Timber, Tenacity and Talent Built Blanding: The Scott Hurst Legacy Part I

   Interest in construction and lumber runs deep in the Hurst families of Blanding. In the late 1930’s Joe and Stan Hurst’s grandfather, Phil Hurst and their Uncle George Hurst purchased Dave Black's Sawmill. They operated this mill on Johnson Creek for years then moved it to a site 4 miles north of Blanding and ran it until 1950 when it burned down. This provided lumber for the first homes built in San Juan County. (More info in Fall 1988 issue of Blue Mountain Shadows) 

This was the size of timber cut down from Blue Mountain in the early days of the saw mill

SJC Historical Society

    Phil’s son, Scott, began his construction journey in 1953 in the Marine Corps where he learned to build bridges. He next attended a building trades school in California, then he and Erma Lee moved back to Blanding. He first worked for Rex Harvey’s Building and Supply, building cabinets. Shortly afterwards Scott took out a $300 loan and started his own business.

                                                 Photo from SJC Historical Society

    As the business expanded, Scott hired Ron MacDonald, Arvid Black and his former employer, Rex Harvey!   His daughter Jane remembered, one cold winter when they had poured concrete. “They spent the night on the job site, keeping fires lit to prevent the concrete from freezing. Rex's wife got up in the night to check on them and both men had an open half gallon of ice cream in one hand, with their trowels in the other hand eating the ice cream.” 

On the west side of Blanding many other house building projects were orchestrated by the Hurst team.  These included one for Elmer Hurst in 1959-60; then next came the Dee Gibbons and Bill Black homes. 

The Elmer Hurst home built by Scott Hurst is still one of 
the most attractive ones in Blanding and was built on a "firm foundation."

   “Our home was probably one of  best built homes in Blanding at that time,” said Elmer. “Scott had a good crew: John Hurst was the spackler and his craftmanship was far superior to the wallboard used now days. Linney Goldberg did all the interior hardwood carpentry.”  A new man who came to work for Scott from another company once told Scott, "If you tell me to go pour a set of stairs, you'll tell me every step of how to do it and if I don't do it good enough, you'll take it out and re-do it.”  His other boss never did that!   

 A car port and an extension to the front room were built for Parley & Agnus
 Hurst by Scott Hurst and they are still used by the Cosby family today.

   Building homes in Blanding was Scott's major focus for several decades.  One early home built by his company was the Bob and Kay home at where the Kyles' family lives now (157 S 200 East ). It was built in the early 70's. When they were digging out the basement, they hit bedrock, so the house sits a bit higher than they had intended," Heather Raisor added

Heather also remembered, "Mom told Scott she didn’t want a wall between the living room and the kitchen. He was surprised, but when it was done he thought it was a good idea. Today they build houses like that all the time and call it a “Great Room.” The Jones' "great room" was definitely built to last for multiple generations.  

   The unique and attractive Dee and Beppy Gibbons home built by Tri-Hurst in the 60's was unfortunately demolished in 2012 when the college decided not to use the building anymore.  Ironically, it was Tri-Hurst who was also hired to do the demolition of this beautiful landmark. 

      Day 1 of the official demolition of the Dee Gibbons home July 10, 2012.  The Gibbons home was used for over 20 years as an integral part of the San Juan Campus.  Prior to July 10 the inside doors, windows & fixtures had been removed, but once the roof was removed the die was cast, and the beautiful home was soon destroyed.

By Day 3 -- All that was left to remove was the basement of the home and the beautiful west arches. It was a sad ending to one of the most beautiful homes in Blanding and a reminder of the family who donated the building to the college in its early beginnings.

   Scott’s daughter, Jane remembers also watching Scott build caskets for people who couldn't afford to purchase one. “He refused to be paid for them. He would make beautiful caskets which he padded and lined with satin, even the hardware was elegant.” Many of those experiences were very tender ones both for the builder and the recipients.

   in 1973 Scott Hurst next hired Pete Black  as his bookkeeper and by the 1980's Hurst Builders was off and running. Projects included: new wings added to Blanding Nursing Home 1983, Shiprock LDS Church 1984 and the Albert R. Lyman School Gym 1986.

    Another milestone was when Scott and Erma were called to serve a mission to Armenia July 1991. The LDS church needed service missionaries to help rebuild the country after devastating earthquakes and the negative impact of the Soviet Union.  They specifically needed those with construction experience. Stan recalled his father reading about it in the Church News and saying, “Now, wouldn’t that be a fun experience!” Not long afterwards, Stake President Francis Lyman called them to serve in Armenia and the “fun experience” began. Six couples served with them.

Erma Lee and Scott Hurst: Missionaries to Armenia

and co-owners of Tri-Hurst Builders 

    Soon after arriving they wrote home, saying they had entered the “old Persian Empire, in full view of Noah’s traditional landing and where the 10 tribes got lost!” Scott noted that Armenia had been in bondage to the USSR for 70 years.  The devastation of earthquakes was in all parts of Armenia.”

    Feb. 22, 1992 Scott wrote: “The government has allowed 10 [cement] factories to reopen…ours being one of them and it receives power for 6 hrs. a day. Socialized government is still very much in control of when and how long plants can be run.”  Cement buildings were needed because they were sturdier. The Huntsman's had run a concrete plant there for 3 years.  The new missionaries served for 1 1/2 years. They were not allowed to proselyte; however, many local people befriended them. Both Scott and Erma were dedicated letter writers and those letters were published in a mission book and are very interesting. Scott once wrote: “Most people have their mail delivered by the postal service as missionaries, but the Armenian missionaries had their mail delivered by General Authorities," Scott once wrote.  (They came often to evaluate the building progress being made.)   

   Scott taught many Armenians construction skills and kept good notes comparing tools, cement and progress made, “There has a been a precast concrete plant here for over 30 years which includes several buildings.” His interest in concrete work piqued the interest of his grandsons one of whom did research focused on cement for the State History Fair.  Several of his grandsons became engineers and were capable builders as well.

     The photo below was the beginning of what became the Wilcox home at 112 S. 300 W. It was added on to multiple times by Alma Palmer and others before we purchased it from Pete Black in 1974.

      

  A devastating fire occurred January 4, 1990. Fortunately, everyone in the family was gone when it occurred. An attentive school bus driver called the fire department.  Thanks to a very efficient Blanding fire crew, it was put out quickly; however, everything inside was either lost, melted, or water logged.

 

Front of our home after Jan. fire

The solid framework of the home was in tact after the fire and was likely built from some of the very timber shown in the first photos of this article.  In our small-minded thinking, we just planned to rebuild the house.  But after Scott Hurst surveyed the damage, he came up with many amazing and well thought out suggestions for improving both its functionality and aesthetics.

                 A major transformation began after the Jan.1990 fire

    The kitchen and the family room were joined into one large area, which required installing a large support beam. They poured and leveled cement in the kitchen area, so, water wouldn’t run in 3 directions!) Tri-Hursts added cement and pillars in the front, for an aesthetically pleasing entrance and a large pantry & more work space in the kitchen.  Scott designed an awesome walk-in closet for the master bedroom, and dozens of other changes that made it perfect for our large family. “This kind of insight and creativity guided Tri-Hurst for decades."

Pillars, cement work, a covered porch and two large windows were all features
 Scott Hurst initiated and built for our "new" home.

 

 

Cody Cosby Creations: via Daylilies, Dragons and Silkworms 

Tue, 03/07/2023 San Juan Record

By  Janet Wilcox

   

When you combine curiosity with motivation you
get a Cosby masterpiece.

   Though his profession is in the medical field, Cody has mastered resin work, silk painting,

  

cooking, and raising unique plants.  His most complicated undertaking, however, has been

his silk paintings; mainly because he raised his own silk works and then extracted the  silk 

threads himself!

  In 2010 he purchased three different kinds of silk worms and kept 200 of them in a bin at a time,, 

feeding them mulberry leaves exclusively. Once the worms spun their cocoons, he had to boil 

the larvae in water to loosen the threads, as they are bound with a gummy substance. He had close

 to 30,000 cocoons to “unthread”.  He next learned if you put food coloring into the food they eat;

 it will also change the color of the thread as well as the worms themselves.  “It was very inter

 extreme science fair experiment!”

    A kindergarten teacher in Spanish Fork once did a facetime with Cody on the whole life cycle 

of the silkworms, as he had all stages simultaneously going on right in his front room.  “This

only lasts about two weeks—from moths to eggs, to instars. The silk moth only lives a week at 

the very most, because they’re born without mouths, so as soon as they mate, they die but if they 

don’t mate before that week they die because they can’t eat.”

One of Cody's silk paintings.

   The hardest part in the whole process is finding the end of the silk threads and carefully pulling out

 the silk. The thread is so fine, like hair, that sometimes a magnifying glass has to be used. These 

threads are then wound on a spindle and collected eventually on a bobbin. Then they were sent 

to a weaver in Eugene, Oregon. This led to the idea of painting on silk. “I saw a Chinese panel 

that I thought looked interesting, so I further investigated and thought, ‘OK! I can do this!’” He first built 

a frame which was about four feet tall and two and a half three feet wide and then 

attached the silk. He next created 16 stencils to use. 

    Before actually painting, however, Cody had to cover the silk with a special compound 

which stops the dye from spreading further. This was used to outline what he would paint with 

the specific colors and shades of acrylic paint. Despite the challenge of keeping his cats from 

climbing the panels, he was successful in keeping them away. 

 

    He has also created all kinds of decorative objects using resin.  The process starts with two 

ingredients mixed 1.1: one a hardener and one epoxy. They are mixed until they are completely clear yet 

still bendable like plexiglass.   When heated there is a chemical change. “You cannot let the 

resin cure completely because you have to be able to bend it,” he explained.  “Once it’s cured, it is 

solid and will just break. Prior to that it needs to be malleable, a bit tacky in order to add creative 

flourishes.  

   It’s not heavy and it looks like glass but you can drop it won’t shatter." They are dried in a kiln.”  

He prefers using a resin that self-heats and as it sets up as it hardens. Because it is a form of plastic, 

no kiln is used.  The resin is left to cure in molds until the desired hardness is reached.

    Cody has also made about 15 decorative eggs, selling some locally and others as far away as 

Tennessee, California and even two in Japan. “I honestly am kind of flabbergasted that people are 

interested in it because this is just what I do at home!” 

   Initially, Cody created simple objects to hang from car mirrors, then he experimented with additional kinds 

of crafts and in the process learned new skills.  "Right now I am a total hermit with ADHD and this is what I 

do to occupy my time.  It's creative and fun!  Right now on my table I've got six different projects going on: 

flowers, eggs, and two dragons!"

   Cody has also made snow globes, which were the hardest thing he had ever done--even though it had 

the smallest number of components.  He's also made Native American themes hair barrettes with feathers. 

and flowers. Another specialty has been valentines and candy boxes.  They are very small, only 1-2 inches 

tall." I use candy molds to make different kinds of resin chocolate.  On a couple of them he even drizzled 

chocolate resin over the candy. 

      One of his earlier creative efforts was as a horticulturist.  He learned how to 

cross pollinate plants and created his own combination of red/ purple/ yellow daylilies.  That 

effort took several years to complete as the seeds from each plant have to grow, then be 

cross pollinated again to add the additional color genes. 

 

  

But as in Cody's case, "If you can dream it, you can do it!    He practices that mantra often.