Image provided by: Baker County Library District; Baker City, OR
About The Record-courier. (Haines, Baker County, Oregon) 1932-2016 | View Entire Issue (June 23, 2016)
8 i Record-Courier THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 2016 Garden Tour in A. Photos courtesy Hells Canyon Journal V V Music duo to present special free show June 24th Musical duo Bill Boycott and Dr. Jo will present a special free concert in downtown Historic Downtown Baker City the evening of Friday, June 24th. In addition to presentations during the day at the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, the duo will present a program of contemporary western and folk music at the Short Term Gallery, 1829 Main Street, starting at 7:00 pm. The presentation, hosted by Trail Tenders, is open to all. The Trail Center is located five miles east of Baker City, Oregon on Highway 86. Take Exit 302 from I-84. The Center is currently open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. Admission for adults is $8.00; for sen iors it’s $4.50; children 15 and under are admitted for free. Fed eral passes are accepted. Call (541) 523-1843 for updates on programs and events. For more information about the Trail Center visit: oregontrail.blm.gov Anthony Lakes Introduces Summer Operations Last week the Baker County Garden Club enjoyed a walking tour through the beautifully landscaped yard of Master Gardener (retired) Peg Coffin of New Bridge. The rose garden with the pond and water features, gazing ball and benches was one of the favorite pathways. Each of the feature plants, bushes and trees throughout the acre of well-manicured lawns and beds, were posted with tag signs which told the name of the plants and Coffin gave talks about some of the more unique plantings around the grounds. The beauty of an old outhouse graced with honeysuckle can never be overstated and such is the case with the thought to be, original outhouse which is still on the property. Coffin noted that it was time to brace up the little building as age has taken a toll on the foundation, but it will stay as part of the landscape. Above right, behind the stone house on the property is a cactus garden featuring five va rieties. The Prickly Pear was at the end of the blooming cycle the day of the Baker County Garden Tour but was still showy and fun to see. Coffin is quick to admit that there is minimal pruning of the garden; just enough to keep it all confined and not overrunning Its allotted space or causing danger. Having had first-hand experience as a child when she had the misfortune of falling into a cactus bed, she finds that sometimes a pitchfork is not a useless took for the task. Eagle Valley Grange Recognizes Six Members With 295 Years of Service Story /photo courtesy Hells Canyon Journal (At left) When Dan Forsea with 25 years, Renece Forsea with 25 years, Leia Shold with 60, Dale Chamberlin with a record breaking 75 years, Pearl DuMars with 55 years and Walt Forsea with 55 years, all joined the Grange those many years ago, their intent was not to receive an award but to serve their community, participate in projects that would better their community, live the core values put forth by the Grange and be with their friends and family. Today, with a collective 295 years of service, these six people are doing and dedicated to the same things. You don’t hear complaints - you see their willing smiles and easy going determination to keep it all going. Thank you Eagle Valley Grange members for being such a positive contributing factor in what makes Eagle Valley what it is today. Thank you to Dale, Leia, Walt, Pearl, Renece and Dan, for all of the decades For the first time in its 50 plus years as a winter ski area, Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort will offer summer operations at the area’s Main Lodge. Beginning July 9, 2016, Anthony Lakes’ new, Summer at the Starbottle, will offer fresh, local food and beverages, iiicluding Eastern Oregon’s only wood fired pizzas. Efforts to produce homemade and locally sourced ingredients are the goal, as well as providing a scenic and unique dining experience. Anthony Lakes is working with Vai’s Veggies (Baker City), Hill’s Meat (Pendleton), Sexton Ranch (Baker City) and other local resources to establish a fresh experience for guests near and far. Offering a resting point along the Elkhorp Scenic Byway, Summer at the Starbottle aims to attract car travelers, motorcyclist, hikers, climbers, bikers, campers, and even local folk out for a day drive. This sit- down, family-friendly restaurant boasts spectacular views with outdoor seating on the new patio! Inside seating is also available. Live music is sched uled for the following dates: • Sat., Jul. 9: Opening Day of “Summer at the Starbottle,” live music by Shannon Gray, 2pm-5pm • Sat., Jul. 30: Annual Mountain Bike Festival, live music, Channel Cats, lpm-4pm • Sat., Aug. 20: Live music, Bruno Dunes Band, 2pm-5pm Summer at the Starbottle will be open Saturdays and Sundays, 11am to 6pm, from July 9 through September 4. Along with delicious eats and drinks, visitors can purchase Daily ODFW Angling Licenses, ice and other sundry items. For details and event information, including the Annual Mountain Bike Festival, please visit Anthony Lakes“ website at www.anthonylakes.com or “like” on Facebook. Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort is located 19 miles West of 1-84 between Baker City & La Grande, Ore., situated high in Elkhorn range of Eastern Oregon’s Blue Mountains. With over 8 miles of single track mountain bike trails, as well as area lakes, hiking trails and camping fa- cilj.tiesi,jiA®th£my an outdoor-enthusiast’s dream. Note: campgrounds are managed through the United States For est Service. For campground information and reservations, please visit recreation.gov. ANTHONY LAKES OPERATES IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE WALLOWA-WHITMAN NA TIONAL FOREST UNDER A SPECIAL USE PERMIT. Oregon Historic Tails Advisory Council Meets June 26 in Hermiston From Oregon Parks and Recreation Dept. The Oregon Historic Trails Advisory Council will hold its sum mer meeting in Hermiston at 8 a.m. Sunday, June 26. The meeting will be in the Conference Room at the Knights Inn at 425 N 1st Street, Hermiston. This meeting is free and open to the public and there is no charge for attending. OHTAC will be discussing old business in cluding the Barlow Trail Multimedia grant project, wind farm ac tivity and more. In 1998, the Governor established OHTAC to oversee and pro vide advice on Oregon's 1 6 historic trails. The Council is made up of nine governor-appointed volunteer-citizens working together to advise the Governor and to locate, preserve and encourage the use of these historic trails by Oregonians and visitors to our state. The Council meets three times a year.to explore at. least one of the 16Edesignated historic trails. Guided by local residents of positive accomplishments that you have so selflessly contributed and for and/or public agency experts, the Council members evaluate arid all that you have done. The Grange record trail conditions and discuss opportunities for the marking, “recognizes you and your community interpretation arid protection of the trails. For information visit the OTHAC webpage or contact Loren Irving, 541 -480-4167. appreciates you. HUNTER continued from page 5 back, he wouldn’t get back on with them. He might get assigned to another crew that would work out but you wanted ten guys who could really work together and the good crews knew that. When you have a really good crew, you never heard them speak while they were working. They just worked hard, and knew what they were doing and what they could expect from their crew members. You might hear encouraging words sometimes but that was all. The crew would just flow and that was a good crew. Your purpose was to build a team confidence. If we aren’t functioning in that way, we won’t get the job done and it is easy for someone to get hurt.” Hunter said that Gary Timm (ODF) did the classroom training for the prisoners and Buzz Harper would do the field training. ‘That training could involve live fire. You can practice as much as you want, but the actual fire training with these guys kept it real. The training was awesome and got our crews ready to go out. We always, always kept at least one of our crews in Baker so that ODF had that resource. We’d get sent all over the state but always left at least one crew in Baker." Hunter has many memories of incidents from all of the fires. Some memories are more significant or profound than others. Some are whimsical and other a lot more serious. ‘We were on a fire by Imnaha and had just headed up a hillside. Right away, I noticed that it was almost shimmering,” related Jim. “It just glistened with movement and I thought, that was kind of weird and at first I wondered if the sun was playing tricks on my eyes. My eyes were fine. It was rattlesnakes. Those snakes were everywhere! But we still had to fight the fire. We were constantly killing snakes. I can tell you that the ones that we didn’t kill and didn’t burn up were very angry!” There were some things about fire that firefighters can always depend on and that is the heat and the exhaustion. Jim told of one of the times they were based at John Day, camped in at the fairgrounds. “We would get back to camp from the fire and the temperature was still over 100 degrees. It was too hot to sleep and I would be too exhausted to eat. I was off duty and on my own time and I kept think ing about that Dairy Queen being right down the road. I knew that a blizzard would taste so good, so I walked over to the Dairy Queen. And the people who were there, bless their hearts, never bothered me. I would sit down in a corner booth and fall asleep for maybe two hours. They never woke me up. I just slept and when I woke up would, walk back to camp and I could fall asleep. I really appreciated their gesture.” One more fire story! “I had always told the guys that they could not keep food in their tents and to listen for clicking noises now and then. You have to remember that theyweren’t necessarily from around here and didn’t know about wild animals. We were on a fire in Hells Canyon. I was talking to one of the other officers and one of the inmates came up to me and said Mr. Hunter, I got something I have to show you. I told him I was busy and to show one of the other officers. He said no, I have to show you this, Mr. Hunter. So I went with him. We walked over to his tent and I looked in the door and there was a big pile of bear s - . I asked him if he knew what that was. His eyes were big and he said, I think it’s s___ , Mr. Hunter and what ever it was, it was eating my skittles! I told him he was exactly right. His eyes got wider and then he said to me, ypu guys haven’t been the ones tear ing up our tents every day? And I said no, that I was pretty sure that it had been a bear looking for more skittles,” said Jim. ‘The guy’s voice esca lated and he said with certainty, and that’s why you told us we couldn’t keep food in our tents! And I said, yep! He didn’t say another word to me. He just went into his tent and food started flying out Becky and Jim Hunter of the door of the tent! The next morning, I got the inmates up to get a start on the day and instead of lining out and getting ready to work, they kept hanging close to me like little chicks and they would not spread out and get their gear. I kept telling them to line out like they were supposed to and they huddled closer and asked me, Mr. Hunter, bears click their teeth, don’t they? And I said, yes they do. It’s their warning. Then the crew said they didn’t want to go out because they had been hearing the clicking noise. I told them that the bears were around and they were going to be around, now we needed to get to work.” Jim smiled, “We definitely didn’t have to worry about any of them running now, because they were all pretty sure they were going to get eaten by a bear.” “I took a lot of pride in my work and I miss the people I worked with. I have a lot of memoires but now, he said smiling at his wife Becky, “I am enjoying my retirement.”
