While growing up in Skull Valley and Dugway, I had the opportunity to do many things that other people living in the United States have either lost the ability to do or were never able to do. For example, leave the back door unlocked just in case the neighbors needed something like eggs, milk or bread. Or leave the keys in the truck, tractor or car so we wouldn’t lose them. You could leave a $20 bill on the table and safely assume that it would be there tomorrow.

However, what we’ve never had the ability to do was to be buried within the boundaries of Skull Valley, which includes Terra, Delle, Dugway and Rowley.

I spent 15 of the first 18 years of my life living in Skull Valley and Dugway. I attended school at Dugway from K-12. Upon graduation from Dugway High School, I enlisted in the U.S. Army and moved wherever the army stationed me. I never gave a second thought to the lack of a cemetery where I grew up in Skull Valley until my deployment to Bosnia in 1995. In my early 20’s, I realized that I didn’t have a final resting place.

After completing my one-year tour in Bosnia, that thought, which disturbed me each and every mission, was pushed back in my mind and forgotten. In 2000, the U.S. Army actually assigned me to Charlie Company, U.S. Army Technical Escort Unit, located on Dugway Proving Ground. After spending a year and a half living and serving on Dugway, the tragic events of September 2001 called for the deployment of my unit to Afghanistan. Two weeks later, there I was.

Once again, that sinking feeling of not having a final resting place plagued me. Again, I spent almost one year thinking, “Where will I go if I die?” Each mission and each friend lost reminded me of the mission that I had to accomplish if I made it home.

With the recent passing of a Skull Valley icon, Dennis Andrus, I now realize that I need to do something — and what little time we all have. Dennis and Shirley Andrus did more than just live in Skull Valley, they are Skull Valley. I realize how much knowledge, history and personal pride they had concerning Skull Valley, the Old Lincoln Highway and their ranch. I know Dennis lives on when you are opening a fence gate he put up. Those of you that have opened or tried to close one know what I’m talking about.

Understandably, there hasn’t been a need for a cemetery in the valley. Dugway Proving Ground wasn’t established until the 1940s and those who moved to Dugway were from somewhere else. Now, however, we are slowly coming upon a new time in which people who have either been born or raised here, or have spent more than 50 years of their life here in the valley, are starting to pass away.

There are several families that have made the Skull Valley area their home. Their families and their names will live in this valley forever. They deserve to be buried in this valley as well.

Persons interested in establishing a cemetery here in the Skull Valley area can contact me at skullvalleycemetery@hotmail.com.

Jeffery D. Wintle grew up in the Dugway/Skull Valley area.