GO! INSERT
SPORTS A6
SPORTS A6
Your guide to
holiday bazaars
Soccer earns
league honors
Badgers brace for
semifi nal tussle
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
IN THIS EDITION: BUSINESS & AG LIFE • SPORTS
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2022 • $1.50
QUICK HITS
—————
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to Herald
subscriber Patti Pickard of
Keating.
BRIEFING
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Adventist Church
planning food drive
The Baker City Seventh-day
Adventist Church is holding a
food drive to help fi ll Thanks-
giving baskets. The church will
distribute bags around Baker
City on Thursday, Nov. 17, then
return on Saturday, Nov. 19,
to collect donations. Anyone
who doesn’t receive a bag, but
would like to donate, can call
Valerie Tachenko, 541-377-
2260, or the church,
541-523-4913.
Ian Crawford/Baker City Herald
Vivian Petrik of Vivian’s Vivacious Varieties pre-
pares her selections of tinctures, scents, and gifts
to sell at the new mercantile on 11th Street.
Birds on a
Wire offers
new option
for local
crafters
Free Thanksgiving
meal at Calvary
Baptist Church
Calvary Baptist Church will
have a free Thanksgiving Day
meal on Thursday, Nov. 24 from
3 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Browning
Hall at the church, 2130 Fourth
St. in Baker City.
The menu includes turkey
with all the trimmings, stuffi ng,
potatoes, gravy, yams, veggie
trays, deviled eggs, green bean
casserole, pickles, dinner rolls
and desserts.
Browning Hall is also the
site for the church’s weekly
free community dinners, each
Thursday from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
BY SAMANTHA O’CONNER
soconner@bakercityherald.com
claimed there was a sixth
cabin.
A “secret” cabin.
“She drew that in 30
minutes,” Sarah says, a
palpable wonder in her
voice as she contemplates
Linda’s artistic ability.
“Linda is good,” Sarah
says, briefly lapsing into
the present tense as
she talks about the sec-
ond-oldest of her six chil-
dren, whose art hangs on
the living room walls of
Sarah’s Baker City apartment.
But mostly Sarah refers to Linda
in the past tense.
So does another daughter, Linda’s
younger sister, Mary Lane.
For Sarah and Mary and many
other relatives and friends, Linda’s
story, terrible though it is, remains
unfinished, a book with its final
chapters ripped from the binding,
the pages scattered in the wind.
The old grocery warehouse at 2345 11th
St. in Baker City has received a crafty make-
over for a grand opening Friday, Nov. 18.
Birds on a Wire Mercantile is a place
where crafters can sell their wares during
this holiday season and year round.
Tracy Williams, who started the craft mall
with her husband, Chad, has been a crafter
for years. She has attended flea markets, ba-
zaars and similar events.
Those experiences motivated Tracy to
find a place where her fellow local craft-
ers could sell their wares without worrying
about pricey set up fees and travel expenses.
“I drove by this building and it wasn’t
even for sale and I knew I wanted it,” she
said.
She contacted the owners and asked if
they would sell it to her, a vision in her
mind, and an adventure awaiting she and
her husband.
“We started on the adventure, and boy
was it an adventure,”
Tracy said.
“We started
The former grocery
warehouse is west of
on the
10th Street on a gravel
road near the railroad
adventure,
tracks. The William-
ses had to negotiate
and boy
red tape with the city
was it an
and county to make the
building, constructed
adventure.”
in 1910, usable.
The warehouse was
— Tracy Williams,
originally used for food
proprietor of
that arrived by train
Birds on a Wire
and then distributed
Mercantile
throughout Oregon
and Washington.
The couple renovated the flooring, Tracy
hand-stained the front area, and they in-
stalled a security system. The couple also
lives in the building.
“We just worry about people breaking in,”
Tracy said. “With us living here, we are com-
fortable.”
Tracy began with a few vendors but one
Facebook post later, they were full with 48
vendors.
“The outpouring of people who were in-
terested, and I still have other people that
are interested coming up if we have booths
that open up,” she said.
Chad said possibly down the road, they
may look into expanding to the upstairs area
where they have another 5,000 square feet
of space.
They still have a few spots for smaller dis-
plays for those who are interested.
Tracy said a goal was to make sure there
was enough open space for shoppers to
move around without feeling cramped.
See Linda / A2
See Birds / A5
Past President’s dinner
Friday at Eagles
The Eagles Past Presidents
Club is having a dinner on
Friday, Nov. 18 at 2935 H St.
in Baker City. Dinner will start
at 6 p.m. and continue until
sold out. Tickets are $8, and
the menu includes chili with all
the toppings, cornbread and
desserts. Eagles members and
their guests are welcome.
Contributed Photo
Linda Peterson with her granddaughter, Grace, at a gymnastics competition in Baker City.
Bringing
Linda
WEATHER
—————
Today
Home
39/10
Partly sunny
Friday
36/16
Mostly sunny
Full forecast on the back
of the B section.
Linda Peterson’s family yearns to know what happened
to the Baker City woman who went missing in March 2019
The space below is for a postage label
for issues that are mailed.
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Sarah Leffler touches
the framed pencil draw-
ing her daughter, Linda
Peterson, created and
remembers a time when
she could look at the art-
work and feel happy.
A time when she could
have phoned Linda sim-
ply because she wanted
to hear her voice.
A pencil drawing by Linda Peterson.
A time when they
might have spent an af-
“I always hope that someone’s going
ternoon together, perhaps laughing
to come forward. For everyone’s
about that drawing, which Linda
made one day at Phillips Reservoir, a sake, especially my mom. She needs
tableau of mountains and water and
to know what happened before she’s
cabins.
The cabins were the inside joke,
gone. It just eats her up. She talks
the one that mother and daughter
about it all the time.”
shared.
There are five cabins, scattered
— Loretta Lane, whose sister, Linda
about the lake shore, or at least that’s
Peterson, went missing from Baker
the number Sarah came up with.
City in March 2019
But Linda, she said, always
TODAY
Issue 81
32 pages
Business .................B1 & B2
Classified ....................B2-B4
Comics ..............................B5
Community News.............A2
Crossword ...............B2 & B4
Dear Abby .........................B6
Horoscope ..............B3 & B4
Lottery Results .................A2
News of Record ................A2
Opinion .............................A4
Senior Menus ...................A2
Sports ...............................A6
Sudoku..............................B5
Turning Backs ..................A2
Weather ............................B6