Applegater Spring 2017
Creating our future together:
Applegate Valley Economic
Vitality Roadmap
BY BONNIE RINALDI
Have you heard about the Applegate
Valley Vitality Roadmap? With assistance
from Rural Development Initiatives
(RDI), working with the Ford Family
Foundation, we have already had three
community meetings, which, in a fast
action, four-month process (October
2016 – January 2017), have initiated the
development of a “roadmap to economic
success in the Applegate Valley.”
After an initial phase for background
input and assessment, the community has
identified priorities for action to sustain
and improve the vitality of the Applegate
Valley. This overarching desire was to
support existing farms and businesses
without harming our environment or
lifestyle. Education, housing, travel
accommodations, branding Applegate
as “organic,” and numerous other ideas
were components of the finalized list of
priorities for action:
• Maintain Applegate Valley authenticity,
sustainability, and quality of life.
• Create a sustainable inter-generational,
hands-on network that provides learning
opportunities for youth.
• Create an intra-Applegate Valley
support system that makes it easier
for local businesses to be successful,
including development of low-impact
lodging opportunities.
Teams were created to develop
action steps to pursue these priorities
and will present these steps at the next
community meeting on March 2 from
5:30 to 8 pm at the Applegate Valley
Fire District community room, 1095
Upper Applegate Road, Ruch. RDI
will continue to assist us in identifying
potential funding sources and other
resources to help us make progress.
It is important that we define the
future of our community in order to
preserve it as we like. Your input is critical
to guiding the future of the Applegate!
Please attend one of the
upcoming meetings to be a part
of this process.
For more information, visit
the Greater Applegate Community
Development Corporation (your
neighbors who manage Cantrall Buckley
Park) website at GACDC.org. Look for
the “AV Roadmap Project” tab at the
top of the website. You can also contact
5
Amanda Close at RDI at aclose@rdiinc.
org or 206-919-0186.
Bonnie Rinaldi
Chair, Greater Applegate Community
Development Corporation
bonnie@rinaldinet.com
Volunteers
needed!
The Applegater team is
looking for volunteers to
help organize our next big
fundraiser to be held this
summer.
If you would like to join
the Fundraising Committee,
please contact Debbie
Tollefson at debbie.avrealty@
gmail.com or 541-973-9184.
Stories of Southern Oregon project:
Folks, fields, forests
Te l l y o u r s t o r y. S c a n y o u r
photographs. Preserve your family
history. Share your proud heritage.
Do you have a logging story to
tell? Were you raised on a farm or ranch
here in southern Oregon? If your answer
is yes, then please consider sharing
your proud heritage with others at the
100 th anniversary of the McKee Bridge
celebration on Saturday, June 10, from
11 am to 4 pm.
Southern Oregon is rich with
stories about generations of families
who have plowed fields, run cattle, or
worked in the dense forests or in the
mills. Share your memories with your
community by participating in the
Stories of Southern Oregon project,
an online library at Southern Oregon
University (SOU). Participants will be
able to videotape a ten-minute story,
scan up to five photographs, and receive
a flash drive with their video and images
along with a sample set of archival
supplies. SOU faculty members Maureen
Battistella and Vicky Sturtevant and
local historians will be on hand to help
folks along and demonstrate how to
preserve family documents for
generations to come.
Story Days are
scheduled throughout
Jackson and Josephine
counties in May and June:
Eagle Point Public Library
and the Eagle Point Vintage
Fair on May 11 and 13; Del
Rio Vineyards and the Gold
Hill Museum on June 1
and 3; McKee Bridge 100 th
Anniversary Celebration on
June 10; Grants Pass Public Library on
June 15; Smokejumper Base Museum
in Cave Junction on June 17; Pottsville
Museum’s Antique Tractor Fair in Merlin
on June 18; and Kerbyville Museum on
June 24. Well-known historian Dr. Jeff
LaLande, US Forest Service (retired),
will talk about the history of logging in
southern Oregon at some of the events.
Later in the year, videotaped stories will
be shared at 4-H booths at the Jackson
and Josephine county fairs.
The National Endowment for
the Humanities Common Heritage
Program funded the Stories of Southern
■ UNSUNG HEROES feel the Applegater helps fill a big piece of this void, and
Continued from page 4 so for the past 15 years I’ve been a regular writer for the
Applegater, studying and sharing new science and technology
about wildfire and emergency preparedness issues. I also serve on the Applegater’s
editorial committee.
Paul Tipton. I chose the Applegate Valley as home in 1972
and still consider it to be the best place in the world to live. I
am now retired from work in forestry, in viticulture, and on
many local construction projects. A strong supporter of the
Applegater since its inception and a believer in it as a valuable
part of our community connection, I have, in recent years,
copy edited, proofread, written articles, and tried to keep a
poem somewhere in a corner of the Gater. I have a good feeling
about being part of the somewhat amorphous team that comes together each season
to put together a newsmagazine that is a credit to, and a reflection of, our diverse
community. And I really appreciate what everybody else does to make life in the
Applegate such a wonderful experience.
Greeley Wells. As a 26-year resident of the Applegate
community, I have been involved with the Gater since its
inception. I have enjoyed our paper for its local flavor,
insights, and information. The Gater makes me continually
aware of the special place in which we live. As I write,
make art, serve, volunteer, and enjoy this beautiful place, I
realize it’s the people who are represented by this wonderful
newspaper that count.
Horse-drawn plow circa 1910.
Photo courtesy of Hillcrest Orchards.
Oregon project with a grant to SOU
to collect and preserve agricultural and
logging family histories in Jackson and
Josephine counties. Co-investigators
Maureen Battistella (assistant professor
affiliate and research anthropologist
at SOU) and Dr. Victoria Sturtevant
(SOU sociology professor emerita) will
work with SOU students, local libraries,
historical societies, and youth groups
to identify heritage families who will
participate in the project.
“This project is important
because it helps southern Oregon’s
largely rural communities trace, preserve,
and share their rural heritage,” says
Maureen. “It will document how and
why population growth, economic
development, and new agricultural
opportunities have affected southern
Oregon’s heritage industries.”
Stories, photographs, and
memorabilia discovered during heritage
day events will be digitized and made
available to the public, thanks to the
expertise of SOU librarians and the
Southern Oregon Digital Archives at
Southern Oregon University’s Hannon
Library. The Southern Oregon Digital
Archives is a publicly available digital
portal, making stories available to the
world over the web. Jeff LaLande is a
consulting historian.
Logging near Butte Falls circa 1940.
Photo courtesy of Jeff LaLande.
While some of southern
Oregon’s landscape has changed
dramatically over the last hundred years,
there are many families who still work the
land and harvest timber in the forests. In
some areas, though, historic family farms
have yielded to housing developments,
pear trees have been pulled out to make
room for vineyards, and the biggest trees
stand tall only in memory. The project
will increase awareness of the heritage of
work life in agriculture and timber and
highlight the importance of preserving
and sharing community values.
The Stories of Southern Oregon
project builds on and extends the
heritage preservation model developed
for earlier grants awarded to SOU by
the Oregon Heritage Commission, the
Rogue Valley Winegrowers Association,
and the Erath Family Foundation.
For more information about the
Stories of Southern Oregon project and
to find out about additional Story Days,
visit storiesofsouthernoregon.com, email
storiesofsouthernoregon@gmail.com, or
call 541-552-0743.
— SEE MORE INFORMATION AND ARTICLES ONLINE —
• Community Calendar
• Book review of Spooked by J.D. Rogers
• Movie review of Hidden Figures by Mikell Nielsen
Visit our website at applegater.org.
