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4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL September 28, 2016 O PINION Offbeat Oregon History Former Albany newsman saved Crater Lake for a state park BY FINN J.D. JOHN For the Sentinel I n Oregon, there’s one place where you’re allowed to fi sh for free — and you’ve got a former Al- bany newspaper owner to thank for that. It’s in Oregon’s famous Crater Lake where you can wet a line with- out paying The Man. Yet very few people ever do, because the lake is one of the largest bodies of water in the state — not in terms of surface area, of course, but it’s so deep it holds an enormous amount of water — and the fi sh colony isn’t big. It’s free because the fi sh aren’t ac- tually supposed to be there. Crater Lake never had fi sh in it before, and that’s part of why its water is so clear and brilliantly blue. So how did the fi sh get there? Well, that gets back to the newspaper man. His friends called him Will Steel, but when he founded the Albany Herald in 1880, his name was listed as Wil- liam Gladstone Steel. Steel was originally from Ohio, where his family participated in the Underground Railroad before the Civil War; his family later moved to Portland, and he graduated from high school there in 1873. Seven years later, Steel went into the newspaper business, founding the Albany Herald as a Republican chal- lenger to the town’s dominant news- paper, the States Rights Democrat. The Herald would soldier on for half a century before being absorbed into its rival to form today’s Albany Democrat-Herald; but its founder didn’t stick with it nearly that long. By 1885 he was back up in Portland working as superintendent of mail carriers, a job secured for him by his brother, who had the plum political- patronage job of Postmaster there. In that summer, Steel took a va- cation from his job to make his fi rst journey to Crater Lake. He took a friend with him, and by chance met up with two other pilgrims, including Capt. Clarence Dutton of the U.S. Geological Survey – who would in later years be probably his most valu- able ally in the fi ght to preserve the lake. Upon his return, Steel soon found that he no longer had a job with the Post Offi ce. After 25 years of Repub- lican dominance, the White House had been won by Democrat Grover Cleveland, and political plums like the Postmastership of Portland were not to be left in the hands of Republi- cans. The Steel Brothers were out. But for Will, the timing couldn’t have been better. Suddenly at loose ends, he was free to act on the power- ful feelings his visit to the lake had inspired. Back east he raced to Wash- ington, D.C., where, with Dutton’s support, he convinced the president who’d fi red him shortly before to block settlement in the area until it could be surveyed. Then Steel re- turned to Portland, hired a survey crew and had three boats built and hauled to the lake, where they fl oated out on the water to take soundings. Steel found he hadn’t brought enough line. He suggested that the lake might in fact be bottomless. Fi- nally, with more line, the crew found the deepest part — at just shy of 2,000 feet. After getting Steel’s report, Con- gress introduced a bill to preserve the lake and 36 square miles of the surrounding terrain as a national park — and the fi ght was on. There were a lot of trees on those 36 square miles, and several companies wanted to turn those trees into money. There was also plenty of opportunity to run sheep on the land, particularly in the eastern part, and the grazing interests were if anything more intransigent than the timber seekers. Steel fought tirelessly for his park. Realizing that outdoorsmen (yes, men — remember, this was the late 1880s) could help his cause, Steel de- cided to stock the lake with trout. So he offered some kids in Rogue River a dime for each minnow they caught. They brought him 600. A very wor- ried (and out-of-pocket) Steel asked them what they wanted for the lot, and they requested four bits. Re- lieved, Steel gave them each a buck and took the minnows 45 miles to the lake. At each stream, he stopped to freshen the water, but most of them were dead by the time he got to the lake. Still, 37 of the original 600 survived to initiate the present-day problem there – although most of the fi sh in the lake today are descendants of the tens of thousands of hatchery fi ngerlings with which the lake was stocked in the early 1900s. Steel also, during that time, found- ed the Oregon Alpine Club — a di- verse outfi t composed of campers and outdoorspeople of all sorts — possi- bly with the same idea in mind: More appreciators of nature meant more support for his lake. A few years later, he organized the state’s famous Mazama Club, open only to people who’d climbed Mount Hood. Finally, after a 17-year fi ght with the timber and grazing interests in Congress, Steel saw his dream real- ized. In 1902, Congress offi cially made Crater Lake the nation’s fi fth national park. By that time, Steel’s was the name most associated with the park. With- out his efforts, it almost certainly would not have happened; and when he started styling himself the “father of Crater Lake” no one objected. But it wasn’t all roses and laurels and victory laps. When the park was created, the government passed over Steel and named William Arendt, a rancher from Klamath Falls, to the Please see OFFBEAT, Page 11A LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Swinging bridge outrage dition. The obvious question is where the original report and recommendation was sitting for the past 14 years? In the private sector this negligence wouldn’t be tolerated! But hey, we are talking about our own city government. The obvious people who should know are: the City Manager, the Director of Pub- lic Works and the City Engineer. Just makes sense, right? We as community members are owed an explanation regarding what hap- pened and who is responsible for this fi asco. Let’s hope that the involved people take full responsibility in the name of transparency. If not, then they should start looking for another job. Meanwhile, the city management may be interested in purchasing anoth- er golf course? CONTACT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS Phone: (541) 682-4203 Fax: (541) 682-4616 United States House of Representatives: Oregon State House of Representatives: Cottage Grove City Hall: 942-5501. www.cottagegrove.org/ Rep. Cedric Hayden (REP) District: 007 900 Court Street NE Suite H-288 Salem, OR 97301 Phone: (503) 986-1407 Fax: (503) 986-1130 Email: rep.cedrichayden@state.or.us Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (DEM) District: 004 United States House of Representa- tives 2134 Rayburn House Offi ce Building Washington, DC 20515-0001 Phone: (202) 225-6416 Fax: (202) 225-0032 Email: http://www.house.gov/formde- fazio/contact.html According to the recent Sentinel re- porting, the City was informed in 2002 by OBEC that repairs to the swinging bridge should be done as soon as pos- sible. That’s 14 years ago, folks! Noth- ing was done. Then, again on Sept. 14 of this year, the same consulting fi rm stated that the bridge is in critical con- Cottage Grove Mayor Tom Munroe: 942-5501. Cottage Grove City Councilors: George Zajic Cottage Grove United States Senate: Mike Fleck, At Large: 942-5501 Oregon State Senate: Kenneth Michael Roberts, At Large: 942-5501 Jake Boone, Ward 1: 653-7413 Jeff Gowing, Ward 2: 942-1900 Garland Burback, Ward 3: 942-4800 Sen. Floyd Prozanski (DEM) District: 004 900 Court Street NE Suite S-319 Salem, OR 97301-0001 Phone: (503) 986-1704 Fax: (503) 986-1080 Email: sen.fl oydprozanski@state.or.us Sen. Ron Wyden (DEM) District: 0S1 United States Senate 230 Dirksen Senate Offi ce Building Washington, DC 20510-0001 Phone: (202) 224-5244 Fax: (202) 228-2717 Email: http://wyden.senate.gov/con- tact/ Amy Slay, Ward 4: 942-5501 Governor: Lane County Commissioners: Faye Stewart, East Lane Commis- sioner Lane County Public Service Building 125 East 8th Street Eugene, OR 97401 Kate Brown 160 State Capitol 900 Court Street Salem, Oregon 97301-4047 Phone: (503) 378-4582 Fax: (503) 378-6827 Sen. Jeff Merkley (DEM) District: 0S2 United States Senate 404 Russell Senate Offi ce Building Washington, DC 20510-0001 Phone: (202) 224-3753 Fax: (202) 228-3997 Email: http://jmerkley.senate.gov/web- form.htm Eat nutrient-rich apples this fall BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD For the Sentinel C risp, juicy apples are a fall tradition. Take advan- tage of the bountiful selection $ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM 116 N. Sixth Street · P.O. Box 35 · Cottage Grove, OR 97424 ADMINISTRATION: JOHN BARTLETT, Regional Publisher.............................. 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In foreign countries, postage extra. No subscription for less than Ten Weeks. Subscription rates are subject to change upon 30 days’ notice. All subscritptions must be paid prior to beginning the subscription and are non-refundable. Periodicals postage paid at Cottage Grove, Oregon. Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424. Local Mail Service: If you don’t receive your Cottage Grove Sentinel on the Wednesday of publication, please let us know. Call 942-3325 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Advertising ownership: All advertising copy and illustrations prepared by the Cottage Grove Sentinel become the property of the Cottage Grove Sentinel and may not be reproduced for any other use without explicit written prior approval. Copyright Notice: Entire contents ©2015 Cottage Grove Sentinel. of apples available this time of year. There are hundreds of varieties to sample. They range from red to yellow to green, crunchy to ten- der, sweet to tart and simple to complex. Apples contain a wide vari- ety of phytochemicals, many of which have been found to have strong antioxidant activity. They are particularly high in querce- tin, a fl avonoid antioxidant. Epi- demiological studies 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 apples to the diet has been shown to enhance weight loss. To optimize phyto- chemical content, it is important to eat the pigment-rich apple skin, not just the fl esh. Choose whole, organic apples over ap- plesauce 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 healthy gut bac- teria that 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 fl avored vin- egar or perhaps a dressing made from nuts and seeds. 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 board certifi ed family physician specializing in life- style and nutritional medicine. Visit his informative website at DrFuhrman.com. Submit your questions and comments about this column directly to news- questions@drfuhrman.com. Letters to the Editor policy The Cottage Grove Sentinel receives many letters to the editor. In order to ensure that your letter will be printed, letters must be under 300 words and submitted by Friday at 5 p.m. Letters must be signed and must include an address, city and phone number or e-mail address for verifi cation purposes. No anonymous letters will be printed. Letters must be of interest to local readers. Personal attacks and name calling in response to letters are uncalled for and unnecessary. If you would like to submit an opinion piece, Another View must be no longer than 600 words. To avoid transcription errors, the Sentinel would prefer editorial and news content be sent electronically via email or electronic media. Hand written submissions will be accepted, but we may need to call to verify spelling, which could delay the publishing of the submission.
