October 2007

Our Home is so fun and peaceful. We would not even consider living anywhere else. All our memories here are pleasant. There is always something to do, something to create, or something to fix. It is the celestial kingdom of Oakcreek.

October 2007

October 2007

August 2007

See...I told you it was massive. We stayed at a nice hotel in Page. The water was really warm so Bill spent alot of time in the water and going off the house boat slide.

August 2007

While we were there, we took a tour of the dam. These are the big generators at the bottom of the dam that generate all the electricity. The dam is really massive.........and tall.

August 2007

During the summer of 2007 Reed and Gloria invited us to spend the weekend with them at Lake Powell. They have a houseboat down there. The water was really warm and the weather was hot (about 107 degrees)

July 2007

July 2007

This is the building where the High Council used to meet every month when Bill was in High School. It was here that Bill and his friends took cement blocks from the new gymn that was being built and blocked up all the cars outside. When the meeting was over, all the high council members got in their cars to go home, but they wouldn't go anywhere. It took a few minutes for them to figure out what was going on since it was dark. Meanwhile Bill and friends hid in the bushes across the street and watched them get themselves back on the ground. It was alot of fun.

July 2007

These are all the brothers and sisters that went to the Reunion in Colonia Juarez Mexico. From left to right are Kent, Bill, Carmen, Catherine, Knolton, Reed and Ray

July 2007

This is the actual gunfight site at the OK Corral in Tombstone between Wyatt Earp and the Outlaws.

July 2007

This is the courthouse where Grandpa and Grandma Martineau were married in 1923. Since they needed witnesses, they went out into the street and rounded up a couple of witness and got them to come in and witness their marriage. They never got their names or knew who they were or where they were from. The county seat has since been moved to Bisbee (I believe). The model A Ford that they went to St. George in had the gas tank just in front of the dash board on the outside of the car. On the way home, when the road got too steep, they would have to turn around and back the car up the hill so the gasoline in the tank would be higher than the carburator. Grandpa told me that when they got back from St. George, he had only a dime left in his pocket. On the way both ways, they simply pulled off the road and slept on blankets with the open sky.

July 2007

On the way back home, we stopped at Tombstone Arizona. This guy stopped and posed for us. Teresa though he was so macho that she began having ideas of staying in Tombstone. This is where Grandpa and Grandma Martineau were married because it was the county seat at the time. They lived in Bisbee (about 30 miles away) where Grandpa Martineau was working in the copper mines. Knolton was born in Bisbee a year after they were married. They were married in September of 1923. As soon as they could scrape up the money, they took their Model A Ford and drove on dirt roads to St. George, Utah where they were married in the Temple.

July 2007

This is Colonia Corrales where Grandpa Martineau had his Saw Mill. Our lumber home was just behind where the fence is....about half way between the fence and the hill. There is a spring a couple of blocks away on the hillside to the right. Grandpa Martineau got some pipe and piped water from the spring into the house so we had running water in our home. It was in this home that Bill was born while all the kids were sent away to go swimming at the "Ledges". He weighed about 10 pounds. (Grandma Martineau was only 4 ft 10 in. ) I don't know how she could have that big a baby. I am certain that they put the fence up so that people would not trample on this sacred place.

July 2007

This is the Piedras Verdes River that runs through both Colonia Pacheco and Colonia Juarez. In the background you can see the "Ledges" where we used to go swimming. The river goes right next to the ledges and the floods leave deep swimming holes at different places every flooding season (August and September)
Pacheco is about 2 miles on down the river from here. I was born at Colonia Corrales, about 1 mile and a half behind us from where this picture was taken. I was baptized a month after my birthday about 3/4 of a mile on down the river from the ledges seen here.

July 2007

About 5 miles from the Hat Cave is an area we call the winding stairs because the water cut tall narrow cuts in the hillside. The erosion was always very winding and interesting. If this area were in the United States, it would be a National Monument. Pacheco is about 10 miles from here.

July 2007

About half way up the picture and to the left, you will see the cliff dwellings the indians used years ago. They are much like the Mesa Verde ruins in New Mexico but not so large. When the saints first got into Mexico, they found a mummy buried inside the dwelling in a coffin made of mud. These dwellings are only a half mile from the Hat Cave.

July 2007

On the way to Pacheco, we all stopped at the Hat Cave. This is about midway between Colonia Juarez and Pacheco and where the saints would generally stay overnight....particularly when the weather was bad. When it rained, they would bed down inside the cave....which was about 30 feet deep.

July 2007

On the third day, everyone loaded up and went up to Pacheco where Grandad Leland had a sawmill and all us kids spent most of our summers. On the way up, we picked up some old tires by the side of the road and rolled them down the mountain on our way up the mountain. Pacheco is about 35 miles from Colonia Juarez. Bill was born up the river, about 3 miles from Pacheco at Grandpa Martineau's sawmill camp. He had built a lumber house there where we spent the summers. Bill was supposed to be born in May while the kids were still in school in Colonia Juarez.....but he refused to be born. And with the pressure from the kids to go to the mountain (Pacheco), she got in a logging truck and went to the lumber house near Pacheco, (Colonia Corrales) where he was born on June 17, 1944 on a Sunday when everyone was supposed to be in church.

July 2007

This temple is the result of the revelation President Hinkley had after his visit to re-dedicate the academy and on his way back to El Paso Texas. During the dedication he promised that if they would get a membership of 15,000 or more in the area, he would promise them a temple. (I guess he asked the Lord about things on his way back home) This temple is very beautiful and sits on the hill above town. The mexican members are so excited about this temple and are very active in coming to it and doing the work for their ancestors.

July 2007

This is a picture a most of the people that came to the Leland K. Martineau family reunion in Mexico. This picture was taken at a restored hacienda where we had mariachis and all kinds of food. It was so much fun.

July 2007

This is where Bill went to High School. He had 24 in his Graduating Class in 1962 (12 girls and 12 boys) President Hinkley came to re-dedicate the Academy in 1984 (at the time of its centenial celebration). It was a wonderful experience. We decided to go about 2 hours early so we could get a good seat. But when we got there, the entire baseball field was completely field and we had to get seats toward the back. There was such a spiritual feeling every where and everyone wanted to come and see the prophet. It was on his way back to El Paso to catch a plane back to Salt Lake that he had the revelation to place smaller temples all over the world and drew up preliminary plans during the plane ride home. While he was there, he confirmed that the Juarez Stake of the Church had provided more leadership to the church by far than any other stake in the church. It had provided 5 apostles, 45 mission presidents, temple presidents and alot of other leaders.....particularly in the early days of the church.

July 2007

Colonia Juarez has the river running right through the middle of town. This swinging bridge was built with cables so the pioneers could cross the river during the flooding season. Bill spent many hours playing on the swinging bridge with he friends and the girls. The bridge can be made to swing from side to side and would they would try to scare all the girls when they tried to cross.

July 2007

The funeral director recruited these young men from the St. Ignatus High School. The High School has a program that allows the students to help with the pall bearer's duties when requested.

July 2007

Auntie Annie was buried in the Holy Ghost Church Cemetary in Parma Ohio. She had never married. She always had a very close relationship with Teresa (Terri in Cleveland) She was Terri's Aunt and God Mother and her father's sister.

July 2007

July 4th Auntie Annie passed away and there was a mass at Holy Ghost Greek Catholic Church on 14th & Kenilworth in Cleveland. My son Rick
Betts, Beverly Ryan (Vanko) and Tamara Vanko my cousins and Susan Vanko and her son Alan Vanko and his friend attended the service. I only had one other person, my best friend Jan Weinmeister (Young) who I have known since I was 7 years old attended. Aunt Annie died as a result of burns she received while trying to escape a fire that was deliberately set in the apartment she lived in. She was unconcious for approximately a week. Teresa went to Cleveland to be with her and her cousin Tamara were there when she passed away.