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(ffrURTEEW MEDF03D (OREGON) MAIL TRIBTJNg
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8undT. December 1, 19S7
H feby v Jmkm&fe Muss H
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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
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This Weeks
HISTORY
Can You
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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
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MYSTERY
Identify
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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.
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