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Contents

BUSINESS HIGHLIGHT: Horse Hair Pottery: Jean Anglen

PERSON

OF INTEREST:

Butch Brewer: Drag Racer

HOME & GARDEN Essential Idaho books

10 PARTAKE: 15 OUTDOORS: 12 TOKENS:

Oven Roasted Onion Potatoes North Central Idaho Wildflowers A Historic Collectable

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COME VISIT US TODAY FOR GREAT OFFERS AND UNBEATABLE SERVICE

Restrictions:Offers good on new and unregistered units purchased between 3/1/15-4/30/15. On select models. See your dealer for details. Rates as low as 2.99% for 36 months. Approval, and any rates and terms provided, are based on credit worthiness. Fixed APR of 2.99%, 6.99%, or 10.99% will be assigned based on credit approval criteria. Other financing offers are available. See your local dealer for details. Minimum amount financed, $1,500. Maximum amount financed $50,000. Other qualifications and restrictions may apply. Financing promotions void where prohibited.Offer effective on all new and unused 2008-2015 Polaris® ATV, Ranger®, and RZR® models purchased from a participating Polaris® dealer between 3/1/15 and 4/30/15. Offer subject to change without notice. An example of monthly payments required on a 36-month term at 2.99% is $29.08 per $1,000 financed. An example of monthly payments required on a 36-month term at 6.99% APR is $30.87 per $1,000 financed. See participating retailers for complete details and conditions. Warning:Polaris® off-road vehicles can be hazardous to operate and are not intended for on-road use. Driver must be at least 16 years old with a valid driver’s license to operate. Passengers, if permitted, must be at least 12 years old. all riders should always wear helmets, eye protection, and protective clothing. Always use seatbelts and cab nets or doors (as 106 AIRPORT ROAD equipped). Never engage in stunt driving, and avoid excessive speeds and sharp turns. COTTONWOOD, IDmix. All riders should take a safety training course. Call 800Riding and alcohol/drugs don’t 342-3764 for additional information.Check local laws before riding on trails. ©2015 Polaris Industries Inc.

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BY LORIE PALMER

Art came to Jean Anglen when she needed it most. COTTONWOOD — “I was a bored housewife,” she laughed. That boredom led to years of study and finessing that eventually brought her to where she is presently: content. First, she spent her life growing up in Wisconsin, moved on to Seattle where she attended school majoring in liberal arts and then worked for 35 years in the manufacturing industry. She went on to run a hostel in Newport, Ore., where she really began to study her medium: ceramics. “I loved the organic feel of it, the creation,” she said. She purchased equipment – including kilns and molds and glazes – and began the process of hands-on learning through trial and error. Throughout the years Anglen has dabbled a bit in everything – including running a tavern and pizza place near Ritzville. “I remember my mother spending her whole life at home,” she said. “When my dad retired, my mom got cancer and she soon died. I learned from that – that I didn’t want to be saying, ‘what if ….’” In 2005, Anglen and her husband at the time, John, went to a Navajo reservation where they met and watched a master potter. “She was a tiny old lady and she worked from the clay up on the pottery wheel, using material from right around her area to create beautiful colors,” Anglen said.

Photo by Lorie Palmer

The above ceramic piece of pottery with burned-in horsehair is a best-seller for artist Jean Anglen.

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She watched as the woman fired the items to bisque and reheated them to 1,300 degrees and then did something she had never seen done before – added horsehair.

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LORIE PALMER

Jean Anglen readies her ceramics for glaze.

“When I saw it and the result – I was hooked,” she said. Recently, Anglen demonstrated the effect in her home kilns, touching down various pieces of horsehair to her ceramic pieces. As she held the hair above the hot pieces, the static electricity drew the hair to the ceramics and clung to or burned into the images.

However, it’s not a complete fairy tale. “Don’t let anyone tell you it’s easy. It’s not. Carol was the love of Eldon’s life and John was mine,” she said. “That doesn’t mean Eldon and I aren’t happy; we are. It’s just different. It’s a different way of life to get used to.”

“They basically disintegrate, leaving their imprints,” she said. “No two pieces are ever alike.”

Part of that life that Anglen encompasses is the beauty in which she creates. From any direction on their property, mountains and the prairie can be seen.

Any type of hair can be used in pieces, including human or any type of animal hair.

“Wherever I look, it’s beautiful – any time of the year,” she said.

Anglen creates in her home on 16 acres just outside of Cottonwood. John died in 2010 and she met Eldon Anglen through Christianmingle.com. His wife, Carol, also died in 2010. Eldon and Jean married in 2013.

And that’s important because Anglen has commandeered at least two outbuildings and an indoor room for her work.

“We married at 5:30 a.m., right on the property here as the sun came up,” she said. His three children and her one have been “very supportive,” she said.

“What can I say? It takes up a lot of space,” she laughed. The perfect space to freely create all comes back to being content. COUNTY WIDE

“I know I am fortunate to be in the place I am right now, where I have the luxury to fashion and sell my items as I choose,” Anglen said. “I am at peace.”

Anglen has pieces on hand for personal sales and also sells her wares at various craft shows. She also specializes in custom pieces. She can be reached at her business, Pahattery, at 208-791-3412.

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Liberty Lake, Washington

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Oven Roasted

Onion Potatoes BY LORIE PALMER

Place all ingredients in baking dish. Make sure oil, soup mix and parsley are tossed throughout and potatoes are thoroughly coated. Bake at 225 for 30 minutes. Stir well. Turn up oven heat to 350 degrees and bake another 20 minutes. (I actually bake mine for a longer period of time at a lower temperature. For example, I will place them in the oven at 170 degrees – the lowest my oven will go – and leave them from lunch time until I get home from work at dinner time. They really take in the flavor this way).

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Two pounds of potatoes

(I use a pre-package of the baby tri-colored; if you use larger potatoes, cut into small chunks)

¼ to ½ cup olive oil

Directions:

Sundance Services

Ingredients:

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(or your favorite type of cooking oil)

1 package of dry onion soup/dip mix

1 teaspoon ground parsley flakes (optional) This easy side dish recipe originally came from my sister-in-law’s mother, Pat. You can use any type of potatoes but I have recently chosen tri-colored small potatoes because they are pretty and taste great.

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Sunset Silhouette “It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke

LORIE PALMER

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110 N. College • Grangeville, ID Hours • Rubber Stamps • B&W Copies Mon-Fri • Printing 8am-5pm • Color Copies • Fax Service • Bindery • Computer to Print • Ink Cartridges Saturdays • Computer Forms 9am-1pm • Wedding Invitations • Ribbons • Office Supplies • Lamination to 24’ Wide e-mail: printshop@connectwireless.us COUNTY WIDE

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Making Their Mark MEDIUM OF EXCHANGE, TOKENS SERVE AS HISTORIC REMINDER OF PLACES LONG SINCE GONE

BY DAVID RAUZI

t’s just a token.”

“I

If you’ve sorted through the flea market stalls you’ve come across tokens hiding in the bottoms of dusty old cigar boxes or stuck between the wood slats of a workbench. Your grandfather had a few mixed in his old cuff links box or strung as a charm on a watch fob. As a collector’s item, tokens are a good grab; it’s a buyer’s market as the supply is large as is the variety — created for bars, grocery stores, gaming parlors, mass transit and special events. Aluminum, brass, copper and tin have been used for tokens, with some being in more exotic forms such as porcelain and as common and colloquial as the “wooden nickel.” The token design is simple; most often denoting the place and town of business and the denomination value for trade. It’s these markings that make them of interest to regional collectors who desire them for not just another slug in a sleeve, but the reminiscence for establishments and the buildings they inhabited that are long gone. For clarification, tokens were and are generally issued by private businesses or companies, associations and even individuals that have a limited use within those respective groups. Coins, on the other hand, are issued by governments and are freely exchangeable for goods or other coins.

use within those establishments versus the exchangeability of coins. In this use, tokens have seen a resurgence, with the added value for businesses to generate revenue from sales of these now graphically stylized markers to collectors. And in most cases cheap to produce, tokens have had common usage in both urban and rural areas. According to collectors in the Idaho County area, tokens are a tangible memory to both places and days gone by and long gone: Who were R.E. Hamill in Fenn or E.E. Ping in Kooskia? Can you remember the Corner Saloon in Stites or Haener’s Beer Parlor in Ferdinand? What about Matt’s Place or Magee’s M&M Cash Store in Grangeville? They’re just records in a book or maybe a courthouse file now; those tokens are likely to outlast those dusty files as they pass from collector to collector. Thought of starting a token collection? Maybe you should first try out gardening. Pendleton, Ore., resident Randy M. Wells’ interest in tokens started with a fortuitous discovery of one belonging to his great grandfather, Charles Gregory, who in the late 1800s resided in Idaho County at White Bird and was involved in ranching and mining before becoming a saloon owner. “The token that is connected with this story was found by my brother-in-law’s mother, Mrs. Wisdom, while digging in her flower garden at her home in Grangeville,” Wells said. “She showed it to my sister, Terri Wisdom, who recog-

Tokens have long been a direct marketing tool for businesses, such as saloons and markets, due to their limited

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IDAHO COUNTY FREE PRESS nized the name on the token [Gregory & Co., Whitebird]. She and her husband, Gene Wisdom, gave the token to me and I began to research tokens. Up until that time we had never even heard about tokens, but we knew that our great grandfather had a saloon and store in White Bird years ago.” The family connection in tokens is also what interests Dick and Juanita Seay of Grangeville. The couple has well more than a dozen that Dick found years ago in a box in the basement of The Spot, a bar his dad, Richard K. Seay, owned in the 1960s — located where Oscar’s Restaurant now sits. Their collection – some of brass, steel and aluminum — contains ones from Stites: G.C. Stokes Restaurant and Pool Hall, and Aug. C. Scheel; from Grangeville: F&J, and Leonard’s Cafe; and a couple of out-of-towners: Royal Novelty Co., Battery Street, S.F. (San Francisco), and J.P. Hawkins, Toppenish, Wash. Some have a center hole punch or a star or shamrock cut. Mostly on the back they hawk, “Good for 5 cents in trade.” “It’s part of Grangeville and the surrounding area. It’s the history, and we like history,” Juanita said for their interest in the tokens. And with all of the family they have in the area, she said, “they’ve probably touched them at one point or another.” •

Thinking of starting a token collection? Best place to start? Local garage sales and flea markets. Be prepared to take the time to search through lots of junk boxes and deep below items in large containers for those tokens that fall to the bottom. Pawn shops and antique stores can occasionally have tokens alongside their rare coins for sale. Thrift shops are another place to stop, but inventories vary often so you’ll have to check back regularly. Online auctions, such as eBay, have tokens for sale. But spend the time researching so you don’t pay more than they’re worth. And don’t forget, businesses today still offer tokens, now stylized with slick graphics for appeal to collectors.

So you have your tokens. What now? Well first, as with collectible coins, never try to remove natural oxidation from tokens. This “toning” provides value; the token is worth more with it intact. Removing it will damage the token’s surface and greatly reduce its value. In other words, no dipping, polishing or chemical solutions should ever be used. Rule of thumb? If it’s OK for your hands it’s OK for your tokens: warm water and soft soap, clean each separately to avoid scratching each other, and dry thoroughly. If you need to clean them, consult hobby books or online collector groups for instructions on how to best do it, as well as on options for setting in holders and storing.

DAVID RAUZI

Dick and Juanita Seay of Grangeville look over some of their token collection.

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Arrowleaf Balsamroot

Yellow Skunk Cabbage

Shooting Star

Calypso

North Central Idaho

Wildflowers CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS BY CINDY SCHACHER AND MICHAEL HAYS, NEZ PERCE-CLEARWATER NATIONAL FOREST

What makes spring a pleasure in North Central Idaho? The appearance of wildflowers. HERE ARE A FEW YOU WILL START SEEING IN THE COMING MONTHS LEADING INTO SUMMER.

The Fairy Slipper (Calypso bulbosa) can start to be seen in late April or early May and can be found until late June. The Calypso has a single broad basal leaf, a sheathed stem and showy drooping flower. The

flower consists of three sepals and three petals, with the central petal being different from the others being saclike and called the lip. Filaments and style are united to form a central column. The small bulb is edible but it should not be harvested due to its rarity. Yellow Skunk Cabbage (Lysichitum americanum) has an early spring flower and can be found in wet woods, stream banks and bogs. Its common name refers to the skunk-like odor of the sap, which draws flies as pollinators. The spike of the skunk cabbage consists of minute flowers surrounded by a large yellow bract open on one side. The spike grows on COUNTY WIDE

a stout stalk in a cluster of giant, erect leaves. In the past, Native Americans were able to use this plant for food by roasting and drying the root. The Shooting Star flowers (Dodecatheon pulchellum) are deep purplish-pink darts that point in all directions from atop a long stalk. The flowers are three-fourths to one inch long. At times, white petals may be found on the shooting star instead of rose-pink petals. Blooming time is the latter part of April through July, and it is found in open places such as plains, hills and mountainsides. In early spring when green forage is scarce, elk and deer

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will eat the shooting star. The Arrowleaf Balsamroot (Balsamorhize sagittata) will often color dry hillsides a golden yellow in the spring. Large 4-5 inch bright yellow flower heads grow at the tip of an almost leafless stalk. The balsamroot has large silver gray leaves covered with felt-like hairs coming from the base of the clump of stems. The leaf blades are 12 inches long and 6 inches wide with a leaf stalk of the same length. Balsamroot is found on open hillsides and flats in grasslands, sagebrush or open pine forests. Blooming season is the latter part of April to the first part of July.

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CONTRIBUTED PHOTO / BUTCH BREWER

Butch Brewer retired from an energy industry job to the Grangeville area, where he is setting up the Altered Behavior roadster for a return to the Pacific Northwest drag racing circuit this spring. Brewer will rejoin former teammate Don Harris to teach aspiring driver Tim Johnson the trade of racing alongside National Hot Rod Association pros.

“WE’RE GOING RACING THIS SPRING”

BY ANDREW OTTOSON

Drag race driver to reconnect with NHRA circuit Idaho County is home to uncountable motorheads, and not only hobbyists who harbor a personal, private need for speed. Riggins is home to an elite racing tradition, as world class jet boat racers run the Salmon River every April. A Kooskia-based motorcycle land speed record holder is known to make pilgrimages to the Bonneville Salt Flats. One of the few women ever to win a drag-racing national championship matriculated at Grangeville High School, and the Grangeville outskirts are presently home to a National Hot Rod Association veteran who will be giving drag racing another go this spring. Butch Brewer started racing with high school buddy Don Harris in 1969, driving a superstock Plymouth before turning to dragsters, roadsters and a funny car. “It was easier than getting tickets all the time,”

Brewer said. Together they toured the Pacific Northwest’s racing circuit – at tracks across Washington and Oregon, including Yakima, Seattle, Woodburn and Medford – until a crash during the early ’90s put the funny car and the Brewer-Harris racing team out of commission. Brewer kept racing, mainly in Alaska, working his hobby around his 30-year career in the energy industry. During the mid-1990s, he became reacquainted with and married another of his high school connections, Shirley, who has an abiding affection for racing rooted in both the travel and what he calls “the family aspect, sitting around the firepit in the evening.” The Brewers used to camp at the tracks, operating out of a 45-foot trailer with living quarters. He last drove at an IHRA drag race in Alaska in 2009, and after the hiatus, he and Harris will be COUNTY WIDE

reuniting to pass down what they know of their sport to aspiring driver Tim Johnson, who Brewer hopes to license and certify for NHRA competition, along with the car. That would add another link to the chain of mentoring Brewer credits for his success. “Jim Lindholm is the guy that taught me the most,” Brewer said. “He’s a mentor to me. To this day we do a lot together. I want to be a guy like that for Tim. The main goal this year is to get Tim licensed to drive it. After this year, we’ll see where we fit in the circuit.” Brewer had a roadster built specially for him in 1997, and had the chassis updated to meet NHRA specs last spring. He has been practicing the mechanical side of racing since the 1980s – “I was just a driver before that,” he said – and is preparing to run a Dart Buick head on a Chevy block motor, which he has designed from the ground

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up. “It all starts with an air flow sheet…everything is a math problem.” Harris is in charge of electronics, and in addition to being the secondary driver, Brewer will maintain the car and tune it based on the vast amount of data they’ll gather from a download box, which tracks many aspects of the vehicle’s performance. “It can tell when the tires slip and when they grab, which is one of the main things the driver has to adjust for.” A drag-racing tire is designed to direct the motor’s power down to the track surface, which it does by piling itself up at the point of contact with the roadway, causing a momentary distortion of the normally smooth sidewalls, which “wrap up” to keep the main tire surface joined squarely to the track surface. This happens in tiny instants – hundredths or thousandths of a Continues on page 18

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Continued from page 17 second – when the power given by the motor is translated as perfectly into pure traction as possible. With an appropriate amount of power, the tire will not shake – but with the wrong wheel speed, the drag-racing tire can change shape. Then it shakes, and it was just such shaking – what he called “rattling the tires” – that sent Brewer and the funny car into an enclosure near the finish line in 1991. “It took the whole side of the car off,” Brewer said. “I should have stepped off the throttle. As a driver, when you break your routine, that’s when you can make a mistake, and that was my mistake. When it really shakes you, you lose vision. One moment I thought I could stay on it, and after it stopped I realized I hit the plywood.” Brewer expects the car to top out at 168 miles per hour, but the chassis is capable of a six-second quarter-mile. A six-second quarter-mile would be about three times quicker than the typical automobile – like, for example, a 2011 Ford Fiesta as reviewed by Car & Driver – or twice as fast as a 2013 Ford Mustang V6 reviewed by the same magazine. Most of what separates an ordinary car from the dragster is in the engine. The power plant in Brewer’s car would cost about $30,000 to buy – “half if you do it the way we’re doing it,” Brewer said. The racing transmission runs $2,200, the torque converter $700, the axles $1,200 a pair. And those racing tires? $600 a year for the rear slicks.

Butch and Shirley Brewer

This spring, all of those parts and many more will be coming together in Brewer’s shop – the clean room alongside his main garage – the door to which secures the special tidiness the racecar requires. “You’ve got to be logical and you can’t have a fear of failure, and you’ve got to be mentally tough when it doesn’t go exactly how you’d want,” Brewer said. “You’ve got to be able to think outside the box and figure things out. Mostly, you’ve got to have fun. I worked for gas companies and on the Alaska Pipeline so I could do this.” The door of Brewer’s racing shop also functions as a portal into the universe of classic car culture, and stepping through it back into Idaho County takes a person to a place where motorsports are just as well-established. Following the circuit may take Brewer many other places, but he is surely not alone in saying: “We’re going racing this spring.”

Brewer has been on hiatus since 2009, but he is assembling his roadster as well as a racing team to make another go of the NHRA drag-racing circuit this spring.

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Essential Idaho Reading W “If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads.” FRANÇOIS MAURIAC

hen it comes to the literary classics, we can all rattle off the essential reads that speak to who we are as a people, as a society and our places in the world; and on the great themes of love and death, war and peace (hey, that’s a book, right?), on social justice and noble sacrifice.

John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, Mark Twain, Robert Frost, Maya Angelou: This is barely a sampling of our favorite authors who inspire, entertain and challenge us with their stories. But what about Idaho? What more can we learn about the Gem State? What about Idaho County? How can we better understand its culture, issues and life? Fortunately, the body of literature out there has many examples to choose from. And we asked our region’s librarians to share a few of their favorites they would consider essential Idaho reading. BY DAVID RAUZI

Candice Williams

had been all but forgotten.

towns, it is a one-of-a-kind look at the heritage of the Camas Prairie.

Prairie Community Library The Poker Bride, by Christopher Corbett. This is the story of Polly Bemis, a young Chinese concubine who arrived in America during the days of boom towns and gold rushes. Polly was brought to the mining camp, Warrens, where her owner lost her in a poker game to Charlie Bemis, cardsharp and saloon owner. Polly and Charlie married after he was shot by a gambler and she nursed him back to health. The couple would eventually settle on a ranch near the Salmon River. Polly did not venture off the property until the 1920s, and when she did, she became a statewide sensation. By this time many of the Chinese residents of Idaho had returned to China, and Polly’s story

“Polly Bemis had one of the most memorable stories in the history of Idaho and the old west. It’s a must read for residents of Idaho County,” Williams said. Roadside History of Idaho, by Betty Derig, is an easy to read format that offers bite-sized histories of Idaho towns. It also includes maps and historical photographs. “It’s a well-researched and handy overview of Idaho history,” she said. 150 Years: Our Story. This book delves into the local history of Cottonwood, Ferdinand, Greencreek, Keuterville and the surrounding area. It’s a compilation of family histories and memories about local communities. Written by the residents of local COUNTY WIDE

April Blankenship Branch Manager Kamiah Community Library The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America by Timothy Egan (non-fiction). “This book is a great mix of action and history about the 1910 forest fire that burned a large portion of northern Idaho and western Montana, the political struggle surrounding the establishment of the US Forest Service, and the men who fought the fire including the man after whom the Pulaski hand tool was named,” Blankenship said. “It’s a great read for anyone interested in northwestern history. We all know how

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transformative (and sometimes politically charged) forest fires can be, so it’s great to get the perspective of how these issues were dealt with more than 100 years ago.” All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki (fiction). “While potatoes may not be the main crop here in Idaho County, it is a big part of the culture in the southern half of the state,” she said. “Ozeki uses humor to examine the main character’s feelings of returning home after a long absence, family drama that comes from caring for an aging/ill parent, and a small farm’s struggle against agribusiness. Very relatable, even if you’re not a potato farmer.” More Reviews, page 22

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CW Lynn Johnson

District Librarian Mt. View School District 244 Mailing May, by Michael O. Tunnell, which is a story about a little girl mailed to her grandparents rather than sent on the train in 1914. “This story gives younger readers an idea of what travel was like in the early days between Lewiston and Grangeville,” Johnson said. “Based on the true story, of Charlotte May Pierstorff, mailed as a “baby chick” for 53 cents by parcel post, this children’s book also gives young readers a better understanding of how the train trestles were a necessary part of life years ago.” “Interested in learning more about every county in the state, Idaho Tours the 44: A Book of Idaho’s counties, is a fact-filled, easy-to-browse book,” she said. “Presented by First Lady, Lori Otter, in conjunction with Boise

State University and Walmart, this book takes readers on an aerial tour of the 44 counties of Idaho with Ida, a young barnstormer. This book is an easy-to-use resource for those students taking part in Idaho history research. For further reading, Ida also tours the capital, in Idaho Visits the Capital.” According to Johnson, “If you are planning a local adventure this year, Hiking Idaho’s Seven Devils: The Complete Guide to Every Trail, Lake, and Peak by Gary Jones, is a clear and concise backpacking guide you will want to browse. Jones provides short descriptions and some images of the Seven Devils area for those interested in exploring one of our local jewels.” Some other titles she would suggest include Over a Century of Murder in Idaho County, The Big Burn by Cohen and The Big Burn by Ingold, and P is for Potato by Stan and Joy Steiner.

Dena Puderbaugh Branch Manager Kooskia Community Library Recommended reading for Idaho County: Pioneer Days in Idaho County Volume One by Sister M. Alfreda Elsensohn, 2. Pioneer Days in Idaho County Volume Two by Sister M. Alfreda Elsensohn; and Kooskia, Idaho by Dana Lohrey. “The first two volumes are recommended because they contain a pleasant blend of historical facts and personal narratives, as well as extremely interesting pictures,” Puderbaugh said. “I have not personally read Dana Lohrey’s book yet because all the copies in the library system are either checked out or on hold. I am in line for the next available copy, because who wouldn’t want to read the history of their town!” she said.

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All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki — The author uses humor to examine the main character’s feelings of returning home after a long absence.

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