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Days of Yore for August 15, 2024 10 years ago— Past grand marshals of the Wheeler County Fair, which celebrated its 100th anniversary, rode on a trailer of hay bales in the Fair parade. Waving to the crowds were: Frank and Melba Cecil, 1995; Roy and Ernestine Critchlow, 2012; Sherla Collins, 1999; Lee and Patsy Hoover, 2006; Joe Fitzgerald, 2007; Margaret Keys, 1998. 25 years ago— Marilyn Chase sends a newspaper article from Klamath Falls that tells of a former Spray and May...
This year was the 5th A Town Throw Down Basketball Tournament. It started in 2019 (no tournament in 2020 due to Covid-19). This year we had a total of 13 Teams. 3 Middle School, 6 High School, and 4 Adult teams. Results: Middle School Division (10-13yo) 1st place was the girls team from Echo, Echo Storm. These girls won $150, champion T-shirts, and etched champion hydro flasks. 2nd Place was the boys team, Shake N' Fake, from Condon. They won $100. 3rd place was the Coed team from Arlington, Yoda Best, they won $50. 3 point...
Salvador Dali was one weird-ass dude. Can I say that? He was! But so was his wife, Gala—I mean, she was weird, too. Born Elena Ivanovna Diakonova in 1894 (having passed away on 10 June 1982), she usually went by “Gala.” She became the wife of both the poet Paul Éluard and then eventually of the artist Salvador Dalí. She was muse to both of them and to a long list of heavy-hitters in early-mid 20th-century literature, art, and popular culture. Having endured a stint in a Swiss...
My favorite thing about the Wheeler county fair is the giant bake sale that occurs after the baked goods are judged. The fanciest bakery in the world couldn’t possibly compete with the entries at the Wheeler county fair. The cakes and decorated cakes, cupcakes, cookies, pies, yeast and quick breads, biscuits, rolls and cinnamon rolls and brownies all sparkled with love. We have some talented bakers here in the middle of nowhere! My first experience of the county’s giant bake s...
From superheroes to traveling around the world, OSU Sherman County Extension hosted local youth for two STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math) day camps this summer. These camps were held using STEMfinity kits purchased in 2022 with grant funding from the Gorge STEM Hub and the Sherman County Cultural Coalitions. The "Science of Super Powers" camp was held July 15-19 for youth ages 6-9, with a focus on learning about super heroes and their powers, how those powers...
Days of Yore for August 8, 2024 10 years ago— On the first night of the 26,000 acre fire near Condon, the Sniption Fire, winds pushed the flames across the property of the Edwards place at the bottom of Crazy Fork, where the fire burned to the width of a bulldozer’s blade from the back door of Dude Edwards’ home. Dude and his daughters, Lorna, Terry and Heather and son-in-law Jack were evacuated for the evening. All left-handed people are invited in for a special treat at Murr...
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT Rufus City Council Meeting Cancelled The August 15, 2024 Rufus City Council meeting has been cancelled. The agenda items including Land Use Action On a proposed RV Park have been rescheduled for the September 11, 2024 City Council Date. Please watch for a Public Notice for more information on the September Hearing.... Full story
Letter to the Editor: To the Editor and to all the wonderful, hard-working people who saved our home and ranch from the devastating Lone Rock Fire. Rockey and I are so grateful to ALL of you. Without you, we would have no home or ranch to return to. To our friends and neighbors and local firefighters, who were among the first to arrive and the last to leave. I would like to name everyone who was here to help us. I wasn't here, and I apologize if I have left out someone. Please forgive me, and tell me if I have when you see...
On Monday, I chatted with Theresa Byars and Betty McNeil of Fossil, Oregon. I thanked them for their kind invitation to attend the Sunday service and picnic lunch at the Global Methodist Church. The event was a special occasion to honor the presence of guest pastor Dave McCue who drove six hours from Colville, Washington to deliver a well-prepared and engaging sermon. I commented on how good the cooks are in Fossil and what a lovely addition the lunch was to the event. Betty...
A few years ago Dr. Matthew Green published London: a travel guide through time, a guide to travel guides in fact, in this case to London’s high-point architecture and its soft-underbelly of vice and depravity. I have a book in my inventory, Trivia: or, the art of walking the streets of London, published first in 1712, my copy having been published in 1716. It’s a book that was penned in various forms and editions by “Mr Gay,” Mr. John Gay (1682-1732), the author of several...
The Wheeler County Fair kicked off this week in Fossil and people near and far are turning out to celebrate. The fair began in 1914 and is now a hallmark of North Central Oregon. This year's them is Growing Generation to Generation. The 2024 Grand Marshal is Painted Hills Natural Beef. Now one of the most recognizable brands in Oregon, Painted Hills Natural Beef started in the mid-1990's in living rooms of area cattle ranchers who were concerned about their livelihood....
Once again, it's another hot and dry summer. With this heat, problems can arise within our gardens. We usually remember our lawns, vegetable patches, strawberries, and anything else that we care for. However, one thing often overlooked is our trees. Out of all our landscape plants, trees are probably the most valuable and expensive to replace. Drought stress over several years can lead to sudden tree loss. Careful considerations need to be made for our trees. When it comes to...
The Port of Arlington's A-Town Throwdown 3 on 3 basketball tournament and the Port of Arlington's Show 'N Shine Car Show was held last Saturday. It was a pinch yourself, I might be dreaming kind of day as temperatures hovered in the low 80s with an overcast sky. Both events had a smaller turnout than last year, but organizers were expecting as much due to the wildfires in the area. The A-Town Throw Down 3 on 3 Basketball Tournament was played on the basketball courts by the Po...
A passion for helping others, and seeing the life changing work done in both the public health and non-profit sectors, guided the career path of recently retired North Central Public Health District Director Shellie Campbell. She officially stepped down May 31 from the agency that provides public health services in Wasco and Sherman counties, but is staying on a bit longer in a part-time capacity until the position is filled. (See the job description at htt...
So, I’m a bookseller. I research prices on-line of equivalent condition and edition exemplars of each and every book I hope to catalog for listing and sale on-line. My search this morning for “Mark Twain” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” returned “17,000+ results.” SecondSale is offering their Good condition softcover copy of the Revised Edition of the Signet Classic Series Edition, published in 1997, for $3.50, with free shipping. Their 11-word “description...
Days of Yore for August 1, 2024 10 years ago— The Arlington Community Chamber of Commerce annual Show-n-Shine Car Show was held July 26th in Arlington’s picturesque river-front Earl Snell Memorial Park and was a great success by all accounts. Dave Sitton of Arlington took home the coveted Jim Rudisill Memorial People’s Choice award for his cherry red 1962 Chevrolet Corvette. At the annual awards ceremony at the Oregon State Fair, families from across the state will recei...
Wow, the fires were intense, weren’t they? They certainly forced many of us to consider what we would take given a moment’s notice and limited space. I guess I’m not the sentimental type because the first thing that came to mind was to grab my cookware. Being able to eat a warm, home-cooked meal at least once a day centers and settles me, no matter how chaotic the world around me gets. One evening during the fires, Randal and I sat on the porch to watch the constant procession...
Days of Yore for July 25, 2024 10 years ago— Fire from an errant weed burning project is suspected of causing the fire that did major damage to a storage shed at the Gilliam County Road Department facility in southwest Condon. A strong wind from the west pushed the flames through the long building causing considerable damage to the building. Larry Hardie’s quick response in activating the water truck prevented more devastation. Jim and Diane Hassing and Nick and Cody Bet...
Eros and Cupid. Bow, arrow, target. Ready. Set. Go! Early editions of Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron (published first in the mid-14th century) feature arresting black-and-white wood-engraved illustrations. My 1761 copy’s title-page vignette depicts a chubby archer (Cupid) bending the ear of a man (Boccaccio himself?) spying half-naked ladies cavorting on a castle verandah’s balcony (Eros). Te 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 - 1375) assembled 100 short...
“Once upon a time in Spain there was a little bull and his name was Ferdinand.” Ferdinand was unusual. Ferdinand grew big and strong. But Ferdinand preferred to smell flowers and contemplate Life under a cork tree instead of romping and fighting with other bulls. Ferdinand’s mother, a cow, worried about him; why didn’t he want to go to fight famous Matadors in Seville or Madrid? Butting heads is okay, I guess, Ferdinand thought, but being poked by horns isn’t much fun. Flow...
Last week I wrote about the conundrum so many of us face when we ask ourselves the age old question “What’s for dinner?” What a strange irony it is that even with our incredible bounty of food, at five o’clock we still stroll into the kitchen and wonder what to eat for dinner. If I don’t know in the morning, that question will repeat itself throughout the day like a woodpecker that hammers on my shoulder. Eating dinner is more than just eating dinner. It’s the period at t...
Days of Yore for July 18, 2024 10 years ago— In perhaps one of the most extensive investigations involving troopers of the Oregon State Police Fish & Wildlife Division, a Bend area man was recently sentenced to multiple misdemeanor and felony charges related to illegal guiding and hunting activities in central Oregon. In total, 23 people have been charged for more than 200 counts filed in Wheeler County. In October of 2012, an OSP Fish & Wildlife trooper received an a...
Cooper Johnson, a 2020 graduate of Condon High School, has graduated from Oregon State University. Over the last 4 years, while attending college in Corvallis, he also participated in the Air Force Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC). This spring, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Management and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Air Force through the Flying Beavs ROTC program. He will report to his first...
The history of small towns in frontier communities is as rich if not richer than in larger towns and cities. Early inhabitants who moved West sacrificed everything and overcame incredible odds to carve out a new life and future. For pioneers in expansive rural areas, the challenges of settling and sustaining a town were significant. But today, preserving that history and its artifacts is a unique challenge that many tiny towns face. The town of Spray is a perfect example. In...
Days of Yore for July 11, 2024 10 years ago— Now in its 11th year, the Penny Gronquist Memorial Scholarship Golf Tournament and Auction was held with fifty-eight golfers competing in the 9-hole scramble for this year’s trophy. Winning the tournament was the team of Dave Walborn, Michael Walborn, Tim Gilbert and Leslie Walborn posting a 9-hole score of 28. Johnny Wayne Johnson is lucky to be with us after a motor vehicle mishap in Wheeler County left his pickup and horse tra...
