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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (July 31, 2019)
10 Wednesday, , July 31, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Sisters man presents paper in Iceland By Jim Anderson Correspondent PHOTO BY DOUG WILTSHIRE The ancient art of stone carving will be on display at Suttle Lake. Stone carvers gather at Suttle Lake By Kathryn Godsiff Correspondent There aren9t many permits being issued these days for the construction of vast cathe- drals made of stone. There is, however, a need for skilled stone sculptors to do repairs on existing buildings around the world. And as the world watches the revival of the cathedral at Notre Dame, the focus will be on the artisans who bring it back to its former glory. The United Methodist Suttle Lake Camp is set be the site of a gathering of stone carvers from the Northwest and beyond during the week of August 11. Organized by the Northwest Stone Sculptors Association, Oregon9s 25th Annual International Stone Carving Symposium is in its fifth year at the camp. It is a week of education, skill building, fellowship and ideas exchange. Participants and instructors hail from the Pacific Northwest, Canada, California, and from as far away as Norway and Iraq. The symposium isn9t lim- ited to experienced carvers. The NWSSA raises funds each year for scholarships for aspiring and student stone carvers. Novices are welcome to attend the event and tools are available for those who don9t have their own. There is a meditative aspect to stone carving, despite the power tools and dust and scale of some of the pieces being created. During the symposium, the artists work outdoors, taking them out of their studios and into a collaborative, energetic experience. <Stone carving is a sub- tractive method of sculpture,= said Doug Wiltshire, sympo- sium director. <We find the sweet spot in stone by remov- ing stone. And I think there9s going to be a resurgence of interest in what we do.= The public is welcome to visit the symposium and see the carvers9 work on Saturday, August 17 from 1 to 5 p.m. The area near the lower park- ing area will have the proj- ects on display. To get to the Suttle Lake Camp, head west toward Salem and turn left at the signs to the Suttle Lake Resort and campgrounds. The camp is on the left past the resort and there will be signs for the NWSSA Symposium. For more information, go to www.nwssa.org. Ron Thorkildson, Sisters9 local weather guru, and his wife, Sharon, recently took a trip to Iceland, where Ron presented a scientific paper on structural icing. Living here in Sisters Country, ice on structures is not an uncommon phenom- enon, but it is also some- thing Thorkildson confronted throughout almost his entire professional life. Thorkildson was employed with the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) as an environmental engi- neer, and icing of the lines and towers that carried the electric energy generated by BPA could become a serious hazard. <My paper was about the formation of radiation fog in the Columbia Basin of Central Washington that can lead to accumulations of rime ice that can damage electrical transmission line towers and other structures,= Thorkildson explained. <My knowledge of this phenomenon was gained when I investigated line out- ages in this area while work- ing for the Bonneville Power Administration, the federal agency responsible for dis- tributing electrical power throughout the Northwest.= The conference was held June 24-28 under the aus- pices of the International Workshops on Atmospheric Icing of Structures (IWAIS). About his calling today as the weatherman of Sisters, he said, <My fasci- nation with weather comes honestly. The Bergen school of Meteorology, founded in 1917 in Bergen, Norway b y Vi l h e l m B j e r k n e s , Tor Bergeron, and other Scandinavian scientists, did groundbreaking work in early development of numer- ical weather forecasting in the 1940s and 1950s. I still remember learning about some of their achievements, with a touch of shameless pride, as part of my atmo- spheric science curriculum at Oregon State University.= His interest in visiting Iceland went way beyond that of an engineer want- ing to further the knowledge of structural icing 4 or just being an average tourist. He was and is always interested in finding out more about his Scandinavian ancestry. Although his grandfa- ther immigrated to America from Norway in 1900, Ron notes that his surname is said to have originated in Iceland. From about 800 to 1200 AD Vikings often trav- eled between the two coun- tries, establishing/sharing ethnic customs. And indeed, while visit- ing Iceland Ron discovered there are many variations of <Thorkildson= in Reykjavik. While there, he and Sharon decided to take a restaurant walking tour. The name of their tour guide was Thor, his dad9s first name. This discov- ery led Ron to share this quip: <If I ever get in trouble with the law, my best bet might be to flee to Reykjavik. They9d never find me there; it would be like looking for a 8Smith9 here.= S N O CAP SNO C A P PHOTO PROVIDED Ron Thorkildson and his wife, Sharon, visiting the grand statue of Ron’s famous Nordic ancestor, Leif Erikson in Reykjavik, Iceland. Sharon and Ron left on their journey on Friday after- noon, June 21 from PDX, and arrived in Reykjavik the next morning. Upon their arrival, they participated in two tours; a driving tour of the city Saturday afternoon, and a walking restaurant tour on Sunday, led by Thor. 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