STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Vonnie Olsen had no idea the adventure that awaited her when she married the milkman of Carey.
When heavy snows came one year, even she was pressed into collecting and delivering the milk.
“Paul would collect the cans of milk and take them to the Kraft plant,” she said. “And when everything got snowed in, you couldn’t get to the places where they had the cans because nothing was plowed. So we commandeer all our friends who had snow machines and everyone would go out and collect the cans of milk. If we hadn’t done that, the milk would have gone to waste.”
Olsen had never heard of Carey, growing up in Rigby where she milked cows and shoveled sawdust at her father’s small sawmill. But she has carved out a rich legacy since moving to town in 1965—and that earned her a berth in the 2018 Blaine County Heritage Court, which honors women who have made noteworthy contributions to the Wood River Valley and Carey.
“Paul brought me to Carey to meet his parents and it was dark by the time we got here,” she recounted. “Paul told me, ‘We’ll have coffee in the morning and I’ll give you the grand tour.’ The next morning he said, ‘This is the high school,’ and I said, ‘Where do the rest of the kids go?’ ”
Olsen was flabbergasted to learn that everyone went to school in the same building. But she’s come to believe that one of the best things about the school is its small size and intimacy.
“It’s small enough that it allows each child to be so individual,” she said. “Students get to try out lots of different things because they’re not competing with so many students to get a spot on the football team or in the band. And they get a lot of individual attention. I think a lot of kids have trouble finding their niche in bigger schools.”
At that time, Olsen had no idea she would spend the next 53 years of her life in Carey.
She met Paul Olsen in Rexburg where Paul received his associate degree at Rick’s College where his mother and sister had studied. He planned to finish studying math at Utah State University.
But, nine days after the two were married, Paul developed an eye infection and the two went to Carey where Paul could tend the family cows while recuperating from treatment that involved injecting him with dead typhoid fever vaccine to kill the infection.
In 1968 the couple bought a house on Main Street that included the Tee-Pee Restaurant, and Vonnie began serving up hamburgers, fries and shakes to travelers enroute to Craters of the Moon National Monument.
“We got people from all over the world—a lot from Europe,” she said. “I remember in particular a group of five kids who were driving their parents’ van from California. They had run out of money on their credit card by the time they got to us. They wanted a free meal, but I told them they’d have to work for it. I made them mow the lawn and, after we closed, we had a really good visit. I sent them on their way with sandwiches.”
The Olsens also milked their own cows, with a Hereford bull helping to herd them.
“The kids would rid the bull down to the pasture and when they got to cottonwood trees, the bull would brush up against them, forcing the kids to get off. It was like he was saying, ‘Time to get off!’ ”
Eventually, the Olsens decided to close the Tee-Pee because they decide it would not be economically feasible to build a fire retaining wall between the Tee-Pee, which was housed in the garage, and the house they lived in.
Vonnie went to work as county court clerk and as a receptionist for the Hailey Medical Center and Carey Clinic. She served on County Planning and Zoning and later Carey Planning and Zoning and Carey City Council.
Olsen was able to help with the incorporation of Carey. And she started the Carey Economic Revitalization Group to improve the town’s economy and beautify the valley.
She’s most proud of the Boyd Stocking Pavilion, which was named after a man who played a major role in the Wood River Irrigation District.
“I had heard the irrigation district wanted to build a pavilion in his honor and so I asked if they would like to partner with us,” she said. “They provided the money to build the pavilion and we got donations of picnic tables and trees. It’s been a vital part of the community because we didn’t have motel or public restrooms to get people to stop. And it’s used on a regular basis with people renting it for things like family reunions.”
Olsen also served on the board of the Croy Canyon Ranch, which would have provided a three-tier assistive living/nursing home where the new animal shelter is being built.
“It was so disappointing that that didn’t happen. Everybody wanted that so badly,” she said.
Always an avid outdoors enthusiast, Olsen taught 4-H snowmobile classes and swimming at the Hot Springs Ranch when the Ellsworth family allowed the Red Cross to use it for lessons.
“I like having people around and I like to do things,” she said. “Not only does it make me feel good but I feel I’m contributing to others’ health, as well.”
Olsen started off lifting weights to improve her own strength at what is now Big Wood Fitness. And a decade later she began coaching a group of teenage powerlifters.
The kids got so good that she took them to NASA-supported high school meets in Salmon, Reno and elsewhere wearing T-shirts and hats with the motto, “All it takes is all you got.”
“I don’t think anything does any more for confidence building and mental clarity,” she said. “It’s not easy to get teens to give up their free time to do something so to get them to be committed to powerlifting was big.”
One youngster-Michelle Kelsey—got so good that Olsen accompanied her on an international powerlifting cultural and peace mission to Leningrad and Moscow where they toured Red Square and Russia’s famed St. Isaac Cathedral with its onion dome.
“It was such a different culture,” she said. “The first thing we noticed was that women were considered second-class citizens. If we started to get on an elevator and there were three men there they’d move us aside and go first. We were supposed to march into the gym and the men were having no part of us going before they.
“At the same time, we saw how much young people wanted to come to America. They would cry a few tears and raise their hand in the air and say, ‘America.’ Then they’d lower their hand and say, ‘Russia here.’ ”
CORONATION CEREMONY
Vonnie Olsen will be inducted into the Blaine County Heritage Court, along with JoAnn Levy, April MacLeod and Faye Hatch Barker at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 10, at the Liberty Theatre in Hailey. There will be light refreshments and entertainment, and the public is invited.
The four women will then ride in the valley’s four major parades: 4th of July Days of the Old West Parade in Hailey; Carey Pioneers Day Parade, Wagon Days in Ketchum and the Bellevue Labor Day Parade.