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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2022
Woman keeps the Grand Ronde Library alive
By TOM HENDERSON
For The Oregonian
GRAND RONDE — Members of the
Grand Ronde Women’s Club started the
community’s public library in 1958, at what
used to be the local bank off Oregon 18, with
only a spiral-bound notebook to keep track
of who borrowed what book.
They thought that would be enough — at
least for a little while. After all, the library
would only be open Monday afternoons.
Now, some 3,300 Monday afternoons
later, the notebook still has room for more
visitors to write down their names and
the books they’re borrowing. In fact, the
64-year-old notebook records approximately
3,500 library visitors in all — about one per
week.
Harriet House was visitor No. 1. She
checked out the fi rst book Oct. 15, 1958.
Reynaldo Schneck is visitor No. 3,510.
The author of books on cycling such as
“Bicycle Manifesto: The Little Red Book
For Bicycle Enthusiasts” and “Bicycle: A
Practical Guide,” Schneck stumbled upon
the library almost by accident.
“I was just passing through on my way to
Mitchell, Oregon, when I found the library,”
the 64-year-old Seattle resident said. “I’m
helping out at a local farm while I stay here.
This is my fi fth visit to the library. I love vis-
iting with Amelie.”
That’s Amelie Redman, the librarian.
The 79-year-old Willamina resident drives
6.7 miles every Monday to open the library
from noon to 4 p.m. The building, once the
Bank of Grand Ronde, is packed to over-
fl owing with books of every description,
almost all of them donated by members of
the community.
Redman arranges them by subject —
more or less. However, she admitted the
library is organized more by madness than
method. There is no decimal system, Dewey
or otherwise.
It wouldn’t help anyway. There’s no card
catalog, either on paper or computer. The
cataloging software is in Redman’s head. If
people can’t fi nd the right book, she’s happy
to help them.
“I love recommending books to people,”
she said.
The library also has no website, no email
address and no telephone. How do people
contact the library? “They can always leave
a note on the door,” Redman said. “Other-
Tom Henderson/For The Oregonian
Amelie Redman has been the librarian at the Grand Ronde Library since 2013. The library has
no computers, no internet service and no telephone.
‘THIS IS MY WAY OF KEEPING
THE SPIRIT OF KNOWLEDGE ALIVE.’
Amelie Redman | librarian at the Grand Ronde Library since 2013
wise, they just need to drop by a Monday
afternoon.”
Visitors often have to walk sideways to
make their way through the narrow spaces
between the shelves. Redman said she
doesn’t mind if they knock a few books to
the fl oor in the process.
“It’s hard not to,” she said. “It can get
pretty cramped in here.”
Among the other things the library
doesn’t have is a heating system, unless one
counts the potbelly stove behind Redman’s
desk.
“The fi rst thing I do when I arrive in the
winter months is build a fi re if it’s necessary,
and it generally is,” she said.
The Grand Ronde Women’s Club still
runs the library — at least on paper. The club
has long since disbanded.
“On the paperwork, we still get together
because we all go to the same church,” Red-
man said.
Funding for the library actually comes
from the family of Elsie Werth, who served
as the librarian until 2013.
“Her family keeps the library going in
Elsie’s honor,” Redman said. “Dennis Werth,
her son, kept the library open in December
after I was bitten by a dog and couldn’t come
in that month.”
It costs very little to keep the library
open, she said.
“Of course, I don’t pay for anything,” she
added. “I’m just a volunteer. Power is about
$24 a month. Sewer rates just went up to
$12. There’s just not a lot of overhead.”
Monday afternoons at the library can be
lonely, Redman said.
“Every once in awhile, no one comes.
I’ve defi nitely had a few days when no one
comes in at all.
The library has no connection to the Con-
federated Tribes of Grand Ronde. The tribe
operates its own library farther up Grand
Ronde Road, which is open by appointment
weekdays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Satur-
days from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Unlike Redman’s tiny library, it has all
the usual modern amenities — including
tribal archives.
Sarah Frost, the manager of the nearby
Willamina Public Library, said the small
library at the old bank is still important.
“Having the library in Grand Ronde is so
important for their community and ours,”
said Frost.
When some students came in last month
to fi nd information about Martin Luther
King Jr., Redman was able to provide them
with some books. Few other people have
dusted off the books in the past 64 years, she
said, but it was nice to have the books there,
just waiting for the right readers.
“At least they’re getting a pretty good
education in bigotry and racism,” she
added about the books she retrieved for the
students.
Even with more modern libraries nearby
in Willamina, Dallas, McMinnville and just
down the road in Grand Ronde, Redman
said she never questions the importance of
keeping her library alive.
“A good friend of mine was dying, and I
was taking care of her,” said Redman. “She
asked me why I did it, and I said she would
do the same for me. Then I thought about it
some more and said it was really because of
the beauty of her soul.
“It’s the same with the library, I suppose.
I do it for the beauty of its soul.”
The library reminds her of “A Gift Upon
the Shore,” a 1990 novel by Oregon author
M.K. Wren. In the novel, a writer and a
farmer live on the Oregon Coast in the after-
math of a nuclear war. The two women are
determined to collect and preserve the writ-
ten word for a new civilization.
“This is like the gift upon the shore,”
Redman said of the library. “These books are
still here. Where do kids see the old books?
We tend to shine things up and throw them
away. This is my way of keeping the spirit of
knowledge alive.”
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