Page A-8 Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, October 3, 2018 The Plaques of E Clampus Vitus Saloon at Fort Jones The 40th in a continuing series of articles prepared by Bill Wensrich “If you ain’t plaque’n, then you ain’t Clampin’” Rib Should er Top Sirloin Bottom Sirloin Chuck Short Loin Plate Picnic Shank Shank Round Friday, Oct. 5 thru SALE DATES Sunday, Oct. 7 GO HERE (Approximate 10# package) Whole in the Bag Boneless Beef Rib Eye $1.47 lb $5.47 lb Boneless/Skinless Fryer Breast (not graded) Whole in the Bag Boneless Beef New York Strip Twin Pack Pork Shoulder Roasts $3.99 lb $1.57 lb (not graded) Whole Boneless Pork Loin Whole Boneless Pork Sirloins Smithfield Prime $1.77 lb $1.77 lb Meyer Natural Prime Grade Whole Beef Brisket St. Helen’s Lean Ground Beef (80/20) Certified Angus Beef $3.87 lb $2.66 lb $3.39 lb. Sold in a 3 lb Chub Whole in the bag Meyer Natural Peeled Tri Tip Roasts $4.99 lb Pork Baby Back Ribs $2.99 lb Whole In Bag Beef Sirloin Tips Whole in the Bag Boneless New York Strip $6.88 lb Fresh Ground Beef Sirloin $3.77 lb (Approx 8# pkg) (Choice Grade) So. Boneless Skinless Fryer Breasts Sunny Valley Fully Cooked Sliced Bacon Salad Shrimp Meat 3 lb pkg $12.97 $1.47 lb ea sold frozen in 2 lb bag $13 ea Limited to Stock on Hand No Rain Checks ~ Ray's Food Place 110 Deer Creek Rd, Selma, Store Address Here OR 97538 7 a.m. – 10 p.m. EVERYDAY • www.gorays.com Hours ~ Charlie Bob’s Cocktails, The Saloon at Fort Jones, was plaqued Aug. 27, 2011 to commemorate the first watering hole frequented by members of a new E Clampus Vitus Chapter established in 1973. Today’s owners call the place the Cold Stream Saloon. Housing many businesses over the years, the building will always be remember by Humbug Chapter Clampers as Charlie Bob’s, the first official Chapter meeting place and watering hole. Humbug Chapter’s Ex-Noble Grand Humbug, Jim McConnell, came upon the notion to plaque the Cold Stream Saloon when he read about the death of Callahan’s Melvin Cramer. Mel had been the first Chapter President of Yreka’s ECV Humbug Chapter and one of the founding fathers. Jim wanted the bar location and its relationship with ECV to be remembered. Jim prepared the wording and had Cecelia Reuter from the Fort Jones museum help him with the language. He talked to the Cold Stream owners and they agreed to put the plaque inside over the bar in a prominent viewing location. Jim then contacted Ralph Starritt who prepared the wooden plaque. That August weekend the Chapter held a Doin’s party at Indian Scotty’s group camp ground. On Saturday about 25 Redshirts made the trip into Fort Jones for the dedication and speechifyin’. Noble Grand Humbug Spike “Raspberry” Haines had become ill and stepped down that spring. McConnell grabbed the Chapter historian’s horns and ran with ‘em. The rest as they say “is history.” What follows describes the inauguration activities and very early days of HumbugChapter 73. The Chapter owes its existence to tireless Trinitarianus initiators and instigators and Siskiyou County locals Mel Cramer, Murk Mansell and Carroll Pepperdine. Their efforts culminated in the establishment of ECV’s Humbug Chapter. It all started back in 1971 at Tony’s Tavern in Ft. Jones. Wearing red shirts, Weaverville’s Trinitarianus members Russ Ratliff, their Noble Grand Humbug, Herk Shriner, Virgil Mortensen, VNGH, and Hal Goodyearwere tippin’ back a few. Locals Murk Mansell, Tony Phelan, Ernie Deppen and others in the bar practicing drinkin’ asked these guys what their red shirts were all about. That was the beginning! The Trinitarianus group discussed the need for an ECV Chapter in Siskiyou County because they couldn’t take care of that area as well as their own Trinity County territory. The group had a few meetings in Etna to discuss the notion. Before long a couple of Doins’ were held in Callahan and an initiation at Ft. Jones conducted by the Trinitarianus Chapter where Murk and others were “taken in,” by the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus. Credit for starting up Humbug Chapter probably goes to those Trinitarianus clampers who showed up at Tony’s Tavern for a few beers. When Virgil “Mort” Mortensen was Humbug, Russ Ratliff first presented the notion of a Siskiyou County chapter at the Grand Council of May 27, 1972 held in Murphys, California. Meeting minutes reflect the following: “Where upon there appeared one Russ Ratliff, XNGH, one Mort Mortensen, NGH, and one Melvin Cramer, Subaltern, all of Trinitarianus Chapter, to request the formation of a new Chapter to be known as Humbug Chapter of E Clampus Vitus with headquarters at Fort Jones, California and with jurisdiction over Siskiyou County. Upon proper assurance that Trinitarianus would happily release the territory and act as sponsor, a motion to approve the Chapter was made by Bill Byars and seconded by Jack Stoddart. The motion was unanimously approved subject to the usual years’ probation.” The following May at Grand Council, SNGH Goodyear made a report on Humbug Chapter’s progress during their probationary year. “They were granted full chapter status with the proviso that their Humbug, Mel Cramer, could coherently accept same at the Grand Council meeting.” No one really remembers where Humbug Chapter’s Charter Doins’ was held. According to the old ECV newsletter The Clamper, Humbug Chapter was going to hold their Charter Doins’ and initiation at Greenhorn Park in Yreka on April 23, 1976. Bill Haas, XNGH#7, sponsored by Don Lee, remembers a Charter Doins’ held on Humbug Creek. Humbug Chapter derives its name from Humbug Creek, the miners and mining history of that canyon. The creek was named by a party of disappointed miners who worked it with no success in 1851. Later arrivals were more fortunate discovering gold along the creek that same year in May. Nonetheless, the Creek’s name survived. The number73 comes from the year Grand Council officially recognized the new Chapter. Credit for further development of the Chapter belongs to Murk Mansell and Carroll Pepperdine. At the time, Murk worked for the Siskiyou Telephone Company; Carroll owned the Jolly’s Club. Carroll had been a whiskey salesman for the McKesson distributor as well, or at least he was known to have had a whiskey or two each day. During the Chapter’s early days, meetings were held at numerous drinking establishments, including Jolly’s Club, Charlie Bob’s Bar in Fort Jones, the Yreka Hotel, and the Corner Club in Montague. For a very long time a list of all the Charter members of Humbug Chapter hung on the wall near the telephone inside Jolly’s club. Murk and Carroll were both instrumental in establishing the Chapter’s presence and participation at the annual Fort Jones parade. The Chapter often led the parade which was first established in 1968. Humbug Chapter would have a couple hundred Redshirts at each Doins’, as well as a marching Kazoo band they took to local parades. Back in the early ‘70s to make money for the Chapter, Murk and others took a red and black roulette wheel with a picture of a jack ass on it, to various events selling beer. They split the proceeds with the event operator and the Chapter. After a while this operation was shut down. Murk says the roulette wheel ended up in a basement in Ft. Jones somewhere. Later on Murk found an old beat up fire truck near a sand bar on the Klamath River, just past Happy Camp. He paid about $200 for the old 1941 Federal, and drove it to Ft. Jones where Chapter members restored it. It was repainted red; the pumps were rechromed and touched up with gold leaf. There were just two seats in the cab and no room in the back because of the pumps and equipment. Murk became the Chapter’s second Humbug followed by Carroll Pepperdine, whose brother, Phil, became Humbug 20 years later. Don Biss who owned a body shop in Yreka became the Chapter’s fifth Humbug. Richie Meek was Don Biss’ sponsor. Bill Wensrich serves on the E Clampus Vitus Board of Directors. His recently published Guide Book for the ECV Transierra Roisterous Alliance of Senior Humbugs titled The Trail to Sailors’ Diggin’sfrom Paragon Bay is available for purchase from the non- profit Del Norte County Historical Society Museum located at 577 H Street in Crescent City, California.