Sports B1 Appeal Tribune, www.silvertonappeal.com Wednesday, June 29, 2016 HIDDEN ‘FAMILY’ OF WATERFALLS SUBJECT OF NAMING CAMPAIGN ZACH URNESS STAYTON MAIL There is no trail to Family Falls, and it can’t be found on official maps. Clues about the location are whis- pered between friends, a secret known only to those willing to bushwhack into a canyon of high cliffs and thick forest deep in the Opal Creek Wilderness. The journey is not easy. A trip requires scrambling up and down steep ridges, crossing a creek multiple times and crawling head-first through a cave. But the reward arrives with the dis- covery of one beautiful waterfall after the next, the family of seven waterfalls living together in a setting so primeval you’d swear you were the first person to lay eyes upon it. But, of course, you’d be wrong. Almost five decades ago this spring, a Salem barber named Maynard Draw- son became the first person to docu- ment these waterfalls on upper Henline Creek in the Little North Santiam can- yon east of Salem. A World War II veteran, author, fa- ther of seven children and lifelong Sa- lem resident, Drawson was best-known for exploring places overlooked by the masses. He wrote about his experienc- es in a series of books, “Treasures of the Oregon Country.” “His name is Maynard Drawson and his hobby is Oregon — literally,” reads a story published in the Medford Mail Tribune on Dec. 26, 1977. “Oregon’s hills and valleys and histories and old towns and forest and places names intrigue him, and he delights in sharing his find- ings with others.” Drawson’s discovery of the water- falls set in motion a small-scale drama over the question of who gets to name special landmarks. Since Drawson was the first person to document the series of falls — it had been overlooked by surveyors and didn’t appear on any map — he decided to take a page from the explorers of old. He named each waterfall for one of his children, plus his friend Jerry. He dubbed the entire area “Family Falls,” and his discovery made the front page of the Capital Journal on June 6, 1970. But getting a name affixed to a spe- cial place had become more complex, and after years of wrangling and waf- fling, the Oregon Geographic Names Board rejected Drawson’s names by 1973. “My contention of discovery has been ignored and my name suggestions officially refused,” Drawson wrote. Without an official designation on the map, the fanfare around Family Falls was mostly forgotten, the water- falls becoming a blank space on the map once again. Drawson would still become famous for exploring and writing. His discov- ery of numerous gigantic trees kick- started Oregon’s Heritage Tree pro- gram, and he’s credited with helping save some of the state’s oldest groves. Yet when he passed away in 2012, at the age of 87, the “Family Falls” issue remained unresolved. His fight is not forgotten. Inspired by Drawson’s books, Tom Kloster fol- lowed Drawson’s footsteps to Family Falls in the early 2000s. The pictures he took, and website he created, brought the area to life for a new generation of Oregon waterfall hunters. ZACH URNESS / STATESMAN JOURNAL Dan Falls, Family Falls on Henline Creek. COURTESY OF TOM KLOSTER Maynard Drawson, known for big-tree hunting, discovered the "Family Falls" waterfalls some 50 years ago. He's seen here in the early 2000s at Whites Restaurant. Now Kloster is planning to take an- other run at the Oregon Geographic Names Board, seeking to right an old wrong by changing “Henline Falls” to “Drawson Falls,” and “Henline Creek” to “Family Creek.” “I believe that maps should contain a living history,” said Kloster, who lives in Portland. “A lot of the names the For- est Service applied are a little static. I think that names should be updated with people who’ve had a positive im- pact in more recent times, and I think Maynard fits that category very well.” The rules for renaming a landmark in Oregon — when it comes to an indi- vidual — are fairly straightforward. The person must be deceased for at least five years, a person’s surname is preferred and that person must have some historic connection or have made a significant contribution to the local area. Kloster believes all of those circum- stances will apply to Drawson in 2017, the five-year anniversary of his death. While he concedes it would be diffi- cult to get the waterfalls named for Dawson’s children — they are still alive, after all — he envisions naming two landmarks in Maynard’s honor. Henline Falls, the popular 126-foot waterfall that lunched the expedition, would become “Drawson Falls.” And Henline Creek, where the Family Falls collection of cascades is located, would become “Family Creek.” “You couldn’t even say we were dis- respecting Mr. Henline,” Kloster said. “There would still be a mountain named for him right there.” Kloster will likely face an uphill challenge. Phil Cogswell, the current president of the OGNB, said existing names are rarely changed, except when a deroga- tory name is involved. In recent years, for example, there has been movement to change the name of places that carry the name “Squaw,” a denigrating word used for Native American females. “There is a pretty firm policy about changing established names, unless the name is derogatory or redundant — like there were two Elk Creeks within a few miles of each other,” Cogswell said. “That said, every proposal is consid- ered on its merits and maybe there is a good case to be made here. We’ll never say no, and we’re always happy to help people navigate the process.” Cogswell said Kloster, were he in- clined, would have a difficult time ap- plying the name “Family Falls” to the hidden waterfalls as well, because they now reside in a federal wilderness area, where naming new features is discour- aged. Kloster said he’s OK with the diffi- culty. “I always like a challenge, especially when it’s against an entity like OGNB!” Kloster said. “My back up plan might be legislation, and I do think I could pull that off, too.” Zach Urness can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Mill City softball tournament returns to plate LUIS RAMIREZ APPEAL TRIBUNE MILL CITY - The Mill City Fourth of July Softball Tournament will make a comeback after being on hiatus since 2013. The idea of the tournament was kicked around for several years before the community added it to the Fourth of July festivities. However, the city had some issues, in- cluding a lack of interest and finding a tournament director, so the plans were scrapped in 2013. Interest in bringing back the tourna- ment was spearheaded by Mill City board member Melinda Flatman. “We’re rebuilding our core and trying to get people involved in the communi- ty,” Flatman said. “This year we have more involvement from the various or- ganizations in the community. It’s a re- building effort.” Flatman is an avid baseball fan and knew the town was missing out by not having the softball tournament, so she pushed to get it restarted. This year’s version of the tournament will be played on July 2-3 with games be- ginning at 9 a.m. on both days. All of the games will be held at Kimmel Park. It COURTESY PHOTO The Mill City Fourth of July Softball Tournament returns this year. will be a six-team, double-elimination tournament. “A two-day tournament is about all we can run at this point,” Flatman said. “If we got a lot of interest we’d have to REACH US: Cliff Kirkpatrick, ckirkpatr@Salem.gannett.com switch to a single-elimination tourna- ment.” There is a $75 registration fee per team to play in the tournament. The fees will help pay for the trophies and the cer- tified umpires who are being brought in for the tournament. Individuals who are not part of a team may show up the morning of the tourna- ment to try and join a team. “Individuals are welcome to show up because we may have spaces on teams,” Flatman said. “We want people to have a minimum of 12 players in case there is an injury or if someone doesn’t show, but then there are also four alternates posi- tions.” The hope is to garner enough interest in the tournament to keep it running in the foreseeable future. Flatman is also interested in getting more summer soft- ball tournaments in the Mill City area. “We hope to continue doing it for the Fourth (and) we hope that everything runs well and we get the interest level that we’re hoping for,” Flatman said. “If we can get enough people interested, we would try and run weekend tourna- ments. We don’t have a lot of steady ac- tivity up here so it would be nice to ex- pand it and keep it going.” For more infomation in signing up a team or for other questions, contact Me- linda Flatman at 503-897-2302 or by email at mflatman@wavecable.com. lramirez@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/@LuisRamirez10