SATURDAY, JULY 31, 2021
Baker City, Oregon
A4
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EDITORIAL
Paring the
wolf pack
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
(ODFW) was wise to authorize the killing of up to
four wolves from the Lookout Mountain pack in
eastern Baker County. According to ODFW investi-
gations, wolves from that pack have attacked cattle
northeast of Durkee four times since July 13, killing
two animals and injuring two others.
Baker County Commissioner Mark Bennett, who
is also chairman of the county’s wolf committee,
requested the kill permit on Tuesday, July 27 on
behalf of ranchers Deward and Kathy Thompson.
The Thompsons, in a letter included with Bennett’s
request, wrote that in the past two weeks they have
been “brutally and economically impacted by a pack
of wolves that won’t seem to stop no matter what we
do.”
The Thompsons included with their letter a hand-
written, six-page diary of the efforts they’ve made
since January 2021 to protect their cattle.
That includes having someone check their herd ev-
ery two to four hours, around the clock, during calving
and for several weeks after in February and March,
fi ring gunshots in the air, and installing wire fencing
around their calving grounds. The Thompsons wrote
that the “rampant” depredation coincides with the
Lookout Mountain pack adding fi ve to seven pups
this spring. According to ODFW, prior to this year the
pack consisted of the adult breeding male and female,
and two yearlings born in the spring of 2020.
“We are asking for your urgent assistance in reduc-
ing the packs need for so much meat to exist,” the
Thompsons wrote to Melcher.
The permit does not allow the killing of the pack’s
breeding male and female. But based on the record of
depredations by the pack, it looks as though paring
the pack, rather than trying to effectively eradicate
it by killing the breeding pair, could largely, if not
entirely, solve the problem.
That’s a reasonable compromise that could allow
the cattle industry, a vital part of Baker County’s
economy, to continue to coexist with wolves. This is
not necessarily a peaceful coexistence, to be sure. But
the presence of wolves is obviously more tolerable
when the wolves aren’t pilfering dollars from ranch-
ers’ pockets.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
Your views
Residents continue to
promote train quiet zone
Neighbors for a Safer, Healthier, and
Happier (Shh) Baker City formed to
improve the lives of all of the people,
schools, and businesses in Baker affect-
ed by the train horns. In 2019 we asked
the City Council to begin the process of
establishing a Railroad Quiet Zone and
they voted unanimously to submit a
Notice of Intent to the Federal Railroad
Administration. A Quiet Zone would
maintain railroad safety, protect our
kids and schools, help our businesses
thrive and help our neighbors get a bet-
ter night’s sleep.
Since 2019, the City Public Works
Department has worked with us to
complete safety improvement designs
for each crossing, host a well-attend-
ed open house, and submit the Notice
of Intent.
To date, we have received overall
positive support for a Quiet Zone.
We heard from residents about how
the interruption to their sleep has
worsened health problems. We heard
from teachers and students at South
Baker Intermediate about how the
train horns disrupt learning. We also
heard from business owners who
believe their businesses and tourism
would benefi t from a Quiet Zone.
What is a Quiet Zone? Train engi-
neers are required by Federal regula-
tions to blast their horns four times
before each railroad crossing. When
Quiet Zone safety measures are
added to crossings, the horn mandate
goes away. Engineers can still use a
horn when needed. Cities nationwide
have set up Quiet Zones to reduce
train noise, including La Grande.
At a recent City Council meeting,
we heard questions about safety and
cost. The Federal Railroad Admin-
istration is currently reviewing the
City’s plans, and will only approve
the Quiet Zone if crossings are
deemed to be as safe as or safer than
with horns.
Regarding cost, the City’s current
estimate for the project is $150,000.
We will not rely on any new or ad-
ditional taxes, and we would like to
raise a signifi cant portion of the fund-
ing for the project.
A railroad Quiet Zone will improve
the health and safety of the com-
munity we love, schools, and local
business. We invite you to join us
and consider signing our petition at
https://bit.ly/qzbaker
Jessica Griffen
Neighbors for a Safer, Healthier, and
Happier (Shh) Baker City
CONTACT YOUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS
President Joe Biden: The White House,
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C.
20500; 202-456-1111; to send comments, go
to www.whitehouse.gov.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley: D.C. offi ce:
313 Hart Senate Offi ce Building, U.S.
Senate, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-
3753; fax 202-228-3997. Portland offi ce:
One World Trade Center, 121 S.W. Salmon
St. Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204; 503-
326-3386; fax 503-326-2900. Baker City
offi ce, 1705 Main St., Suite 504, 541-278-
1129; merkley.senate.gov.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden: D.C. offi ce:
221 Dirksen Senate Offi ce Building,
Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-5244; fax
202-228-2717. La Grande offi ce: 105 Fir St.,
No. 210, La Grande, OR 97850; 541-962-
7691; fax, 541-963-0885; wyden.senate.
gov.
U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz (2nd District):
D.C. offi ce: 2182 Rayburn Offi ce Building,
Washington, D.C., 20515, 202-225-6730;
fax 202-225-5774. La Grande offi ce: 1211
Washington Ave., La Grande, OR 97850;
541-624-2400, fax, 541-624-2402; walden.
house.gov.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown: 254 State
Capitol, Salem, OR 97310; 503-378-3111;
www.governor.oregon.gov.
Baker City Hall: 1655 First Street,
P.O. Box 650, Baker City, OR 97814; 541-
523-6541; fax 541-524-2049. City Council
meets the second and fourth Tuesdays at
7 p.m. in Council Chambers. Councilors
Lynette Perry, Jason Spriet, Kerry
McQuisten, Shane Alderson, Joanna Dixon,
Heather Sells and Johnny Waggoner Sr.
Baker City administration: 541-
523-6541. Jonathan Cannon, city manager;
Ty Duby, police chief; Sean Lee, fi re chief;
Michelle Owen, public works director.
An impressive tour of the Pythian Castle
I walked through Baker City’s
Pythian Castle with what I suspect
was the bemused expression of a
person who is seeing something
that doesn’t merely exceed his
expectations, but lies well beyond
them.
(I didn’t have a mirror so I can’t
be sure about my expression. But
bemused is what it felt like.)
I stroll past this imposing struc-
ture, at the corner of First Street
and Washington Avenue, at least a
few times each week.
I drive by occasionally as well.
It is a noteworthy building, even
by the standards of Baker City’s re-
nowned, and deservedly so, historic
downtown district.
The Pythian Castle was built in
1907, when Baker City still had its
original two-word name.
(Three years later voters decided
they were satisfi ed with plain
old “Baker.” And 79 years after
that, voters — no doubt including
some descendants of those who
dropped “city” — terminated the
long experiment in brevity and put
“city” back where it was originally.
This proves something about the
electoral process, but I have no idea
what that might be.)
The Pythian Castle’s exterior
walls are faced, like several other
downtown structures including
Baker City Hall and the Baker
County Courthouse, with Pleasant
Valley tuffstone, a type of volcanic
JAYSON
JACOBY
ash welded into a solid (very solid)
formation by the heat of an erup-
tion between 15 million and 16
million years ago.
The building was the local head-
quarters for the Knights of Pythias,
a nonsectarian fraternal order
founded in 1864.
And though it was never a castle
in the sense of a place where a king
lives — or at least a medieval lord
of some prominence — the name is
not inappropriate.
The building’s battlement-style
parapet — the series of stone
“teeth” — certainly give the im-
pression of a castle. These features,
as part of an actual castle, gave
archers both a place to shelter, as
well as open spaces between from
which they could fi re their arrows
or, perhaps, pour boiling oil on the
enemy below during a siege.
I knew Heidi Dalton had bought
the Pythian Castle in early 2020,
and that she was restoring its
interior.
The Herald published a story
about her progress in late June
2020.
But I hadn’t been inside, to see
the handiwork of Heidi and her
contractors, until the afternoon of
June 30.
I was there to have a look at
the Herald’s new offi ce space in
the building. I’m excited about the
move, which should be complete in
early August. The newspaper, to an
extent, has come home.
The Herald’s offi ce was at the
other end of the block, at First and
Court, for more than half a century
before our previous owner, Western
Communications Inc., sold that
building in the spring of 2018.
I feel honored, too, to work in the
same building where Leo Adler
oversaw his magazine distribution
empire, the fruits of which continue
to enrich the community he loved.
Once we had walked through the
offi ce, admired the original polished
wood trim and the view through
the tall, narrow windows on the
Castle’s west side, Heidi offered to
give us a comprehensive tour.
We climbed the stairs — more
dark, lustrous wood of the sort you
rarely see except in buildings at
least a century old — and Heidi
guided us to the ballroom.
There were audible gasps from
the group as she opened the doors.
The renovation is ongoing, but
this space is impressive even when
it’s strewn with tools and lengths of
lumber and small, aromatic drifts
of sawdust.
Its grandeur is impossible to dis-
cern from outside. Inside, though,
the sheer scale is so beyond what
we experience in most structures
— exposed wooden joists more
than 20 feet overhead, windows
nearly as tall as a basketball hoop,
space enough to have a junior high
rollerskating party — that I needed
a minute or so to comprehend what
I was seeing.
I could imagine the parties that
happened here so long ago, couples
in formal dress dancing across the
maple fl oor in an era when people
talked about the Great War but
wouldn’t know what you meant if
you referred to the Great Depres-
sion.
Heidi also showed us the second-
story residential quarters where
she and her two teenage daughters
live.
The view of the Elkhorns is as
you might expect from an elevated
vantage point.
It’s a common thing to credit
someone with “saving” a building.
Sometimes this is literally true,
of course. Barbara and Dwight
Sidway rescued the Geiser Grand
Hotel. Had the couple not taken
a fancy to the decrepit building in
1993, it almost certainly would not
stand today.
The Pythian Castle, by contrast,
was in no danger of falling to the
wrecking ball.
Previous owners Rosemary and
Larry Abell did a considerable
amount of renovation work on the
building after they bought it in
2002.
Heidi is turning the Castle into a
true showplace — the sort of struc-
ture that people drive hundreds of
miles to see.
While we were following her
around, I thought about a topic
that I’ve heard discussed periodi-
cally over the past 30 years — the
potential that exists in the second
fl oors (and sometimes third or
higher fl oors) of Baker City’s histor-
ic downtown buildings.
The changes Heidi has wrought
in the Castle remind me of just
how vast and untapped that poten-
tial is.
I pondered how many tens of
thousands of square feet exist, the
dust slowly accumulating, how
many expanses of irreplaceable
hardwood fl oors, awaiting only the
ministrations of the sander and the
buffer soaked in lacquer, the fi ne
grain ready to gleam for the fi rst
time since Truman was president,
or maybe Taft, or McKinley.
Time stretches. People die. Mem-
ories are lost, and photographs are
buried in landfi lls.
But so long as the buildings
stand, their bones still stout and
their walls true, the next chapters
in their long tales are waiting to be
written.
Jayson Jacoby is editor
of the Baker City Herald.