Page 9
Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, OR Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Are you a native Orego-
nian?
No. I was born in Canada in
1914. Then I moved to Se-
attle, then down here. When
I first arrived and had been
here about 10 years or so,
people would ask me if I
had been around here very
long and I said, “Ten years,
and they’re just beginning
to call me by my first
name;” and it was true. The
natives didn’t accept anybody outside the old-timers in
the valley. But it wasn’t too many years ‘til I became an
old-timer.
What were the 1920s like for you?
Well, I was a small-town boy from Yorktown, Sas-
katchewan. I come into Seattle and here are these cow-
boys riding horses around the street. There were buggies
running up and down the street; lots of buggies with work
horses and so on. I thought when you come to the big city,
you left that stuff in the country, but in 1923 in that area,
there was lots of that.
How did you end up down here in Oregon?
I lived in Fall City, Wash. I worked for a logging out-
fit that took up contracts with Puget Timber, which was
the mill at Kerby at the time. They offered a raise in pay
for anyone who would come down and join them, so I
packed up my family in my car and came down to take a
look. It looked good to me, so I stayed. May the 15th,
1946, I drove into the center of Kerby, and I turned
around and stopped my car in the middle of the road and
said, “My, what have I done?”
Did you work at the Kerby mill for a while?
No, never did work there. I’m a logger.
What areas did you log in?
You see these bare spots on the hills around here? I
helped make most of ‘em.
Do you have family in this area?
When the five-year logging contract was up, everyone
went back to Washington. I was the only one that stayed
here and raised my kids in Kerby and Cave Junction.
So you have a family of your own?
Yes, my wife, Emily, and I were happily married for
69 years. We had three boys. The oldest one has a birth-
day in May and he will be 70, the middle son is 64, and
my youngest is 50. In a couple of days, I’ll make 90; I
hope. I also have eight grandkids and five great-
grandkids.
What major changes have you noticed in Cave
Junction since moving here?
The main street was a two-lane highway coming
through town, and there was dirt on both sides of the road.
You had to park nose into the curb rather than alongside
it. There was an elementary school and a high school in
Kerby, but no middle school; that came a number of years
later. We used to log lots of one-log loads. They came
out of this valley, one right after the other. Now when a
truck comes through, it is full of little logs with at least 10
on it.
What do you like about living in this valley?
You don’t drive on any road around here that there
aren’t trees on both sides of the road. It’s just a beautiful
valley. I like the friendliness of the people. When I moved
out here 25 years ago or so, they told me that the hippies
were going to rob me blind, but I can go away and leave
my door unlocked and be safer here than I was in Cave
Junction. The hippies haven’t bothered me at all, and they
have been good close friends, because I accepted them as
a friend too; makes a big difference.
Have you worked elsewhere in our community?
For two years in the ‘60s, I was assistant fire chief for
the (Illinois Valley Fire District). I was a volunteer fire-
man for several years too before that. I stopped volunteer-
ing when the chief got fired; so I quit. The chief at the
time was a mechanic. They couldn’t afford to pay too
much money for wages then, so the chief used the fire hall
as a garage to do outside mechanical work without per-
mission.
Any hobbies?
When I was getting ready to retire, I had in mind to
raise horses, so I started gathering up ponies. Pretty quick
I had 17 head down in the pasture. I raised them, babies,
mares, geldings; I had ‘em all. I rode, trained, and broke
them. I’ve done a lot of riding around here. Sometimes
I’ve looked off into the bush and there would be a rifle
pointing at me, but I keep on riding anyway.
One day, I went down to the store in Takilma; kind of
a gathering place for the hippies. I went in, and there were
about six or seven hippies standing around. I got their at-
tention, and told them, “I’m going to be riding these hills
whenever I take a notion. You can point your guns at me
or do anything you want.” But I said, “I’m gonna’ go
armed,” and I says, “I won’t tell on your pot gardens, I’ll
just ride by ‘em, but I’m going to use these hills.” I didn’t
have any more trouble after that. I told them where I stood
and they understood that.
Have you always had an interest in horses?
All my life I’ve been a horse person, but I didn’t have
any until I retired. I got my first little pony about six
months before I retired. I just kept buying and trading and
selling horses until I got 17. I used to buck 8,000 bales of
hay until I was 85. Because I had so many horses, many
people in the Takilma community came to me for answers
to horse problems.
What made you decide to stop breaking horses?
One day, it got to be too far to the ground. I fell off
and it hurt so darn bad I couldn’t get on again.
What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Strawberry.
A 90th birthday party for Ted Hooey will be held on
Saturday, April 17 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Wild River
Brewing in CJ. Friends and family are welcome.
Guardrail
‘mystery’
revealed
The “mystery crash” at
Redwood Hwy. and Lake-
shore Drive has been
“solved.”
According to informa-
tion from Oregon State
Police and Illinois Valley
Fire District, two people
were transported to Three
Rivers Community Hospi-
tal (TRCH) in Grants Pass
following a crash at the
intersection of Redwood
Hwy. and Lakeshore Drive
Thursday evening, April 1.
Katherine Mantell, 21,
of Grants Pass, was driving
a Buick Regal north on
Redwood Hwy. when she
lost control of the vehicle
and left the roadway. The
vehicle destroyed a section
of guardrail at the south-
east corner of the intersec-
tion before coming to rest
in McMullen Creek.
I.V. Volunteer Fire-
fighter Waylon Sherman
was apparently headed
home for the evening when
he noticed the damaged
guardrail in passing. He
located two of the vehi-
cle’s occupants walking
down the street not far
from the scene and stopped
to offer assistance.
Mantel and one of her
passengers, Richard Har-
ris, 32, no address listed,
were transported to TRCH
and released. Mantel was
cited for driving uninsured.
Her other passengers,
Aaron W. Delgado and
Amber D. Monger, refused
transport.
American Medical
Response and OSP re-
sponded.
(Editor’s Note: The reason
for the “mystery” is that infor-
mation initially was difficult to
come by, and there was some
misunderstanding on the part
of the “News” because I.V. Fire
District was not asked to re-
spond.)
Vandals hit
26 roadway
signs in I.V.
By MICHELLE BINKER
Staff Writer
Energetic vandals with
apparently too much time
on their hands went on a
demolition spree during
the Easter Sunday week-
end, wrecking traffic signs
at several valley locations.
A total of 26 warning
and directional signs were
pulled down on county
roads Saturday night, April
10, said Brad Wittler, traf-
fic control coordinator for
the Josephine County Pub-
lic Works Dept.
Wittler, who re-
sponded to make the re-
pairs the next morning,
Easter Sunday, said most
of the signs were undam-
aged and simply needed to
be reset. But five posts
were broken, requiring
replacement.
“Fortunately, the call
came just before I sat
down to Easter brunch,”
said Wittler.
The work took 16
man-hours to complete,
eight of which were
counted at time-and-a-half,
as it was Sunday.
According to Wittler,
the vandals tackled signs
on Laurel Road, Caves
Hwy., Holland Loop, and
Dick George Road. Wittler
also noted at least four
signs down on Oregon
Dept. of Transportation
(ODOT)-maintained roads.
An ODOT employee
contacted for this story had
no information about the
incidents.
Setbacks changed for development
on Laurel Road by CJ City Council
Commercial rezoning OK’d for new business at Hwy. 199 and Laurel
By MICHELLE BINKER
Staff Writer
Zoning issues, annexa-
tion, and an amendment to
a planned unit develop-
ment’s (PUD) approval
conditions dominated the
Cave Junction City Coun-
cil’s meeting Monday
night, April 12 in city hall.
The council acted on a
zone change request on
behalf of Fields Living
Trust for property on N.
Redwood Hwy.
The property, identi-
fied as Tax Lot 807, had
been zoned single residen-
tial, but was changed to
commercial, as the owners
plan to locate a home im-
provement store there.
Informal announce-
ment of the new store,
which has a facility in the
Grants Pass area, was
made recently by Jim Frick
of Century 21 Harris &
Taylor.
For the sake of consis-
tency, the property was
rezoned on the Cave Junc-
tion Comprehensive plan,
from multifamily residen-
tial to commercial.
The N. Redwood Hwy.
area, which appears to be
on the verge of becoming a
busy commercial district,
is of particular concern to
the Oregon Dept. of Trans-
portation (ODOT).
Improving Hwy. 199
to provide safe ingress and
egress from commercial
sites is a significant issue.
As such, ODOT has re-
quested a meeting with
affected property owners,
city staff, ODOT officials
and interested parties re-
garding development of
refuge lanes or a safety
corridor in the area. The
meeting is scheduled for
Thursday, April 29 at 1
p.m. in city hall.
In a 4-0 decision, the
council agreed to annex a
property at 295 Hanby
Lane. The 5.31-acre piece,
previously zoned county
rural residential-5, was
designated single residen-
tial upon annexation.
Lots of books will be
part of a yard sale
Saturday, April 17 at the
corner of E. River Street
and Shadowbrook Drive
from 8 to 11 a.m.
Councilman Sandi
Lund was absent.
The council heard
from Larry Osborn, repre-
senting the group develop-
ing Sunny Brook Manor
‘Cedar Brook Manor’
planned
as
new
name for Cave Junc-
tion development
Estates at 497 Laurel
Road.
He asked for an
amendment to setback re-
quirements in order to ac-
commodate the largest
possible housing unit in
the development.
The council approved
the request, after ensuring
that an 18-foot minimum
driveway length was main-
tained to accommodate
resident parking.
“Because this is a
PUD, and not a typical
subdivision, the devel-
opers have greater flexi-
bility within the devel-
opment” regarding set-
back requirements, ex-
plained Councilman
Tony Paulson.
Osborn also indi-
cated that a name
change was in the offing
for the development.
“Sunny
Brook
Farm,” he explained, “is
the name of a mental
institution.” Therefore,
to avoid confusion, the
Sunny Brook PUD is
bein g re christened
“Cedar Brook Manor.”
Street names will
also be changed to re-
flect the new name.
MANSFIELD R. CLEARY
Attorney at Law
General Practice in Illinois Valley
since 1980
Practice includes but not limited to:
Bankruptcy - Eliminate
financial problems
Living trusts - Avoid probate
Estate planning - Wills,
power of attorney
Domestic relations
Auto accident - Personal Injury
Criminal - DUII
Real Estate contracts - Foreclosure
592-2195
200 W. Lister