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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 2015)
4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL November 18, 2015 O PINION LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The next voice you hear Ben Carson pronounces an ut- ter contempt for all who are not like him or America — the silent majority have a voice at last? Seldom has anyone spoken so nakedly of a sense of USA Su- periority in all ways because of exceptionalism as this. His words are a concise Bible of arrogance and unfeelingness toward others: “Have you ever noticed there’s an American way, an American dream?” asked Carson, a retired and decorated brain surgeon. “There’s no French dream. There’s no Canadian dream. This is the most exceptional nation in the history of the world.” — Ben Carson That attitude behind such a vi- sion as his is really my concern. That he speaks for many. It deep- ly targets the U.S. as a people to whom all the world are peopled by the invisible workers at a Siz- zler. Leo Rivers Cottage Grove Parks Well, here we go again. Cot- tage Grove is becoming just like Eugene. More and more we must ban any playing in the park — no playing tag; someone could re- ally get hurt. We better include all beverages. The music in parks must go as well. We should build a fence around the park to keep people out. We got to get ourselves off their planet. Then all would be good. Oh my Lord, and those leaves on the sidewalks; someone is go- ing to slip and sue the City or ho- meowner. Gotta get the trees cut down so they don’t cause a prob- lem. Do you notice the people you vote for turn on you? Liberal wack-jobs are the nation’s most dangerous problem to the hu- man race. Probably coming soon — no praying in the park — and I will be the fi rst there to do so. And I will have my Washington Redskins not on TV. Let’s go get them, Mr. Trump. One more thing: basketball must be stopped at the park; people get hurt, and I am NOT a smoker. Mike Ritter Cottage Grove Offbeat Oregon History Keeping Tillamook Rock Lighthouse running was hard, and expensive BY FINN J.D. JOHN For the Sentinel Q uite often, during his precious days of shore leave, lighthouse keeper James Gibbs Jr. would meet people who envied him his job. “Must be nice,” they would say, “to have such a cushy government job. Re- laxing at the coast, surrounded by sce- nic beauty, nothing to do but trim wicks and make sure nothing breaks…” It’s tempting to wonder how long such critics would have lasted on Til- lamook Rock Light, where Gibbs was stationed at the time. When the lighthouse closed for good in 1957, only one person had ever been killed on it — British master mason John Trewaves, who slipped off the rock in 1879 while scouting the site for the lighthouse. But the number of people who, at some time while on the rock, sincerely believed they were about to die — that number is consid- erably larger. In fact, it’s probably very close to 100 percent of everyone who ever set foot on the tiny island. Condi- tions there were frequently terrifying. After the lighthouse started work- ing, in 1881, the sea wasted little time in trying its best to wipe the stout little lighthouse and everyone inside it from the face of the craggy bluff. In 1883, a huge gale tore a big chunk of ba- salt loose from the bluff and hurled it through the roof of the foghorn house; three years later, another mammoth storm ripped out a half-ton hunk and lobbed it into the lighthouse yard — a full 100 feet above sea level. In 1887, the biggest storm yet slammed into the light. Waves were reported continually breaking over the top of the light, 134 feet above the sea; most likely this meant not that the waves were 134 feet high, but just that the spray hurled over the light by the waves’ violent impact was heavy enough to look like solid water. But the waves weren’t the real hazard to lighthouse keepers, tucked securely behind their walls of two-foot-thick stone blocks, pinned together with cop- per rods and anchored securely to the rock. No giant wave could dislodge it, although it did tremble disconcertingly with each coup de mer during the big storms. No, the real hazard was the fl y- ing boulders. Most likely these were chunks of the bluff that had been loosened just a bit by the blasting that had been required to level off the construction site for the lighthouse. So the weather got really heavy, the waves would slam into them and fi nish the job, then pick them up in their crests and hurl them over the top of the bluff with tremendous force, directly at the lighthouse. If these fl ying boulders struck the stonework, all would be okay; the fortress-thick walls could take it. But every few winters, a couple of storm- driven stones and boulders were hurled through the heavy windows at the top of the light, sometimes letting colossal amounts of seawater into the building to douse the light and fl ood the place. Of all the storms that struck the light- house, none would ever top the great Pacifi c gale that stalked across Oregon and Washington on Oct. 22, 1934. According to Gibbs, the seas were so colossal on that day that they liter- ally submerged the entire station. The winds were recorded at 109 miles per hour and were probably considerably higher on the rock itself. On that day, the boulders hurled at the structure weighed well over 100 pounds — in- cluding one that was driven like a can- nonball through the glass lantern win- dow at the top, shattering the priceless French-made hand-ground Fresnel lens into a thousand pieces and putting out the light. The lightkeepers worked all night, struggling to keep the auxiliary light burning and protected, just in case any ship might be out in the hurricane — and dodging as best they could the rocks and giant boarding seas that con- stantly thundered into the broken-out window panes, fi lling the lantern room with seaweed and small fi sh. Meanwhile, chief keeper William Hill was trying to get through on the station’s telephone line so that ships at sea could be warned that the light was out. No dice: the storm had torn out the wire. Luckily, one of the assistant keepers, Henry Jenkins, was a sort of gadget wizard. Scavenging bits of the broken telephone and pieces of the foghorn ap- paratus, he built a primitive radio trans- mitter that could be tuned to shortwave frequencies and started trying to reach a ham radio operator on shore. Exactly why Henry Goetz of Seaside was operating his shortwave radio set at the time isn’t known, but most likely he was searching for any sign of ships at sea caught in the storm. The gale had caused tremendous damage all over the state, ripping roofs from some houses and toppling trees onto others, killing 22 people. It wasn’t hard to imagine what might be the fate of any mariners caught out on the open sea during that storm. But Goetz didn’t hear from any ships. Instead, he found himself talking to a lighthouse — and then calling the Lighthouse Service in Portland to let them know the light was out. The main light stayed out for fi ve days — the only time in the light- house’s operational history this hap- pened. The storm damage came to more than $12,000. Plus, the loading boom was broken, so the supplies had to be landed using a taut hawser and a bo’s’un’s buoy — a zipline, basically. And the seas were still enormous, and another big weather system was on its way in. Somehow, the crews got it all done. They replaced the now-irreplaceable Fresnel lens with an electric beacon protected by a heavy metal cage around the windows. Although this didn’t al- ways keep the rocks from breaking the windows, it kept the rocks, seaweed and fi sh from actually entering the lan- tern room. Nonetheless, the lighthouse suffered so much damage over the years that re- pairs and maintenance formed an outra- geous expense — more than $15,000 a year throughout the 1950s. So in 1957, when it was fi nally possible to dupli- cate the lighthouse’s protection with an automated buoy and radio beacon, the Coast Guard jumped at the chance to walk away from the whole thing. And at the stroke of midnight on Sept. 1, 1957, the last head lighthouse keeper threw the switch and the old lighthouse went dark, for the fi rst time since the storm of ’34 … for real this time. The lighthouse and rock were auc- tioned off as surplus two years later and snapped up for deceptively small amounts of money by several buyers in succession, all of whom eventually realized the extreme limits of its use- fulness because of its exposure to the weather and inaccessibility. Eventually it was bought by a company intending to make of it a columbarium — a fi nal resting place for the ashes of cremated bodies. Currently, the lighthouse holds the remains of several dozen people, but the state has revoked the operator’s permit in 1999, citing some needed improvements to the facility; as of late 2015, the situation hasn’t yet been re- solved. (Sources: Gibbs, James A. Tillamook Light. Portland: Binford, 1979; Noble, Dennis. Lighthouses & Keepers: The U.S. Lighthouse Service and its Leg- acy. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2014; Portland Morning Oregonian: 22, 24 and 25 Oct. 1934) Enjoy the fall apple harvest, and reap health benefi ts BY JOEL FURHMAN, MD For the Sentinel C risp, juicy apples are a fall tradition. Take advantage of the bountiful selection of ap- ples available this time of year. There are hundreds of variet- ies to sample. They range from red to yellow to green, crunchy $ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM 116 N. Sixth Street · P.O. Box 35 · Cottage Grove, OR 97424 ADMINISTRATION: JOHN BARTLETT, Regional Publisher.............................. GARY MANLY, General Manager................942-3325 Ext. 207 • publisher@cgsentinel.com ROBIN REISER, Sales Repersentative...............942-3325 Ext. 203 • robin@cgsentinel.com E. SCURRY ELLIS, Sales Repersentative......... 942-3325 Ext. 213 • esellis@cgsentinel.com SPORTS DEPARTMENT: SAM WRIGHT, Sports Editor...................942-3325 Ext. 204 • sports@cgsentinel.com CUSTOMER SERVICE CARLA WILLIAMS, Office Manager.................942-3325 Ext. 201 • billing@cgsentinel.com LEGALS.............................................................942-3325 Ext. 200 • legals@cgsentinel.com NEWS DEPARTMENT: JON STINNETT, Editor......................................942-3325 Ext. 212 • cgnews@cgsentinel.com GRAPHICS: RON ANNIS, Graphics Manager (USP 133880) to tender, sweet to tart and simple to complex. Apples contain a wide vari- ety of phy- tochemi- cals, many of which have been found to have strong antioxidant activ- ity. They are particularly high in quercetin, a fl avonoid anti- oxidant. Epidemiological stud- ies have linked the consumption of apples with reduced risk of some cancers, cardiovascular disease, asthma, diabetes and obesity. Not only can eating an apple a day help keep the doctor away, an apple a day might keep the pounds away too; adding ap- ples to the diet has been shown to enhance weight loss. To op- timize phytochemical content, it is important to eat the pigment- rich apple skin. Choose whole, organic apples over applesauce or apple juice. Apples are also a rich source of pectin, a type of soluble fi ber that is found in plant cell walls and tissues. This soluble fi ber works to lower cholesterol by reducing the amount that is ab- sorbed in the intestines. Studies have shown that the pectin in apples interacts with other apple phytonutrients to achieve an even greater reduction in cho- lesterol. Researchers have also discovered that apples can boost intestinal health by increasing the numbers of good gut bacte- ria which feed on apple pectin. Portable and easy to pack, apples are great to include in your on-the-go meals. For an easy dessert, enjoy them baked with a sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg. I like to dice an apple, toss it with baby greens, some chickpeas, maybe a handful of walnuts or pumpkin seeds and then top it off with a fl avored vinegar or perhaps a nut/seed- based dressing. Experiment with the many different varieties of apples to discover which ones are your favorites. Have fun seeking out your local organic apple grow- ers, farm stands and farmers markets and look for different types of interesting apples. They do not have to look perfect. The smaller and more imperfect they look, the better they taste. If you go apple picking and get lots of them, don’t worry; you can store them for several months. Just wrap each apple in a pa- per towel to prevent them from touching each other and store in a closed cardboard box in a cool place such as the basement or garage. Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New York Times best-selling author and a family physician special- izing in lifestyle and nutritional medicine. His newest book, The End of Dieting, debunks the fake “science” of popular fad diets and offers an alternative to di- eting that leads to permanent weight loss and excellent health. Visit his informative website at DrFuhrman.com. Submit your questions and comments about this column directly to news- questions@drfuhrman.com. The full reference list for this article can be found at DrFuhrman. com. Subscription Mail Rates in Lane and Portions of Douglas Counties: Ten Weeks ............................................. $9.10 One year ..............................................$36.15 e-Edition year .......................................$36.00 Rates in all other areas of United States: Ten Weeks $11.70; one year, $46.35, e-Edition $43.00. In foreign countries, postage extra. No subscription for less than Ten Weeks. 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