BAKER CITY HERALD • TuEsDAY, JuLY 19, 2022 A3
LOCAL
Scenes from a sunny Miners Jubilee
Memorial
BELOW: Entries in the Miners Jubilee parade, including the large American flag, line up beside Baker Middle
School on Saturday, July 16, 2022. RIGHT: Kids enjoy a bouncy experience in Geiser-Pollman Park on Friday.
This year’s event will fea-
ture Agent Orange, a truck
that Ralph Tramp, Streifel’s
longtime friend, has been
competing with for more
than 40 years. The truck is
named for its bright orange
paint and to remember
Agent Orange, a defoliant
the U.S. military used in
Vietnam that has sickened
many veterans. Tramp is a
Vietnam veteran.
Other competitors will
include a five-engine and
three-engine tractor, as well
as a twin jet-powered trac-
tor, Streifel said.
Tractors will be dis-
played Friday morning at
the Baker City NAPA auto
parts store and at the Baker
City Auto Ranch, both on
10th Street.
For rules or pre-entry
information, call Streifel at
541-379-5174.
Continued from A1
Photos: Baker County Chamber of Commerce/Contributed; Ian Crawford/Baker City Herald
“There’s a method to it,
there’s a system to what
we do. You are making
split second decisions
and you’re executing
those decisions to
hopefully slip in there
and protect a guy.”
Bullfighters
Continued from A1
Crenshaw sums up the gig
as simply “saving cowboys.”
On Saturday, Crenshaw
and his fellow bullfighters,
Matt Akers and Danny New-
man, worked in coordination
to distract heated bulls from
downed riders with the goal
of preventing injury to the
rider, the bull, or themselves.
Unlike the bull riding event
— and unlike other forms
of bullfighting involving
swords and matadors or free-
style bullfighting — this crew
wasn’t competing in any way.
Akers, a 36-year-old who’s
been bullfighting for 13 years,
said that even though the
fighters try to draw the bull’s
attention to themselves, the
job isn’t about being a “show-
boat.”
“We stay quiet when we
have to be,” Akers said. “You
could be running out there
and make rounds when you
don’t have to, and you could
have a situation where you
bring the bull back to the bull
rider because you are just fo-
cused on that bull.”
The fighters never engaged
with the bulls until necessary
— often, the bull would buck
or run its way out of the arena
on its own. Only when a bull
moved toward a rider would
the fighters step in.
How to head off a bull
Akers said the trio used
what he described as a North-
west style of bullfighting,
which involves using a tactic
called “head and tailing” —
one fighter entices the bull
forward while another hovers
around its backside, causing
the territorial beast to spin
in circles, unable to pick one
target.
They might sometimes stay
quiet, but the fighters are hard
to miss.
Each wore a long-sleeve
shirts with bright red mark-
— Bullfighter Matt Akers
Clayton Franke/Baker City Herald
All three bullfighters in action, from left to right, Matt Akers, Danny Newman and Jackal Crenshaw, on Sat-
urday, July 16, 2022.
ings to catch the eye of the
bull, and two fighters —
Crenshaw and Newman,
who’s 51 — wore traditional
loose-fitting denim skirts,
called baggies, which allow
the bull to make contact with
cloth instead of the skin and
bones of the fighter.
The fighters all wear pro-
tective vests and some form of
a hockey girdle, also for pro-
tection.
And to complete the outfit,
Crenshaw wears clown-like
face makeup to accompany
his waxed blonde mustache,
carrying on the tradition of
when bullfighters also served
as the entertainment during
the down time of rodeos.
Crenshaw, despite being the
youngest of the three fighters
at 24, said he likes to “keep it
old school” with his outfit.
While most everyone in-
volved with the rodeo wore
flat-bottomed cowboy boots
on Saturday, the three fighters
donned footwear with molded
rubber cleats for traction.
The cleats help the fight-
ers perform the quick, ath-
letic movements necessary to
evade charging bulls. Akers
has a background in boxing
Clayton Franke/Baker CIty Herald
Bullfighters Matt Akers, left, and Danny Newman, rest between
rounds in the bull riding competition Saturday, July 16, 2022, at Baker
County Fairgrounds.
and mixed martial arts, sports
that require fast feet and
movements in short bursts, as
does bullfighting.
Crenshaw said that while
he can’t outrun a bull in a
straight line, he’s much more
nimble than the bulky crea-
tures. All he has to do is run
Weather
Quakes
Continued from A1
Continued from A1
But statistically speaking,
temperatures typical of sum-
mer pretty much coincided
with the solstice on June 21.
For the first 20 days of June,
the average high temperature
was 68.3.
For the rest of the month it
was 83.2.
Prior to the solstice, the
temperature reached 80 de-
grees only once in June.
After, the high was 80 or
above on seven of 10 days
(and 79 on another).
The atmospheric spigot that
dripped frequently on the area
from early April through early
June has been turned off, as well.
Since the solstice, just 0.02
of an inch of rain has been
measured at the airport —
scarcely enough to dampen
the ground.
The National Weather Ser-
vice is forecasting similar
weather through at least the
coming weekend, with high
temperatures ranging from
the upper 80s to low 90s and
no rain.
Just a few earthquakes with mag-
nitudes larger than 3.0, which only
cause minor shaking, have occurred
in Baker Valley in the past 150 years,
according to a DOGAMI publication.
But that doesn’t mean the seis-
mic and geologic nature of the valley
shouldn’t be investigated on a deeper
level, McClaughry said.
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Baker Valley’s geological history
The valley is what geologists call a
graben — a German word meaning
trench or ditch — a slab of the Earth’s
crust situated below two other adja-
cent landmasses.
In Baker Valley’s case, those higher
chunks of crust are the Elkhorn
Mountains to the west, and the much
lower hills rising east of the valley.
Those hills, made up of volcanic
basalt 10 to 12 million years old, are a
relatively young part of the Columbia
River Flood Basalts, a massive out-
pouring of lava, much of it erupting
from vents in the Wallowa Mountains,
that flowed west along the current
route of the Columbia River.
These basalts, which are a few thou-
sand feet thick in places, were later cut
through by the Columbia River, and
the dark brown rocks make up the
towering slopes of the river’s gorge.
Some basalt flows extended to the
Pacific Ocean, where they form some
prominent headlands.
McClaughry uses the analogy of
three building blocks to describe the
relationship between the valley and
the adjacent mountains or hills.
The valley is the middle block, and
it’s dropping, at the imperceptible rate
of most geologic movements, relative
to the mountains.
It’s this slippage — friction be-
tween adjacent chunks of crust that
on a curve, and even with the
bull’s horns tailing inches be-
hind his rear end, he’ll lose
the animal.
Sheer athleticism allows the
fighters to protect riders and
themselves in many scenar-
ios, but according to Akers,
certain situations require a
pre-calculated and coordi-
nated effort.
When competitor Wyatt
Covington fell from his bull
during one of his rides Satur-
day, something unusual hap-
pened. Instead of hitting the
dirt, his hand got stuck un-
der the flat braided rope that
riders use to hold the bull,
leaving his body dragging on
the ground while the bull at-
tempted to shed the rider.
Getting the bull to spin in
this case, as the fighters typi-
cally try to do, would have left
Covington underneath the
animal.
Instead, the fighters got the
bull to “line out” or continue
in a straight line. It wasn’t
until all three yanked on the
rope — that’s when the bull’s
horn probed Crenshaw’s
ribs — that Covington’s hand
popped out, leaving him un-
injured.
“I haven’t seen a guy get
stuck that bad in a long time,”
Akers said.
The frenzy might have
seemed like a random scrum
to some in the audience that
packed the grandstand and
bleachers, but Akers says
that’s far from the truth.
“There’s a method to it,
there’s a system to what we
do,” Akers said. “You are mak-
ing split second decisions and
you’re executing those deci-
sions to hopefully slip in there
and protect a guy.”
Remembering Mabry
Anders, who was buried
with full military honors
at the Haines Cemetery,
has been honored with a
sign designating Milepost
36 on Highway 7, between
Baker City and Sumpter, as
Mabry Anders Memorial
Highway.
Anders’ mother, Gene-
vieve Woydziak of Baker
City, said the Powder
River in that area was a
favorite fishing spot for
her son. He and his family
spent part of a day there
before he was deployed to
Afghanistan.
Anders was born in
Yuma, Arizona, on July
22, 1991. After graduating
from high school he en-
tered the U.S. Army in Jan-
uary 2010.
He served in South Ko-
rea from June 2010 to June
2011. In March 2012 he
deployed to Afghanistan
where he was a driver for
two route-clearing pack-
ages. He was killed in ac-
tion at Kalagush.
Anders’ convoy hit a
roadside bomb, and while
he was looking for other
bombs he was fatally shot.
In a biography on the
Facebook page for the Spc.
Mabry James Anders Me-
morial Foundation, he is
described as a “fun-loving
young man” who “lived life
to the fullest.”
“Mab loved the out-
doors, riding dirt bikes,
off-roading in his jeep,
horseback riding and fly-
ing helicopters,” the biog-
raphy goes on. “His humor,
strong sense of friendship,
encouragement and com-
passion touched many
lives. Mabry was dedicated
to his family, friends and
his brothers-in-arms. He
loved serving his Country
and those he served with.
A friend quoted Mabry as
saying, ‘If you want to learn
something in this life, learn
how to live!’ ”
Kathy Orr/Baker City Herald, File
Faults along the base of the Elkhorn Mountains have caused Baker Valley to drop, and the mountains to rise, over millions of years.
When the Earth’s crust slips along those faults, earthquakes result. Geologists hope to study the faults within the next several years
to learn more about the history of quakes in the valley.
occasionally is released — that causes
earthquakes along what geologists call
faults.
According to a 2017 USGS report
partially authored by McClaughry, the
fault on the western edge of the val-
ley, at the foot of the Elkhorns, is the
most recently active, in geologic time
anyway.
The report says this fault has cre-
ated roughly 3,000 feet of vertical
displacement over the past 7 million
years — the reason for the Elkhorn’s
prominence, with the highest peak,
Rock Creek Butte, rising more than
5,000 feet above the valley floor.
Additionally, there’s evidence of
fault activity there within the last 2.5
million years, meaning the fault can
be considered “potentially active,” Mc-
Claughry said.
Light Detection and Ranging (LI-
DAR) evidence shows some other,
smaller faults near the Elkhorns to be
120,000 years or younger, based on
the fact that they cut through similarly
aged glacial deposits.
Detailed geologic studies planned
With other statewide geologic stud-
ies completed, McClaughry said Baker
County is near the top of the state’s
priority list for a survey using current
technology.
“The target goal within the next
five years is to begin the project,” Mc-
Claughry said. “Then it would take us
about three to four years to complete
an adequate geologic assessment of
the larger Baker Valley.”
USGS geologists would use
high-resolution mapping and geo-
physics to get a better understanding
of rock formations in the valley, as
well as what’s underneath them. Mc-
Claughry and his colleagues from the
federal agency will be able to see fur-
ther into earth’s crust and potentially
recognize different types of fault sys-
tems — or potentially new faults they
didn’t know existed.
“There are certainly ones buried at
depth below the valley, beneath the
river fill, that we don’t know their lo-
cation, orientation or what they look
like,” McClaughry said.
They’ll also get a better understand-
ing of when the faults were last active,
if they are still active, how big the po-
tential earthquakes could be and what
type of risk that might pose to the
valley.
“You want to know two things:
what is the largest earthquake that
could develop, and how often do they
occur,” McClaughry said. “I don’t have
the answer to that at this point.”
That is vital data, because the mag-
nitude of a quake largely determines
the severity of damage.
In Baker City, older, unreinforced
multistory stone buildings, of which
there are many in the historic down-
town district, are particularly vulnera-
ble to shaking.