4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL November 23, 2016
O PINION
LETTERS TO THE
EDITOR
A Deplorable’s answer to a
sore loser
I seldom respond to articles that spew any kind of
hate, especially that of a political nature as exhibit-
ed by Matt Emrich in his article on President-elect
Trump; however, in this case I feel it necessary.
First, his judgment obviously is one that voted
for a loser in Hillary Clinton, the obvious shoo-in
according to the liberal media and press, not neces-
sarily the people, referred to as blue-collar people.
The Middle-America people and the evangelical
Christians defeated the liberal agenda of the Dem-
ocratic Party. The evangelicals voted 81 percent
in favor of Donald Trump. The Middle American
population supported Trump without reservation
because he had a program of their liking. Hillary
did not at any time present a program of any type;
she felt she was owed the presidential position.
The writer’s reference to education has no bear-
ing on a person’s ability to vote or decide how one
feels about an individual and leadership. Hillary
showed very little of her leadership, if indeed, she
had any!
Rather than going out of one’s way to fan the
seeds of chaos like many of those who feel like the
writer, I would suggest opening one’s mind and
supporting the elected, and if not satisfi ed with the
performance, vote for someone more capable at the
next election.
To compare Germany’s Weimar Republic to the
Trumps political movement is ridiculous, and to
make reference to World War III is fear-mongering
of the worst type. About the writer of this article:
I am a World War II veteran who fought in Europe
against Germany for three years in England, Africa,
Sicily, Italy and Corsica.
Leonard Waitman, PhD
Cottage Grove
Offbeat Oregon History
Once Oregon’s soggiest town, Valsetz
is now a memory
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
I
f you should ever get really lost
while exploring the spaghetti
tangle of Forest Service routes and
old logging roads in the Coast Range
woodlands west of Falls City, you just
might stumble upon the mortal remains
of a tiny timber town there.
To be sure, there won’t be much to
stumble upon — just a few overgrown
streets, with the bare concrete founda-
tion of some long-gone industrial struc-
ture nearby.
This is all that remains of the town of
Valsetz, Oregon.
Valsetz was one of the little logging-
company towns that once dotted the
more remote parts of Oregon’s timber-
lands. In the early- to mid-1900s, there
were many of these. Wendling, deep
in the forest outside Marcola, was an-
other one that’s gone today; Shevlin,
the “portable town” that moved on the
company railroad whenever the local
timber supply started to run low, was
another. And a number of little Oregon
towns that still exist today got their
start as logging-company property, in-
cluding Brookings, Seneca, Hines and
Gilchrist.
Valsetz was unusual, though, in sev-
eral ways. To start with, there was the
rain. Valsetz was located squarely in
the middle of one of the wettest spots
on the West Coast. It got 120 inches of
rain a year — four times as much as
the towns of the Willamette Valley, and
more than any other town or city on the
West Coast (although Forks, Wash., is
very close at 119.7).
Also, during its 1930s heyday when
it boasted a population of more than
1,000, Valsetz had a nationwide reputa-
tion for journalism. Thanks to the nine-
year-old editor of the “Valsetz Star,”
Dorothy Anne Hobson, more people
nationwide knew the name of Valsetz
than any other Oregon town besides
Portland and Salem. Subscribers to her
charming news reports included El-
eanor Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover and
several radio personalities who regu-
larly read them over the air.
The town of Valsetz was founded
just after the First World War, when the
Cobbs & Mitchell timber company fi g-
ured out that it was going to have to do
something expensive if it wanted to be
able to continue its logging operations
in the Coast Range.
The company’s property was deep in
the mountains, near the Forest Service
property known today as the Valley
of the Giants — the most productive
timber-growing land in the country, or
nearly so.
But what was good for growing trees
wasn’t so great for growing a labor
force. The nearest town was dozens of
grueling, muddy miles away. Before the
war, when the woods teemed with itin-
erant young bachelors willing to work
in rough logging camps for months on
end, this wasn’t such a problem; but
with the end of the war, the culture was
changing in a more family-oriented
way. Labor shortage was a real danger
if the company continued relying on
the dwindling supply of bachelor log-
gers.
So the company built a new sawmill
deep in the heart of its timberlands, at
the terminus of the Valley and Siletz
Railroad, and platted a town around it:
Valsetz.
By the 1950s, when it was at its
peak, Valsetz included a school district,
a company store, a company cafeteria/
restaurant and a two-lane bowling al-
ley. Nearby, the Siletz River had been
dammed up to form Valsetz Lake,
which did double duty as mill pond and
fi shing hole.
Crime — with the exception of
poaching — was virtually nonexis-
tent. After all, everyone who lived in
the town worked for Cobb & Mitchell,
and no outsider was going to travel 30
miles on muddy logging roads or buy
a railroad ticket to come to Valsetz
and steal things. There was no police
department. Also, because the whole
town was on private land, many state
laws didn’t apply there — 13-year-old
kids regularly drove cars and rode mo-
torcycles on its streets.
From the standpoint of the people liv-
ing there, probably the best thing about
Valsetz was the wildlife. The town had
its own herd of elk, and the lake teemed
with fi sh — trout, mostly, until the late
1950s when somebody stocked it with
bass. The deep woods were just out-
side town, beckoning youngsters for
overland adventures and older folks
for deer and elk hunts. Valsetz was a
sportsman’s paradise.
It wasn’t a timber company’s para-
dise, though. Not in the 1980s, after the
last of the old-growth trees had been
cut down and processed into lumber.
By 1983, Valsetz was a very different
town than it had been 20 years earlier.
Boise Cascade had bought the town and
timberlands in 1959, but by then much
of the good old-growth timber was al-
ready gone. When it was all depleted, a
decade or so later, the sawmill was con-
verted into a plywood operation, and
it soldiered on for a few more years,
employing fewer and fewer people and
looking less and less well-kept.
Making plywood at Valsetz was all
well and good during the building boom
of the 1970s, when the money was still
rolling in. But with the onset of “stag-
fl ation” and recession at the end of the
decade, things started looking really
grim for Valsetz. When there had been
old-growth logs to cut up, it had made
great sense to run a mill there; but run-
ning a plywood operation smack in the
middle of the best tree-growing land in
the United States made no sense at all.
Moreover, by the early 1980s the
Please see OFFBEAT, Page 10A
Pumpkin is a healthy fall treat
BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD
For the Sentinel
E
njoy the health benefi ts
of pumpkins just like our
forefathers before us. Native
American used pumpkin as a
healthy staple in their diets for
centuries before the pilgrims
landed. Pumpkins continued
to be an important crop for the
pilgrims because they stored
well and provided a nutritious
food source during the winter
months.
Today, pumpkin fl avoring is
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
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in every-
thing from
candy and
coffee to
ice cream
and dough-
nuts. Don’t
be fooled
by
this;
pumpkins
and their seeds are nutrient-
dense foods.
Pumpkins and related squash-
es are good sources of beta-
carotene, alpha-carotene, lutein
and zeaxanthin, antioxidants be-
longing to a group of pigments
called carotenoids, which are
important for immune function.
Carotenoids defend the body’s
tissues against oxidative dam-
age, helping to prevent chronic
diseases and premature aging.
Lutein and zeaxanthin are the
only known carotenoids located
in the human retina. They help
protect the eye from damage
and improve several aspects of
visual performance.
Pumpkin makes a great pie,
but don’t stop there. Pumpkin
puree can be stirred into soups,
stews or chilis. You can whip up
a pumpkin smoothie by blending
pumpkin puree with a banana,
spinach or romaine lettuce, a
few dates, some non-diary milk
and cinnamon and nutmeg. I
recommend cooking your own
pumpkin puree or using the pu-
ree packed in non-BPA contain-
ing cartons.
Make an easy pumpkin puree:
Choose the lighter colored “pie
pumpkins” or “sugar pump-
kins,” they are sweeter and less
watery than the orange jack-o’-
lantern pumpkins.
Cut the top from the pumpkin
and scrape out the stringy mem-
branes and seeds.
Cut the pumpkin into large
pieces and place in a roasting
pan.
Pour a half-cup water into
the bottom of the pan and cover
with foil.
Bake 45-60 minutes or un-
til pumpkin is soft and easily
pierced with a fork.
Scrape the soft pulp from the
skin into a food processor or
blender and puree.
Leftover pumpkin puree may
be frozen in an airtight container
for up to 12 months.
When preparing pumpkin pu-
ree or carving a jack-o’-lantern,
don’t throw away the seeds.
Pumpkin seeds, also known as
pepitas, are not only fl avorful,
they are a superfood. Pumpkin
seeds are a good source of ome-
ga-3 fatty acids, phytochemi-
cals, zinc, calcium and iron.
How to roast pumpkin seeds:
Rinse seeds under cold wa-
ter and pick out the pulp and
strings.
Place seeds in a single layer
on a non-stick baking sheet and,
if desired, sprinkle with your
choice of no-salt seasonings.
Bake at 225 degrees F. until
lightly toasted, about 45 min-
utes, checking and stirring fre-
quently.
Sprinkle on salads, mix into
healthy baked recipes or use as
a topping for soups and entrees.
Enjoy the delicious fl avors
and health benefi ts of fresh
pumpkins, pumpkin seeds and
other winter squashes, and
ignore those SAD (standard
American diet) pumpkin-fl a-
vored fake foods.
Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New York
Times best-selling author and a
board certifi ed family physician
specializing in lifestyle and nu-
tritional medicine. The Eat To
Live Cookbook offers over 200
unique disease-fi ghting deli-
cious recipes and his newest
book, The End of Heart Disease,
offers a detailed plan to prevent
and reverse heart disease using
a nutrient-dense, plant-rich eat-
ing style. Visit his informative
website at DrFuhrman.com.
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