SATURDAY
GREENHORNS IN THE BLUES: COLOR CONFUSION IN THE MOUNTAINS: PG. B1
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
July 17, 2021
Local • Outdoors • TV
IN THIS EDITION:
QUICK HITS
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Ralph
Ward of Baker City.
Local, A2
Baker City brothers
Shane and Mark Alderson
had too much fi shing and
hunting gear to fi t in their
two garages.
Their solution? Start a
business.
The Aldersons opened
Baboon Creek Outfi tters
on Friday, July 16, just in
time for Miners Jubilee
weekend.
$1.50
Baker City Gardener Builds An Underground Greenhouse
Above Average Crops,
Below The Ground
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Local, A3
Due to severe drought
conditions coupled with
abnormally high tem-
peratures, the Oregon
Department of Fish and
Wildlife has ended all size
(minimum and maximum)
and daily limits for most
species of fi sh in several
waterbodies in Baker and
Wallowa counties, includ-
ing Phillips Reservoir and
the Powder River between
Thief Valley Reservoir and
Phillips Reservoir.
State, A5
Gov. Kate Brown should
stop urging Oregonians to
get vaccinated against CO-
VID-19 because she is the
“least trusted” fi gure for
unvaccinated individuals
and could be undercutting
the state’s efforts to reach
herd immunity, accord-
ing to new survey results
released Tuesday, July 13.
WEATHER
Today
90 / 51
Sunny
Sunday
98 / 55
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Kim Anderson based the concept of her sunken greenhouse on a technique that gardeners used in the
Andes Mountains of South America.
the day before. A solar attic fan also
helps remove some of the hot air.
Kim Anderson wants to pick a ripe
This warmth works well in the
— Kim Anderson, who built an
tomato or pull a carrot any time of
winter, though.
year, and she’s using the insulating underground greenhouse
“It heats up enough that the snow
power of the earth to make it hap-
just slides off,” she said.
pen.
The structure, which measures
This is the second year for her
Anderson’s greenhouse looks like 12 feet by 10 feet, is sunken fi ve feet greenhouse, and she’s still experi-
it sunk into the ground, but the
below ground level. The north wall is menting with crops.
design is based on one she’s studied painted black to absorb heat, and the
Last winter, she had tomatoes
for a while.
roof slants toward the south for sun until January, but her carrots didn’t
“I researched it for 10 years before exposure. A clear polycarbonate roof do so well.
I did it,” she said.
lets in light.
This year, she’ll adjust the sched-
She discovered that this concept is
Too much light, sometimes —
ule and sow carrot seeds a bit later
used in the Andes Mountains.
Anderson covered the top with shade to see how it works.
“They dig into the side of the
cloth to counteract the recent hot
“I’m still learning — it’s all a
mountain,” she said.
weather. The thermometer, which
learning process,” she said.
Without a mountain in her back- she resets each day, registered a high
See Greenhouse/Page A3
yard, Anderson went down instead. temperature of 106 degrees from
By Lisa Britton
lbritton@bakercityherald.com
“I’m still learning — it’s all a
learning process.”
See COVID/Page A5
Sunny
By Jayson Jacoby
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
ous parallel pre-mortem
tooth scrapes up to fi ve
inches long and one-quarter
inch wide on the rear of both
back legs above the hock,
injuries consistent with wolf
attacks on calves, according
to an ODFW report.
A wolf from the Lookout
Mountain pack that’s fi tted
with a GPS tracking collar
was at the location where
County has
16th COVID-
related death
See Wolves/Page A3
Wolves kill calf in Baker County
July 14 in the Manning
Creek area northeast of
Wolves from the Lookout Durkee.
Mountain pack killed a fi ve-
The rancher who owns
month-old calf on a public
the calf found the carcass
land grazing allotment in
while checking cattle that
eastern Baker County this evening, and biologists
week.
estimate the calf died about
Biologists from the Ore-
36 hours earlier.
gon Department of Fish and
Most of the carcass had
Wildlife (ODFW) examined been consumed.
the carcass on Wednesday,
The carcass had numer-
See Prison/Page A5
the carcass was found at
about the approximate time
of death, according to an
ODFW report.
Biologists also investi-
gated a second dead calf
on Tuesday, July 13. That
calf was found in the First
Creek area near Virtue Flat,
east of Baker City.
90 / 54
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
A 24-year-old Baker City
man was sen-
tenced to almost
nine years in
prison on Thurs-
day, July 15 after
pleading guilty
Sprague
to fi rst-degree
robbery and to
spraying bear spray in the
face of a Baker City Police
offi cer in May 2021.
Travis James Sprague
also faces multiple charges in
Union County, where he fl ed
after committing the crimes
in Baker City. If convicted
there he could face additional
prison terms longer than the
ones from Baker County, said
Greg Baxter, Baker County
district attorney.
Sprague is accused of
shooting at a person in La
Grande on May 19, and
breaking into a home in La
Grande the following day
and putting the barrel of
a sawed-off shotgun to the
homeowner’s forehead.
A 59-year-old Baker
County man died on July 13,
six days after testing positive
for COVID-19, the Oregon
Health Authority (OHA) re-
ported on Thursday, July 15.
The man had underlying
medical conditions, according
to OHA.
His death was the 16th in
Baker County attributed to
the virus since the pandemic
started in March 2020, and
the fi rst since May 15.
“I send my condolences to
his family and friends, I’m
so sorry for their loss,” Baker
County Commissioner Mark
Bennett said.
Sunny
Monday
Prison for
man who
assaulted
police
officer,
robbed
woman
MINERS JUBILEE RETURNS AFTER 2020 CANCELLATION
Vendors glad to be back
glasses of fl avored lemonade at Min-
ers Jubilee for the past 27 years. And
New and returning vendors pitched
even after a quarter century the couple,
their tents and stocked their shelves
former Baker City residents who now
Thursday, July 15 as country music
live in Boise, look forward to returning
blasted through Geiser-Pollman Park.
every July.
They didn’t get to enjoy Miners Jubilee
Another longtime vendor at Miners
last year, so this year the excitement
Jubilee is Debra Peters, who has been
was palpable as people prepared for the selling everything from tie-dye shirts to
weekend ahead.
dreamcatchers for 25 years. Her eye-
“It’s like a family reunion,” Terry
catching shop, Chaos By Nature, carries
Magill said as he strung up lights across imported goods from 12 countries.
his lemon-shaped lemonade stand. Terry
See Vendors/Page A2
and his wife, Julie, have been pouring
By Joanna Mann
jmann@bakercityherald.com
TODAY
Issue 29, 14 pages
Classified ............. B2-B4
Comics ....................... B5
Community News ....A3
Crossword ........B3 & B4
Dear Abby ................. B6
Horoscope ........B3 & B4
Joanna Mann/Baker City Herald
Vendors set up on Thursday, July 15 in Geiser-Pollman Park.
Jayson Jacoby ..........A4
Lottery Results ..........A2
News of Record ........A2
Obituaries ..................A2
Opinion ......................A4
Outdoors ..........B1 & B6
Senior Menus ...........A2
Turning Backs ...........A2
Weather ..................... B6
TUESDAY — COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS STILL IN PLACE IN COUNTY JAIL