4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL December 23, 2015
O PINION
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Availability's an
issue
for those trying to break the ad-
diction/habit. How do we pre-
vent people from getting the ad-
diction/habit in the fi rst place?
In the Dec. 16 issue there was
an article re: Safe Haven hoping
to create a sober living facility
in the area. I wish them well.
But we all need to take a hard
look at the source of the prob-
lem — the easy availability, and
what can be done about that.
Consider how many outlets
in Cottage Grove and the sur-
rounding area have some type
of alcohol or other mind-alter-
ing substance available.
Several restaurants
The big box stores
The liquor store
Several taverns
Many corner markets
The new “brew houses”
Vineyards
Lodges
Several marijuana dispensa-
ries
How many places to get alco-
hol and drugs do we need? The
population inside city limits is
just under 10,000. Consider-
ing the surrounding area, we
probably serve 25,000-30,000
in population. Why does our
population drive the demand for
so many outlets for alcohol?
How many AA meetings oc-
cur in Cottage Grove?
On one hand, we try to help
people stop the abuse of too
much alcohol, and on the other
hand, we make it extremely
easy to acquire.
If Safe Haven succeeds, there
will be a safe place and support
Janetta Overholser
Cottage Grove
Row River Trail
‘improvements’
While cycling into town on
Monday, Dec. 14 on the Row
River Trail, I was dismayed to
fi nd the new tunnel under Row
River Road to be fl ooded by
over a foot of water. Ever since
the tunnel was fi rst proposed, I
was concerned about the poten-
tial for fl ooding. The very fi rst
thing I did when the tunnel was
opened was to look at how it
was drained. To me it seemed
obvious that the drainage would
be inadequate. Now that it has
indeed fl ooded I am left won-
dering where all this water is
going to go and how long it may
take for the tunnel to be pass-
able again.
In addition to this problem is
the issue of the automatic sen-
sors at the road crossings, which
are intended to trigger fl ashing
crosswalk signs to alert oncom-
ing motorists of pedestrians
and/or cyclists in the roadway.
In the hundred or so times I have
cycled passed these sensors they
have worked on only six occa-
sions (four of those times I was
pulling a trailer). Even though
they beep at me as I pass by,
they do not trigger the fl ashing
crosswalk signs, and no motor-
ists are alerted of my presence.
Why this is I do not know, per-
haps I do not pass these sensors
at a slow enough speed?
I have been commuting back
and forth on the Row River Trail
three to fi ve times a week since
2003. In those 13 years, which
I calculate to roughly 5000
crossings at each location, I
have never had an incident with
a motorist. Even though “im-
provements” have been made, I
still follow the guidance of my
mother, which is to look both
ways — twice — before cross-
ing the road.
James Taylor
Cottage Grove
A welcome shot of
joy
The Sentinel deserves con-
gratulations for the photo page
in the Dec. 16 issue.
As the world situation be-
comes darker and our own
country sinking into more con-
fusion, foolishness and hate, we
have proof that all is not lost. It
has been revealed to our town
that Jim Kness is the real Santa
Claus.
At the Bookmine cultural cen-
ter, coffee shop, bookstore and a
source of free condoms, a regu-
lar round of the Grove’s more
rational citizens gather almost
daily to discuss the world situa-
tion and possible courses of ac-
tion that can be taken locally to
Offbeat Oregon History
Collection of “history hoarder” is a
priceless treasure today
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
I
f you were to start asking local
historians, asking them who the
most infl uential Oregon historians of
the 19th century were, there would be
several names you would hear over and
over.
You’d hear Frances Fuller Victor
mentioned the most; the “Mother of Or-
egon History” is certainly the most fa-
mous, despite Hubert Howe Bancroft’s
efforts to pass off her work as his own.
And you might hear a mention or two
of Oregonian editor Harvey Scott — al-
though really, Scott was more of a pro-
pagandist than a historian, and would
never be caught passing on a tale that
refl ected poorly on the state or contra-
dicted the heroic “Oregon story.”
But the name you’d be least likely
to recognize is that of a failed printer,
amateur historian and compulsive col-
lector from Portland: George Henry
Himes.
George Himes is best known as the
curator of the Oregon Historical Soci-
ety, a position he held from 1915 until
his death in 1940. That’s because it was
during that time that it became clear to
anyone interested in state history what
he had done for the state. For decades
he had been, you might say, a hoarder
— but a hoarder with a purpose, and a
hoarder of a very specifi c type of mate-
rial. And he left his hoard as his legacy
to his adopted home state: a massive
collection of things — documents,
books, maps, photographs and physical
artifacts — that forms the foundation
of the Oregon Historical Society’s col-
lections today.
In doing so, Himes helped set a tone
for how history would be done in Or-
egon — a tone that draws as much from
the journalist’s toolkit, and the amateur
antiquarian’s, as it does from the pro-
fessional academic historian’s.
George Henry Himes was born near
Troy, Pennsylvania, in 1844, and emi-
grated on the Oregon Trail nine years
make our world a better place.
The de facto leader of these dis-
cussions is Jim Kness.
With his long lifetime of ex-
perience he does tend to spin a
tale or two. These discussions
tend to be quite serious and it
takes a lot of thought to suss out
the threads of reality. Of course
by then many hours have gone
by and your day is shot. None-
theless, Jim is held with great
respect throughout our unique
town. In fact, he is so unique
that the word cannot be used in
any other context.
Moving right along, on one
later. They settled in the town of Lac-
ey, up in what’s now Washington, and
when he was 17, young George got his
start as an apprentice printer to a news-
paper publisher.
Himes made his way to Portland in
1864 and took a job setting type on the
Portland Morning Oregonian; his hand
set the type in the Oregonian that an-
nounced the assassination of Abraham
Lincoln the following year. This was
probably about the time he adopted his
lifelong habit of historical scrapbook-
ing and collecting, saving clippings
and artifacts of contemporary histori-
cal events — forming the nucleus of
the collection that he would one day
bequeath to OHS.
By 1870, Himes had his own printing
company, which he somewhat unimag-
inatively named “Himes the Printer.”
He’d met and married a woman named
Anna Riggs, and the two of them were
getting started on building a family that
would eventually include 11 children.
But by 1873, Himes was already
worrying about the obscurity that
would soon fall upon the stories of
the pioneers who had braved the Or-
egon Trail 20 years before. As the city
around him grew in size and opulence,
he worried that their stories would be
lost. And, of course, being one of their
of Jim’s ventures into the halls
of wisdom, knowledge and cof-
fee, yielded quite the little joke.
Gail Hoelzle, the decades long
proprietoress of this founda-
tion of Cottage Grove, offered a
warm pullover to Jim. She did
neglect to inform him that this
was no ordinary pullover, but a
Santa suit. As he was putting it
on Mary spilled the beans. We
held our collective apprehensive
breath. We feared that this pil-
lar of conspiracy theories and
overall seriousness would shed
this fi ne wardrobe. To our relief
he was delighted and was proud
number himself, he took that prospect
rather personally.
So with several other Oregon Trail
veterans, he formed the Oregon Pio-
neer Association.
The OPA was more of a fraternal or-
ganization-cum-public-relations outfi t
than a true historical society. Over the
years, it staged parades and banquets,
sponsored lectures and shows, and pub-
lished books and articles, all of which
were at pains to preserve the pioneers’
stories (and, a professional academic
historian might remark, perhaps also
to reshape and mythologize them just
a bit).
But the OPA was, until the Oregon
Historical Society was formed in 1900,
the organization most in control of
the narrative of Oregon history. And,
backed up by Himes’ already-huge-
and-growing collection, it was growing
to resemble a historical society more
and more.
Himes the Printer, during this time,
made a name for himself as a publisher
of Pioneer Association items and other
poorly-selling nuggets of Oregon his-
tory, as well as several volumes of Joa-
quin Miller’s poetry. A lifelong Con-
gregationalist, he was also a hardcore
temperance man; when, in 1874, Fran-
ces Fuller Victor published the story of
W
here does chocolate
come from? A darkly
colored bean – so of course,
unprocessed cacao beans are
brimming with antioxidant nu-
trients. Accordingly, chocolate
consumption has been associ-
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
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ated with
reduced
risk of heart
disease
and stroke.
Cocoa and
dark choco-
late have
been inves-
tigated as
a treatment option for elevated
blood pressure, but only small
decreases in blood pressure
were reported. Similarly, regu-
lar dark chocolate consumption
results in small decreases in
cholesterol levels. Flavonoids
(antioxidants present in choco-
late and many other plant foods)
do indeed provide cardiovascu-
lar protection — high fl avonoid
intake is associated with consid-
erable reductions (up to 45 per-
cent) in the risk of heart disease.
The main point to remember is
that when you eat healthfully
you are eating a large variety of
fl avonoid-rich foods, berries for
example.
Certainly, you can enjoy some
chocolate as a part of a healthful
eating style – but how you enjoy
your chocolate is important. A
milk chocolate bar is roughly
only one-third chocolate and
two-thirds added fat and sugar.
Dark chocolate bars have a
higher cocoa content and less
added sugar, but they also de-
liver a signifi cant load of calo-
ries and saturated fat. A great
way to enjoy chocolate is by
using unsweetened cocoa pow-
der. Most of the fat has been re-
moved, but the chocolate fl avor
and the fl avonoids remain. Add
cocoa powder to smoothies (like
the chocolate cherry smoothie
below), or to blended frozen ba-
nanas or cherries for a healthy
chocolate “ice cream”. Or try
making black bean brownies or
Steve Thoemmes
Cottage Grove
the temperance riots (“The Women’s
War with Whiskey; or, Crusading in
Portland”), Himes was the publisher.
But Himes never was much of a busi-
nessman. As a publisher, his knack for
seeing the signifi cance of historical
events as they happened was a real hin-
drance. Nobody wanted to read “The
History of the Willamette Valley” when
it was published in 1885, because that
history was just a couple dozen years
old and most valley residents already
knew it. Similar bad decisions kept his
business perpetually tottering. And it
didn’t help that the lion’s share of his
labor and time and attention were all
taken up with adding to his collections,
conducting oral-history interviews
with aging pioneers and volunteering
on OPA events.
By 1898, though, it was clear that un-
less OPA was willing to open its mem-
bership to non-pioneers, something
new was needed. So Himes, together
with Oregonian editor Harvey Scott
and University of Oregon professor
Frederic G. Young and others, formed
and incorporated the Oregon Historical
Society — the fi rst of its kind on the
West Coast. (The California Histori-
cal Society claims 1871 as a birth date,
Is chocolate heart healthy?
BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD
For the Sentinel
to wear it. Before this fl eeting
and historic moment passed we
were blessed by the presence
of a photographer. Thus this
unique, priceless and rare col-
lector’s item was presented in
the Sentinel. Folks are encour-
aged to purchase extra copies
and send them to relatives and
friends worldwide to prove that
Cottage Grove continues to be a
beacon of hope and humanity.
muffi ns sweetened with dates or
a healthy chocolate cake with
hidden shredded vegetables.
You can fi nd recipes like these
on the DrFuhrman.com Mem-
ber Center or in my books.
Keep in mind, when you fol-
low a high nutrient eating style
of vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts,
and seeds, the polyphenols in
cocoa are only a trivial amount
of the loads of phytochemicals
provided by your overall health-
promoting diet.
Enjoy your chocolate by mak-
ing delicious treats without add-
ed fats and sugars!
Dr. Fuhrman is the #1 New
York Times bestselling author of
Eat to Live and Super Immuni-
ty, and a board certifi ed family
physician specializing in life-
style and nutritional medicine.
Visit his informative website at
DrFuhrman.com. Submit your
Please see OFFBEAT, Page 10A
Chocolate Cherry
Smoothie (serves
2)
2 ounces organic baby spinach
2 ounces Boston lettuce
1/2 cup unsweetened soy, hemp
or almond milk
1/2 cup pomegranate juice,
cherry juice or cherry pome-
granate juice
1 tablespoon Dr. Fuhrman’s
Cocoa Powder or other natural
cocoa powder, not Dutch pro-
cessed
1 cup frozen cherries
1 banana
1 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons ground fl ax seeds
Instructions: If using a regular
blender, liquefy the spinach
with non-dairy milk and juice.
Add remaining ingredients and
blend about two minutes until
very smooth. If using a high
powered blender, blend all at
once.
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