REGION
TUESDAY, JULY 5, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A3
‘It’s to pique their interest’
with the idea.
“It’s been fun,” Nedrow
said. “I just want the kids
to have fun and have some-
thing to take away from it.”
They off ered 30 spots
for students in third
through sixth grade. Chil-
dren attended from North
Powder, Haines and Baker
City.
To fund the camp, the
Eastern Oregon Museum
received grants from the
Buerkel-Zoellner Founda-
tion and the Edna E. Har-
rell Community Children’s
Fund.
First camp at
Eastern Oregon
Museum combined
art, history, even
gold panning
By LISA BRITTON
Baker City Herald
HAINES — Cayden
Sandberg is a bundle of
impatient energy.
When he fi nally gets
the nod from Jessie Street,
Sandberg gently extracts
his paper from beneath the
glass and takes it to a pan
of water.
He rinses, rinses and
rinses some more.
The paper turns a bril-
liant blue with white
designs created by objects
placed on the light-sensitive
paper.
Satisfi ed with his work
of art, Sandberg lays it in
the sun to dry then quickly
off ers to help someone else
create their own creative
piece.
This art lesson was part
of a day camp held June
27-30 at the Eastern Oregon
Themes
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Emma Bain, 9, tries out the whirligig toy she made at a day camp at the Eastern Oregon Museum in Haines
on Tuesday, June 28, 2022.
Museum in Haines.
This is the fi rst such
camp off ered at the
museum, and it was
directed by Logan Nedrow
and Chris Aldrich.
“It’s to pique their
interest,” Aldrich said as she
helped youngsters thread
string through a button to
create a whirligig toy.
Aldrich is a board
member for the museum
and youth outreach
volunteer.
Nedrow, a 2019 grad-
uate of North Powder High
School, is pursuing a degree
in elementary education
at Eastern Oregon Univer-
sity and also working as a
paraprofessional at North
Powder.
She didn’t hesitate to
help direct the camp when
Aldrich — her former
teacher — approached her
Activities for each day
centered around a theme.
Monday was about rocks
and minerals, and members
of a Huntington mining
camp taught the youngsters
how to pan for gold. Each
child went home with a gold
pan and vial of gold.
“I’m a hands-on learner,”
Nedrow said, explaining
her goal with designing
the activities. “If I’m doing
something I’m more likely
to remember it.”
Tuesday was all about
art. Stations included
quilting, tie-dye, pioneer
toys and games, and the sun
prints that had Sandberg so
excited.
Street teaches art at
North Powder, and created
her own UV sensitive paper
for the project.
“It’s a very old process
— blueprints, basically,”
she said.
Street gave the kids a
history lesson about Anna
Atkins, a botanist who in
the 1850s invented this pro-
cess of combining minerals
to make paper sensitive to
the light. Atkins used it to
document types of plants.
“She made the fi rst book
of photographs,” Street said.
Wednesday was Oregon
Trail history paired with the
importance of local agri-
culture, and on Thursday
the campers made a history
board.
Throughout the week,
during breaks the young-
sters explored the trea-
sures inside the museum
— which organizers hoped
would create interest and
return trips.
“History is interesting
and cool,” Aldrich said with
a smile.
Umatilla County District Att orney’s Offi ce charges kidnapping suspect
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The Til-
lamook man Pendleton police
arrested Friday, June 25, for kid-
napping a woman and fl eeing in a
high-speed chase now faces offi -
cial criminal charges.
The Umatilla County Dis-
trict Attorney’s Offi ce on July
1 charged Charles Frederick
Seeling, 34, with eight counts in
all, including felonies for sec-
ond-degree kidnapping, coercion
and fl eeing police and for mis-
demeanor assault. The charges
stem from a June 28 grand jury
indictment.
The district attorney’s offi ce
also notifi ed the court it would
seek to enhance any sentencing
based on several factors, including
the “crime involved deliberate
cruelty to the victim” and Seeling
already was on supervised release.
State court records show
Seeling is serving three years
of probation in Clatsop County
on charges of unlawful use of a
weapon and fl eeing police, and he
violated that probation in March
and April when he checked him-
self out of a detoxifi cation center
and then did not check in with his
probation offi cer. Seeling also has
a felony theft case pending against
him in Tillamook County.
According to Pendleton police,
emergency dispatchers June 25
at 10:11 a.m. received several 911
calls from witnesses at Walmart,
2203 S.W. Court Ave., reporting
a female screaming for help in a
vehicle in the parking lot. Wit-
nesses reported about what
appeared to be an abduction, as a
male took a female by force and
sped out of the parking lot.
Witnesses also provided a
good vehicle description and loca-
tion of travel, according to the
press release. While offi cers were
responding, the female in the
vehicle called 911, screaming she
had an emergency before the line
was disconnected. The female
called again screaming for help
and stated her boyfriend was hit-
ting her before the call was dis-
connected again. She called 911
a third time and said the suspect
had a hammer and she was in fear
he was going to use it against her.
During the calls, the victim
was able to provide updates
about their locations. During
the last call, she said they were
approaching the Interstate 84 east-
bound milepost 213 on-ramp.
Offi cers tried to stop the
vehicle on I-84 near Exit 216, but
Author says High Desert Museum banned his
books, but museum says they just don’t sell
the suspect led police on a high-
speed chase on South Market
Road for about 10 minutes before
abandoning the vehicle and victim
at the end of Marsh Hawk Lane,
where he then barricaded himself
in a barn.
Police were able to arrest him
at 10:59 a.m. and reported he was
smoking fentanyl in the barn.
Medical personnel attended to
the victim and did not take her to
a hospital.
Umatilla County Circuit Judge
Christopher Brauer has set Seel-
ing’s bail at $380,000. He remains
in the Umatilla County Jail,
Pendleton.
Umatilla National Forest seeks
public input for sunfl ower
insect and disease project
East Oregonian
By JOE SIESS
The Bulletin
BEND — A Prineville
author is saying the High
Desert Museum banned his
books as part of a politi-
cally motivated attack, but
the Bend museum said the
author’s books simply do
not sell in its gift shop, so it
decided to discontinue car-
rying them.
Rick Steber, 75, the
owner of Rick Steber-
MAKERS in Prineville,
and an author known for
his books detailing the his-
tory of the Western United
States, wrote in a Face-
book post that the museum
banned his books from
its Silver Sage Trading
gift shop and called the
decision “heavy-handed
censorship.”
The museum said that’s
not the case at all.
“He says that we’re ban-
ning his books. In reality,
we’re simply not carrying
them anymore. Mr. Steber’s
framing of this situation
was infl ammatory, inac-
curate and unfortunate,”
Heidi Hagemeier, director
of communication at the
museum, said in a prepared
statement.
Hagemeier said the
museum decided to dis-
continue new purchases of
Steber’s books based on a
broader inventory of the
store’s off erings and their
Contributed Photo
Prineville author Rick Steber, seen here in a 2019 photo, is known for
his Western and historical writing.
profi tability.
“We appreciate Mr. Ste-
ber’s work over the years
and applaud him for having
sold more than 2 million
copies of his books,” Hage-
meier said. “But the fact
remains that of the tens of
thousands of books sold in
our Silver Sage Trading gift
shop over the past decade,
less than 1% of them have
been authored by Mr.
Steber.”
Hagemeier said the
museum’s executive
director, Dana Whitelaw,
spoke directly with Steber
about the decision. But the
museum’s account of the
conversation varies greatly
from Steber’s account
shared on social media,
Hagemeier said.
According to Steber’s
post, Whitelaw told him
the museum is not banning
his books, but has decided
to no longer carry them in
its gift shop because the
museum is working to pro-
mote authors who advocate
for social justice.
“I know my books sell,”
Steber told The Bulletin.
“They could have picked
what they wanted to carry,
but instead they banned
me.”
Steber called the deci-
sion “a political move.”
“It was directed at me
and it shows what direction
the High Desert Museum
is headed, and I don’t agree
with that at all,” he said.
Steber said part of
the museum’s decision is
because of his decision to
not follow state mandated
COVID-19 protocol during
the early part of the pan-
Charles & Eileen
Stewart
demic. He chose to keep his
business open despite not
being designated an essen-
tial business.
“I think I pissed off
the left, and I think this is
how they are lashing out at
me,” Steber said. “I’ve had
enough. I’ve drawn a line in
the sand, and I’m not going
to put up with it.”
Hagemeier reiterated
the museum’s commit-
ment to sharing a broad
range of perspectives and
stories about the High
Desert region, and that
the museum is committed
to the idea that people
can have diff erent view-
points and also respect one
another.
“We do not believe, how-
ever, that characterizing the
stocking of a revenue-gen-
erating gift shop even
remotely stems from ‘dra-
conian censorship’ as Mr.
Steber claims,” Hagemeier
said.
Hagemeier said the
museum’s mission “includes
making sure the Silver Sage
Trading gift shop contains
a wide selection of retail
products that are at once
appealing to our patrons,
connected to our current
exhibitions and programs,
and revenue generating for
the Museum.”
PENDLETON — The
Umatilla National Forest
is seeking public input
for a sunfl ower insect
and disease project on the
Pomeroy Ranger District.
The U.S Forest Ser-
vice announced in June the
purpose of the project is
to reduce hazardous fuels
caused by overly dense
stands and insect infesta-
tion in the area.
The sunfl ower project
proposes to remove
trees through mechan-
ical means on up to 2,902
acres within a 13,824-acre
area. Treating the project
area will decrease compe-
tition for moisture, light
and nutrients and thus
increase vitality of the
leaf trees, according to the
announcement.
The project area is 15
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miles southeast of Dayton,
Washington. The Forest
Service is seeking com-
ments to help refi ne the
proposed action and iden-
tify ways to improve
project designs. The Forest
Service is accepting com-
ments until Friday, July 22.
The Pomeroy Ranger
District also is hosting a
collaborative fi eld trip to
the project area on July
7. For more details about
attending the fi eld trip, con-
tact Alison Arnold at 509-
803-1891 as soon as pos-
sible. The purpose of the
fi eld trip is to discuss pro-
posed plans and gather
information from the
public to consider in project
development.
For additional infor-
mation about the project,
contact Arnold or visit
the project website at bit.
ly/3NCZxiU.
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