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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1957)
f ) - o u o ) o o O G O O o o (ffrURTEEW MEDF03D (OREGON) MAIL TRIBTJNg 0 8undT. December 1, 19S7 H feby v Jmkm&fe Muss H G (5) kt 4fm 4L I life r TIE FACTORY This tiny one-room cabin at McKee trailer park on the Applegate is where partners Kenn Paine, left, and Mike Wilmoth manufacture their popular bolo neckties that are decorated with polished pieces of southern Oregon stone. The two men and their wives, and often the Wilmoth I ... fy.. ZnW. faAjpniM BOLO TIES Christmas ties in this area may take on a "new look" this year in the form of the-popular bolo neck pieces decor ated with polished semi - precious stones, pwhich are manufactured by Kenn Paine and V A11I1UL11 lb ll(.iCC Ul lUgC UdllCl camp on the Applegate. In the picture above, some of the stones in the endless variety of fchape and color are shown before mounting. ijFbur o This Weeks HISTORY Can You ) u This Object? ClUl: hi 1855 tWi object ws instrumental h deliv ering a message from Owrles F. Johnson of Oregon City to Thomas J. Dryer, then editor of the Ore- 'uosu -j sajJB43 A1 'SS8I "91 "N eBwsaul ;sjy e -W8 mi papa jo sa 'ejjiAajng HbnoMtf ucj ipjijM -auij -siubajoq pue pupoj uaaeq Hif ijdej6a(e4 sjy no pasn sjojnsui epruo -Apee 4.4 jo wo pajqo :jj3MSNV For 13 picur. eUiKJ- depicting btHu) seancs from Orqon khiory tend $1.00 to tW 0 ORKON HISTORICAL SOCIETY PORTLAND, OREGON 1 READ You are invited to an interesting and informative lecture explaining CONCEPT THERAPY by 0 Dr. B. F. Higdon of San Antonio, Texas The new philosophy with the scientific approach that GUAR ANTEES to teach you the LAWS by which you caa overcome. (FtAR and WORRY. Obtain HEALTH and find lasW.g PEACE OF MIND. The KNOWLEDGE of these laws Solves tne MYS TERY OF LIFE. Ashland Dec. 3rd, 8 p.m. Women's Civic Club Medford Dec. 4th, 8 p.m. Sr. High School, Room 244 Grants Pass Dec. 5th, 8 p.m. Larry's Drive In Banquet Rm Crescent City Dec. 6th, 8 p.m. Del Norte Hi School, rm. 8 Sponsored by Medford Branch National on the Beam Club o o MYSTERY Identify 0 O o THIS C children, work long hours around a big wood stove polishing the stones and assembling the ties for distribution over a wide area of Oregon and California. One reason for their popularity is the individuality of the deygn and color of the stones. It would be impossi ble to cut two alike, Paine said. of the completed ties, boxed and ready for shipment, are shown on the right. The two ties on the left are decorated with slices of thunder eggs, her types of stone used are Oregon Cate, obsidian, jade, iasper and petrified wood. The men have keen selling the ties to retail stores in Oregon and Cali fornia at the rate of over 400 per w(ek. Q r.iL... i leeiidueu vainer To Work On Coe Of Conduct Rules o Salem (IP) About 300 young people gathered here Sat urday for the state's first youth conference. The high school stu dents heard Gov. Robert D. Holmes tell them ey were one resource the state could jaot af ford to waste. Q Then they got dow to work on a code of conducV for nigh school students which, when ap proved, by the delegates, will be presented to the Governor. The code on which the dele gates are working is adapted from a Minnesota youth code dealing with driving, drinking, smoking, dating and other topics of importance to teen-agers. Dr. H. C. Chamberlain, a psy chiatric consultant and youth leader from Sacramento, Calif., also addressed the group. The code deals harshly with teen-age smoking and drinking prohibiting both on grounds they are illegal. LSupporf Withdrawn For Guard Armory Portland OP) Plans for a five - million - dollar National Guard armory in Portland suf fered a setback Friday with the announcement by MajGen. Tho mas Rilea of the Oregon Nation al Guard that the . federal gov ernment had withdrawn its of fer of financial support for the program. Rilea revealed that the Nation al Guard bureau in Washington, D.C., had once set aside S2,080, 000 for half the cost of the buil ding but that it has withdrawn thefund because Portland and the state of Oregon failed to i provide money for the other I half. i Rilea said that whether the sum would be restored would de pendQn economic trends and the : revival of interest in national de fense. Rilea asked the city council to move ahead with its plan to put a fund-raising measure on the ballot next May on the chance that such action would prompt restoration of the fund by the bureau. A person who reads an aver age of an hour a day reads about 10 million words in the course of a year. . Ei-lfeifolSMp Bjpfrgjler&ftg To Work or Rocks By MAUDE ZICGLER Mail Tribune Correspondent About 18 motf) go Kenn Paine of Medford, who wanted to "get away from i all," bought the McKee trailer 'camp and cot tages on the Applegate from Ben Twiss so he could relax and pur sue his hobby of collecting rocks. Whatever plans Paine had for taking life easy never were rea lized because his "hobby" has turned into a thriving business and he and his partner Mike Wilmoth, have little time to do anything else. It all started when Paine trad ecDa geiger counteiQand scintil ator for rock cutting equipment, His friend, Wilmoth, joined him in the venture and both families plunged marrily into the busin ess of polishing gems. Now tlje four hobbyists are in the midst of a growing industry that has overflowed most all of the cot tages ai camp Mctt.ee and is bringing a steady flow of out-of-state dollars into southern Ore gon. Chief Product Their chief ftpduct is atpm merc "bolo" necktie, clipped with a polished sni-precious stone from southern Oregon. .Eigjy in October Wilmoth loaded up his car with packaged nftkties and several hundred pounds of southern Oregon roc kfl toJrade for gemswfrom other areas. He travels every week to points in Oregon, California and Nevada, contacting retail mer chants and selling more than 400 ties on a trip. But lately Wil moth has had to stay home to help catch up on orders, while another man takes his route. The industry is so new that a passerby never would guess that a few sleepy shingled cabins hise the gear for cutting, grind ing and polishing rough stones. Paine says he calls his place the "Applegate Rock Shop," but he hasn't hVd time to put up a sign yet, nor to build a shop) r"" , , . o uuens (W, caraDoara DOxes and tubs stored around the camn-jcontain the racks and gems in tfte rough. There's beautiful pink rhodonite, jade, agate, pas telite, jasper, and gold g?d sil ver sheen obsidians and petr fied wood as well as a petrified dinosaur bone weighing about 50 ptyid) which0 is 200 million years old. The bone come from Southern Utah. There is a 20(P Q)ound limb of petrified Qalm treeright inches in length. Other stones include mahog any obsidian, obsidian nodules, and thunder eggs, which are very popular and sell at an av erage price of $2 per pound ChunksQof petrified periwirlkle from an ancient oceaA bed in Arizona are in the age range of the dinsoaur bone. Much of thej) rock isOErom oLakeview, Ore About 90 per cent of the collec tion the Paines and Wilmoths have3hey collected themselves. Gather Rocks -. They gather from stream beds, and when thensource ends they take to the adjacent hillsides, seeking the sourcefrom which the stream was supplied. There are some nice gems in every riv er and stream in southern Ore gon, including the Applegate, Paine said. Wilmoth, who has been a salesman most of his life, with the Volkswagen shop in Med ford before coming to the Applegate, and takes to the bus iness of selling ties. "I've nev er seen anything that sells on sight ke these," he said. He has had about four years in uranium business and was president of Colorado Plateau mining and de veloping Inc., at NorwooS. Colo. AO first, as Paine applied a chemical to analyze his stones, Wilmoth wanted to smash the rocks to see if they contained chrome, platinum, or mangan ese. Although he is selling stones at present, he sees grt possi bilities of mining being develop ed into a sizeable business in the ApplegateTirea. Repair Shop Paine formerly operated Kenn's Repair shop for radio and appliances in Grants Pass and later moved to Medford. With his knowledge of mechanics he has developed much of his own machinery, some of which is Q)ew to the rock cutting bus iness, speeding 0up production and enabling tnem to sell their product more cheaply.0 A good deal of his equipment has been converted from wood working sets. He has a table saw with a removable top, a ripper ienqt and miter gause. j Perfection of their product is the aim of these four rock en thusiasts, and long hours of pre cision work go into producing a tie. First a stone is sliced, cut into pieces, and trimmed with a trim saw. Then It is shaped on a grinder and is ready for the rough sanding, which will be followed by two more sandings. Then the final polishing is done JP)W$3ft .-M; iff! . L fMif'-w M IBl If I J- pbC' elPk SHAPES STONE Kenn Paine, (bove, shows hew a common power grnd stone is used to shape the slices of sfone that form the decoration for the bolo neckties that are being made at McKee bridge camp on the Applegate. A good many of the designs come out as "free form" while others are made into shapes resembling arrowheads, pistols or special emblems. Sonimes the rough outside shape of the stone is used to form part of the design. Paine's family for three generations before him were jewelers in the east. His hobby, before it got out of hand and turned into a thriving business, was rck collecting. ( " ' " Fl8AL (POLISHING Mrs. left, and Mrs. Kenn Paine have to don pro- O Qtective clothing when they work on the hori zontal polishing lap that puts on the stones. Water is used q uxu m culling. Liici jic.ai which proces)may be repeated several times. Dirablg) Qyklitig Only tha-v stones that have a certain desirable quality and shape are used, Wilmoths says, and since his wife has a partic ular flair for recognizing beau ty of pattern anct shape and matching color to a particular tie, iat job is hers. She sits at the muddy wet shaper wearing her ran coat and has the time ofoher life, Wilmoth said. (The grinder is Q cooled with water, which also keeps the stone free of stone grit. The ente business means cre ating a thing of beauty from ev ery slice of stone, and heart and soul go into this work a cylinderical periwinkle may form one pattern of interest, while arrow-shaped piece of obsidian may form another. Mrs. Wilmoth prefers cutting odd shapes such as a pistol oqgine to make uniformdesigns. They set many of the stones with Elk and Masonic and other popular lodge emblems. Metal portions are fastened to the stone, which is clipped to the tie. They are packaged at Wil moth's house, and are ready for market. Assembles Belts Paine assembles hisown belts for grinding gems, Btiying 150 foot rolls of silicon carbide belt ing. Present equipment is cap able of turning out 1500 stonX)l a rntjun. nip. ana lurs. rame at tended the wGemorama" in Los Angeles in July and there their idea for adding a stone to a bolo tie was perfected. They made a few saaaples. which were ac cepted by friends and relatives3 with enthusiasm. The two partners desire to keep their business on a family basis, for they fear they will en counter the same complexities of life which already had sent them in search of quiet and peaceful living. The Wilmoth children, Gloria, ten, Benjamin, eight, and 1KMI Slabs and Rough Blox Green Dandy to Burn with Dry Wood Big Double Load or Single Load L1EDF0BD FUEL COMPANY Telephone SP 2-2111 Mike Wilmoth. the final finish on the wheel to jii uajug mc Faith, three, have become rock hounds, too, and oft(g)do a little valuable trading. Paine will have advertising in national magazines soon. They have been requested to display their games in a resort museum near Marysville, Calif., which will show Oregon and California stone. Paine expects to set up machinery sP the two women can do the work, and he will be out eatherins Atones again. He plans, to sell jade by the pound, and has sent mples to be ana lyzed for ore content. Tumbler Polisher A power drive from an anti quated fish screen will be made into a tumbler to polish stones for novelty jewelry. Wilmoth draws attention to the interest ing study presented in the geo logical formation and changing character of the stones, such as jasper that has become agitized, and opalized wood that has re sulted from entrance of chemi cals. Paine has devised a set of com pact wooden carrying cases for Wilmoth to useQn his sales trips. He also designed display cards of red and green velvet. Medford stores carrying the ties include Mann's, Weisfield's, Gibson's Saddlery, and Robinson's Cloth ing store. The Oregon Inn at Grants Pass also carries the pro duct as does the J. C. Penney store in Ashland. To Wilmoth that, is not iust another sales job. "I am selling beauty that has been created by hand," he said, " and whenever I show the stones I enjoy them all over again." Paine's family before him lias been in the jewelry business for three generations in Massachu setts, and Mrs. Paine said he had never given any thought to en gaging in the business for him self, but it has just happened to him. Paine purchases genuine lea ther throngs from a tannery in Portland and dyes them for ma- Court & McAndrews GRINDS STONE One of the processes in the manufacture of bolo neckties being made by Mike Wilmoth and Kenn Paine on the Applegate is the rough grinding of t&e slices of semi-precious stones, being demonstrated here by Wilmoth. The machine is a wood-type belt sander thatQvas converted to grinding-stone by the addition of a silicon carbide belt. Wilmoth had a regular sales route that he toured weekly up until recently but he sold so many ties that he had to come off the road to help out on the manufacturing end. wheel is grinding the skin off one's finger tips and both women have given up wearing long fingernails. The Wilmoth children, Gloria, 10, and Benjamin, 8, also help out in the manufacture of the neckties and are eager "rock-hounds" themselves. king some of his own bolo ties. He has perfected a pair of pliers for shaping the throngs to fit into the metal ends. He also car ries braided leather ties. Besides the rock business the two men have printed business cards advertising a "complete country service" in radio and appliance repairs, but now the repair equipment occupies only a small corner of one of the four buildings which are filled with the stone finishing para phernalia. Paine's ability as a radio technician enables him to repair a neighbor's radio as he relaxes in the evening after wor king hours. Paine and Wilmoth, who met in Los Angeles in 1927, say they have roamed the western half of the UnitM States together either in business or as com panions since then. "We like it here on the Applegate and expect to stay here," . Wilmoth said. I You Are Served by a Nationally Recognized o Mortuary when you make Memo rial arrangement at Con ger -Morris, Medfords only membe&of National Selected Morticians. By meeting highest standards, offer ing helpful services by highly trained personnel, maintaining uniform prices, adhering to strict, ethical practices, and providing most modern facilities, Conger-Morris serves families better ... at no greater cost. (Conageir-fiSoffs&s FUNERAL DIRECTORS W. MAIN AT SIXTH Wafer Districts To Elect Officers Commissioners in the Kings Highway and Maple Park Water districts will be elected at an nual elections Monday, Dec. 2. Donaid L. Bryan is candidate to succeed himself in the Kings Highway Water district for a five-year term. He is now secre tary of the board of commissioners!) Pollingplace will be at 1833 South Peach st., the Wayne Troxell residence and hours will be between 2 and 8 p.m. Three commissioners will be elected in the Maple Park Water district. They are Donald Casper, seeking a five-year term; Gail Durbin, seeking a four-year term; and Mrs. Geraldean Grah am, seeking a one-year term. Casper is seeking the office vacated by J. T. Neff who de cided not to seek reelection; Dur bin is seeking to fill the unex pired term of LaDale Herrman, who moved from the district; and Mrs. Graham is seeking the unexpired term of William Hughes, who also moved from the district. Polling place will be at the Graham Electric Service, 1205 Sage rd., and hours will be be tween 2 and 8 p.m. Ford Scholarship Won By L.A. Girl Detroit IP) Frances Brown, 17, Los Angeles, won a full four year college scholarship over 134 othen in Ford Motor Co.'s "National Teen-Age Press Con ference" competition. Miss Brown was one of the higH school students who attend ed the conference Oct. 15-16 as representatives of major news papers on the occasion of the motor firm's 1958 model intro duction for the press. She represented the Los An geles Herald and Express. The contest was based on news stor ies written by the young report ers at the conference, where they had interviews with top company officials, and on their grades and answers on a lengthy questionnaire. 0 o o o
