A4 BAKER CITY HERALD • SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 2022
Opinion
BAKER CITY
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Baker City, Oregon
EDITORIAL
Bringing back
the bike rally
D
uring a summer that ought to be basically
normal in Baker County — at least com-
pared with 2021 and, especially, 2020 — the
absence of burbling motorcycle engines would have
been conspicuous.
So too would the hordes of people who have in past
years congregated in Baker City for one of our bigger
annual events (and almost certainly the biggest over
the past 15 years or so, in terms of the number of par-
ticipants).
That’s the Hells Canyon Motorcycle Rally.
Like most gatherings, it was canceled in 2020, the
first year of the pandemic.
But the rally didn’t happen in 2021, either, even as
other signature summer events, including Miners Ju-
bilee and the bull and bronc riding competitions, re-
turned from their one-year hiatus.
It was quite disappointing, then, to hear in Febru-
ary from Mark Dukes, a partner in High Desert Har-
ley-Davidson of Meridian, Idaho, the rally’s organizer,
that it would miss a third straight summer.
But the owners of Shameless Tees in Baker City
weren’t satisfied with lamenting the loss of an event
that’s both popular among residents and profitable for
many businesses.
So they revived the rally.
And in an official way, with a website, registration
package options, T-shirts and the like.
That’s an important distinction. The pandemic
couldn’t of course prevent motorcycle riders from ply-
ing the highways and byways of Baker County and
Northeastern Oregon that initially lured brothers Eric
and Steve Folkestad and some of their buddies to the
area in the early 2000s. Those visits led to the creation
of the Hells Canyon Motorcycle Rally.
And even though there was no official rally in 2021
or 2020, riders did show up in respectable numbers.
But having an official event should boost visitor
numbers, bringing a welcome influx of dollars during
the crucial summer season, and another reassuring
example that society is recovering from the great up-
heaval we’ve endured.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
YOUR VIEWS
Christianity holds the solution
to many of America’s troubles
Seems my letter to the editor of May 26
rattled a few cages. Good. There are many
that need rattling. One writer points out
the many mistakes in his so-called Chris-
tianity understanding without realizing
these are man’s mistakes, not the belief
in real Christianity (the belief in God). A
writer states God is not in the Constitu-
tion. You are right, but if you will study
both the Constitution and the Ten Com-
mandments you will find that most of our
“morality” laws came from God’s laws
(read Exodus 20). Nothing in the writer’s
letter changes the fact that this country
is based on Christianity (God’s laws, not
mine, not yours).
Why can’t anyone see that we have
come from a country that was so blessed
to one with so many ungodly ways? I ask
a simple question: What has happened
to this country since God was taken out
of the schools? No praying, no pledge
to the United States flag. Want to know
what has happened since Christian prin-
ciples were removed from public life
starting in 1962? In 1962 the Supreme
Court of the United States prohibited
the saying of this simple, nondenomi-
national prayer in any public school —
“Almighty God, we acknowledge our
dependence upon thee, and we beg thy
blessing on us, our parents, our teachers
and our country.” In 1962 the Supreme
Court banned Bible teaching in pub-
lic schools. In 1980 the Supreme Court
ordered public schools to remove all of
the Ten Commandments from student
view. Just this much, what did we expect
would happen? SAT scores down 10%.
Child abuse up 2,300%. Teen suicide up
450%. Illegal drugs up 6,000%. Criminal
arrests of teens 150%. Divorce up 350%.
Births to unmarried girls up 500%. Mur-
der off the chart. People with no re-
gard for life or others. Is this what we
want coming from a country that’s been
blessed by God? Christianity and its way
is still the way to save this country. You
have a better way, let me know!
Richard Fox
Baker City
Americans need to stand up
against government control
I find it hard to understand why elected
officials in this country, before taking of-
fice, place their hand on the Bible and
swear to uphold the Constitution of the
United States, then within a short period
of time ignore the Constitution or begin
to tear it apart.
The present administration is a per-
fect example of this. It has no interest in
what goes on in this country unless the
situation can be used to further their
own political agenda. The Uvalde, Texas,
school shooting reflects this very thing.
The first thing this administration and
the Democratic party did, almost before
condolences could be offered, was to call
for more gun control legislation. This is
nothing more than the government try-
ing to gain more power over the people.
That is exactly why the Second Amend-
ment to the Constitution was written, to
prevent the government from taking the
ability to defend themselves away from
the people.
By proposing more gun legislation and
tighter restrictions on gun ownership,
the Democrats are apparently blaming
guns for the shootings rather than peo-
ple. From my viewpoint I have yet to see
a gun load itself and pull its own trigger.
People are responsible for those actions.
Here is a certainty that will happen if
the buying of guns becomes more restric-
tive or, heaven forbid, confiscation occurs.
Criminals, or non law-abiding citizens,
will still have access to guns because the
U.S. is not the only country in the world
that manufactures guns. These guns can
be bought and smuggled across our open
southern border just as easily as drugs
can, and we know how devastating that is.
With this administration and the Dem-
ocrats’ assault on the Second Amend-
ment, these things could happen. Then
we would be totally under the control of
the government and criminals. No longer
free. Just another third world country.
As a nation, we have fought in other
countries to preserve freedom. How
about speaking up and standing firm for
our freedom in this country?
Dick Culley
Baker City
COLUMN
‘Ever Wild’: Book reveals a man’s love for a mountain
I
f Mount Adams were a Beatle it
would be Ringo.
Despite being the third tallest
of the great volcanoes that comprise
the Cascade Mountains, this peak in
Southern Washington garners much
less attention than some that fall short
both literally and, based on sheer
bulk, figuratively.
The two summits that surpass Ad-
ams’ 12,276 feet, Mount Rainier, also
in Washington, and Mount Shasta in
Northern California, are understand-
ably famous — the John and Paul of
the Cascades, to belabor the musical
analogy.
Rainier, the tallest of the Cascades
at 14,410 feet, so dominates its section
of the range, looming over the Puget
Sound and the millions of people who
live nearby, that its eminence, both
physical and historical, is understand-
able.
So too with Shasta, the 14,162-
foot sentinel visible from almost any
slightly elevated vantage point for 100
miles around.
Yet Mount Hood, I feel confident
in claiming, graces far more calendars
and coffee table books than Adams,
even though Hood is a thousand feet
shorter.
Mount St. Helens is much shorter
still — particularly since May 18, 1980
— but it, too, is far better known than
Adams.
St. Helens, of course, gained much
of its stature by the very thing that
cleaved 1,300 feet from its summit —
the cataclysmic 1980 eruption.
Adams, in addition to ranking third
2018 book, “Ever Wild: A Lifetime on
Mount Adams,” at the Baker County
Library.
Although I don’t believe the word
book necessarily fits Lloyd’s work.
in elevation, outranks every peak in
Ode, I think, better captures the fla-
the Cascade in the volume of its erup- vor of the thing.
tions save for Shasta.
Darryl, along with his twin brother,
Rainier is more than 2,000 feet
Darvel, born in 1942, grew up near
taller but it was constructed atop non- Glenwood, Washington, a village at
volcanic rocks, giving it, in effect, a
the southeast foot of Mount Adams.
boost that Adams lacks.
Darryl Lloyd writes in the introduc-
Although it can hardly be said that tion that he and his twin took their
a 12,000-foot, glacier-mantled vol-
first hike, at Bird Lake on the moun-
cano is inconspicuous, Adams cer-
tain’s slopes, when they were 2.
tainly doesn’t flaunt its massive ridges
Four years later the brothers got lost
and icefields as blatantly as its afore-
together when they ventured away
mentioned cousins.
from a hiking trail.
This has quite a lot to do with its
“It would be the beginning of al-
location.
most seven decades of off-trail ram-
The vantage points that most thor- blings by the Lloyd brothers on
oughly reveal Adams’ grandeur are
Mount Adams,” Darryl writes.
Quite a few of those rambles
comparatively lightly populated —
brought the Lloyds, or Darryl himself,
Hood River and The Dalles, for in-
to the summit of Adams. Despite its
stance, and the Yakima Valley.
great elevation, the mountain, from its
Mounts Hood and St. Helens, by
south side in particular, makes for a
contrast, show off for more than a
million people in the Portland metro technically easy — though physically
area whenever the clouds thin or dis- demanding — ascent.
“Ever Wild” is a history book, but
appear.
not a typical one.
Rainier’s audience is larger still.
Since its chief character is tens of
Yet all mountains, even ones that
are mere hillocks compared with Ad- thousands of years old, the book nec-
ams, are the dominant natural feature essarily covers a greater span than is
usual. But although the mountain it-
for somebody, the sight that thrills
self is always central, “Ever Wild” at its
them like no other.
core is a story about people.
Mount Adams fulfills that role for
It’s a story about the Native Ameri-
many people, I’m sure.
But I doubt any can exceed Darryl cans, whose relationship with Adams
is centuries older than the white set-
Lloyd’s claim, as it were.
tlers’. The forests that circle the moun-
I recently came across Lloyd’s fine
Jayson
Jacoby
tain gave the native peoples’ beargrass
for their baskets and huckleberries for
their larders and much else besides.
It’s also a story about the people who
came later and sought to exploit some
of the peak’s myriad other values.
Some of this was basically innoc-
uous.
The U.S. Forest Service, for in-
stance, recognized that Adams’ im-
mense height afforded a vantage point
for a fire lookout almost unrivaled —
and one that, unlike its taller neigh-
bor, Rainier, was actually accessible.
(Strings of packhorses frequently
wended their way to the top of Ad-
ams, something that did not happen
at Rainier or Hood and indicates the
relative simplicity of the ascent.)
The Mount Adams lookout was
built in 1920-21 — the construction
season was, of course, a brief one,
since “summer” is more a concept
than a season at such an elevation —
and was staffed for not much longer,
until 1924.
Other users, though, endeavored
instead to plunder the mountain, or
its flanks, for valuable resources rang-
ing from lush grass to pungent sulfur.
Lloyd writes at length about the
hordes of sheep that grazed for many
years around the mountain, denuding
its meadows and forests of grass, and
leaving scars that persist more than a
century later.
But it’s a much less common sort of
extraction that makes for one of the
more compelling chapters in the his-
tory of Mount Adams.
Lloyd describes how, from 1931-37,
the peak’s summit crater drew miners
who hoped to profit from the buried
deposits of sulfur and sulfate minerals.
Miners, of course, are known for
wielding their picks in precarious
places. But the top of a 12,000-foot
peak is an uncommon spot for dig-
ging even among fearless argonauts.
The Mount Adams mining opera-
tion never amounted to a great deal.
Fortunately, neither did it significantly
mar the summit area, much of which
is covered with an ice cap.
Lloyd’s book not only entertained
me, with its fascinating stories and
wondrous photographs, but it also in-
spired me.
I’ve seen Mount Adams dozens of
times, mostly while in The Dalles or
Hood River, but one memorable time
from about 150 miles away, at Elk-
horn Summit near Anthony Lakes
where its white cone jutted just above
the horizon, defying the distance and
the summer haze.
But I’ve never hiked a trail on its
flanks, or stained my hands purple
with its huckleberries, or made a bid,
legs aching and lungs straining, for its
summit.
Thanks to Darryl Lloyd, who dared
share with the public his great love for
Mount Adams, I feel a strong com-
pulsion to fill these blanks in my out-
door resumé, to set my boots on its
lava flows and glaciers and perhaps
understand, in a small way, how one
mountain came to mean so much to
one man.
State Rep. Mark Owens (R-Crane): Salem
office: 900 Court St. N.E., H-475, Salem, OR
97301; 503-986-1460. Email: Rep.MarkOwens@
oregonlegislature.gov
Baker City administration: 541-523-6541.
Jonathan Cannon, city manager; Ty Duby, police
chief; Sean Lee, fire chief; Michelle Owen, public
works director.
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 Jason Spriet, Kerry McQuisten, Shane
Alderson, Joanna Dixon, Kenyon Damschen,
Johnny Waggoner Sr. and Dean Guyer.
Baker County Commission: Baker County
Courthouse 1995 3rd St., Baker City, OR 97814;
541-523-8200. Meets the first and third
Wednesdays at 9 a.m.; Bill Harvey (chair), Mark
Bennett, Bruce Nichols.
Jayson Jacoby is editor of the Baker City Herald.
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. office: 313 Hart Senate
Office Building, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.,
20510; 202-224-3753; fax 202-228-3997. Portland
office: One World Trade Center, 121 S.W. Salmon
St. Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204; 503-326-3386;
fax 503-326-2900. Baker City office, 1705 Main St.,
Suite 504, 541-278-1129; merkley.senate.gov.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden: D.C. office: 221 Dirksen
Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20510;
202-224-5244; fax 202-228-2717. La Grande office:
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.
office: 1239 Longworth House Office Building,
Washington, D.C., 20515, 202-225-6730; fax 202-
225-5774. Medford office: 14 N. Central Avenue
Suite 112, Medford, OR 97850; Phone: 541-776-
4646; fax: 541-779-0204; Ontario office: 2430 S.W.
Fourth Ave., No. 2, Ontario, OR 97914; Phone: 541-
709-2040. bentz.house.gov.
Gov. Kate Brown: 254 State Capitol, Salem, OR
97310; 503-378-3111; www.governor.oregon.gov.
Oregon Legislature: Legislative documents and
information are online at www.leg.state.or.us.
State Sen. Lynn Findley (R-Ontario): Salem
office: 900 Court St. N.E., S-403, Salem, OR
97301; 503-986-1730. Email: Sen.LynnFindley@
oregonlegislature.gov
Baker School District: 2090 4th Street, Baker
City, OR 97814; 541-524-2260; fax 541-524-2564.