4
Wednesday, September 9, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Tales from a
Sisters
Naturalist
by Jim Anderson
Sasquatch,
writers, and
success
While at the Oregon
Museum of Science and
Industry (OMSI), I met and
married a snazzy science
teacher and we produced
two wonderful boys who
have grown up as U.S. Air
Force fighter pilots with
kids of their own.
In the early days of our
family we became a regular
fixture at Don Smith9s (aka
Chief Lalooska9s) home.
Don was a transplanted
member of the Cherokee
Nation who took up resi-
dence in Ariel.
He became enraptured
with the lifestyle and art
of the Pacific Northwest
Nations and took upon him-
self to learn all he could
about their culture. He then
obtained permission from
the Northwest People to tell
their clan ancestor stories
in the Longhouse, using
art creations he carved and
created.
Pacific Northwest frogs,
bears, birds and their spiri-
tual connection to The
People become the subject
of his thrilling stories in a
way that helped my writ-
ing and also carried me into
another life of appreciation
of nature that is so powerful
today.
One subject kept coming
up as my wife and our boys
visited with Don and his
family at their home next to
the Long House: The Great
Men of the Mountains, aka
Sasquatch.
One night, after a deli-
cious dinner and games,
Don got started with his
Sasquatch stories and noted
my inattention. He came up
to me and with a very seri-
ous look asked, <You don9t
believe in the Big Men of
the Mountains?=
I sort of hemmed and
hawed, not wanting to get
myself into hot water or
hurt Don9s feelings, when
he interrupted me, saying,
<You love birds, don9t you?
You study them and photo-
graph them?=
I responded that I did. He
then asked, <You9ve heard
birds singing at night?=
I answered that I had.
Then, without hesitation,
he whispered in my ear,
<Those aren9t birds,= and
spoke louder, <Those are the
Big Men of the Mountain,
and that9s the way they
communicate.=
At that moment, my
brand new, sometimes bois-
terous young son Dean,
began to complain so I
placed him in one of those
newfangled baby backpacks
and went for a hike up the
stump-covered hills over-
looking the Longhouse.
Once on top Dean had
quieted down and I sat down
on one of the stumps over-
looking Cougar Reservoir
on that beautiful, quiet,
moonlit night. Suddenly,
right behind me, I heard
(what I thought were) two
birds talking to each other,
twittering about this-or-that.
I could feel the hair on
the back of my neck stand-
ing straight up and a funny
feeling came over me. So
much so that I scampered
down the hill, right to the
front door of the Smith
home.
As I stepped into the
house, the first person I met
was Don, who looked at
me, grinned and said, <You
heard them didn9t you?=
After my stint with
Sunriver in the early 1970s,
helping to make land-use
planner Bob Royston9s
<Ecologium= into Sunriver
Nature Center, came another
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to kiss my old pal Dean
Hollinshead goodbye
when he went out among
the stars.
That was quickly fol-
lowed by Erik and Kiki
Dolson of The Nugget
Newspaper coming into
my life. I started writing
a nature column for them,
which is still going on today.
To say that my time with
Erik was instructive would
be a gross understatement.
He would frequently ask,
<Got a minute?= and then
give me another lesson
on writing, especially the
use of the article, <the.=
And current editor-in-chief
Jim Cornelius does the
same, ready to guide me
along when I so obviously
need it.
In the late 1990s, at the
encouragement of pub-
lisher Aaron Swisher, I
began writing an addi-
tional nature column for
the Source Weekly paper in
Bend.
And that has been a lot of
fun. I tapped out tales for his
readers about all the crea-
tures I was interacting with
in the world of sagebrush,
forests, caves, lakes, air and
rivers of Central Oregon.
And what a wonder-
ful time I9ve had doing so
over these past 25-some-
odd years, especially with
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Locally Owned,
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mentor: Dorothy Cale of
Bend.
She hired me to take
on the job of editor for her
entry into the world of the
local newspapers when
she started publishing
<Confidentially Yours.=
She decided to focus
on historical tales of early
Bend and I had the honor
of meeting and writing up
stories of early history mak-
ers. Additionally I wrote for
Eastwind, a monthly paper
published by Jeff and Vicki
Hill 4 more stories of peo-
ple who led incredible lives
in times past.
Oh, what a grand time
that was!
Then, surprises of sur-
prises, Vince Roth, my spi-
der prof in Arizona, talked
Sue and me into coming to
Southeast Arizona to run
Ramsey Canyon Preserve,
which in those days was
known as the Hummingbird
Capital of the U.S.
That9s also where our
son, Caleb, got his middle
name, Carroll, for Carroll
Peabody, a conscientious
giant of a man who once
owned Ramsey Canyon and
didn9t want to see it devel-
oped. And our daughter,
Miriam, got her name from
Miriam Tefft, an extraordi-
nary teacher of those histori-
cal days.
We moved back to
Oregon in time for me
257 S. Pine St., #101
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