B4
History
Blue Mountain Eagle
LONG CREEK
Continued from Page B1
“Families were close in those
days,” she said.
Smith’s roots stretch back to 1875
when her great-grandparents, William
and Perniece Paralee (Blackwell)
Carter, moved to Long Creek from
Oklahoma and Arkansas. Post-Civil
War turmoil in that area drove them
to seek more peaceful environs. They
soon brought over his mother, Berth-
anna Carter, who settled in Fox. Her
cabin is preserved in the Beech Creek
area.
Smith’s grandparents, Sam and
Martha (Harryman) Carter, and par-
ents, Benton and Loraine (Kelly) Car-
ter, all lived in Long Creek.
Growing up, horseback riding and
fishing were among Smith’s favorite
activities. She reminisces their father
piling her and siblings into the truck
for Fourth of July trips to the Desola-
Courtesy photo/Reiba Carter Smith
Reiba with her mother, Loraine,
in 1943.
tion mining camp.
Other ventures included mountain
picnics as well as swimming trips to
the Joaquin Miller pool, where she
first learned to swim, and Ritter and
Lehman hot springs.
And then there were the mud pies.
“I kind of enjoyed making mud
pies,” Smith said, adding they some-
times swiped eggs from the kitchen
and their mother’s bottle of Jergens
lotion to help firm up the mud pie
mix.
Smith was active at school too,
especially high school, where she
played softball and volleyball. In the
latter, Long Creek’s team was “the
top dog,” she said.
School plays were common every
year, Smith said — both a senior and
junior one, often followed by a dance
afterward. An annual spring music
festival was held in May, hosted by a
different school each year and attend-
ed by all the other area schools. Each
would prepare a musical program to
present for the event, which included
a maypole dance.
After World War II, Smith re-
calls a veteran visited the school
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
and taught tumbling to the students,
resulting in an active tumbling team
for several years afterward. Smith
said missionaries and members of the
Gideons sometimes visited the school
and brought Bibles for the students,
which she thought would be unheard
of today.
She did confess to one incident
in Mitchell during softball season, in
which she and three “chums” took the
machine that makes the chalk lines
on the field. The mischievous group
soon returned it, but in the interim,
Smith said she “didn’t sleep at all.”
As in any community, Long Creek
has seen many changes to the number
and variety of its businesses. Those
Smith recalls during her life there
include a hotel, drug store, three gas
stations, two mills and two “pas-
times” — or saloons. In the 1940s,
a local man with a projector set up
a movie theater of sorts in a white
building near the park. During dif-
ferent time periods, there were also a
Old-fashioned Grant County recipes
These old-time recipes, and
many more, can be found in the
Grant County Genealogical
Society’s compilation called
“Through the Spokes of Time:
A Collection of Recipes,” along
with bits of Grant County histo-
ry. The society’s library and re-
search center is located at 281
W. Main St. in John Day.
Gold Town
Pasta Salad
4 cups cooked pasta
1/2 cup ham, diced
4 slices processed cheese,
cubed
One 12-ounce package fro-
zen vegetables
Dressing:
1/2 cup salad dressing or
mayo
1/4 cup 1,000 Island dressing
1/4 cup celery, diced
1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions:
Thaw frozen vegetables; add
ham and thawed vegetables to
pasta. Mix dressing, celery, and
salt. Add pasta mixture to dress-
ing mixture. May be served right
away, but can be refrigerated for
flavors to blend. Very popular at
restaurant salad bar and buffets.
Above recipe makes a fami-
ly-size amount.
Contributed by Betty Elliott
who owned Gold Town Pizza
in John Day with her husband,
Dean.
Seneca Loggers
Navy Bean Soup
2 1/2 cups dry navy beans
2 cloves garlic
Serving Grant County
Since 1984
Two 7 1/2 ounce cans tomato
sauce
Shank end of smoked picnic
ham
1 heaping tablespoon chili
powder
2 large onions
1 bay leaf
Pinch of sweet basil
Directions:
Wash beans and soak
beans overnight. Cook beans
with ham shank in water to
cover until beans are almost
done. Remove ham shank
and cut meat into cubes. Dice
skin and return to beans. Cut
up onions, dice garlic cloves,
add to beans. Add chili pow-
der, basil, bay leaf and toma-
to sauce to beans. Simmer
until onion is tender. Remove
bay leaf. Salt to taste. Figure
on 3 to 4 hours cooking time.
Feeds a bunch.
Contributed by Elaine
Husted, this recipe was by
Albin J. “Al” Reynolds. His
wife, Esma, was active in
the Blue Mountain Hospital
Auxiliary, and Al made this
soup for many years for the
Christmas Bazaar sponsored
by the auxiliary. Esma was
also a teacher at Seneca
School and was director of
the Seneca Jump Ropers in
the mid-’60s.
Fresh Apple
Cookies
GIBCO
Ag & Industrial
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 medium peeled and grated
apple
(no eggs)
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt or less
Mix shortening and sug-
ar well. Add grated apple and
vanilla. Mix well and add
dry ingredients, mixing well.
Roll into balls the size of a
walnut and roll in this mix-
ture: 4 tablespoons sugar,
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2
teaspoon cinnamon. Place on
greased cookie sheet. Bake at
375 degrees for 10 minutes.
Do not over-bake. These
cookies keep well and they
freeze well.
This recipe, which was
contributed for the book by
Mary Ellen Brooks of Mt.
Vernon, is by Mary McKern.
Brooks said when she was
a child, McKern taught 4-H
cooking in the old Grange
Hall in Mt. Vernon that
burned in the 1940s.
Hot Water
Sponge Cake
2 eggs beaten
Stir in:
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Directions:
Add items in order listed.
To this mixture add scant 1/2
cup boiling water. Pour into
loaf pan and bake at 350 de-
grees for 30 minutes or until
a toothpick comes out clean.
This recipe, contributed
by Linda Holland of John
Day, is by Pauline Corwin/
Royse-Farra. She and her
husband, Harley Farra, set-
tled in Fox Valley around
1930, later moving to John
Day where they started up
the business Farra’s Harness
and Shoe Shop.
couple of general merchandise stores
— Moore’s, which was converted
into a movie theater in the 1950s, and
Sherm Kahler’s.
Smith, in a class of seven students,
graduated in 1958. She earned a de-
gree in education from Eastern Ore-
gon University, and went on to teach
at Long Creek, Condon, Cove and
Grant Union schools.
Her aunt, Estella Carter Boyer,
served as Grant County School su-
perintendent.
Smith and her husband, a 1957
Prairie City School graduate, have
been married for 53 years —a union
that resulted from a blind date. They
have three grown children — two are
teachers, and one is a plumber — and
eight grandchildren.
She’s lived in the same home,
which was a mill house, for almost
50 years.
Smith summed her life in “com-
munity-oriented” Long Creek with
one word: “Freedom.”
Historical society
looks to the future
Long Creek
group strives
to build
museum on
fort site
By Cheryl Hoefler
For the Blue Mountain Eagle
T
he gate at the stately
Fort Townsend sign
on West Main Street
in Long Creek will one day
lead to a museum for the lo-
cal community.
That’s the vision for the
Long Creek Historical So-
ciety.
The group, which has
been striving for years to
establish a home for their
accumulation of local arti-
facts, documents and other
historical memorabilia, is
in the midst of a five-year
plan to solicit input from
Long Creek citizens on the
direction and future of the
museum and site.
Annual
fundraising
events include the Found-
ers Day Celebration on the
Fourth of July and a St. Pat-
rick’s Day dinner in March.
The society recently
hosted a successful eclipse
dinner Aug. 18 and will
hold a buck season deer
bake and food sale at 10
a.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, at the
main intersection in town.
So, what’s behind the
“Townsend” name?
Fort Townsend is named
Eagle file photo
“Fort Townsend” in
Long Creek is the
entrance to the future
site of the Long Creek
Historical Society
Museum.
for a local man, William
“Billy” Townsend, who is
credited with saving the
Long Creek community
during the 1878 Bannock
and Paiute Indian War.
During the uprising, lo-
cal people hastily built a fort
east of town where settlers
gathered to defend them-
selves. Townsend, a veteran
of the Civil War, prevented
members of the approach-
ing tribes from entering the
fort.
Townsend’s great-grand-
son, Long Creek resident
Dan Morrow is president of
the Historical Society. Oth-
er members include Stan
Metz, vice-president; Rei-
ba Carter Smith, secretary;
Marsie Watson, treasure;
Linda Hunt and Gaye Pruit.
The group meets at 4
p.m. the last Friday of the
month.
For more information,
contact the Long Creek His-
torical Society by mail at
P.O. Box 153, Long Creek,
OR 97856, or call Smith at
541-421-3165.
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