Palmer Businesses: The Backbone of Early Blanding

 

Front:  LaVan and Clyda Palmer
Left to Right: Dave, Becky, Steve, Susan, Sandy, Taylor and Terry

    Clyda Palmer recently celebrated her 95th birthday and her large and talented family joined with her in recalling nearly a century of memories and accomplishments.  Her far-sighted husband LaVan (who passed away in 2013) and their four talented sons and three daughters have been directly involved in building dozens of homes and businesses in Blanding, most of which are still standing and operational today.                                                                                 Her husband Van was a visionary, who had a gift for seeing a need and then figuring out ways to find a solution. His parents were Joe and Hilda Palmer, who grew up in the Mexican colonies and were farmers and they taught their son a lot about work! Van first worked as a mechanic for Edway Redd in Monticello in the 1950’s. It was there that Van and his son Steve both learned about managing and operating a car dealership. 

   The first family business Van initiated was the UTOCO gas station, which he leased from Paul Black where the four-way stop is today.  Thus began Palmer Gas.  This first full service Gas Station was at Center and Main in Blanding on the southwest corner. The Elk Ridge Cafe is to the south and to the right is a mechanics shop. Burnhard and Lela Palmer Black owned cafe on the southwest corner of Center and Main and Paul Black had the service station. 

    In the 1950’s, the Navajo people on the reservation were still using wood to cook with.  There was definite a need for something better! Van and his crew visited every hogan on the reservation offering them a lifestyle change via propane gas. He loved the Native American people and made many friends in the process.  Often the purchase involved bartering with animals, baskets, or jewelry. 

    The Palmer Propane UTOCO went as far as Tuba City and Window Rock.  Often the delivery trucks would drop into a sandy wash, which took lots of work and logs to get out. 
To remedy the problem, employees started carrying logs with them!  Despite the rural reservation challenges, the propane business grew.

    Because of the extensive network that Van had established with the propane business, he and Keith Redd joined forces and created Abajo Petroleum. They eventually had thousands of propane tanks which stretched from Green River to Cortez and across the reservation.  He also put in a propane bulk plant in Blanding and then one in Monticello, Cortez and other places on the reservation.  He had 50-60 people working for him.  

 

    Every summer Clyda and Van's children and their friends would repaint the tanks white with a red lid. “He was a master at keeping us kids busy,” emphasized Steve. The Palmer home burned in the 1960’s, which was devastating, but LaVan and his sons were able to rebuild around the original home and it is still standing today. He also credits his father with good business savvy.  “Dad was good at finding a hole in the market and would fill that niche,– whether it was food, propane, cars, homes, or other things!" stated Steve.  

    During the San Juan County uranium boom in the 70's, mining supplies were needed locally and Van built a mining supply business where Ben Black’s mechanic shop was on the north highway.  They also put in a big bulk plant for propane storage behind the cabinet shop on the north end of Blanding.

 

Mining Supply business

    Next came the Patio redo – Blanding’s 70-year-old fast food “go to”!  The Patio became a MAJOR family affair for the whole Van Palmer family for the next 15 years!  Steve Palmer recalled, “Every one of us had to help and it was a lot of work!  Nine months of the year it was open and when it was closed, "Dad would remodel it!  Dad did all the work himself; however, in the process he taught all the family how to do building, wiring, plumbing, etc.”    
    

     In 1976, Palmers sold The Patio to Steve and Stan Bronson, then it was sold to Clyde and Carl Hunt, then to Clay and Cole Conway, then to Brian Bayles and now the Arthurs own it.

    Floyd Nielson and Marvin Lyman originally built The Patio in 1965, as the A&W Root Beer Café with Nancy and Cleal Bradford as the initial managers. It was a cafe with walk-in service and no drive up window. Cleal remodeled the building with a drive-by window and added patios outside. It was a successful operation. They bought the business from Floyd Nielson.

    The Bradfords loved A&W Root Beer but did not want a franchise.  With the covered patios outside, they came up with the name Patio as there were patios on three sides of the site. 
They eventually sold The Patio to Francis and Denise Lyman who ran it for 4-5 years, then they sold it to Van Palmer.   Van also built the laundromat behind Patio in the late 1960’s and it is still running today.

    Another need Van identified was the dilemma that Native Americans on the reservation faced when buying vehicles. During the 1950s and 1960s Redd Motor Company was the largest employer in San Juan County. That was before the federal government employment moved to first place. Redd's was a full service dealer for Chevrolet, Buick and Oldsmobile cars, equipped with a first class mechanic shop and also a body and fender shop. 

The photo was taken in the 1970s after the business was beginning its decline. The first owner was
Charles Redd of LaSal, Utah. Later it was owned by Edway Redd, a cousin, and then his daughter
Arita Redd Sparks and her husband Bob Sparks. It was located about 465 East Center in Monticello, Utah.

   Car dealers were reticent to finance the sale of vehicles to them, so that became Van’s next big challenge.  He decided to orchestrate the loans himself and co-signed for every vehicle sold!   Each contract was set up individually.  He was adamant about paying the loan back on time, so that was when he sold his profitable propane business to Suburban Propane so he could do that.

    In the mid 1970’s, Van and Bert Palmer bought the Silver Saddle. Later the name was changed to the Elk Ridge and it was sold to Phil Acton. Van also bought the City Center Motel and renamed it The Pines.  Terry ran it a couple of years and maintained ownership, then sold the building to Norman Lyman, who started Radio Shack and rented out 12 rooms.
Later Steve Palmer and Van bought that building and rented it exclusively to college students with one room for a beauty salon for Sheri Stanley. They added kitchen units but eventually sold it back to Rex Nielson.  (Rex Nielson later demolished all the smaller businesses and built Canyon Country.)

      Steve Palmer next bought the Radio Shack franchise from Norman Lyman and moved it to the Hallmark Book Store (west of Patio).  Steve ran the Hallmark Bookstore for 27 years until 2008.  Clyda and Van were also an intergral part of that business.  She kept books and ordered supplies from both Hallmark and Deseret Book.  During that time, they contracted with the college in the late 1990’s to sell college textbooks and offered a mobile bookstore as well.  Eventually the bookstore was sold to Taylor Lyman.      

    Van was always on the move 24/7 looking for something to do.  He taught his family that success happens when people have a need, then work hard to make that goal happen. Both he and his wife exemplified that principle all their lives.