Community
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
A11
Author’s novel on local mining history
FAMILY
HEALTH
MICHAEL RUSHTON, DPM
my buddies to the Grant Union novels and short stories, more
Prospector football games. The screenplays, poems, even dabble
logo of the school, the logo of a little in a play or two and some
our history of the miner holding QRQ¿FWLRQ$WKHDUW,¶GMXVWOLNH
his pick was on helmets and on to tell stories – stories that lift,
uniforms and on the school it- encourage and strengthen.
Eagle: Do you have any oth-
self. I saw it everywhere I went.
I wore the logo when I suited up er interests or hobbies?
Samuel: I like to golf. What
to play football, basketball or
baseball. I am a Prospector. That I like about golf is that one can
identity of living as a Prospector have a very bad round and still
has become something more to enjoy the outing. Especially
me –not just ink on a resume, with friends and family. I love to
‘Warm
but a connection to a place far read. And go on dates with my
Gold,’
bigger than me. I have to explore wife. After a hectic week in the
a novel
it. “Warm Gold” is my feeble at- schools, we often like to unwind
based
tempt at trying to understand this with dinner and a movie. We
on Grant story in Grant County, so rich it also enjoy traveling and hope to
County
one day travel to New York.
is overwhelming to me.
mining
Eagle: Where can people
Eagle: Why did you decide
history,
to donate proceeds from sales of buy your books?
is the
Samuel: Both “Warm Gold”
“Warm Gold” to Canyon Creek
latest
and “How Well the Sailors Run”
FRPSOH[¿UHYLFWLPV"
work by
Samuel: I am speechless by are available in paperback at
author
the destruction of the Canyon Amazon, and in ebook format
Samuel
Creek Complex Fire. My parents through Amazon, Nook and
Cronin.
and family drove up the canyon Smashwords.
Samuel Cronin graduated
to Starr Ridge over Labor Day
weekend, surveying the damage. from Grant Union High School
Grant County did you draw on It is apocalyptic. This novel is in 1994, and has degrees in En-
for the novel?
my small attempt at alleviating glish from Oregon State Univer-
Samuel: Eating at places the harm experienced by those sity, and education from Eastern
like the Motherlode, where you who have lost so much from the Oregon University.
He and his wife Christie live
could order a cinnamon roll so ¿UH,NQRZLWLVQRWHQRXJK
ODUJHLWFRYHUHG\RXUHQWLUHSODWH
Eagle: Do you do any other in Idaho, where he teaches spe-
cial education at the high-school
or the Grizzly Bear, where you types of writing?
sat in a booth named for one of
Samuel: My hopes and level. His parents, Dan and
the mining towns, and where dreams are to write many more Chris Cronin, live in John Day.
you ordered pizza like the Claim
Jumper (my brother’s favorite,
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Grant County’s
with its giant wood-carved stat-
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Bit with its rich intimacy. One
of the imaginary taverns that I
created in “Warm Gold” is in-
Darrin Dailey
spired by all of these restaurants,
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Making Grant County a better place.
The warmth I felt when eating
WORKPLACE: Monument High School, since 2011
at those restaurants with friends
and family helped stir in me a
FAMILY MEMBERS: Wife of 25 yrs, Cara, daughter Charlotte at
warmth for this community, for
home, daughter Emily at Sheppard AFB, TX, son Wilson in Boise,
its history. That warmth is re-
ID, and daughter Madeline in Roseburg, OR
newed in me whenever I return
WHERE YOU LIVE: Monument
to the area.
OCCUPATION: Math and Science teacher grades 7-12
On Friday nights the main
entertainment was to go with
WHY IS EDUCATION IMPORTANT TO YOU: Education is the great
EDUCATIONAL
HERO OF THE MONTH
equalizer. Armed with education, we are limited only by our own
ambition. Education offers chances that our forbearers may not
have had.
WAR ROOM PG
A seemingly perfect family looks to fix their
problems with the help of an older, wiser woman.
FRI & SAT
(4:00) 7:00 9:40
SUNDAY
(4:00) 7:00
MON-THURS (4:00) 7:00
THE MARTIAN PG-13
An astronaut stranded on Mars is presumed dead
and must find a way to signal to Earth that he’s
alive.
FRI & SAT
(3:30) 6:30 9:30
SUNDAY
(3:30) 6:30
MON-THURS (4:10) 6:30
THE INTERN PG-13
70-year-old retiree (Robert DeNiro) comes out of
retirement to intern for an online fashion site.
FRI & SAT
(4:00) 7:10 9:45
SUN-THURS (4:00) 7:10
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 PG
Dracula and his friends try to bring out the
monster in his grandson.
(4:10)
FRI-SUN
$9 Adult, $7 Senior (60+), Youth
WHAT CAN FAMILIES DO AT HOME TO HELP WITH THE
EDUCATION OF THEIR CHILDREN: Two things: One, don’t tell
your kids how you were never any good at a subject. Two, expect
your children to go farther than you did.
WHAT ARE SPECIFIC THINGS THE COMMUNITY CAN DO TO HELP
YOUR SCHOOL: Talk to kids about how they’re doing in school.
Let kids know that how they are doing is important to you and
the community as a whole.
...celebrates this month’s Local Hero
02810
years ago. I’m thankful how
the journey has humbled me.
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story I’ve written, but it is the
story that has been with me from
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my youth. I have rich memories
Blue Mountain Eagle
from growing up as a Prospector
in John Day and Canyon City,
KUNA, Idaho – Routine and so I’ve enjoyed sharing that
school days, Friday nights on richness in this novel.
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Eagle: Do you have more
to restaurants have all become story ideas in mind for future
more than just cherished memo- books?
ries for Samuel Cronin.
Samuel: With “How Well
Cronin has worked those ex- the Sailors Run” and “Warm
periences growing up in
Gold” now published,
Grant County, plus his
and while I have time,
interest in local mining
I’m planning ahead to
history, into his new
my next two projects,
novel, “Warm Gold,” a
which I hope to be ready
tale centered on Grant
next year for readers.
County’s rich gold min-
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ing history of the 1890s.
a husband who loses his
The novel, which
Samuel
only chance at making
is his second published
Cronin
it to the Professional
work, took him over
Golfers Association be-
four years to write, and involved cause his wife, who is his caddy,
research at several sites, includ- committed a rule breach, which
ing local museums and mines. GLVTXDOL¿HGKLPVKHZDVKDYLQJ
Some of what he learned, such a miscarriage at the time. To re- He always said there was.
DVWKH&DQ\RQ&LW\¿UHRI cover from her depression, she
It seemed to me then, as it
struck a chord with Cronin, in takes up the game and eventual- seems to me now, that there is
light of the recent Canyon Creek ly makes it to the Ladies PGA. an uncommon wealth in Canyon
&RPSOH[ ¿UH DQG FRPSHOOHG He agrees to caddy for her. The City and in the county at large.
him to donate 30 percent of the latter project is a story about a )URP WKH LQLWLDO JROG ¿QG LQ
sales of the book to assist fami- grandfather who is so disgusted Canyon Creek on June 8, 1862,
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by the materialism of Christmas the town has survived no less
The Eagle talked with Cro- that he shuns his entire family WKDQIRXULQIHUQROLNH¿UHV±WKH
nin about his books, writing and during their Christmas Eve tra- fourth being the Canyon Creek
growing up in Grant County.
ditions. When he loses them all Complex Fire – depressions,
Eagle: How did you get in- to a violent tornado, he copes ORVV RI PLOOV YLROHQFH ÀRRGV
terested in writing? Did you toy with his loss by opening their and so forth. The resilience of
around with it when you were presents.
this people holds on, however
younger, or is this a recent pur-
Eagle: What compelled or painful or hopeless, believing
suit?
inspired you to write “Warm they’ll make it through. There
Samuel: When I was a se- Gold”?
is a treasure here. I experienced
nior at Grant Union, I convinced
Samuel: This story resonates it in the people I knew from my
the principal and my English with me because of the towns I youth, and in the people who
teacher to give me a free peri- grew up in. My family moved live here now. A deepening trea-
od so I could write my novel. to Canyon City in the early ’80s, sure – in this beautiful country,
They granted my request, and as and then to John Day. I attended and in the people themselves.
graduation approached, I would Humbolt Elementary – named
Honestly, I don’t truly know
VQHDNDZD\E\WKHIRRWEDOO¿HOG after the Humbolt Mine, a plac- how or why I wrote this novel,
to write. I didn’t get very far with er mine on the hill behind it – only that it was planted in me
that story, however, but it cer- and Grant Union High School from the very people whom I
tainly planted a seed.
– home of the Prospectors. long to make alive, people we
Later, after I graduated from The mystique and lore of the cannot ever forget, the truth in
Oregon State University with a hills sang to me as I explored them that resonates with us now.
bachelors in English, I went on old mines with my friends and I hope I have been a good stew-
an adventure, leaving John Day viewed the gold nuggets from a ard of that story.
early one Monday morning in true-life prospector, probing him
Eagle: What memories or
my Ford Ranger, and arriving if there was still gold in the hills. experiences from growing up in
in Camden, Maine, three days
later. That summer I worked as
a deckhand on a schooner. That
Treatment and Surgery of Foot
experience formed the basis for
and Ankle • In-Grown Nails
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Bunions • Warts • Gout
write off-and-on for more than a
Corns & Callouses
decade – tinkering with screen-
Diabetic Foot Screening
plays, drafts of other novels, in-
Foot Odor • Athletes Foot
termittently.
Treatment for pain in feet, shins,
Eagle: What do you enjoy
heels, knees, lower back. Custom
most about writing?
molded orthotics.
Samuel: For me, writing is
a mode of communication that I
¿QGQRXULVKLQJEHFDXVHLWKHOSV
me try to understand people and
their worlds, how complicated
Podiatric physician & Surgeon
life is, how rewarding it is to be
alive, hopefully lifting and being
Dr. Rushton is Preferred Providerfor Lifewise and Blue
lifted through the journey of a
Cross/Blue Shield and a Medicate participant.
good story.
Eagle: Have you written any
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Samuel: I’ve published
OFFICE HOURS: EVERY OTHER TUESDAY
“How Well the Sailors Run,”
the story of the prodigal son, re-
told as a sea adventure, based on
my experiences aboard Schoo-
ner Roseway in Camden. I’ve
also written two feature-length
screenplays that are waiting to
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company, and drafts of various
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at a later date. I sat down at my
desk to devote my full attention
to “Warm Gold” shortly after I
The doctor speaks Spanish - El Doctor habla Espanol.
married Christie. That was four
‘Warm Gold’ sales
proceeds will
benefit fire victims
02796
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Are you
part of a
NON-PROFIT
in Grant County?
We need your help!
Built and delivered
all within 30 days!
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4 bed, 2 bath | 1,782 Sq. Feet
The Blue Mountain Eagle is working to create
a master list of non-profits in Grant
County. We are looking for
the NAME of the non-
profit, CONTACT PHONE
NUMBER, EMAIL
ADDRESS, and WEB SITE
if available to be added to, or
updated on the list for this
year’s Grant County Giving
Back section, coming out in
October.
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J & M Homes offers exceptional customer service with 100% customer
satisfaction. Not only can we help you find the right home at the most
affordable price for you and your family — we
are also available to assist you with the
delivery and set up of your new home if you
choose.
Either call the information into
the Eagle Office at 541-575-0710 or email
kristina@bmeagle.com
1690 N Hwy. 97
Open: Mon-Fri 9am-5pm
Sat 9am-5pm
Redmond, OR 97756
Sun 10am-4pm
541-548-5511
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195 N. Canyon Blvd.
John Day
MyEagleNews.com
02640 | Photo by Tanni Wenger