LIVING B1
Burger recipe’s a
smashing success
IN THIS EDITION: LOCAL • HOME & LIVING • SPORTS
QUICK HITS
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Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
LOCAL A2
SPORTS A6
Large load to aff ect
traffi c on Hwy. 86
Baker avenges 2021
loss to Cascade
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
Eagle Cap
fires slow
as winds
subside
BAKER CITY’S CONNECTION WITH BASEBALL & BHUTAN
A special good day to Herald
subscriber Camille Warner of
Baker City.
BRIEFING
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Public transit plan
meetings scheduled
Baker County Coordinated
Human Services Plan (public
transit plan) is being updated,
as required by state regulations.
The second public meeting will
take place Tuesday, Sept. 13 at
1:30 p.m. in the Commission
Chambers the Baker County
Courthouse, 1995 Third St.
A link to the Zoom meeting
is available on the county’s
website, www.bakercounty.org.
More information is available by
calling 503-442-7867.
The third public meeting
will be Wednesday, Sept. 21
at 9 a.m. during a county
commissioner meeting at the
courthouse. The fi nal public
transit plan is scheduled to be
approved during that meeting.
Expect lane closures,
reduced speeds on I-84
Work has begun to repave
a 13-mile section of Interstate
84 between Ladd Canyon and
North Powder, and drivers
should expect lane closures
and reduced speeds to 55 mph
during daylight hours. Later
in September the contractor
will work at night to reduce
traffi c effects. The project is
scheduled to be done by Nov. 1.
Workers are paving rutted and
cracked pavement between
Mileposts 272 and 285, includ-
ing bridges at exits 278 and
283. That section of freeway
was last paved in 2003, accord-
ing to the Oregon Department
of Transportation.
WEATHER
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Today
99/50
Sunny
Wednesday
96/48
Storms possible
Full forecast on the back
of the B section.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 • $1.50
Both major blazes have
surpassed 2019 fire as
largest in wilderness in
decades
Kathleen Kiefer/Contributed Photo
A Bhutanese youth gets his turn to perfect catching a baseball in Thimphu, Bhutan.
A baseball story
saffron stitching
�i��
Baker anthropologist Kathleen
Kiefer fundraises for youth baseball
on the other side of the world
BY IAN CRAWFORD
icrawford@bakercityherald.com
F
rom Mount Everest’s peak you can see the
curvature of the earth, high enough for the
atmosphere to unveil stars to spite shining
sun. You can peer east and you’ll see the Hima-
layan mountains spearing over the cloud line for
hundreds of miles, all the way into the Kingdom
of Bhutan.
On a clear day, a young saffron-robed monk
might be gazing back, his mind on his breath and
posture, his eyes on the pitcher.
And then the crack of the bat, sending the
baseball piercing through the thin air.
The ball’s flight, in this distant region which is
98% mountainous, has a connection not just to
America, birthplace of baseball, but also to Baker
City.
“The ethos of the game of baseball is truly sim-
patico with Bhutanese character,” said Kathleen
Kiefer, an anthropologist, writer and filmmaker
from Baker City. “It has a meditative quality to it.”
Kiefer operates the nonprofit Bhutan Cultural
Exchange in Baker City, a program she’s been
running since 2015 when she chanced to meet the
Venerable Karma Namgyel. Namgyel, a resident
Buddhist monk, lives in Colorado and was hosted
in Baker City for 10 days by the Crossroads Carn-
egie Art Center.
“I asked while he was here for 10 days to photo
and video his whole deal here in Baker,” Kiefer
said. “I suggested we go on this hike, I know he’s
from the southern Himalayas. I thought he’d ap-
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Two lightning fires in the Eagle Cap Wilder-
ness grew substantially on Saturday, Sept. 3, fu-
eled by strong winds, hot temperatures and hu-
midities that dipped into single digits in places.
Another lightning-sparked blaze, the Dou-
ble Creek fire northeast of the wilderness in
Wallowa County, has also continued to spread,
reaching 43,668 acres as of Monday, Sept. 5.
The Double Creek fire has prompted an
evacuation order for the town of Imnaha.
All three fires were less active on Sunday,
Sept. 4, as winds subsided and temperatures
cooled, according to an update from the over-
head team managing the blazes.
The Double Creek fire is a “full suppression”
blaze, which means officials are trying to douse
it as soon as possible. The fire has led to evacu-
ation notices in the Imnaha and upper Imnaha
River Road areas.
The two fires in the wilderness, by contrast,
are “managed” fires. That means officials are
using a variety of tactics, monitoring the fires in
some areas but taking actions, such as having
helicopters drop water and dispatching fire-
fighters on the ground, to try to limit the fires’
spread in certain directions.
Both wilderness fires — Sturgill, estimated at
12,703 acres on Monday, and Nebo, estimated
at 7,277 acres — have surpassed the 2019 Gran-
ite Gulch fire as the biggest in the Eagle Cap
See Fires / A3
Ian Crawford/Baker City Herald
Kathleen Kiefer, local anthropologist and filmmaker,
hosts the Bhutan Cultural Exchange in Baker City,
supporting baseball in distant Bhutan.
preciate a hike, and he did. He was out there in
his flowing orange robes and sandals!”
The experience, which she filmed and pub-
lished, compelled Kiefer to visit Bhutan for the
first time.
She’s since returned four more times, ceas-
ing her trips only during the pandemic, but she’s
planning a sixth visit, this time staying for a year.
“I fell in love with the country, and everything
about it,” Kiefer said.
Her relationship with Bhutan led to the base-
ball connection.
Kiefer is raising money to provide the youth of
Bhutan with the equipment, training and travel
See Baseball / A3
The space below is for a postage label
for issues that are mailed.
Back to school
in record heat
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Summer vacation has ended for Baker
School District students, but summer weather
is stubbornly holding on.
Classes convened on Tuesday, Sept. 6 in the
midst of the latest in a series of record-breaking
heat waves.
The temperature on Tuesday was forecast to
top out at 99 degrees at the Baker City Airport,
easily exceeding the record of 94, set in 1944
and tied in 2018.
And the National Weather Service is predict-
ing the abnormal heat to continue on Wednes-
day, Sept. 7, with a high of 98 at the airport.
See Heat / A3
Good Samaritans
help douse fire
COVID cases drop in August
BY IAN CRAWFORD
icrawford@bakercityherald.com
The number of COVID-19
cases reported in Baker County
dropped by about 33% in August
compared with July and June.
The Oregon Health Authority
(OHA) recorded 79 cases in the
county in August.
July’s total was 116, and June’s
was 121.
Baker County’s total during the
pandemic is 3,581 cases.
The U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention rates the
COVID-19 community level at
medium. Baker County’s level,
which is based on case rates and
hospital admission rates, was
high during July and early Au-
gust.
OHA reported two COVID-
19-related deaths of county resi-
dents during August. The brings
the total since the start of the
pandemic to 56. There have been
A fire in north Baker City was swiftly
contained on Friday afternoon, Sept. 2, af-
ter two good Samaritans used garden hoses
to spray water on the flames.
The fire, reported at 2:17 p.m., was at the
former Baker Exchange building at 3780
10th St., on the east side of 10th Street.
Shannon Conklin and her husband,
Bryan, of Baker City, were among those
having lunch on the patio outside the Little
Pig restaurant, just across 10th Street.
“You could see flames out of the back,”
Shannon said.
Bryan, who is a correctional officer at
Powder River Correctional Facility and a
former wildland firefighter, went into action.
“The wife and I were having lunch and
we went up to the counter to pay, I looked
out the door and thought, ‘That’s a lot of
smoke coming out of that building’, ” Bryan
said.
See Samaritans / A3
TODAY
Issue 50
12 pages
Classified ....................B2-B4
Comics ..............................B5
Community News.............A2
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Crossword ...............B2 & B4
Dear Abby .........................B6
Horoscope ..............B2 & B4
Health Dept. gauges interest
in new COVID-19 vaccine
BY CLAYTON FRANKE
cfranke@bakercityherald.com
The Baker County Health
Department wants to find out
how many people are interested
in receiving a newly approved
COVID-19 booster vaccine
so it can prepare staff and re-
sources accordingly.
The same goes for seasonal
flu shots.
The department posted
eight deaths since mid March.
Neither the state nor the
county has released age, gender
or other information about the
deaths this summer.
After a monthly record of 646
cases in January 2022 during
Jayson Jacoby ..................A4
Lottery Results .................A2
News of Record ................A2
a link to the seven-question
survey on its Facebook page
Wednesday morning, Aug. 31.
The survey asks if an individual
plans to get a flu shot, if they
plan to receive the new bivalent
COVID booster, and which
brand of booster they prefer.
The US Food and Drug Ad-
ministration on Aug. 31 autho-
rized the use of a new bivalent
See Survey / A3
the omicron surge, Baker Coun-
ty’s case rate plummeted to
230 during February and then
dropped even more rapidly
during March, when there were
14 cases.
Opinion .............................A4
Home & Living ........B1 & B2
Senior Menus ...................A2
See COVID / A3
Sports ........................ A5, A6
Turning Backs ..................A2
Weather ............................B6