be the ones watching the TV show. We will use those stories as the outline to basis TV show on. 

SUCCESS: 

 To day was great.  Ashlee took about 50 really good pictures of the area and i filmed a 3.5 hours interview on Silver Reef.  We were able to sift through about 30 or 40 topics and narrow them down to 7 or 8.  Here are the stories we selected.

Next Step: Research and Interviews.

An Introduction to Folklore and Silver Reef

Eric Fleming
(Resident Hebestorian)

Silver Reef Museum
Wells Fargo Express Building

"I'm not a historian but rather a hebestorian" 

-Eric Fleming

                                                          (Hebestorian: He be tellin' stories)

We had two visitors come to our Television Production Class today to pitch an idea for possible television show.  Eric Fleming - who heads up the Silver Reef Museum and Dick Kohler - Chairman for the Washington County Historical Society (http://wchsutah.org)

John Kemple

Their idea was to produce a TV show that focuses on local folklore for of a ghost town called Silver Reef.  Silver Reef is particularly interesting because it is one of the few places in the world where silver was discovered in sandstone by John Kemple in 1886.  By 1878 Silver Reef was booming. The desire to strike it rich attracted many  Irish, Cornish and Chinese immigrants, referred to my the Mormons as "gentiles", into an already heavily influenced Mormon culture

Silver Reef 1880's

At on time, Silver Reef was the largest town in Washington County.  At it's
height, Silver Reef boasted nearly a dozen mines, six ore processing mills, retail stores, 16 saloons, hotels, banks, a school, Wells Fargo express office and other such amenities.

It was also unquestionably the liveliest town in Washington County.  There were lynchings, murders, gambling fights and anything else you might read about in great western novels.   Despite great differences between the Mormons and the gentiles they formed mutually dependent relationships. The Mormons had fresh produce and live stock and the minors had cash.

Bart Anderson aka "Ranger

The other reason they wanted us to produce this this TV show was partly pay homage to a local celebrity story teller and Park Ranger Bart Anderson aka "Ranger Bart." Bart was a story teller. Bart became an expert on the history of Southern Utah. His stores have become legendary.  "Ranger Bart passed away on  March 23.  They felt that a television show about the folk history and stories would be a great way to pay homage to the man who, for Decades keep these very stores alive.

I was quickly moved by their presentation and the idea of preserving folklore. I immediately started thinking of ways we could pull this project off.  Since that meeting, I have taken on a producer roll for this show.

Together, with the help of my co producer Ashlee Freer are cooking up something spectacular....