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Wednesday, March 16, 2022
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making it possible for people
to civilly voice their frustra-
tion. Darrow explained that
when people believe they
are disenfranchised they
can react either violently or
peacefully. Measure 31-101
and similar initiatives are
providing people an oppor-
tunity to do the latter.
“These are pressure
valves that allow people to
react in a positive manner,”
he said.
Darrow collected more
than 700 signatures of reg-
istered voters to get Mea-
sure 31-101 on the ballot in
Union County.
“I could not believe it
when we got on the ballot,”
he said.
Darrow said based on
what people told him, most
everyone who signed the
Union County petition sup-
ports Greater Idaho, but he
knows of several who did
not.
“One woman signed it
because she wanted to see it
get on the ballot so that she
could vote against it,” Dar-
row said.
Such responses did not
bother Darrow, who said
his ultimate objective is to
give the people a chance to
decide about Greater Idaho.
“That is what citizen gov-
ernment is all about,” he
said. “It is about dialogue.”
Darrow said that while he
was collecting signatures for
Measure 31-101 he told peo-
ple, “I am not here to argue
or convince you. I am here to
give you a chance to vote.”
A plea to legislators
Since the passage of
Measure 31-101 Darrow
has been urging the Union
County Board of Commis-
sioners to request in writing
that state Rep. Bobby Levy,
R-Echo, and state Sen. Bill
Hansell, R-Athena, work to
get Oregon legislators to dis-
cuss Greater Idaho.
Darrow said he is not
requesting that formal dis-
cussions about Greater
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
Grant Darrow, a retired chimney sweep and Cove resident, poses for a photo outside his home on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022.
Darrow has been leading local eff orts in the campaign to change the Oregon-Idaho border and allow Eastern Oregon to become
part of Greater Idaho.
Idaho begin at that state Cap-
itol. Darrow said it could be
something as simple as the
formation of a committee to
try to determine why interest
in Greater Idaho is growing.
“Getting people at the
state level to talk about it is
the next step,” he said. “We
need to get more dialogue,
to get everybody talking
about it. We have to get it
out there.”
Darrow said he has a
fi rsthand understanding of
the growing sense of frus-
tration people in Northeast-
ern Oregon have about the
state’s urban-rural divide
because he worked as a
chimney sweep in Union,
Wallowa and Baker counties
for 44 years before retiring
in September 2021.
“I would work in 12 to 15
homes a week,” he said.
The chimney sweep has
detected a growing sense of
disenchantment with Ore-
gon’s government during
the past decade, noting they
believe, like Darrow does,
“It has gotten so bad that
I could not aff ord to start a
career as a chimney sweep
in Oregon today,” he said,
adding that every time gov-
ernment puts in a new reg-
ulation or fee it adds to the
red tape citizens must deal
with. “It gets to be abso-
lutely crazy.”
Darrow does not know
what Greater Idaho will lead
to, noting that it may push
to something benefi cial to
rural Oregon that might not
involve moving Idaho’s bor-
ders west.
“It could morph into any
direction,” he said.
He believes the Greater
Idaho campaign could lead to
a positive change in how the
Legislature perceives rural
residents, the creation of a
new state or Greater Idaho
The Cove resident is
sometimes asked by peo-
ple who know how much he
dislikes Oregon’s urban-ru-
ral divide, why he doesn’t
move to Idaho.
“I tell them, ‘That is what
I am trying to do,’” Darrow
said.
that the needs and con-
cerns of Eastern Oregon
are largely ignored by the
Legislature.
“We have become noth-
ing more than window
dressing,” he said.
Darrow in his 2015 letter
to the editor expressed this
point even more starkly.
“It would appear to any
rural resident or outside
observer that most of Ore-
gon’s urbanites view Ore-
gon’s rural residents as noth-
ing more than Third-World
inhabitants occupying their
weekend and vacation play-
grounds in what they adver-
tise to the world as Oregon’s
unique diversity,” he wrote.
Regulations are
choking businesses
Darrow objects to things
such as the way state gov-
ernment is imposing more
and more regulations and
fees that make it increas-
ingly diffi cult for Orego-
nians to start and operate
businesses in Oregon.
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