A8
NEWS
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Joseph Charter School seniors switch sides of their tassels, officially marking their
graduation.
The Wallowa High School class of 2019 awaits their diplomas.
Joseph grads: Joseph Charter School
graduates 15 seniors
Wallowa grads: Wallowa High School
graduates 19 seniors
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Kilgore attributes much
of their success in school,
and in planning futures
that fit each student, to the
guidance they received
and the senior projects that
they completed. Students
undertake a project closely
related to the career they are
interested in. For example,
Tyler Homan, who aspires
to becoming a mechani-
cal engineer, taught STEM
classes to JCS 4th-graders.
Valedictorian Victoria Suto,
who is looking toward a
future in the arts, helped
create a community mural.
At the graduation cer-
emony, Kana Oliver per-
formed
the
National
Anthem. Megan Smith and
retiring teacher Marla Dot-
son offered sage advice as
honorary speakers, and the
triumvirate of valedicto-
rians spoke briefly to the
gathered friends, family,
and faculty.
the class of 2019’s aca-
demic career. Their remem-
brances echoed the class
slide show, which included
each senior’s favorite quote.
Among them: “Learn from
the mistakes of others. You
can never live long enough
to make them all yourself.”
(Groucho Marx); “Any soci-
ety that would give up a little
liberty to gain a little secu-
rity will have neither.” (Ben-
jamin Franklin) and “We’re
adults. When did that hap-
pen? And how do we make it
stop?” (Dr. Meredith Gray).
Judith Shike, Class of
2009, delivered a moving
commencement address that
recounted how she overcame
the challenges she has faced
during the decade since
graduation. “Life inevitably
throws us curve balls,” she
noted. “But remember that it
is usually our light, not our
darkness that most frightens
us.” She told the story of a
Steve Tool
Joseph Charter School Class of 2019 Valedictorians
Natalie Gorham, Victoria Suto, and Kana Oliver, along
with Salutatorian Kade Kilgore, pause for a photo after
graduation.
Then it was time to toss
caps in the air and move on
with life. The recessional
anthem, “Don’t Stop Me
Now,” by Queen, said it
all.
Ellen Morris Bishop
Ellen Morris Bishop
Wallowa High School 2019 co-valedictorians Rylee Goller
(left) and Riley Ferre’ address their classmates at graduation,
Saturday, June 1.
young Syrian refugee who
rescued her family from
drowning when their flimsy
raft began to sink. That girl
went on to become a world-
class Olympic swimmer
despite all her early travails.
“Set goals, fall in love with
everything, and never give
up,” Shike said.
With a class motto of
“Our lives are before us, Our
pasts are behind us. But our
memories are forever with
us.” Wallowa High School’s
class of 2019 is on its way.
Other market: Lower Valley Farmer’s Market offers local produce, meats
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that there was a food co-op
in Enterprise back in the
1970’s,” Reth said. “That
seemed to be a good thing
for the community. Then
I read a book called ‘The
Town that Food Saved’. It
really brought home what
keeping money and food in
the local economy can do.”
In 2012, Reth started an
open-air Farmer’s Market
in Wallowa. The setting up
and taking down was a lot of
work in addition to the tasks
of harvesting and packaging
food. So when the Telephone
Building came up for sale,
Reth bought it, with an eye
to it becoming a more per-
manent venue for a market-
place for local products. The
new indoor market opened in
2014.
“Right now, the market
keeps egg money in people’s
Ellen Morris Bishop
The Lower Valley Farmer’s Market is housed in the old Telephone Building on First Street in
Wallowa. It is open from noon to 6 p.m. on Fridays, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and
Sunday.
pockets here,” Reth said.
There’s a lot of economic
power and good in keeping
dollars local. If the local gro-
cery store goes away because
I saved ten cents when I
bought a half-gallon of milk,
there are local jobs lost. We
all shop for the best bargains.
But when you think about it,
the best bargain is a healthy,
prosperous community.”
The Telephone Building
store offers a wide variety
of locally produced foods,
clothing, gifts, and useful
things. There’s local eggs
from Neal Isley’s chickens,
local grass-fed Angus beef
from the Harshfield Ranch
on Dougherty Loop, and if
your timing is good, chicken
from the Hawkins Ranch.
As summer progresses there
will be more local vegeta-
bles. Right now, you’ll find
thick succulent asparagus
grown in Milton Freewater,
and a number of items grown
locally in Wallowa County
greenhouses.
“We could help support
even more local farms,”
Reth said. “I wish we could
showcase even more local
producers.”
Beyond the fresh foods,
there are locally made jams
and jellies, pickles, dried
local fruit, and other good-
ies. You’ll find floral bou-
quets of local fresh-picked
flowers. Looking for a spe-
cial gift? There are Gene
Hayes paintings, Debbie
Lind cards, and very original
postcards by Brian Wizard.
Ralph Anderson’s Old Gee-
zer woodcarvings, Peggy
Goebel’s crocheted art, Lynn
Price’s Sacred Salve Com-
pany Herbal Remedies—
the list of fun and artful
local wares goes on. There’s
something for everyone and
every need.
“This is such an inspiring
place to work,” said volun-
teer Cathy Mullins. “There
are so many amazing art-
ists and gardeners in this
community!”
The search for the long lost Blue Bucket Mine
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
An overconfident moun-
tain guide and an errant
wagon train in Oregon’s
early pioneer days could be
credited with sparking one
of the greatest gold rushes
in American history.
It was prospectors in
search of the Blue Bucket
Mine who discovered gold
in Canyon, Dixie and Grif-
fin creeks in 1862, drawing
thousands of people to Can-
yon City, Prairie City and
Auburn in search of riches.
“The Blue Bucket Mine
is the most celebrated and
publicized mine in the
Pacific Northwest in impor-
tance,” Canyon City ama-
teur historian Lawrence
Roba wrote. “It will even
outrank such famous mines
as the Lost Dutchmen and
Peg-Leg Smith mines of the
Southwest.”
Stephen Meek was the
younger brother of Joseph
Meek, one of Oregon’s
founding fathers and the
man behind one of the state’s
earliest maps. In 1845, per-
haps wanting to live up to
his brother’s name, Stephen
Meek offered to guide 800
people in 200 wagons on a
shortcut across the Eastern
Oregon wilderness.
Contributed photo/Blue Mountain Eagle
Joseph Meek, left, was an active Oregon politician, U.S.
marshal and sheriff. His brother Stephen Meek, right, was a
mountain guide and later miner. Both were fur trappers in
Oregon’s early history.
Shortly after the party
sighted Fremont Peak on the
North Fork of the Malheur
River, now known as Cas-
tle Rock, Meek was surely
lost. Members of the wagon
train mistook Steens Moun-
tain for the Cascade Range
near Bend and Silvies River
for Crooked River.
Several people suc-
cumbed to bad water or dis-
eases during the trip, and as
water became hard to find,
lynch mobs formed twice.
A few loyal members hid
Meek and his wife, who
finally left for their own
safety.
Meek was gone when
members of the wagon
train found the now infa-
mous gold nuggets. Gold
wouldn’t be discovered at
Sutter’s Mill in Califor-
nia for four more years, so
not only was nobody in the
wagon train expecting to
find gold — they wouldn’t
know what it was if they
saw it.
In one version of the
story, three young men went
searching for their oxen and
brought back 15-20 colored
pebbles they had found in a
stream. Several “seasoned”
men said they were cop-
per. A woman named Fisher
kept one pebble but didn’t
find out it was gold until
after the ‘49ers hit it rich in
California.
There are many versions
of this discovery story. In
one, children looking for
berries found the gold nug-
gets. In another, a black-
smith put a nugget on an
iron-rimmed wagon wheel
and easily hammered it flat.
In other stories, a tool box
filled with nuggets was lost
when it fell off a wagon
during a river crossing.
Ellen Morris Bishop
Pacific Power crews install new insulators on hot power
lines after a direct lightning strike on this power pole next
to Safeway Friday afternoon exploded the insulators and
damaged power lines, causing a power-outage that lasted
until about 1:30 a.m. for about 25 nearby homes.
Lighting strike causes
power outage
By Ellen Morris Bishop
Wallowa County Chieftain
Friday
afternoon’s
power-outage to about 25
homes in Enterprise from
around 4:30 p.m. Fri-
day to 1:30 a.m. Saturday
was caused by a direct
hit of a lightning bolt on
a power pole at Holmes
and West North Street,
outside Safeway, accord-
ing to Pacific Power Line
supervisor Mike McCor-
mack who was directing
the work to replace insu-
lators and transformers on
the hot power lines along
North Street.
The charge traveled
south on Holmes Street,
also severely damaging
two transformers. Pacific
Power crews arrived
from Pendleton to repair
the damage, including a
hazmat crew charged with
cleaning up oil leaking
from the transformers.