Applegate
Applegate Valley
Valley Community
Community Newspaper,
Newspaper, Inc.
Inc.
7386
7386 Highway
Highway 238,
238, PMB
PMB 308
308
7386
Highway
238,
PMB
308
Jacksonville,
Jacksonville, OR
OR 97530
97530
Jacksonville,
OR
97530
U.S. Postage Paid
Applegater
Spring
2010
Non-Profit
Permit
No. 50 1
Grants Pass, OR 97526
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Photo by Barbara Holiday
Applegate Valley Community Newspaper
SPRING 2010
Volume 3, No. 2
Serving Jackson and Josephine Counties — Circulation: 9,000
Postal Patron
Sarge and the Tallowbox
Mountain lookout
BY TASHA KNOWLTON
McKee Bridge Day
Saturday, June 12
10 am–4 pm
Take a hike with Janeen Sathre to
the Blue Ledge Mine in the morning
and be back to the Bridge in time for
lunch in the park.
There will be a bake sale, craft
and plant vendors, kiddy rides,
games, raffles and the Lions Club
tri-tip lunch.
Proceeds are used for inspections
and maintenance of the Bridge.
For more information call Bob
Van Heuit at 541-899-2927
I had the pleasure of interviewing
Galen, a local man that we all know as
“Sarge,” who informed me of the use
of the Tallowbox Mountain Lookout
and his experiences of being a fire
lookout there.
The Tallowbox Mountain
Lookout’s name is derived from the
use of “tallowboxes.” Before our use
of petroleum products, beef tallow
was our primary lubricant (or oil). The
tallow would be taken from the animal
(often directly after the kill) and put
into little boxes called tallowboxes.
This tallow had many uses. It could
be used for cooking, lubricating rifles
and even making soaps or candles.
The tallow was also used as flux for
soldering and people put it in their
animals’ food. McDonalds even used
to cook their French fries in tallow,
An Applegate County
Commissioner?
BY SANDY SHAFFER
B
ecause this could very well be our last
issue of the Applegater, and because I was
excited about a potential Jackson County
Commissioner from the Applegate, I jumped at
the chance to interview Mark Wisnovsky when
he announced his candidacy for Dave Gilmour’s
seat a few weeks ago. Mark’s comments on land
use law during the announcement intrigued
me and he does make some great wines, but I
wanted to know how he felt about the issues
that are important to me, as a rural landowner.
The Wisnovskys moved to the Applegate
in 1971, starting up Valley View Winery the following year when Mark was just
eight years old. Today he’s the president of the company, and after talking to
him for well over an hour, I got the feeling that he learned a lot from the hard
work of establishing the vineyards and the winery that we see in Ruch today.
Mark has a degree in business from OSU, and told me that he enjoys
strategy and logic. I think he also likes and respects people, because he mentioned
several times during our conversation how important it is to sit down with
everyone involved when there’s an issue on the table. Listen to people’s varied
opinions, ideas and knowledge and learn from them. Mark doesn’t feel that
bringing everyone to the table makes you a weak person (as some might argue);
rather, he feels that respectfully agreeing to disagree can help allow discussions
move a step closer to resolution.
Mark and I talked about land use laws (he feels there is definitely a third
option beyond locking everything up and full, unrestricted development),
personal property rights (we’re all in this together, so we always need to look at
See COMMISSIONER, page 2
before switching to pure vegetable oil.
In 1918 the government built
the Tallowbox Mountain Lookout as
a way to watch for fires and signal to
people as to the fire’s location. The
lookout was located at a 5,230 foot
elevation and had a cabin that was built
30 feet off of the rocks so the lookout
people would have a 360 degree of clear
viewing. Back then, dynamite was used
to signal the fire’s direction. Fires could
often be seen all the way to California
from this lookout.
Sarge retired from the army in
1988 and then became a campground
host at Camp Jackson on Upper
Applegate Road. After this, he took
up his position as the fire lookout at
Tallowbox.
Sarge would go up to the
Tallowbox lookout five to six days at a
Sarge
time, with the option of returning home
each night. A local man, Robinson, was
Sarge’s relief. He would come up and
take Sarge’s spot so that Sarge could
go home for a few days, which he did
occasionally to spend some time with
his wife. Up at the lookout cabin there
was a refrigerator and a stove that ran
on propane so that they could have a
way to cook and store their food. Sarge
enjoyed having bacon, eggs and coffee
while he was at the lookout. Gallons
See SARGE, page 2