COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL April 20, 2016
Cottage Grove Retrospective
A look back at Sentinel stories from 70 years ago
April 25, 1946
Engineers will bid on Dorena Dam
Army Engineers will open
bids here on May 14 for a ma-
jor contract in connection with
Dorena dam on the Row river
in Lane County which will
involve railroad and highway
relocation and other work esti-
mated to cost in the neighbor-
hood of one million dollars.
In announcing the pending
contract, which is the fi rst large
construction project of the en-
gineers since the war ended,
Colonel O.E Walsh, district en-
gineer, pointed out that Dorena
is one of the seven proposed
dams in the Willamette Val-
ley fl ood control project. Two
of the dams, Cottage Grove
and Fern Ridge, are already in
place.
Preliminary work at Dorena
dam was started prior to the
war, under contract to E.C. Hall
and McNutt Brothers, Eugene,
but the contract was cancelled
and the work halted.
The present contract will in-
volve relocation of the Oregon
Pacifi c and Eastern railroad,
market road No. 30 and the
Cottage Grove municipal water
supply line leading from a res-
ervoir in the vicinity of Dorena.
It will also include construc-
tion of a county road on the
left bank of the stream and
construction of a borrow area
drainage system. The building
of one highway bridge and two
railroad spans is included in
the relocation work.
Walter A. Schwarz, resident
engineer at Eugene, will be
immediately in charge of the
project. A contract for erect-
ing an engineers’ offi ce build-
ing and other preliminary work
was awarded the fi rst of April
to Tauf Charneski, Leaburg,
and this contract is now under-
way.
POLICE BLOTTER
April 11
Patrol Request, Veterans
Park
A complainant came to the
front counter to request patrols
of the park due to the transient
population congregating and
drinking in the park every day
and making it uncomfortable
for others to use.
April 12
Suspicious Subject, Village
Dr.
A caller advised there is a male
wearing a green jacket carrying
Abandoned Vehicle/Illegal
Parking
A total of 10 vehicles were
Offbeat Oregon History
Famous Jefferson ‘secession’ was largely
a publicity stunt
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
M
ost Oregonians know
about the State of Jef-
ferson — in general concept, at
least: a small group of Southern
Oregon people got together in
1941 to proclaim a new state,
Marine Second Lieutenant
Carlton Woodard, Marine Garri-
son Forces, Pearl Harbor, Navy
Yard, saw his three-month-old
baby, Kim, for the fi rst time
when he met his family at Pier
11, Honolulu.
Mrs. Woodard, whose par-
ents, Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Miller,
live at 258 19th street, Santa
Monica, California, has been re-
siding at that address. Lieuten-
ant Woodard, formerly of Cot-
tage Grove, had not seen Mrs.
Woodard since last July. They
live in the Navy Housing Proj-
ect here.
Cottage Grove Police Department 24-Hour Anonymous Tip Line: 767-0504
a white plastic bag, and that he
is talking to himself and fl ailing
his arms all over.
Suspicious Conditions,
Bohemia Park
A reporting person advised that
a young male (around 12) was
found hiding in the play struc-
ture at the location. He advised
the reporting person that he
didn’t want to go to school be-
cause he was being picked on.
An offi cer located the subject
and was transported to Lincoln
Middle School and released to
the staff.
Carlton Woodard Family
made up of southwest Oregon
and northwest California, called
Jefferson; just as they got start-
ed, the Japanese attacked Pearl
Harbor; and the idea just never
got off the ground.
All of which is true enough.
But it barely touches the real
story of Jefferson — and it’s not
cited within an hour for be-
ing parked illegally. Six of
the vehicles were marked as
abandoned and four of them
were moved. Four others were
cited for parking illegally, three
of which were parked in the
wrong direction on the curb.
A few hours later, another
vehicle was moved.
April 15
Agency Assist, N 16 St.
A complainant requested as-
sistance with contacting the
owner of a vehicle located
in a ditch on Shoreview near
milepost 4. Police determined
even the most interesting part.
The fact is, the 1941 move
for statehood was mostly a pub-
licity stunt. It was crafted over
drinks by two guys who seem
right out of central casting for
a Hollywood movie — a high-
rolling, back-slapping business
promoter and a hard-drinking,
wildly imaginative newspaper
man.
The newsman actually won a
Pulitzer prize for his part in the
affair. His name was Stanton
Delaplane; he wrote for the San
Francisco Chronicle.
that the owner was aware of the
vehicle’s status.
Identity Theft, Harvey
A caller advised that her iden-
tity was being used for several
different credit carrd applica-
tions and reported a burglary on
Oct. 15 and that her personal
information was taken at the
time. She was in possession of
the suspect’s email address.
Theft attempt, Row River Rd.
A reporting person at the
station wanted to report an
attempted fraudulent use of his
credit card. The use was unsuc-
cessful and has been cancelled.
The business promoter was
a stocky, dynamic man named
Gilbert E. Gable, onetime dino-
saur egg hunter, movie-maker,
NBC radio-show star and (he
claimed) Navajo Indian chief.
In 1941, he was mayor of the
tiny Oregon town of Port Orford
and, for a brief and shining mo-
ment, governor of the State of
Jefferson.
The promoter
Gilbert Elledy Gable was
born in Pennsylvania in the late
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THURSDAY April 21
FRIDAY April 22
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Poss. Showers
SATURDAY April 23
SUNDAY April 24
43° | 56°
49° | 56°
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State Farm Bank, F.S.B.,
Bloomington, IL
Police Dept.
TASER training
The Police Department
conducted TASER re-certifi -
cation training on Thursday,
April 14.
Offi cers are now equipped
with the TASER X26P
conducted energy weapons.
In addition to training in the
proper use of the device, of-
fi cers also got a legal update
on TASER use-of-force court
decisions and policy direc-
tives.
ODFW launches online
bat reporting site
W
ith the recent confi r-
mation of White-Nose
Syndrome (WNS) in a little
brown bat in Washington State,
ODFW activated an online bat
reporting website. Anyone fi nd-
ing a dead bat or who observes
bats fl ying during the day or dur-
ing freezing weather is asked to
report this via the online site or
call the ODFW Wildlife Health
Hotline at 866-968-2600.
ODFW veterinarian Colin
Gillin said WNS is a fungal dis-
ease occurring in hibernating
bats that has killed more than six
million bats since 2006 when it
was discovered in New York.
This disease quickly spread
to 28 states and fi ve Canadian
provinces. Eastern Minnesota
and eastern Nebraska were the
farthest west that WNS was de-
tected before it made an appar-
ent 1,300 mile geographic leap
to Washington.
WNS could potentially trans-
mit to Oregon Conservation
Strategy species, and it could
decimate populations of com-
mon bat species, putting them
in conservation concern.
The USFWS leads a national
WNS response effort, working
with state and federal partners
to survey for the disease.
Cave surveys by ODFW and
federal partners over the last
two years show no evidence
presently of WNS in Oregon’s
bat population. ODFW will
continue intensive surveillance,
education and outreach to help
protect this important group of
animals in Oregon.
Visit
www.whitenosesyn-
drome.org to follow the latest
news, research and resources.
1880s. Although he never went
to college, he quickly found his
way into public relations and
spent nine years as a publicity
man for Theodore Vail’s Bell
Telephone Company. During
this time, Bell transitioned from
the most hated company in the
nation to one of the most trust-
ed, publicly committed to using
its market dominance to bring
telephone service to the remot-
est outposts of America. That
story is more than we can get
into in this article, but it’s one
of history’s greatest public-rela-
tions triumphs. And Gable was
a part of it — although I have
been unable to learn how big a
role he played.
lost ancient Indian village, and
claimed to have been made an
honorary chief of the Navajo
people — a claim he backed up
with a certifi cate “written in hu-
man blood.” He made a number
of dinosaur-hunting expeditions
to the Painted Desert area, until
in 1929, the governor of Ari-
zona ordered police to prevent
“Dr. Gable” from removing any
more fossils or artifacts.
He also made movies. In
1927, as vice-president of Bray
Motion Pictures, he won public-
ity for the silent movie “Men-
ace” by bringing a fi lm crew
down the wild Colorado River
on a boat through the Grand
Canyon, a feat that was breath-
lessly described in the papers as
fraught with deadly peril.
The Adventurer
The phone business must
have been good to him, though,
because after the war Gable be-
came an explorer and amateur
paleontologist. He discovered
a vast assortment of dinosaur
tracks in Arizona, as well as a
The radio star
By the early 1930s, Gable
had gotten involved in the new
world of radio broadcasting
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Visitors to Portland are
advised that they may see
a TriMet bus or Max train
with a big covered bridge
saying, “Go Cottage Grove.”
The City said the campaign
is a full media blitz of the
Portland and Eugene markets
sponsored by Travel Lane
County, Eugene Cascades
and Coast for Cottage Grove,
Florence, McKenzie River
and Oakridge. The cam-
paign includes the wrapped
buses and trains (includ-
ing a wrapped LTD bus), a
Youtube Video (which can
be viewed at: https://youtu.
be/XfG145Em1to), Facebook
advertisements, television
ads, radio spots and even ads
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Poss. Showers
%
2.00
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Grove
From the
City's Friday
Update
weather forecast
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