Spencer's Mountain

(LDS Chapel in Jackson Hole, Wyoming)

In March 1962, our college funds had run short to finish Garry's senior year at Utah State University. So we packed up with our two babies (Kim-18 months and Pamela-5 months) and moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. My sister Beth and her husband Reed were there with their family helping build the L.D.S. Chapel, so they helped us find a little house (which had been a chicken coop with a slanted roof) and a job.

(Nada and Kim in Jackson, Wyoming 1962)

Garry worked for Clark Ready Mix from March to August, while I tutored reading and math students in our home. They would ride their horses over to lessons and tie them up behind our house. Nancy (Beth's oldest daughter) worked at the Jackson City Library part time while going to high school, so she would bring me books to read, to help fill in my days.

(Nada, Pam, Kim, and Garry 1962)

(Nada and Pam 1962)

It was fun to be at home sewing Pam and I some matching Easter dresses. That summer we enjoyed playing on the big lawn with Kim and Pam and their puppies, while enjoying the beautiful scenery and surroundings of Jackson Hole. We also had fun times with Beth and Reed and their neat kids.

(Job and Jennie Hemsley, Nada and Garry Bowen, Fred and Rhoda Bowen 1962)

During that summer we had a very famous experience! Warner Brother's Motion Pictures came to Jackson to film the movie "Spencer's Mountain" with Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara.

(Warner Brother's Studio Filming in Jackson, Wyoming)

Our Jackson Ward members were asked to be in the 'audience scene' of the movie. They paid each member (old or young) $10 a day, which we all put into the building fund of the new chapel.

(Jennie Hemsley, Beth and Reed Hollist Family, Nada and Garry Bowen Family, Fred and Rhoda Bowen 1962)

It was exciting, as Beth had made her four girls' dresses alike for Easter, so we could easily spot them in the movie. We dressed Kim and Pam up cute so they could be "movie stars" like Mom and Dad, but Pam was enjoying her fame too much by singing and yelling her excitement. The director, Delmar Daves, had to say "Cut! Take out!" (which cost the Warner Brother's hundreds of dollars every time they started taking a scene over) so many times because of our excited Pam that we had to take her home. Our neighbors tended her for the rest of the day so we could finish earning $30 for the building fund.

(Filming "Spencers Mountain" from the audience 1962) 

It was a very hot day, and after 12 long hours out in the sun, we all came home with sunburns and grateful hearts for being 'common folks' instead of famous movie stars. The camera men even focused the cameras in on Kim and I, plus Beth and Reed and their six cute kids all dressed alike! "Spencer's Mountain" is the Bowen Family's favorite movie.

"The world steps aside to let anyone pass who knows where he is going."