“POKING THROUGH THE RUINS” — w/ Jim Stiles: THE PROSPECTOR LODGE in MOAB (ZX#23 )

I could scarcely believe my ears when I heard, almost twenty years ago, that there were plans to tear down the historic Prospector Lodge and replace it with a hideous chain motel. 

By all accounts, the Prospector was built in the mid-1950s fast on the heels of Charlie Steen’s uranium discovery and the unprecedented boom that followed. The little hamlet of Moab swelled to ten times its size, from just a few years earlier, and the construction of the Prospector was in response to that demand.

My knowledge of the Prospector’s history was pretty thin, so I turned to a facebook page dedicated to Moab’s history and asked for help. As always the response was immediate and full of details that I would never have known without their help.

I learned that Bud and Jane Lincoln owned the motel from 1957 to 1962 and I am guessing they must have been the original owners. Whether they had partners that helped with the financing, I don’t know. The Prospector was built to look like a log cabin and its interior was just as interesting, as one of the photos below will show. 

Bud also ran the State Unemployment Office and worked with George White to bring movie productions to Moab. he even traveled to Hollywood a couple times to meet with film executives. Consequently some of the most memorable Westerns were filmed in the Moab area.

Later in the 60s, and well into the 1970s, the motel was managed by Clara Francis. (NOTE: Her son Zeke Francis and his wife Maralee later owned the Four Corners Design store, across from the post office and now occupied by the Moonflower Market. Zeke and Maralee were early and strong supporters of The Zephyr and two of my favorite people—Zeke died years ago, way too young to leave us. Maralee still supports The Z after all these years) 

According to Clara’s daughter Debbie Francis Sjoblom, Clara also worked the 8 to 5 shift at Atlas and during that time, Debbie’s grandmother Amanda Francis staffed the front desk. Debbie remembers that by then, the motel was owned by Frank Yama and Bill McCormick. Frank gave Debbie her first job, keeping the pop machine full. “My pay,” she remembered “was all the pop I could drink…I liked that job. I was nine years old.”

It was interesting to read how deeply the motel touched the lives of young Moabites. For many, their first job was working in some capacity at the Prospector. Kathy Shafer recalled that it was her first job, at age 15.. It was also Christina Miller’s first job— at age eight! She remembered that it was there that she learned to fold fitted sheets. 

Rell Bailey remembered that while the Apache Motel on Fourth East may have been John Wayne’s favorite lodging in Moab, she had seen other movie stars who preferred the Prospector. She especially recalled Roger Moore, later of 007 fame, and Clint Walker, the star of the classic TV Western, “Cheyenne.”

And finally, according to Karen Ballantyne, the last owner of the prospector was Bennett Lin, who came to Moab from Hayward, California. The old Motel came down in the early 2000s, replaced by a boilerplate “new” motel that has all the charm of a dentist’s office.

I have my own fond personal memory of the Prospector, though I never stayed there myself. In the summer of 1978, I was a ranger at Arches and lived at the Devils Garden campground. At 11 PM, just as I was about to go to bed, I heard a vehicle racing down the campground road, blasting its horn. It was a motorhome and as I stepped outside, a woman driving it yelled, “My husband can’t breathe! We need help!” Their names were Fred and Marie Ellis, from Tulsa, Oklahoma and had only arrived at Arches that afternoon. Fred had suffered from congestive heart failure and now the higher altitude had caused him to experience pulmonary edema. His heart could not function properly and his lungs were filling with fluids.

I put Fred in the backseat and buckled him in, and Marie and I flew “down the hill” as we used to call the 18 mile drive from the campground to Moab. I could raise no one at Arches, on the two-way radio, but a ranger in the Needles District heard my distress call  and alerted the hospital by radio telephone. When we reached Allen Memorial Hospital, Dr. Murray was there waiting. By now Fred was unconscious and fading fast. But Dr. Murray sprang into action, and was able to stabilize Fred.

By now it was past 1 AM and I convinced Marie that she needed to get some sleep. I made some calls to local motels but nobody answered, until I tried the Prospector. Whoever it was that answered was incredibly helpful, and by the time I drove Marie the short distance from the hospital, the manager was up and had had the door open for us. She was so kind to Marie, who was sure she had lost her husband. Fred made a full recovery and they returned to Oklahoma. Fred decided he just wasn’t cut out for high altitude vacations and said I should call him “Flatlander Fred” from now on. Later I heard from Marie; they had made it home safely and she asked me to thank the lady at the Prospector Lodge for her kindness. And to let her know that Fred made it.