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The art of preserving
Heppner’s history
Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library
University o f Oregon
Eugene. OR 97403
Area residents work to turn back time for the Morrow County
Courthouse clock tower
By Andrea Di Salvo
industrial building, tarp
It looks like something partitions and high-powered
from a movie, the empty lig h ts re m in is c e n t o f
something from Area 51 or a
high-tech CS1 investigation.
Rather than being the set of
a futuristic drama, though,
the site within Heppner’s
old Kinzua Mill is deeply
rooted in Heppner’s past.
T h a t’s w here local
co n tra cto r Rod W ilson
and “ h elp er gu y ” Tim
A dam s are w orking to
restore the Morrow County
Courthouse clock tower to
its former glory.
Wilson, the 49-year-
o ld o w n er o f W ilson
Construction in Heppner,
says the renovation work is
“not really a high production
thing,” but more a labor of
love for the old tower.
“We’ve worked almost
5<K
ette
VOL. 132
NO. 43
10 Pages
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Local man spends
weekends in the fast lane
By David Sykes
W hen m ost people
th in k ab o u t a Sunday
drive, it usually means a
drive in the country or a
trip to the Tri-Cities for
some shopping and lunch.
However, for one Heppner
man, it’s a trip around the
race track behind the wheel
of his own BMW race car.
M o n d a y s th ro u g h
F rid a y s you can fin d
Russell Seewald behind a
desk at the Bank of Eastern
Oregon, where he works
as an a g ric u ltu ra l and
commercial loan officer.
B ut com e w e e k e n d s,
Seewald has a hobby that
most o f us never get to
experience. He races cars
at several Pacific NW race
tracks, and he really enjoys
it.
“ The m o st fun is
finding small ways to win
races,” says Seewald, who
has owned and raced two
different race cars over
the past several years.
“Sometimes a half a second
m akes th e d iffe re n c e
b etw een w in n in g and
losing.”
Seewald developed his
interest in cars at an early
age.
“ My dad ow ned an
auto body shop, so 1 have
always been around cars.
I liked cars and have had
friends who were racing
stock cars.”
Also, his grandfather
used to take him to races
when he was young.
Seewald’s own actual
racing can be traced back
Russell Seewald with his BMW 325i racing car. -Photo by
David Sykes
to when he was attending
a banking conference in
Phoenix years ago. He was
working for an Idaho bank
at the time, before he and his
family moved to Heppner,
and the conference offered
several different options for
entertainment.
“They had a choice of
activities like golf and other
things, but they also had
driving school. I always
like to watch racing so I
thought, ‘That is what 1
want to do.’” He tried it and
was hooked.
From there he joined the
Sports Car Club of America
and started attending small
driving events that were
basically cones set up in
parking lots where people
would use the family car
and start driving. They cost
about $20 and the top speed
wasn’t more than 50 miles
per hour, he says.
From there Seewald
s ta rte d e n te rin g h i l l
climbing events sponsored
by the N o rth w est Hill
C lim bing A sso ciatio n ,
where one car at a time
would race up a hill and be
timed. He says he still holds
several course records from
those events.
He bought his first
BMW 328 fo r ra c in g
because he always liked
this model and “there are
a lot of them around,” for
parts and such, he says. He
built that car for racing and
attended the Bob Bondurant
driving school to become
qualified to join the Sports
Car Club of America and
begin racing. He raced that
BMW for two years from
2009 to 2010, entering races
mostly in the Portland area,
including the Rose Cup.
“1 liked that race,” he
says. “There are drivers
from all over the West
there.”
F r o m t h e r e he
joined the International
Conference of Sports Cars,
and that opened up more
racing opportunities for
him on tracks in Oregon
and Washington. One of the
goals of the association, and
-See FASTLANE/PAGE
THREE
G-T Trophy Corner
The bell from the courthouse
tower. -Photo by Mallorie Jones
two months on this and this
is where we’ve gotten so
far,” says Wilson, gesturing
at a half-built platform
and gutted tower. “That’s
working almost full time.”
The platform, or clock
floor, Wilson says, will
hold the cradle in which
the bell rests, as well as the
pedestals and pillars that
will, in turn, hold the tower
itself once it’s completed
and returned to its spot
atop the courthouse. The
bell also sits in the old mill
building, waiting to have
the paint stripped and a
new, clear sealant applied.
The tower itself will
take a bit more work.
“ In the beginning it
was in very poor shape.
It was leaning out toward
the street. The supports
that were holding it up
were starting to fail,” says
Wilson. “ When we got it
down, we could see what
kind of poor shape the tin
was in.”
Much of the outside of
the tower had been covered
with painted tin, not wood
as many assumed. Wilson
says the tin was rusted
through and leaking, letting
moisture through into the
wood structure beneath and
rotting the wood. The men
have redone the tower itself,
reframing and reshaping it
with new wood, over which
they placed ice shield. It
will next be topped with
galvanized iron.
W ilso n sa y s th e y
worked their way through
the renovation carefully,
leaving intact parts of the
structure that were still in
good repair. He says they
also preserved as much as
was usable of both the wood
and the tin from the tower
to re-use in its repair.
“ It would have been
easier to build a new one,”
he says, only half joking.
“We’re trying to make it as
authentic as we can. We’re
looking for old pictures or
what people remember it
looking like in the past.”
T h a t m ay be th e
difficult part. Not a lot is
available on the history of
Wilson shines a light into the interior of the clock tower where
it sits in the process of restoration. -Photo by Mallorie Jones
the tower. The assumption,
Wilson says, is that it dates
back to 1902, the year the
courthouse was completed.
“We can’t find a lot of
history on it,” says Wilson,
ad d in g th a t th e re are
blueprints at the courthouse
but not a lot of old pictures
o f the bell, the tower, or
what it took to put them
up at the turn o f the 20th
century.
“The most amazing
thing about it is that they
built that thing way up there
over a hundred years ago
and we don’t know how
they did it,” he says.
Wilson says that there
are a few clues to the past,
such as a piece of tin found
on the tower imprinted with
“American Sheet Steel Co.;
Apollo Best Bloom; New
York.” His best guess, he
says, is that the pieces—or
some of them—may have
been made in New York
and then shipped out and
tower. The oldest dated
name belongs to Red Hicks,
who recorded his presence
for posterity on June 14,
1 9 0 3 ...th e date o f the
historic Heppner Flood.
One name, Tony Clement,
is as recent as October of
2012 .
Aside from the names
inscribed inside the tower,
Wilson and Adams also
counted up to nine bullet
holes, apparently from
people shooting at the tower
“just for fun.” Two holes
were in the topmost ball on
top of the tower.
With all that history at
stake, the men know they
have to do the job right,
Wilson says.
“ The b ig g est thing
was deciding how to put it
back together with the right
materials that will make it
last,” he says.
Aside from the actual
structure o f the tow er,
Wilson and Adams will
Rod Wilson stands next to the clock floor he and Tim Adams
are constructing. -Photos by Mallorie Jones
assembled locally.
O ne o f th e m o st
interesting pieces of history
on the tower lies in the
many names written inside.
More than 50 names are
scraw led on the w ood
inside the tower, many
with dates that span more
than a century. It seems
that many locals, whether
maintenance workers or
adventure seekers, couldn’t
help leaving a bit of history
behind in the prominent
rewire the light inside the
tower. Wilson says other
parts o f the tow er and
clock have been farmed
out all over the Pacific
Northwest. The pedestals
will be new and re-skinned
with aluminum; the metal
w ork w ill be done by
David Rich, a tinsmith in
Portland, OR. The pillars
and caps are being made
by Turnco A rchitectural
-See PRESERVING HEP
PNER HISTORY/PAGE SIX
‘I foresee a happy Halloween.
Kathy Turner foresees the future for a skeptical Velma (from
Scooby-Doo) at St. Patrick’s Senior Center last week during
Halloween festivities in Heppner. -Photo by Daivd Sykes
-See PAGE EIGHTfor more Halloween photos
fo ra r
B en efit R affle
fo r John Nelson
2 0 1 4 P olaris S p o rtsm a n 5 7 0
R a ffle T ic k e ts $ 1 0 0 / ea ch
tickets will be sold Drawing 12/6/13
Tickets can be purchased at JfCGG in Lexington, tfCOO
Fertiliser Office in lone and Preen Feed tn Heppner
Dave Pranger of Heppner harvested this 6x7 bull elk in the Heppner Unit on Saturday, Oct.
26. -Contributed photo
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Morrow County Grain Growers
Lexington 989-8221 ♦ 1-800-452-7396 r* rtm »quipam nwt o.r »w an »i m mi-gm
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