4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL February 17, 2016
O PINION
New arrivals can
expect Oregon's
complexities
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
O
regon is tops once again.
For the third straight year,
United Van Lines’ Annual National
Movers Study has named Oregon the
“Top Moving Destination” in Amer-
ica, and those of us who already
call this great state home are left to
ponder the implications of all those
inbound travelers and wonder just
what’s sending them our way.
According to the study, Oregon is
the top moving destination of 2015,
with 69 percent of moves to and
from the state being inbound. Wash-
ington State found itself at No. 10 on
the list with 56 percent of its moves
inbound.
“This year’s data refl ects longer-
term trends of people moving to the
Pacifi c West, where cities such as
Portland and Seattle are seeing the
combination of a boom in the tech-
nology and creative marketing indus-
try, as well as a growing ‘want’ for
outdoor activity and green space,”
said Michael Stoll, economist, pro-
fessor and chair of the Department
of Public Policy at the University of
California, Los Angeles. “The aging
Boomer population is driving reloca-
tion from the Northeast and Midwest
to the West and South, as more and
more people retire to warmer re-
gions.”
Of course, life in Oregon is about
more than just a technology boom
and a love of the great outdoors,
and it was eye-opening last week to
read another article, this one released
by the Oregonian last month, that
detailed the “10 legit reasons you
shouldn’t move to Oregon.” Among
the reasons for opting for another
locale besides the Beaver State were
high rent, expensive and hard-to-fi nd
houses, a high cost of living, lots of
rain and a low ranking in education
compared to the rest of the nation
(No. 38 nationwide, according to a
recent study).
Additionally, Lane County’s Com-
munity Health Needs Assessment, un-
veiled before crowds in Eugene, Cot-
tage Grove and Florence last week,
listed plenty of challenges to healthy
living to go along with the opportu-
nities that living here provides. In a
survey of 2295 respondents, many
stated that the area’s availability of
parks and recreational/natural areas,
its clean environment and strong
sense of community and engagement
were what they liked most about life
in Lane County, while its biggest
problems were listed as alcohol and
drug abuse, lack of affordable hous-
ing and homelessness, poverty and
lack of access to healthcare.
Taken together, these facts de-
scribe a state where the intangibles
represented by amazing outdoor and
cultural opportunities can collide
head-on with life’s often darker re-
alities.
As a quintessential timber town
and a wonderfully typical small
community, Cottage Grove show-
cases all the promises and pitfalls
described above, and in the 10-plus
years since relocating here myself
and immersing myself in the area’s
happenings, I’ve witnessed many of
its lows, which seem at times to more
than rival its highs.
I’ve watched friends struggle to
fi nd a place to live that they can af-
ford and reluctantly move elsewhere.
I’ve seen many in this community
succumb to the destructive powers
of addiction and others choose to
end their lives in response to circum-
stances that those who love them are
left to struggle to comprehend. As
editor of this small town’s newspa-
per, I’ve worked to document many
of its ups and downs, all the while
experiencing my own personal trials
and triumphs.
But I’ve also crested the top of
a mountain trail and found myself
moved immediately to tears by the
scenery unfolding before me. I’ve
pulled and tugged at a rope until
a pot full of Dungeness crabs the
size of dinner plates emerges from
the murky depths. I’ve played in
tide pools with a fascinated toddler,
walked from one park to another and
back home again in a span of a few
city blocks and pulled produce from
a backyard garden teeming with tast-
iness. It has also been my privilege
to enjoy a sense of community and
closeness that many will never expe-
rience, and I have often walked down
city streets where just about every-
body knows my name (and warmly
greets me with it). And I've watched
a community surround and care for
its own, time and time again.
Perhaps it’s this contrast that con-
tinues to offer its intrigue to a life in
Oregon. Maybe it mirrors the duality
of the great-big outdoors itself — that
the natural world can be at once awe-
inspiring and terrifying, can give as
quickly and as effortlessly as it takes
away. The simple lesson could be
that living a healthy and inspired hu-
man life can be both wondrous and
perplexingly diffi cult anywhere, and
often within the span of a few mere
minutes. And it seems clear that the
human institutions that help make
life in Oregon possible can do more
to nurture the positive forces in all its
people, be they the fi fth-generation
sons and daughters of its early pio-
neers or its newest arrivals.
Whatever the lesson, if there is one,
it’s clear that in the coming months,
more movers will undoubtedly
choose Oregon as their new home,
and some will even fi nd themselves
here, in Cottage Grove, for reasons
they may just be beginning to under-
stand. Over time, they will confront
their own challenges as they shape
their very own Oregon adventure.
Here’s hoping that the opportunities
and the community they encounter
here will far outweigh any hardship
that life may bring.
Offbeat Oregon History
Doomed schooner’s crew locked in race
against fi ery death
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
T
he three-masted 279-ton schooner
Challenger was in horrible shape
when Captain Harriman of the Columbia
River Lightship spotted her, pounding
through the seas toward the madly turbu-
lent bar on the stormy afternoon of Nov.
5, 1904. Her main sails hung in rags from
the yardarms, torn to strips by the violent
winds, and yet the crew made no attempt
to furl the remaining canvas. Everything
about the ship bespoke a desperate haste,
and she was fl ying distress fl ags.
The following morning, there was no
sign of the schooner; everyone assumed
the powerful storms had driven her north-
ward. Still, the captain of the bar tug Ta-
toosh managed to cross the bar during
a fortuitously timed lull in the storm to
meet up with Harriman. (The Tatoosh,
by the way, was the same tug that would,
seven years later, win renown for its dar-
ing rescue of 49 people aboard a steam
schooner stranded on Peacock Spit.)
They soon fi gured out what the trouble
was. They couldn’t know for sure, but it
all added up. The ship had obviously
been fi ghting her way through some ter-
ribly heavy weather, the kind of weather
that can cause timbers to work loose and
leaks to spring in hulls. And the Chal-
lenger was carrying a load of unslaked
lime.
Unslaked lime was a very dangerous
cargo to have on board in a bad storm.
Everything was fi ne until the stuff got
wet; then it would react with the water
in a powerful exothermic chemical reac-
tion, releasing so much heat that it would
set the nearby woodwork ablaze. And
because it was water that was causing
the problem in the fi rst place, the usual
techniques of shipboard fi refi ghting
would only make things worse.
In a ship full of unslaked lime whose
cargo had gotten really wet, there was
only one thing to do: Make for shore with
all possible speed, get the crew safely off
the ship, and fl ood the hold — that is,
scuttle the ship in shallow water so that
all the lime can slake at once, and hope
to refl oat it later and make repairs.
Of course, that can only be done if
it’s actually possible to bring the burn-
ing ship into a river or estuary — some-
thing that’s notoriously hard to do off the
Oregon and Washington coast during a
heavy gale.
As the Oregon mariners soon learned,
their fears were absolutely correct. The
Challenger had put to sea on Oct. 24,
carrying 3,800 barrels of Roche Harbor
lime and 150,000 board feet of lumber
— essentially, tinder and kindling for the
slow-burning oceangoing fi re that was to
come.
At fi rst, though, there was no sign of
trouble. After a four-day spell of dead
calm in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the
wind kicked up — a steady, pleasant
breeze out of the northeast — perfect for
making rapid headway toward the ves-
sel’s destination of San Francisco. And
for 12 hours after rounding Cape Flat-
tery, the ship made great time, getting al-
most all the way to the Columbia River.
But then the wind shifted to the south-
west and blew up into a powerful gale,
almost a hurricane. The little ship la-
bored valiantly, tacking into the teeth
of the hurricane wind, making precious
little headway and being worked over
hard by the weather — until Nov. 4,
when Captain H. Nelson made a chilling
discovery:
“I discovered smoke issuing from the
cabin,” he told the Portland Morning Or-
egonian. “Then I knew the ship was on
fi re. I crowded on all sail to make port,
and lost much canvas.”
This discovery happened just off the
northeast corner of Oregon, shortly after
the ship had passed the mouth of the Co-
lumbia. Captain Nelson brought the ship
about immediately and prepared to race
northward, looking for a port he could
bring his burning ship into.
“At noon on the Fourth, I was at Til-
lamook Rock, but could not get in be-
cause of the mountainous seas,” Nelson
recounted. “Then I steered for the Co-
lumbia River. By this time, no man could
stand at the wheel because of smoke and
fumes from the lime. I signaled for a
Columbia River tug, but the bar was too
rough for one to come out.”
Every minute counted in the Challeng-
er’s race against time. The fi re, starved
for oxygen deep in the ship’s sealed hold,
was burning slow and hot, like the fi re
in a good woodstove. At any moment,
though, it could break through the ship’s
deck, letting oxygen pour in with the aid
of the roaring wind to fan the smoldering
fl ames beneath. When that happened, the
crew would have a very short period of
time
Please see OFFBEAT, Page 10A
Should you try going gluten-free to lose weight?
BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD
For the Sentinel
P
opular diet books are
blaming wheat (or gluten,
which is the major protein in
wheat) for the epidemic of obe-
sity. First it was low-fat, then
low-carb, and most recently
gluten-free diets have been pro-
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
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moted as the “magic bullet” for
weight loss.
Wheat has been blamed for
obesity because there has been
an increase in wheat fl our prod-
ucts concomitant with the rise in
obesity over the past 40 years.
However, it is clear that one
food alone cannot explain or be
responsible for the rise in obe-
sity.
There has been a huge upsurge
in processed foods and sugary
drinks, progressively increasing
portion sizes, and increasing in-
activity. All of the blame can’t
be placed on a single type of
grain. Refi ned wheat fl our is the
base of many low-nutrient pro-
cessed foods. However, a glu-
ten-free diet can be just as high
in calories and low in vitamins,
minerals and phytochemicals as
the standard American diet, and,
therefore, just as weight gain-
promoting. There is no evidence
that specifi cally implicates
gluten in weight gain, or that
removing gluten from the diet
would accelerate weight loss.
Despite the popularity of the
gluten-free diet trend, no studies
have ever been published show-
ing that removing gluten helps
to reduce body weight.
In order to lose weight, you
need to eat more micronutrient-
rich foods and remove highly
processed foods from the equa-
tion; and that does mean white
fl our and sugar. An enhanced
nutrient-to-calorie ratio is the
key: eat more high-nutrient food
and less low-nutrient food, and
you will take in fewer calories
but feel more satiated. If you
were to follow a gluten-free
diet based on replacing gluten-
containing processed foods like
pasta, bread and baked goods
with vegetables, beans, intact
whole grains and fruit, which
are high in nutrients and low in
calories (and happen to be glu-
ten-free), you would most likely
lose weight, but not because you
cut out wheat or gluten. Gluten-
free pasta, bread and cookies
will not help you lose weight;
these foods are calorie-dense,
have added sugars and oils, and
are low in nutrients. Currently,
gluten-free processed foods are
perceived to be healthier, but
in most cases they are still junk
foods, just like their low-fat and
low-carb predecessors.
Weight gain is not the only
health problem that wheat (or
gluten) has been blamed for.
There are claims that wheat
raises blood glucose more than
sugar, that gluten is addictive
and causes uncontrollable over-
eating, and even that wheat and
other grains cause Alzheimer’s
disease. Again, there is no evi-
dence that implicates gluten in
particular, but there is substan-
tial evidence implicating a low-
nutrient diet.
Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New
York Times best-selling author
and a fam-
ily physi-
cian spe-
cializing
in lifestyle
and
nu-
tritional
medicine.
Visit his in-
formative
website at DrFuhrman.com.
Submit your questions and
comments about this column
directly to newsquestions@
drfuhrman.com.
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