NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Ezra Meeker Oregon Trail time capsule to be opened June 23
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Ezra Meeker,
the famous pioneer who spent the
later part of his life memorializing the
Oregon Trail and reviving memories
of it as storyteller, may have one more
tale to share.
People opening a time capsule
Meeker left in La Grande in 1906
could discover a note or message
from the frontiersman that he wanted
people to see in the future. The time
capsule is set to be opened at 110
Walnut St. at 1 p.m. on Thursday,
June 23. The event will be at the site of
a stone Oregon Trail marker Meeker
dedicated on April 10, 1906, one
which had interior space at its base for
a time capsule. Little is known about
what the time capsule may contain.
“The only thing we know is that
it may have the dedication speech
the mayor of La Grande gave,” said
Ronnie Allen, a La Grande local
historian who has done extensive
research on Meeker’s stone markers
and is a member of the Oregon-Cali-
fornia Trails Association.
Allen has organized the time
capsule opening event with major
help Dale Counsell, of La Grande, a
fellow local history aficionado. Coun-
sell said the Oregon Trail has special
meaning to him because a number of
his relatives came to the Northwest on
the Oregon Trail.
Dick Mason/The Observer
Stu Spence, left, the city of La Grande Parks and Recreation director, and Ronnie Allen, a local historian, exam-
ine an Oregon Trail stone marker Friday, June 17, 2022, that Ezra Meeker put up in 1906 on Walnut Street in La
Grande. Parks and recreation will help open a time capsule in the marker on June 23.
efforts to preserve the overland route.
The stone marker on Walnut
Street may be the only one Meeker
put up that had a time capsule.
“It is the only marker that had
a time capsule, according to his
diaries,” Allen said.
The time capsule will be opened
with assistance from the La Grande
Parks and Recreation Department,
which will be using a backhoe for
the work, according to Stu Spence,
the department director.
Once the contents of the time
A time capsule of distinction
The stone marker is among 35
Meeker set up along the Oregon Trail
during the three journeys he made
across the United States to promote
capsule are removed they will
be replaced by items Allen and
Counsel have collected for a new
time capsule. They will include an
Oregon Trail brochure, a copy of
the Overland Journal (a quarterly
publication of the Oregon-Califor-
nia Association) plus items that are
or recently have been integral parts
of our daily lives today including two
face masks, a COVID-19 home test
kit, an iPhone, a $2 bill and a quarter.
Allen said he is not sure if all of these
items will fit into the time capsule.
Forecast for Pendleton Area
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Once the new time capsule items
are placed in the stoner marker, it
will be reinstalled in the exact place
it is now, Allen said.
The marker is in the front yard of
the home of Jack and Jennifer Boyd.
“I am so excited,” Jennifer Boyd
said of her anticipation of the time
capsule opening.
Attracting
Oregon Trail fans
The stone marker is easy to miss
but many Oregon Trail fans have
BMW riders roll into John Day
By JUSTIN DAVIS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Partly sunny and
beautiful
Mostly sunny and
pleasant
83° 58°
86° 56°
Sunny and
pleasant
Abundant sunshine
and pleasant
Nice with plenty of
sunshine
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
76° 52°
85° 60°
78° 55°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
87° 60°
91° 58°
81° 54°
90° 62°
85° 54°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
69/57
73/52
85/55
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
80/60
Lewiston
78/56
88/61
Astoria
66/56
Pullman
Yakima 85/57
75/56
81/58
Portland
Hermiston
80/59
The Dalles 87/60
Salem
Corvallis
80/55
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
77/52
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
79/56
81/54
80/48
Ontario
84/53
Caldwell
Burns
75°
54°
83°
54°
101° (1958) 42° (2012)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
79/55
0.00"
1.66"
0.52"
7.45"
2.46"
4.90"
WINDS (in mph)
82/51
80/45
0.00"
2.16"
0.90"
10.82"
4.29"
7.74"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 73/48
80/57
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
83/58
87/63
73°
56°
80°
53°
103° (1900) 38° (1893)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
74/56
Aberdeen
75/55
82/59
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
73/57
Today
Medford
89/57
Wed.
SW 4-8
NW 4-8
Boardman
Pendleton
WSW 8-16
W 7-14
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
83/46
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
New
5:06 a.m.
8:48 p.m.
1:24 a.m.
1:36 p.m.
First
Full
JOHN DAY — The Chief
Joseph Rally returned to the
Grant County Fairgrounds
this year following a two-year
absence due to the pandemic.
Camping tents and a pleth-
ora of BMW motorcycles of
all types and ages once again
filled the grassy area beside
Trowbridge Pavilion over the
course of the three-day event.
The rally started Thursday,
June 16, and concluded the
night of Saturday, June 18,
with riders leaving town the
following day.
The event was sponsored
by BMW Riders of Oregon
and drew riders from all over
the Western United States and
parts of Canada. Guided rides,
riding instruction, speakers,
seminars and nightly motor-
cycle movies were some of
the activities the rallygoers
participated in over the course
of the event.
BMW Riders of Oregon
rally chair Alice LeBarron
said the group is passion-
ate about BMW bikes, but
owning one isn’t necessary
Last
High 106° in Comanche, Texas Low 21° in Bodie State Park, Calif.
June 28
July 6
July 13
July 20
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
to join their club.
“Our club and this rally are
really open to having other
brands of bikes,” she said. “It’s
people who are of the same
mindset, basically.”
LeBarron said she thinks
a lot of people have moved to
BMW motorcycles over the
years due to the number of
“WE’LL KEEP
COMING HERE.
THERE IS SUCH
GREAT RIDING
HERE, AND THE
LOCATION JUST
WORKS FOR
US.”
— Alice LeBarron, BMW
Riders of Oregon rally chair
different models the company
makes that cater to different
riding styles and preferences.
LeBarron said she’s been
coming to the rally in John
Day since 2012 and that she
even came over the two years
that the rally was canceled
due to the pandemic: “The
two years that we didn’t have
our rally ... I came here with
a few friends and we camped
out and had an unrally.”
While LeBarron said
there isn’t much interaction
between the rally and the
community, she added that
anybody who is curious about
riding or anything concern-
ing BMW Riders of Oregon
always is welcome to attend
the rally and have their ques-
tions answered.
LeBarron said there were
277 people registered to attend
the rally but that the overall
number of attendees was a
“bit lower than normal” due
to the national BMW rally in
Springfield, Missouri, being
held over the same weekend
as Chief Joseph.
She added Grant County
is a place she looks forward
to visiting every year and
that she enjoys working with
Mindy Winegar and her staff
at the fairgrounds.
“We’ll keep coming here,”
LeBarron said. “There is such
great riding here, and the
location just works for us.”
IN BRIEF
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
no trouble finding it after reading
about it in books and online. Jenni-
fer Boyd said that in the summer
five or six people a week come to
her house asking about the marker.
The Oregon Trail was close to
Meeker’s heart because he had
taken the route west from Iowa in
1852 when he was a young man.
He later settled in what is now
Puyallup, Washington, and was the
town’s first mayor.
In the 1880s, he made and lost
a fortune growing and marketing
hops. Meeker then went to Alaska
to look for gold, returned and exper-
imented with dehydrated foods. He
took up writing, producing at least
five books before he died.
Meeker made his 1906 stop in
La Grande while on an eastbound
trip along the Oregon Trail in an
ox-drawn wagon. He made a second
trip across the trail by wagon, and
still later retraced portions of it in
an automobile.
At 94, he made the trip by
airplane. He flew over the trail in a
week. His 1852 journey took seven
months.
Meeker died in December 1928,
at the age of 97.
Boyd said a story from a 1906
edition of The Observer indicates
that about 600 people attended the
dedication ceremony for the stone
marker on what is now Walnut
Street. She hopes that a crowd at
least that big will be present for the
June 23 time capsule opening.
“Ezra Meeker would be so
thrilled to know that part of the
history he kept alive still excites
people,” she said.
COVID-19 levels ‘low’ or
‘medium’ in Eastern Oregon
LA GRANDE — The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention monitors commu-
nity levels of COVID-19 to help communities
decide what prevention steps to take based on
the latest data. Levels can be low, medium or
high and are determined by looking at hospi-
tal beds being used, hospital admissions and
the total number of new COVID-19 cases in
an area.
The CDC listed the following levels for
Eastern Oregon:
• Morrow County: low.
Umatilla County: low.
Union County: medium.
Baker County: medium.
Wallowa County: medium.
Malheur County: medium.
The CDC recommends staying up to date
with COVID-19 vaccines. Those who have
symptoms should get tested.
For communities with medium levels,
additional precautions are issued for those at
high risk for severe illness, including talking
to a health care provider about the need to
wear a mask.
— EO Media Group
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