’62 DAYS CELEBRATION
The
PAGE A3
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
151st Year • No. 23 • 18 Pages • $1.00
BlueMountainEagle.com
THE SEARCH FOR THE LONG LOST
BLUE BUCKET MINE
Merkley
faces tough
questions
at town hall
meeting
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
would get back less money than they
expect.
The governor wants to put the
money the state would keep under
her plan — about $500 million —
toward rural infrastructure and hous-
ing projects and to pay down schools’
pension debt.
“I think it’s fi scally responsible
and makes common sense,” Brown
told reporters Thursday.
Brown’s proposal appears to be
a gesture to lawmakers representing
rural areas of the state — for the most
part Republicans whose approval is
needed if the proposal is to have any
legs.
The idea would need to get
approval by two-thirds of members
in each chamber of the Legislature.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merk-
ley faced questions about
impeachment, gun rights
and abortion right off the bat
during a town hall meeting
at the Madden Brothers Per-
forming Arts Center in John
Day May 30.
“I’ve never
had so many
tough ques-
tions in a
row,” he said
after address-
ing all three.
Sen. Jeff
A b o u t
Merkley
200 people
attended the
meeting. Merkley met ear-
lier with offi cials from the
Grant County Court, the city
of John Day and other local
cities and timber industry
representatives.
After 10 years in the Ore-
gon Legislature, Merkley was
elected to the U.S. Senate in
2008. The ranking Democrat
of the Appropriations Com-
mittee’s subcommittee on
Agriculture and Rural Devel-
opment, Merkley also sits on
the Senate’s Budget, Foreign
Relations and Environment
and Public Works committees.
On the tough questions at
his town hall meeting, Merk-
ley said he felt comfortable
that gun rights could be pro-
tected even if background
checks were made stron-
ger. While a broad consensus
exists in favor of background
checks, other measures were
more controversial, he said,
such as restricting high-ca-
pacity magazines.
When asked by Grant
Union High School fresh-
man Riley Robertson if lib-
eral abortion policies were a
convenient form of birth con-
trol, Merkley said no. Gov-
ernment was not a suitable
decision maker for this issue,
he said. Abortion decisions
should be made by women,
their spouses and their spiri-
tual advisers, he said.
Several people asked if
Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell, R-Kentucky, was
blocking bills in the Senate.
Merkley explained that Sen-
ate rules have created a sit-
uation where the majority
leader can control what bills
are brought to the fl oor and
the amendment process. Both
Democrats and Republicans
have abused this position and
contributed to the degradation
of the system, he said.
Merkley said he didn’t
know why McConnell was
blocking efforts to protect
U.S. elections from interfer-
ence by Russians or other
foreign governments, but the
White House has shown no
interest in this issue. McCo-
nnell’s sole focus now was
on getting federal judges
approved, he said.
Russia hacked election
equipment and used social
media and robots to infl u-
ence elections in the U.S. and
in other democratic countries,
Merkley said. While Russia
has a modest-sized economy,
about the size of Spain’s, it
exerts a greater global infl u-
ence by possessing nuclear
weapons and using the
See Kicker, Page A18
See Merkley, Page A18
Contributed photo
Stephen Meek was a fur trapper
and mountain guide who led a
large wagon train across Eastern
Oregon in 1845.
Contributed photo/Grant County Historical Museum
Charles Brown, the fi rst curator of the Grant County Historical Museum, prepares to lead the ‘62 Days
parade in Canyon City in 1930. Brown participated in an unsuccessful search for the Blue Bucket Mine
in 1897.
Prospectors looking found gold in Canyon Creek in 1862
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
n overconfi dent mountain guide
and an errant wagon train in
Oregon’s early pioneer days
could be credited with sparking
one of the greatest gold rushes
in American history.
It was prospectors in search of the Blue
Bucket Mine who discovered gold in Can-
yon, Dixie and Griffi n creeks in 1862, draw-
ing thousands of people to Canyon City, Prai-
rie City and Auburn in search of riches.
“The Blue Bucket Mine is the most cel-
A
ebrated and publicized mine in the Pacifi c
Northwest in importance,” Canyon City ama-
teur historian Lawrence Roba wrote. “It will
even outrank such famous mines as the Lost
Dutchmen and Peg-Leg Smith mines of the
Southwest.”
Stephen Meek was the younger brother
of Joseph Meek, one of Oregon’s founding
fathers and the man behind one of the state’s
earliest maps. In 1845, perhaps wanting to
live up to his brother’s name, Stephen Meek
offered to guide 800 people in 200 wag-
ons on a shortcut across the Eastern Oregon
wilderness.
Shortly after the party sighted Fremont
Peak on the North Fork of the Malheur River,
now known as Castle Rock, Meek was surely
lost. Members of the wagon train mistook
Steens Mountain for the Cascade Range near
Bend and Silvies River for Crooked River.
Several people succumbed to bad water or
diseases during the trip, and as water became
hard to fi nd, lynch mobs formed twice. A few
loyal members hid Meek and his wife, who
fi nally left for their own safety.
Meek was gone when members of the
wagon train found the now infamous gold
nuggets. Gold wouldn’t be discovered at Sut-
See Mine, Page A18
Road rage case ends with $26.5 million verdict
Commercial drivers
caused collision in
Harney County
By Phil Wright
EO Media Group
Contributed photo
Matthew and Sara Allison
pose for a photo at Crater
Lake in 2016 before driving
back home to Boise, Idaho,
when Sara was killed in a
collision with a semi.
Matthew and Sara Allison are
beaming in the photo they took in
front of Crater Lake, their last bit of
Oregon sightseeing before leaving
June 5, 2016, for home in Boise. He
was 27. She was 30. They were mar-
ried fi ve years.
They never made it back.
Sara was behind the wheel of their
Ford Focus so Matthew could rest
during the drive on narrow Highway
20 east of Burns when James Decou
of Clearfi eld, Utah, drove his fl at-bed
hauling semi head-on into the cou-
ple’s car.
Matthew suffered broken ribs, a
lacerated spleen and head trauma,
requiring a fl ight in an emergency
helicopter from Harney District Hos-
pital in Burns to Legacy Emanuel
Hospital in Portland.
Sara died in the crash.
Matthew Allison recounted the
story May 7 in Pendleton while testi-
fying in federal court during the civil
trial for his injuries and his wife’s
death. Court records show he brought
the urn containing Sara’s remains to
the witness stand.
“I hadn’t really found a sense of
purpose until I met her,” he told the
jury. “I found a purpose in her. We
had — it seems cliche to say it, but
we had that type of love that most
people spend their entire lives look-
ing for.”
The trial ran nine days and con-
cluded May 10. The jury awarded
almost $26.5 million against two
trucking companies and their drivers
and found them negligent for engag-
ing in road rage antics for 90 miles,
according to the lawyers for the Alli-
sons, right up to the end.
The road to disaster
The Portland law fi rm of Tom
See Verdict, Page A18
Governor wants to cap higher kicker rebates
By Claire Withycombe
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown wants
to limit the money that Oregonians
could get back through a popular tax
rebate next year.
Oregon is currently expected to
hand about $1.4 billion back to tax-
payers in 2020 through what’s known
as the “kicker.”
Created by the legislature in 1979
and ratifi ed by Oregon voters the
next year, the kicker was introduced
as a control on state spending.
The unusual policy comes into
play when state tax revenue ends
up being more than 2 percent higher
than what economists predict.
In 2000, 62% of Oregon voters
approved a ballot measure baking
that law into the state’s constitution,
making it harder to
roll back.
Brown wants to
cap next year’s rebate
to $1,000 per tax-
payer, which could
reduce the amount
Gov. Kate
that higher-income
Brown
earners receive.
The median tax-
payer, though, who is expected to get
$338 back, would not be affected.
Since the kicker rebate is calcu-
lated as a percentage of your tax bill
before credits, people who make
more money and pay more taxes get
bigger kicker rebates.
Oregon taxpayers whose adjusted
gross income in 2018 was less than
$55,000 would not see lower kickers,
according to the governor’s offi ce.
But about 331,000 Oregonians