"...At the time of the purchase, I was vice president and assistant business manager of Local 3. specifically in charge of training.

"I had been instructed by the Pension Trust Fund ... to find a piece of property to buy to use as a training site to train and retrain heavy equipment operators. I looked for five years before I finally found this place.

"I first looked at the piece of property in January of '67. Ray Henderson and I came down here and Tony Guzman showed us around. ... I originally looked at 2,200 acres. The price was exorbitant, and I told (the sellers) I wouldn't recommend it, but if they got down into our range, I would. ...

"A couple of days later, Ray Henderson called up and said, 'Maybe we ought to get together.' And I said, "Well, are you down to a million and a quarter?' That's what I told him I'd recommend -- a million and a quarter for the 2,200 acres -- and he said we could talk about a million-six. ...

"(I told him), 'We can write you a check today for a million and a quarter, and not a penny more,' and ultimately that's what we paid for it. ...

"Subsequently we picked up a few hundred acres here and there to round out the 3,500 acres we ultimately purchased."

-- February 1998 interview
with Marion Cravens and Dixie Eudey