I had been working at Northern Auto for 2.5 years as a handyman/car detailer when I learned that there was work in Wyoming. Roland, Gordy, Ken and Gary were out there already working for PCC, Project Construction Corp. This was a large construction company that was building a sulfur loading terminal for Mobil Oil. Pete, Jim, Aaron, Mark, Chris and I decided to go see what it was all about. There had been others out there also, but I don’t remember who. I do know Urho asked me to drive his GMC truck out to him. I gave notice to Northern Auto that I was leaving for Wyoming. They asked where and what I intended to do, and I told them that I want to work for PCC. When they learned of the money to be made, they called it “chasing the rainbow to the pot of gold”. I had decided to enroll in college (Suomi, later named Finlandia University). When I got done there and came home, I had to have something to do. I got that squared away.
It was decided that we would meet at Skufca’s restaurant as a starting point. Many people saw us off. Betty Berg gave us each a braided Niisu and it was still warm, all buttered up and smelling good. Jimbob, Pecus and Mutty rode in Jim’s Malibu, Pete in his Chevy truck, Chisser and I in Urho’s old GMC truck. Urho’s truck was loaded down with an engine and numerous parts. We traveled heavy. Our 1st day brought us to Minneapolis with no problems. We camped out a Paul K’s. That evening, we went out with the kyds and the next day we hit the road. Before we got to North Dakota, Urho’s seat spring poked through. I had to sit on a pillow. I noticed that the engine was using too much oil, so after discussing the problem it was decided that the crank case pressure was too high. There was no PVC valve to relieve the pressure, so I punched 2 holes in the rocker arm cover. This ended the problem. We eventually made it to the Badlands. We checked out the big tourist trap, Wall Drug.
For the night, we slept at a KOA campground not yet opened for the summer. We just slept in our vehicles. In the morning, I was amazed at how wide open it was around us. It was pitch black when we parked for the night. We headed out again. In the early evening, we arrived in Casper, Wyoming. My headlights on dims burnt out so I left the brights on. Just so they wouldn’t be so bright I rubbed mud on them. No one flashed their lights at me, so this worked pretty well. I drove the whole time. We had an AM radio that we seldom listened to. Chisser slept off and on as a I tiredly drove on. We would stop every now and again to stretch or to let Pete catch up. We arrived in Kemmerer late at night and found the trailer okay. Some of the guys were still awake and we found a spot on the floor to sleep. The furnace ran a lot as it was still cold in the house. The windows leaked. The next day was for sightseeing and job hunting. I liked the towns; there were three of them together, Diamondville, Kemmerer and Frontier. The trailer was near Frontier. This location was mostly trailer houses, modulars and man camps for employees that worked for PCC. The man camp was surrounded by a 10ft high chain link fence. Each trailer had quarters for six guys, two to a room with a communal bathroom. This was across the road from our trailer house.
We ate at three or four restaurants. The names of those were The Corner, The Other Place and Luigi’s. Frontier bar and Saloon had great steaks and burgers. We applied at many places and rechecked daily to show interest. I landed a job at a construction company called Willow Mesa. We worked the whole time pouring 8-9 sidewalks in PCC’s man camp each day. About 50% of the time, we had to turn away the cement trucks because of garbage in the cement. The job was hard work. The elevation of Kemmerer was 7000ft, so this made me tired, and I had no trouble sleeping, often going to bed early. The air was thin, not enough oxygen at this elevation. Urho let me sleep in his queen size waterbed. This waterbed had no baffles so it was a big bubble. It was an interesting ride when someone gets in or out of bed. This trailer needs to be written about. It was 14ft x 70ft. It had 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, laundry, kitchen and living room. More later.
I only worked for about 48 hours when I was told that I was to go and make my presence known at Daniel’s Construction. This was a sulfur loading terminal similar to P.C.C.’s across the fence in the same area. We had to report to an office in Evanston 80 miles away. I went with a guy named Dan who I worked with at Willow Mesa. We stayed a night at a motel and in the morning we boarded a bus to Daniel’s mountain site for orientation. I was pumped. This is what I came out there for. We spent the day viewing films, filling out forms, the general formalities and then we were done. The facility that was partially built was perched up high on top a mountain and I could see for miles. I looked the facility over and noticed miles of pipes and buildings all over the place. This was where they separated the sulfur out of the oil that was piped here. There also was many construction crews and equipment. It was a very busy place. The one thing I remember was that you mind your own business or you may meet death. One of the employees was loaded with cash. He would cash workers checks that lived on the mountain top for $5 per hundred. Nobody messed with him. To drive the road to this remote mountain top meant a bone jarring ride, twisting and turning, up and down. We rode back to Evanston and then to Kemmerer.
The next day, I showed up at the sulfur loading terminal on highway 189 southwest of Kemmerer. When I got there, they recognized that I wasn’t given any PPE. We had to buy our own boots. A few of us got into a pickup truck box and rode back on a gravel road to the mountain site to get PPE. As a crow flies it was only 21 miles away but by road it was about 60 miles. On our way with a driver, a passenger in the cab of the truck and 3 of us in the back we spotted a helicopter coming from behind us. When it got closer the big sliding door opened and there was a guy hanging on to straps in the doorway mooning us as it flew by.