4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL October 19, 2016
O PINION
For what it's
worth: Thoughts
on Cottage Grove's
mayoral race
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
E
ach election season, the Sentinel fi elds inquiries
about whether or not the newspaper will be en-
dorsing the candidates or measures that will appear on
the ballot, and this fall has been no different.
With each inquiry, I respond that at larger newspapers
and other publications (and indeed, in times of larger
staff sizes at the Sentinel) an editorial board typically
weighs the issues and candidates of the day and col-
lectively determines a newspaper’s stance. These days,
with a thin editorial staff and each member of the Sen-
tinel team tasked with several jobs, it would be next
to impossible to gather a group of staffers together for
such a reason. As such, any endorsement from the Sen-
tinel would, in effect, be a nod from this reporter/editor,
a situation that has in the past made me reticent to offer
my own opinion on our editorial page (it’s problematic,
I’ve believed, to attempt to objectively report the news
on page one, then uncover my own bias on page four.)
That said, I do believe that in my time here, I’ve
amassed a great deal of knowledge and experience with
the topic I’m about to weigh in on now (again, this is
only my opinion) — the 2016 Cottage Grove mayoral
race.
As key contributors to this community, I’ve had count-
less occasions and the honor to interact and converse
with City Councilors Mike Fleck, Jake Boone and Jeff
Gowing on the issues facing Cottage Grove and their
possible solutions. And while I mean no disservice to
the other two candidates and believe that each would
showcase himself as a credit to this community should
he be elected to its highest offi ce, I’m going to tell you
a bit about why I’m excited to support Jake Boone for
Mayor.
In stature and demeanor, Jake Boone is a man that’s
diffi cult to forget. Early on in his public life in Cottage
Grove, it became easy to recognize that Jake is at once
warm and engaging, extremely well spoken and prag-
matic — qualities that have already and will continue
to serve Cottage Grove well, whether or not he’s elected
Mayor in November.
On countless issues that have appeared before the
City Council, it has been obvious that Jake has delved
with great seriousness into the miles of paperwork that
often accompany Council deliberations. He shows up
on Monday evenings with a well thought-out, well
phrased and extremely persuasive viewpoint, and he’s
not afraid to be the only one of seven who holds that
opinion (his recent stance against the three-percent tax
on recreational marijuana bears this out.) Still, he’s not
against changing his mind when new evidence in the
Council chambers makes it necessary, nor is he afraid
to call out and condemn misinformation when he sees
or hears it.
I’ve heard Jake described as a Libertarian, and while
I’m thankfully, blissfully unaware of his politics on state
or national issues, I would say that he’s always engaged
in a search for the explicit problem that would be solved
by any action of the Cottage Grove City Council. Fail-
ing to identify a clear problem, Boone simply does not
support a potential solution. Thus, one can be assured
that he does not pursue action for its own sake, and in-
deed maintains the best interest of this community and
its members at heart. Jake also believes in inclusiveness,
and he’s always the fi rst to ask whether members of the
public wish to weigh in on a particular issue. Jake has
Please see MAYOR, Page 10A
Offbeat Oregon History
Gold Rush stagecoach driver One-Eyed Charley
had an astonishing secret
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
I
n the frontier years before
the arrival of railroads to the
West Coast, the tough characters
who drove the stagecoaches were
among the most admired citizens.
And among those stagecoach
drivers there was one whose ma-
cho exploits had already passed
into legend by the time he retired
from the job: “One-Eyed Charley”
Parkhurst.
Parkhurst was a natural with
horses, able to get them to do near-
ly anything. His stagecoach driv-
ing was so precise that he was able
to hit a silver half-dollar placed
in the street as a target with both
wheels on either side of his rig.
With a whip, he could slice open
an envelope from 15 feet away, or
whip a cigar out of a man’s mouth
at a similar distance without touch-
ing him.
He was pretty good with a pis-
tol, too. A good driver had to be.
Robbing stagecoaches was almost
an industry back then, before more
secure methods were developed
for hauling large sums of money
around. The stage would carry
an “express box,” a large locked
wooden crate, into which would
be loaded the gold, securities and
other valuable things. Few things
were easier for an enterprising des-
perado than to position himself on
the uphill slope of a steep hill and
step out in front of the stagecoach
as it came, Winchester cocked and
at ready, and order the driver to
“throw down the box.”
Few drivers ever objected.
Perched up high on the bench, they
made fabulous targets, and the rob-
bers always had the drop on them.
It’s never smart to draw on a drawn
gun. And so down would go the
box, and the driver would be on his
way; a glance behind would usual-
ly show the bandit chopping away
at the express box with an ax.
The robbers avoided One-Eyed
Charley’s runs, though, because
they knew he wouldn’t play along.
He’d proved it one day when, in re-
sponse to the familiar old “Throw
down the box,” he “turned his wild
mustangs and wicked revolver
loose,” according to a New York
Times obituary article, bringing
the express box through unharmed.
The bandit, a fellow known as
“Sugarfoot,” staggered to a nearby
cabin, where he told the whole sto-
ry before dying of his wounds.
There were lots of drivers who
didn’t risk their lives by shooting
back, so after the Sugarfoot inci-
dent the bandits concentrated on
them and left Charley alone.
For the 15 years or so that he
drove gold-country stagecoaches,
Charley mostly worked California
lines. But his duties frequently took
him north into Oregon as well.
By the late 1860s Charley, now
well into his 50s, was feeling the
effects of a long career of bouncing
on a hard wooden bench. Arthritis
had developed and was making
it hard to work. In addition, with
the coming of the railroads, it was
clear that stagecoach driving was
on its way out. So he quit, bought
some land in northern California
and started farming. During the
winter he augmented his income
by working on lumberjack crews
in the woods, where he was a tiger
in spite of his age, commanding
wages as high as anyone’s.
But by the late 1870s, the end
was near for the aging Charley. A
cancerous tumor on his tongue had
developed, probably in response to
a lifetime of chewing tobacco; and
his arthritis, now in all his limbs,
kept him in constant pain. The
formerly genial and popular old
“whip” grew taciturn. Finally, in
1879, he died.
And then …
“When the hands of the kind
friends who had ministered to his
dying wants came to lay out the
dead body of the adventurous Ar-
gonaut, a discovery was made that
was literally astounding,” writes the
reporter for the California Call, in
the obituary article about Charley.
“Charley Parkhurst was a woman,
a perfectly formed, fully developed
woman…
The discoveries of the success-
ful concealment for protracted pe-
riods of the female sex under the
disguise of the masculine are not
infrequent, but the case of Charley
Parkhurst may fairly claim to rank
as by all odds the most astonish-
ing of all of them. That a young
woman should assume man’s attire
and, friendless and alone, defy the
dangers of the voyage of 1849, to
the then-almost-mythical Califor-
nia — dangers over which hardy
pioneers still grow boastful — has
in it suffi cient of the wonderful.
That she should achieve distinction
in an occupation above all profes-
sions calling for the best physical
qualities of nerve, courage, cool-
ness and endurance — qualities
arrogantly claimed as being almost
exclusively masculine — and that
she should add to them the almost
romantic personal bravery that
enables one to fi ght one’s way
through the ambush of an enemy,
seems almost fabulous, and that for
30 years she should be in constant
and intimate association with men
and women, and that her true sex
should never have been even sus-
pected, and that she should fi nally
Please see OFFBEAT, Page 9A
Preventing Osteoporosis:Bone-building with exercise and nutrition
BY JOEL FURHMAN, MD
For the Sentinel
and those numbers increase with
age. The National Osteoporosis
Foundation estimates that 50
percent of women and 25 per-
cent of men over 50 will have
an osteoporosis-related fracture
during their lifetime.
Bone is constantly being bro-
ken down and rebuilt, and in os-
teoporosis, there is an imbalance
leading to a decrease in bone
A
bout
6 0
percent of
women and
40 percent
of men over
50 have low
bone mass,
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
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mass and an increase in fracture
risk. The best protection against
osteoporosis is to tip the balance
back toward bone building with
a combination of exercise and
excellent nutrition.
Exercise: When we increase
muscle strength, we increase
bone strength, which is why
strength training is important.
Mechanical forces produced
by exercise stimulate activity in
bone-building cells, leading to
denser, stronger bones – not just
stronger muscles. Weight-bear-
ing exercises improve balance
and build bone strength, and
non-weight bearing strength
training also helps increase bone
density. While swimming and
biking are good for cardiovascu-
lar conditioning, they don’t help
protect against osteoporosis like
running or lifting weights. In
women who are at a risk for os-
teoporosis, back strengthening
exercises are especially benefi -
cial for protection against spinal
fractures.
For women, I also recommend
wearing a weighted vest for a
few hours each day. A weighted
vest can be worn during exer-
cise and also while you work or
shop and bend, stand, and move
throughout the day. Wearing a
weighted vest also burns extra
calories, increases core strength
and stabilizes muscles, thus im-
proving balance and decreasing
the risk of falls.
Bone-building nutrients:
Calcium: Greens, seeds, and
beans. Bone tissue is composed
mostly of calcium phosphate
and collagen, and ninety-nine
percent of the body’s calcium
is stored in bone. The inter-
mingling of bone mineral with
collagen fi bers provides bone
with strength and fl exibility. A
diet full of natural plant foods
provides the calcium required to
build strong bones. Green veg-
etables in particular are rich cal-
cium sources. For example, one
four-ounce serving of steamed
kale has just as much calcium as
one cup of cow’s milk. Brocco-
li, bok choy, sesame seeds, and
garbanzo beans are also excel-
lent calcium sources. Further-
more, the body absorbs about
50% of the calcium in many
green vegetables, compared to
only 32 percent of the calcium in
milk. High-dose (1000 mg/day)
calcium supplementation is not
recommended, because several
studies have linked high-dose
calcium supplementation with
an increased risk of cardiovas-
cular disease. Plus, high dose
calcium supplements have not
been superior to lower doses in
studies on preventing bone frac-
tures.
Magnesium: Nuts and seeds.
Calcium is important, but it’s
not the only bone-building min-
eral. Sixty percent of the body’s
magnesium, which is essential
for bone formation and struc-
ture, is found in bone. Almost
half of Americans do not meet
the recommended intake for
magnesium. Nuts and seeds are
especially rich in magnesium.
Vitamin K1: Green veg-
etables. Vitamin K is a crucial
component for maintaining
healthy bones. A vitamin K
dependent protein (called os-
teocalcin) is the most abundant
protein in bone tissue after col-
lagen, and this protein is crucial
for bone mineralization. Higher
intake of vitamin K1 is associat-
ed with lower rates of bone loss
and fractures. Vitamin K exists
as K1 and K2; the richest source
of K1 is green vegetables, and
K2 is produced by microorgan-
isms. It is important to get both
K1 from green vegetables and
K2 from a supplement.
Plant protein: Beans, seeds,
and nuts. Starting in mid-life
and especially after the age of
70, it becomes more important
to ensure adequate protein in-
take for healthy bones. For most
people following a healthful
diet, adequate protein for main-
tenance of bone mass, muscle
mass, and muscle strength with
age can be achieved easily with
seeds, nuts and beans. Animal
products may be added if mus-
cle mass starts to fall too low on
a completely vegan diet, in spite
of appropriate exercise.
Please see FUHRMAN, Page 5A
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