EDWARD THOMAS LAMB
(1880-1979)
Account written by himself in about 1942
The Story of the Little Cooper Boy 

I was about 13 or maybe 15 when this happened.  It was in summertime in what they called Kanabonites.  At that time my father, Edward Lamb was there working for the Church after the United Order broke up.
About this time Josiah Hoyt and I left Orderville to go to Buxkin with Arthur Waymoth and Fred Tilton.  Third night we went to VT Park.  We arrived about 4 o’clock in the afternoon and met Jean Stewart on a give out horse.  He told us that Allie Cooper was lost down in Kanabonites, and they needed fresh horses and supplies.  
They asked me if I would go and find my father’s outfit.   As I said before, Father was working for the Church herd in the VT Cattle Company.  Father was camped with his cowboys at the Pools.
We soon got fresh horses and Sy Hoyt and I left the Park just before sundown and reached the Pools in the night and found Father just before daylight.  We soon told him what we came for.  He got up and rounded his boys out and got the horses before daylight.  By sun-up we were back to the Park.
Next morning we took extra horses and supplies back to Kanabonites.  In our company was Elex Cram, Walt Hamblin, Lu Jepson, Taylor Button, Hooper Young, Josiah Hoyt, and my father, Edward Lamb.  When we got to Kanabonites, we found Leon Stewart, Jean Stewart, Negley and Nebeker cowboys and Jet Johnson, also Joe Hamblin with his blood hound dogs, Tim Hoyt and other Fredonia men and a lot of Indians.
By that time Allie had been lost eight days and nights.
The older men held a council and decided to split in twos and go in different directions.  Taylor Button and Charlie Cooper were sent down in the ledges of Grand Canyon.  Just at dark they found his tracks way down one or two miles from the top of the rim.  They then came out to the camp at Kanabonites and reported what they had found.
Next morning all the men assembled on the brink of the Grand Canyon with water, food, and spirits and went down the mountain where they had found the tracks the night before.  When they got down to where the tracks were they followed them until they found the lost boy on the edge of a ledge. 
 He was looking off.  He had lost his hat and was swinging his little shirt in his hand and had lost his shoes and stockings.  He had taken his shirt off to use for a pillow at night.  The men decided to send Jim Hart to get around the other side of him as his father was approaching him from the opposite side very cautiously as they feared he would be startled when he saw the men.  He didn’t seem to realize anyone was near for hours.  He was so weak and nearly exhausted.
Allie Cooper was only eight years old and had been lost eight days and nights.  He couldn’t  talk.  His tongue was swollen so badly the men had to bathe his mouth and tongue with spirits and water for some time before he could say a word.
About the third night out Allie said it sprinkled, and he got a drink from the pockets in the rocks and ledges.  He said he had said his prayers every night while he was lost.
After the first big excitement was over and the boy regained consciousness, the little boy’s father, Isaac Cooper, was so happy he cried with joy and said with a trembling voice to the men who had all worked so faithfully to find and restore his boy, “Men I haven’t any money, but there’s my sheep herd.  You can have them all.”
When little Allie regained consciousness he was so happy and thankful to be alive he wanted to kiss all the men around who had done anything to find him or save his life.  In that crowd of men – sheepherders, ranchers, prospectors, cowboys and Indians, there was hardly a dry eye.  They were all so happy and grateful for the success of finding him.
Allie was lost just at dark while they were moving a herd of ewes and lambs.  He tried to run back to the old bed ground, and Charley Cooper, Allie’s uncle, told him to stay right there to get the lambs.  When Charlie got back the boy was gone.  Rocks and Pine needles were so thick they could not track him then.  Joe Hamblin came with his blood hounds, but they weren’t used to tracking humans.  After it was all over the boy said when he heard the bloodhounds, he ran and hid because he thought they were gray wolves.
This happened about 60 years ago.  Allie Cooper is alive today and has filled a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  He was a companion of George O. Hamblin of Mesa, Arizona.