A4
Opinion
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, June 13, 2018
Kam Wah Chung
a local treasure
N
estled near Canyon
Creek in John Day is
a building steeped in
history.
Constructed more than 140
years ago, the small structure
that housed Kam Wah Chung &
Co. is now a museum providing
visitors a window into the past.
Following the Canyon City
gold rush in 1862 and an influx
of Chinese immigrants, Ing
Hay and Lung On purchased
the building after migrating
here themselves.
At its peak, the Chinese
population in John Day was
about 2,000 — the third largest
Chinatown in the United States,
slightly smaller than those in
Portland and San Francisco.
Ing Hay and Lung On
operated Kam Wah Chung to
cater to the population with a
mercantile, apothecary, doctor’s
office and boarding house that
also served as a religious and
community center.
When Ing Hay fell ill in
1948, the business closed its
doors after more than 60 years.
Everything inside remained
as it was when he left, and still
remains today to the delight of
thousands of museum attendees
each year.
The site was added to the
National Register of Historic
Places in 1973, and the city
began using it as a museum in
1975.
More than a half century
after Kam Wah Chung
closed its doors, a new effort
blossomed to ensure they
would remain open to those
seeking to understand its
cultural significance.
Former first lady Mary
Oberst, Barbara Sidway and
Sharon Leighty spearheaded a
$1.5 million fundraising effort
to restore the building and
establish an interpretive center,
and the site was designated a
National Historic Landmark in
2005.
The site was transferred
to the state, which continues
to operate the interpretive
center and provide tours of the
museum. Kam Wah Chung is
expected to draw about 10,000
visitors this summer.
On Saturday, a sold-out
crowd gathered to celebrate
the 10th anniversary of the
restoration by the Oregon Parks
and Recreation Department,
and the 140th anniversary of
Kam Wah Chung.
This historical gem, and the
efforts to preserve and share
it, deserve applause. Everyone
who contributed — from the
fundraisers to the park staff
to the Friends of Kam Wah
Chung volunteers — should
be proud of what they have
accomplished.
Thanks to the efforts of
many, Kam Wah Chung is a
historic local treasure that will
remain for all to enjoy for many
more years to come.
F ARMER ’ S F ATE
Say your pwayers, wodent!
By Brianna Walker
To the Blue Mountain Eagle
The plant disappeared into the
ground as quickly as money is sucked
into the pneumatic tube canisters at
the bank. I knelt down quickly where
the melon plant used to be — there
was nothing but a few roots stuck on
the side of a freshly dug gopher hole.
My insides were screaming in my
best Elmer Fudd impression. “Hew-
wo! Acme Pest Contwol? Weww, I
have a pest I want contwolled!”
If jumping up and down and wav-
ing around a gun would have helped
Elmer, I may have been inclined to
try it too. I stood in the middle of a
gopher colony, surrounded by ro-
dent-chewed drip tape fountains.
Yesterday, it had been a beautiful
field of freshly laid mulch with pret-
ty little melon plants growing down
the rows. Today, gopher mounds dot-
ted the field like a traumatic case of
teenage acne. And if the pimpled field
wasn’t enough, the rotten rodents
had chewed the drip tape into fishnet
stockings — holes spraying water
every which direction. Some plants
were drowning in water, some were
bone dry and others raptured — noth-
ing left but a few roots to mark their
life in this world. “Eat my pwants and
chew up my dwip tape will you, you
wasically wodent?”
I wish there was something I
could put in the water that wouldn’t
hurt the plants, but
would repel those
horrid buck-toothed
rodents. My aunt’s
vegan, black-bean
brownies would do
the trick — the first
Brianna
person to take the
Walker
bite has their mouth
glommed shut, and it
repels everyone else — but I’m afraid
they might kill the melon plants too.
I felt like the star of a cartoon,
chasing around a tiny little nemesis
who is always getting the upper hand.
The only thing missing was to be
sprayed in the face with water from
the chewed-up drip tape. About that
time, I knelt down to start working
on another patch. As I put my hand
on the plastic, it sunk into a flooded
gopher hole. Water didn’t spray my
face, but my knee, my boot and my
arm up to my elbow sunk in the mud.
“Kill da wodent!” I breathed.
That evening, covered in mud and
scratches, my husband and I head-
ed for home. Neither of us spoke. It
had been a long and discouraging
day. Our cat purred for attention,
and rubbed across our legs, but we
weren’t in the mood. We tossed
him out before changing out of our
mud-encrusted clothes and heading
for the kitchen — each of us wishing
we had a wife who had supper on the
table when we came home. Too tired
to cook, we just sat at the table staring
dejectedly at each other.
Meow. Meeeeoooww. MEOW!
The cat was demanding to come back
in. Our cat, perhaps trying to cheer
us up (but more likely to add insult
to injury), was sitting at the door with
a mouse in his mouth. Before I could
shut the door on them, he ran into the
kitchen and dropped it. The bewil-
dered mouse took off running under
my kitchen counters and disappeared.
“We are not a catch and release
family!” I shouted to the cat. “Get
him back, get him back!” The cat
looked up and lazed off into the living
room.
The next morning, with rodent
traps set inside the house and in the
field, I was not in the best of moods.
That’s when my son came running in
the house. “Look at all my four-leaf
clovers!” He opened up his hands
to display dozens of the little green
lucky leaves.
“Wow, that is a lot!” I exclaimed.
“Yeah, I wasn’t finding any, so I
just glued an extra leaf onto the other
ones.”
Simple and profound. Those ro-
dents may have gotten me yesterday,
but staring at my son’s four-leaf clo-
vers, I felt my luck was just one bottle
of Elmer’s glue away from changing.
“Be vewy, vewy quiet. I’m about
to go hunting wodents!”
Brianna Walker occasionally
writes about the Farmer’s Fate for
the Blue Mountain Eagle.
G UEST C OMMENT
Preventing the summer slide
By Jennifer Zardinejad
To the Blue Mountain Eagle
W HERE TO W RITE
GRANT COUNTY
• Grant County Courthouse — 201
S. Humbolt St., Suite 280, Canyon City
97820. Phone: 541-575-0059. Fax: 541-
575-2248.
• Canyon City — P.O. Box 276, Canyon
City 97820. Phone: 541-575-0509. Fax:
541-575-0515. Email: tocc1862@centu-
rylink.net.
• Dayville — P.O. Box 321, Dayville
97825. Phone: 541-987-2188. Fax: 541-
987-2187. Email:dville@ortelco.net
• John Day — 450 E. Main St, John Day,
97845. Phone: 541-575-0028. Fax: 541-
575-1721. Email: cityjd@centurytel.net.
• Long Creek — P.O. Box 489, Long
Creek 97856. Phone: 541-421-3601. Fax:
541-421-3075. Email: info@cityoflong-
creek.com.
• Monument — P.O. Box 426, Monument
97864. Phone and fax: 541-934-2025.
Email: cityofmonument@centurytel.net.
• Mt. Vernon — P.O. Box 647, Mt.
Vernon 97865. Phone: 541-932-4688. Fax:
541-932-4222. Email: cmtv@ortelco.net.
• Prairie City — P.O. Box 370, Prairie
City 97869. Phone: 541-820-3605. Fax:
820-3566. Email: pchall@ortelco.net.
• Seneca — P.O. Box 208, Seneca
97873. Phone and fax: 541-542-2161.
Email: senecaoregon@gmail.com.
SALEM
• Gov. Kate Brown, D — 254 State
Capitol, Salem 97310. Phone: 503-378-
3111. Fax: 503-378-6827. Website: www.
governor.state.or.us/governor.html.
• Oregon Legislature — State Capitol,
Salem, 97310. Phone: (503) 986-1180.
Website: www. leg.state.or.us (includes
Oregon Constitution and Oregon Revised
Statutes).
• Oregon Legislative Information —
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
P UBLISHED EVERY
W EDNESDAY BY
(For updates on bills, services, capitol or
messages for legislators) — 800-332-2313.
• Sen. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario – 900
Court St. NE, S-301, Salem 97301. Phone:
503-986-1730. Website: www.oregonlegis-
lature.gov/Bentz. Email: Sen.CliffBentz@
oregonlegislature.gov.
• Rep. Lynn Findley, R-Vale – 900 Court
St. NE, H-475, Salem 97301. Phone: 503-
986-1460. Website: www.oregonlegislature.
gov/findley. Email: Rep.LynnFindley@
oregonlegislature.gov.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
• The White House, 1600 Pennsylva-
nia Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20500;
Phone-comments: 202-456-1111; Switch-
board: 202-456-1414.
• U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D — 516 Hart
Senate Office Building, Washington D.C.
20510. Phone: 202-224-5244. Email:
wayne_kinney@wyden.senate.gov Website:
http://wyden.senate.gov Fax: 202-228-2717.
• U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D — 313 Hart
Senate Office Building, Washington D.C.
20510. Phone: 202-224-3753. Email:
senator@merkley.senate.gov. Fax: 202-
228-3997. Oregon offices include One
World Trade Center, 121 S.W. Salmon St.,
Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204; and 310
S.E. Second St., Suite 105, Pendleton, OR
97801. Phone: 503-326-3386; 541-278-
1129. Fax: 503-326-2990.
• U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R — (Second
District) 1404 Longworth Building, Wash-
ington D.C. 20515. Phone: 202-225-6730.
No direct email because of spam. Website:
www.walden.house.gov Fax: 202-225-5774.
Medford office: 14 North Central, Suite 112,
Medford, OR 97501. Phone: 541-776-4646.
Fax: 541-779-0204.
• Pending Bills: For information on bills in
Congress, Phone: 202-225-1772.
This year, 18 SMART (Start Mak-
ing A Reader Today) volunteers in
Grant County spent time each week
reading one-on-one with 50 local stu-
dents and students picked out nearly
700 books to keep for their very own.
Our logic is simple: When kids
think reading is fun, they want to do
it, and they’re more likely to hone the
skill. However, encouraging kids to
have fun with reading isn’t limited to
the school year. Students can lose up to
one-fourth of their reading skills over
the summer, and those losses can add
up.
This phenomenon is called the
“summer reading slide” and it has
negative long-term impacts on student
learning, especially when it comes
to reaching the third-grade reading
benchmark — a critical benchmark
for academic success. According to
state statistics, over half of Oregon’s
third-graders are not currently meeting
state reading standards.
The good news is that the summer
slide can be avoided by building in
some time to read with kids through-
out the summer.
Here are four tips for counteracting
the summer slide:
• Have books on hand during trips
and errands. Keep a stash in the car or
in a backpack so they’re always within
reach.
• Set a bedtime routine focused on
giving kids time with books they en-
joy. You can even choose a new book
to read aloud as a family.
• Switch it up! Explore a range of
reading materials such as kid’s maga-
zines, comic books or even kid-friend-
ly cookbooks.
• Let your kids see you reading.
Sharing your enthusiasm for books
helps get kids excited about reading
too.
The most important thing is to help
kids build reading motivation and en-
joy books. It’s not about setting a min-
ute or page requirement, but rather, en-
couraging children to read every day
so that when fall rolls around, they’re
ready and excited for another year of
reading and learning.
To learn more about SMART or
sign up to volunteer in a local SMART
program this fall, visit getSMARTore-
gon.org or call 541-797-7726.
Jennifer Zardinejad is the
SMART central area manager who
oversees SMART reading programs
in Grant County.
L ETTERS TO THE E DITOR
McLeod-Skinner
right for Eastern
Oregon
To the Editor:
The primary is past, and we now
know who we need to support to get
Congress working again. Not many
people question the fact that Congress
isn’t functioning well.
To fix that, we need to elect Ja-
mie McLeod-Skinner as our congress
member in the Second Congressional
District. Jamie is a native of our re-
gion and knows the issues of southern
and Eastern Oregon well. She has the
knowledge, experience and integrity to
represent the voters of Eastern Oregon.
In conversations with Jamie and
hearing her speak, I know two of her
top priorities are seeing there are liv-
Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper
P UBLISHER ............ ..................... C HRIS R USH , CRUSH @ EOMEDIAGROUP . COM
E DITOR & G ENERAL M ANAGER ... S EAN H ART , EDITOR @ BMEAGLE . COM
R EPORTER ............................... R ICHARD H ANNERS , RICK @ BMEAGLE . COM
C OMMUNITY N EWS .................... A NGEL C ARPENTER , ANGEL @ BMEAGLE . COM
S PORTS ................................... A NGEL C ARPENTER , ANGEL @ BMEAGLE . COM
M ARKETING R EP ....................... K IM K ELL , ADS @ BMEAGLE . COM
O FFICE M ANAGER ..................... L INDSAY B ULLOCK , OFFICE @ BMEAGLE . COM
O FFICE A SSISTANT .................... A LIXANDRA P ERKINS , OFFICE @ BMEAGLE . COM
able-wage jobs for all Oregonians and
that affordable health care is available
throughout Oregon. Jamie knows how
to get things done and won’t settle for
business as usual in Washington. She
can get things done. When the time
comes to cast your vote for Congress,
vote for Jamie McLeod-Skinner. She’s
the right person for Eastern Oregon.
Jack Lorts
The Dalles
Fast ATV driving
on closed road puts
hikers, horses at risk
To the Editor:
To the young man on the rac-
ing-type sport ATV, yes, Forest Road
850 is closed to motorized vehicles,
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despite your obscenity-laden insis-
tence to the contrary. The fact that
the “Road Closed” sign has been shot
up and torn down does not change
the law. And, yes, you were driving
way too fast, putting pedestrians
and equestrians in danger. Those of
us who frequent road 850 alongside
Laycock Creek know that motorized
vehicles often use the trail, and I for
one don’t mind as long as their driv-
ers are safe and courteous, which
you were not. We could see by the
type of your ATV and the way you
drive that racing is your passion,
and that’s totally OK. Please locate
a designated OHV area where you
can safely and legally race to your
heart’s content without being a nui-
sance to hikers and horses.
Sheila Swaja
Mt. Vernon
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