Sheridan City Ditch Don J. Leonard, '44 For those of us who went to Linden School one cannot forget sliding down the hill on sleds, scoops or any thing else that could be ridden. Many of us built small sleds that were just big enough to sit on and had highly polished runners. Near the bottom of the hill was a mound of dirt that ran all around the hill near the base. The challenge was to slide down the hill as fast as possible and propel oneself the farthest off of that mound. I suppose that over a period of time the mound got wore down but in the mid 1930's it was a good jumping ramp. There was a great deal of pride in jumping the farthest, so sled design and building was a premium.  Why was there a mound of dirt along and near the base of the hill? Therein lies this story about the Sheridan City Ditch that I would assume many have forgotten or never knew about. The mound of dirt around the base of the hill at the Linden School was originally an integral part of a ditch that carried water from the Sheridan City Dam to Main Street. The city had built a dam in the late 1800's (I don't know exactly), a small one about 3 feet high, across Big Goose near the end of Leopard Street. The dam was only to direct some water down the ditch. Most of the river water flowed over the dam. They then dug a ditch from that dam along the base of the hills south of the valley all the way to Main Street. The water was used to wash down the gutters on Main Street, among other uses, and I believe was returned to the creek where Main Street crosses over Little Goose Creek. The headgate for that ditch was on my folks' place (Henry and Velda Leonard) on Leopard Street. When the water was not needed the headgate was turned and the water ran through my folks' place, under Leopard Street (near the city limits) and back into Big Goose. The ditch ran along the base of the hills and the mound of dirt at Linden was part of that ditch. When the City built the ditch they acquired a right-of-way through the property owners and as an inducement to accept the right-of-way gave the landowners free irrigation water from the ditch. This was a 99-year agreement for the ditch and the right-of-way and with the agreement that the City would maintain the ditch. The dam was about a mile upstream from my folks' place and the headgate being on our place gave us the "first water rights" from the ditch. We irrigated our lawn, garden, and pastures and provided water for the livestock. It was also a great source of recreation, providing good hunting for fish, water snakes, and frogs and trapping muskrats. One could almost always get a pheasant or two, maybe a duck when hunting along the ditch. When the City put in the public water system the ditch was no longer used for City purposes. I don't know the date when the city discontinued their use of the ditch water. The ditch however was maintained for irrigation per the agreement with the landowners that had water rights. As time passed fewer and fewer people used the water but the city continued to maintain it to serve the current users. The remnant of that ditch was the mound around the base of the Linden School Hill. The ditch was finally abandoned in the early 1970's. My mother was the last and only user of water from the ditch. It was very expensive for the City to maintain the ditch so the City negotiated with my mother, who still lived on Leopard Street, and agreed to dig her a well and install a simple pumping system. The Sheridan City Ditch became history. The remnant of the ditch still runs along the base of the hill on the south side of the valley near Leopard Street towards town. Over the years the City Ditch served its purpose to provide water to the city, irrigation along the way, water for livestock and wildlife, recreation for those of us who lived along the ditch and of course a great jumping ramp at the bottom of Linden School Hill. LINDEN HILL- Carole Harris  For those of us who went to Linden one can not forget sliding down the hill on sleds, scoops or any thing else that could be ridden Sledding on Linden Hill.......in my day, (which was the 50's) there as a marvelous, kind patient custodian at Linden School;  Mr. Speed. He would make sleds for any kid that asked - and seemed to take great delight in fashioning just the right one for each recipient; as I recall, no two sleds were ever alike.  It was a most exciting day when your turn came to receive a sled - and of course, exciting to go zooming down the hill until you reached the "ditch".  Had you been traveling too fast you would hit the "ditch" with a great bump which would knock the wind out of you. At the very least it would cause you to stand and gasp for breath after every run. Sledding sprees would make recess and lunch hour pass like lightening. I fear in the litigious world that we live in today, that such activity would not be allowed.  And of course, there are probably no "Mr. Speeds" left in the world anymore, but I remember him with great fondness. MONTANA HILL - Allen Lee '60 At the intersection of Montana Avenue and Gladstone the hill rises to meet a third elevation in the city that was ready-made for sledding. As long as there was snow on the ground, the hill was full of children each afternoon and all-day on Saturday and most of Sunday. While not as steep as Linden Hill, nor as long as Tank Hill, it met the needs of sledders with it's own challenges.  A walk halfway up the hill was the normal starting point for most sledders.  This was at a  break in the slope, probably caused by traffic from years previous as the natural extension of Main Street.  From there you could get mounted on the sled before you pushed down the hill. The more adventurous, would climb to the top. Once there it provided a broad vista overlooking the south end of town. The "new" Baptist church was behind us as we looked to the base of the hill for a clear path.  From the top it was a fast trip to the mid point where the break launched you into the air. The next challenge was stopping since the runout of flat land was about 150 feet and it only took a few seconds to reach the alley and back yards of the houses on Gladstone.  A second trail, some 50 feet south of the main sledding area offered more challenges. It required steering to avoid a large hole left from a minor excavation project from an earlier age, and missing the turn provided an airborne experience and bruises. Mary Wakefield: LaClede Street Gang - Lloyd Garrettson, (my oldest brother's best pal) forgot about the"Younger" LaClede Street Gang that included my twin, Larry Wakefield, myself, of course,Mary; James Martini, Jerry Martini, Jimmy Reinhardt,but to name a few; in my brother Bob's bunch were also the Baldwin brothers.   One of the great ice rinks we skated on was right behind our house - actually on Lewis Street.This rink was constructed by the City of Sheridan after my father, Frank Wakefield and Hank Martini (dad to the Martini bunch that included : Jean, Joan, Judy, James and Jerry) met with Mr..York (I think he was head of city streets,water or something) and finally got it built. It was quite large as there was sparse development in the early '50s inthe 1200 block of LaClede.Mrs.. Katherine Martini Reed still lives in the family home at 1236 LaClede.  Across the street from our house was another large vacant field where we played baseball, work-up, kick the can - and even waged neighborhood "War" complete with dugouts, "forts", and the ominous "parallel line" which we had to cross - steel the flag,to win the battle of the "bulge" if you will.   Winter saw not only ice skating in every form from hockey to figure, but also some of the largest scale snow ball fights that may have been waged in LaClede Street History - and, oh the snow forts we would build! Fetterman had nothing on us! Another highlight of the LaClede Street Gang were the dances held in the Martini's double car garage! As a member of the "Younger Gang" it was so terrific that the teenage kids always let us "little guys" come for the first few dances before we were shuffled off to play Canasta with mother Katherine Martini overseeing fair play and serving up soft drinks, popped corn and home made cookies!Ê The older kids always took good care of the younger in the LaClede Street Gang -   LLOYD GARRETSON:  I was part of a group from up on the hill,Gene Wakefield, Oden Liming, Skip Fisher, Bill Baldwin the Martini girls, Irene Techiner,Vern Gleason Duane Morgan. Anyway we played a lot of interesting games etc. We did lots of ice skating over at the ponds where the hospital is now, the holly ponds. We also played and skated on flooded ponds around town.The best was the one at the  entrance to the City Park and the city flooded it every year.We would burn rubber tires and Mom would hardly let us back into the house because wesmelled like burnt rubber... Oh those were the good old days!!!! CHRISTY A. WATENPAUGH: Concerning the lot the city flooded at the end of Burkitt St. at the creek. My father, Rev. Donald Smith taught Ann Rhein and me to ice skate on that pond. I remember it and also have it on home movies. Lots of fun.Thanks for the memories. THE FIFTH ST. GANG We didn't get to go across town to sled down the hill behind the courthouse, but that was o.k. We had "Tank Hill". Remember the old water tank on East Fifth? I think it's still there. Well that was a great hill to sled down. I was the youngest member of our "gang", so if anything was in doubt as to how safe it was or how much fun it was, I had to try it first or I couldn't "play" with them tomorrow - or for a week - or forever - depending on how bad they wanted me to do it. One day we went up on Tank Hill and found a sheet of tin, about 3 feet x 3 feet, with a leather strap riveted into one corner of it., nothing would do but that I should take it down the hill. What a wild ride! It just went around and around. I could see the world whirling by and hear everybody at  the top laughing, but I had no control whatsoever! It really was a fun ride, but I didn't have the courage to do it again & nobody else took it down either. There were some BIG rocks on that hill, and I was just fortunate not to hit one of them. One of us did hit one of them once & was knocked out cold, but we didn't tell our parents -they might not let us go back!