Applegater Winter 2017
applegater.org
Photo by Marilyn Terry
WINTER 2017
Applegate Valley Community Newsmagazine
Volume 10, No. 4
Serving Jackson and Josephine Counties — Circulation: 11,000
Heroes in the Applegate
BY SHELLEY MANNING
On Au g u s t 1 4 ,
2017, a series of
lightning storms
moved through the
Ap p l e g a t e re g i o n .
Lightning strikes
ignited 25 wildfires,
20 of which became
known as the Miller
Complex Fire, which
burned almost 40,000
acres. As of November
9, the Miller Complex
Fire was at last 100
Morning briefings at the fire camp were
percent contained.
held at 5:30 am. (Photo, above:
To s up por t fire
Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.)
suppression efforts, a
Located across from Cantrall Buckley Park,
fire camp sprang up, the fire camp provided everything necessary
seemingly overnight.
to house firefighters and support personnel
for the duration of the Miller Complex Fires.
Across from Cantrall
(Photo, right: Shelley Manning.)
Buckley Park in a field
on Hamilton Road,
a bunch of heroes
suddenly arrived to save us from the lived in tents under
fires. (Fire camp is a co-ed experience— b a s i c c o n d i t i o n s .
women currently make up seven percent Firefighters began
of firefighters according to the national their day with a daily
average.) Nine incident commanders briefing at 5:30 am
directed this fire camp over the months. and fought fires until
Three were from Oregon; others came from about 9 pm. At the end of the day, little
California, South Dakota, Washington, energy was left for anything more than
and Montana.
food and sleep.
At the height of the Miller Complex
Fire camp in action is fascinating. Public
Fire, the Incident Base housed over 1,000 Information Officer Meg Cicciarella gave
individuals—firefighters, camp crew, me a tour, starting with the supply area.
information officers, management, and Outside was everything needed to fight
service providers—who came from all fires, from pumps to hoses. A large supply
over the country, including Alaska and tent housed other items like the Nomex
the East Coast. Approximately 10 to 15 fire-retardant clothes firefighters wear.
percent were from southwest Oregon and Supplies were supervised and organized
Northern California. As the fires roared by a nine-person crew, who told me they
on, for more than two months, these folks were Apaches from Arizona.
Signs directed us to the different areas
and services of the camp. One important
service was a mobile laundromat, cleverly
set up in a semitruck trailer. Contracted by
the US Forest Service, Granny’s Alliance
Holdings cleans 10,000 pounds of laundry
a day. They service other types of disasters,
too, like Hurricane Harvey.
Keeping everyone and everything clean
is of utmost importance for health and
safety. Camp crews are responsible for
keeping the camp clean and organized, and
See HEROES IN THE APPLEGATE, page 14
The Applegate is rich
in nearby theatrical
opportunities
BY DIANA COOGLE
Whether you
want to be on stage
or in the audience,
whether your
theatrical taste runs
Drowsy Chaperone by Jenny Graham was produced to musicals or drama,
by the Oregon Cabaret Theatre. whether you enjoy
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an intimate theatrical experience or the
excitement of a large crowd, whether you
prefer community actors to out-of-town
professionals, Rogue Valley theaters offer
Applegaters great theatrical experiences.
And that’s not counting the Oregon
Shakespeare Festival.
The Applegater
at the
Literary Arts Festival
Applegater board members Chris
Bratt and Diana Coogle represented
the Applegater at the Ashland Literary
Arts Festival at the Hannon Library
on the Southern Oregon University
campus on October 28.
Chris Bratt was featured in
Maureen Battistella’s presentation
of Stories of Southern Oregon,
and Diana Coogle served on a
panel titled “Literary Citizenship:
Building Literary Community at
the Local Level,” moderated by Phil
Busse, publisher and editor of the
Rogue Valley Messenger.
Chris Bratt’s segment was titled,
as is his column in the Applegater,
“Behind the Green Door,” subtitled
for this presentation, “Pioneering
Environmentalist with a Carpenter’s
Union Card.” He talked about the
history of environmental activism
in the Applegate and sang, “When
I’m on my journey/Don’t you weep
after me.” He passed out copies of
the Applegater, which were received
with praise for the quality of the
publication, its educational capacity,
and its wide distribution.
Diana Coogle talked about
From the Heart of the Applegate,
the anthology of Applegate writers
published by the Applegater, as
representative of so many of the
very good writers in the area, both
professional writers and “citizen
writers.” She also explained that
the Applegater was a vehicle of
expression for all voices in the
Applegate, publishing all points of
view. One member of the audience,
Kim Neiswanger, a teacher at Ruch
School, corroborated that point by
talking about the columns in the
Applegater dedicated to students’
school activities and voices.
Theaters range from Medford’s
Craterian, founded in 1924 and bringing
in nationally known artists, to Signpost
Theatre, founded in 2016 to “present
plays that are less familiar to audiences
and more challenging for actors to prepare
and present,” as founder D. Eugene
Bahn explains. Rogue Music Theatre
(founded in the 1980s) specializes in
See THEATRICAL OPPORTUNITIES, page 15
ISSUE
HOLIDAY - ARTS