APRIL 28, 2019
Our Valley | Sunday, April 28, 2019 | 1
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OUR VALLEY 2019
APRIL 28, 2019
About this issue By David Smigelski Mail Tribune
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Our Valley |
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APRIL 28, 2019
We thumbed through back issues stored in dusty boxes in our library and chose one story from each of Our Valley’s first 30 years, then turned our writers loose to apply a fresh perspective with questions such as “Where are they now?” “What have we learned?” “What do we know today that was unfathomable back then?”
This is the 40th issue of the Mail Tribune’s annual Our Valley publication. Every spring since 1980, reporters and photogra phers have fanned out across the Rogue Valley to bring home stories about life in the region, with a different theme every year. In 1980, the issue focused on our work, with stories that detailed jobs such as ER doctor, saw filer, dog catcher and pear grower. The theme in 1986 was “24 Hours in Our Valley,” a project that saw 25 reporters and nine photographers pull all-nighters to chronicle a typical day in the valley. The 1990 issue focused on our air, water, land and urban sprawl, while the topic in 2000 was growth, with reporters dissecting trends and using projections to paint a portrait of what the valley might look like in 50 years. When we realized that this year’s issue represented a milestone, we decided to take a look back from the mountain of time at the steps we and our predecessors have taken to reach this place called 2019. We thumbed through back issues stored in dusty boxes in our library and chose one story from each of Our Valley’s first 30 years, then turned our writers loose to apply a fresh perspective with questions such as “Where are they now?” “What have we learned?” “What do we know today that was unfathomable back then?” We interviewed Bob Hunter, a local lawyer whose work to remove fish-killing dams such as Gold Ray and Savage Rapids was chronicled 24 years ago. Where is Bob today? Still here, but instead of filing briefs he’s
casting flies in the rivers he spent his career protecting. For an update on the 1992 issue of Our Valley, which was touted as a “Survival Guide for the Nineties,” we took a fresh look at a story that was titled “Sex and Singles,” written at a time when AIDS was the leading cause of death for men age 25 to 44. When the original story ran, dating apps such as Grindr and Tinder didn’t exist, because there was no such thing as apps or smartphones or AIDS drugs. How have those technological advances affected the dating scene? Read on. People are people no matter the year and no matter the circumstance, so in most ways the dreams and aspirations of people today are the same as those back in the early years. But the headlines that consume us — and in many ways divide us — are very different. Our 2002 issue on the environment didn’t even mention climate change. No one was worried about fire tornadoes. For an update on 1982, we chose a story that was titled “Invisible Hispanic population pursues American dream.” What? Invisible Hispanics? Can you imagine such a headline today, when Hispanic people make up 12.9 percent of the population in Jackson County and being bilingual is something you’d feature prominently on your resume? It makes us wonder what will have our successors shaking their heads in amazement 40 years from now when they look back at us today, doing our best to make sense of the present. Reach Mail Tribune features editor David Smigelski at 541-776-8784 or dsmigelski@ rosebudmedia.com.
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Pears without pollution To keep budding pears safe from spring frost, a hard and vital job was — and still is — jumping out of bed in the wee hours to light heaters and flip on fans or water spray, with the goal of boosting temperatures a few degrees above freezing. MAIL TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO
Rows of pear trees near Talent were photographed from the air.
By John Darling for the Mail Tribune
The 1980 issue of Our Valley was about us, our work, our play, our learning and our coping, including how we deal with life’s challenges and setbacks. The thick section on our jobs profiled an amazing array of work we do in Our Valley — saw filer, ER doctor, dog catcher, judge, fish counter, on and on. In those days, pear orchards (along with wood products) were big job providers, but both have faded considerably. And both brought with them concerns for the environment. At its peak, the pear industry had 400 growers; now there are 10 — with wine grape and cannabis growers replacing them. To keep budding pears safe from spring frost, a hard and vital job was — and still is — jumping out of bed in the wee hours to light 6 | | Sunday, April 28, 06 OUR VALLEY
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heaters and flip on fans or water spray, with the goal of boosting temperatures a few degrees above freezing. In the beginning, growers set out smudge pots, which were nothing more than bowls of oil they’d burn, based on the “fallacy” that smoke protected buds from frost, says Talent grower Ron Meyer. The smudge pots created black smoke and were replaced in the ‘60s by “return stack” heaters, which recycled smoke and were “pretty clean,” Meyer says. The system was practical when diesel fuel was 11 cents a gallon, but in the ‘70s diesel jumped past a dollar — and environmental regulations clamped down on air pollution. So growers brought in fans run by motors atop 30-foot towers and that, says Meyer, “gave us a three-degree temperature rise by forcing warmer SEE 1980, PAGE 8
2019 | Our Valley
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Our Valley | Sunday, April 28, 2019 | | 7 OUR VALLEY 07
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MAIL TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO
Pears are harvested at Frink Orchard near Medford.
1980
From Page 6
air down to ground level.” Fans cut oil burning by 80 percent. Augmenting this system were over-tree sprinklers. Forty years ago, high school students got up early and flocked to orchards to work for minimum wage, walking rows and lighting heaters with hand-held oil lamps. Meyer had 2,500 heaters to light. It was good money in those days, says Meyer, but when fans arrived in the mid-’80s, it all but wiped out this cash cow for students. In addition,
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Meyer and other growers shifted to flame throwers, lighting heaters from a rolling ATV. “I still would hire some students,” he notes, “but I don’t get calls from them anymore.” The economy and globalized trade have not been kind to the once-booming pear industry. Pears are grown in many other areas, with many imported from South America, he says. Meyer used to pick and process 115 acres (14,000 trees) of fruit on-site, but now the fruit is sent to Diamond Fruit Co., a grower’s cooperative in Hood River. Plus, he adds, “I’m 80 and too old for this.” Meyer Orchards was started by
his grandfather, Wendolin Meyer, a German immigrant who was mining coal in Illinois when, in 1910, he spied an advertisement from the Medford Chamber of Commerce encouraging people to come to the Rogue Valley and grow pears. His son Joseph continued the family business, handing it off to Ron Meyer. Ron’s son Kirt, 50, is the fourth generation to work the orchard — and, though it’s been a fruitful life, their offspring are being encouraged to do something else. John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.
| Our Valley
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Ron Meyer talks about the strategies used to protect his Talent orchard from freezing temperatures.
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Our Valley | Sunday, April 28, 2019 | | 9 OUR VALLEY 09
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Technology invades our schools Picture, if you will, every student carrying — in a pocket — a computer 1,000 times more powerful than all the “machines” you just installed, with instant access to millions of people anywhere and all the world’s knowledge. What does that do to your life? JAMIE LUSCH / MAIL TRIBUNE
Students focus during a computer skills class at Hedrick Middle School.
By John Darling for the Mail Tribune
In 1981, Our Valley explored four seemingly ordinary but often heroic aspects of life here — working, coping, learning and playing. Thirty-eight years later, much remains the same, but some things, such as technology in schools, are radically changed and should blow the minds of the people who were teens and teachers interviewed for that story. We introduced the 1981 issue with a casual mention of “efforts to cope with today’s rather complex world.” Hah! If only they could have been popped ahead to 2019 for an hour and then tossed back into the world where Ronald Reagan had just started his job in the White House. Who would believe their tales? One headline read, “A Time of Rapid Change: Electronics Find Way into Classroom, Business, Home.” 10 || OUR Sunday, April 28, 2019 10 VALLEY
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It bragged (or warned?) that video presentations, handheld calculators, mini-computers and even “large computers” were in classrooms. Those mini-computers looked like a TV with a keyboard attached. You inserted a “floppy disk” and “the student is off and running.” It asked questions and told you if you guessed the right or wrong answers. You could write a program for a particular student, in an area where they needed help, and it could be duplicated and saved. David Stockman, media coordinator for Medford schools back in the day, was quoted as saying students “are not afraid of it a bit, but some are hesitant” about “converting to the new electronic machines, especially outside the classroom.” Omg, Mr. Stockman, just you wait! Picture, if you will, every student carrying — in a pocket — a SEE 1981, PAGE 12
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JAMIE LUSCH / MAIL TRIBUNE
Ivan Olinghouse works with students during a computer skills class at Hedrick Middle School.
1981
From Page 10
computer 1,000 times more powerful than all the “machines” you just installed, with instant access to millions of people anywhere and all the world’s knowledge. What does that do to your life? “We’re in a whole new generation of users now and, believe me, there is NO fear of technology,” says Kevin Campbell, present-day director of secondary student achievement for Medford School District. “The children only care about new ways to use it.” Very young students are already skilled in the digital universe, but Medford School District teaches
computer skills classes to make sure they know Word, Excel, PowerPoint and keyboarding (not just texting with thumbs), says Campbell, adding that some third-graders already can do presentations in PowerPoint. Michelle Cummings, Medford’s chief academic officer, was a high school freshman when the 1981 Our Valley article appeared. “I had an Apple 3 with floppy storage and was very excited,” she says. “Today, the kids have never even seen a floppy disk … we didn’t have the internet (for 15 years), and when that arrived, functionality of computers was very different.” In her first administration job, in 1995, Cummings remembers that to send a notice to all teachers, you
would type and print it, cut dozens on a paper-cutter, put them in faculty (wooden) boxes and expect a reply in two days. Now, it’s all instantaneous, saving many hours of time. In today’s digital universe, Cummings says, “personalized instruction” reaches new heights every year, teachers grow more sophisticated in their understanding of the learning process and how brains work, and the variety of resources, apps and curricula gain more depth and accessibility. In a computer lab at Hedrick Middle School, Assistant Principal Chad Johnson shows how the work of every student is displayed on the screen for all to see, and the teacher can comment or edit, allowing his
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teaching to enlighten the whole class in real time. It’s called Insight Classroom Management software. It allows better team learning and less monitoring in class. “Among students, there’s a huge range of sophistication, with some entry level and others absolute wizards, people who can suggest new apps for us,” says teacher Ivan Olinghouse. “They’re really good with touchscreen apps, like Snapchat and Instagram.” The technology now is amazing, but Johnson offers the caveat that “it doesn’t replace the art of teaching. It’s a tool in the tool belt, and some use it well and some still do paper and pencil.” Teachers can find out where a class is at and where it needs to go by giving “pre-assessment” pop quizzes and getting evaluations instantly. Johnson is athletic director and can collaborate, plan and schedule with all the other ADs in the region instantly. Phones are off and out of sight, but can be used to respond to tests in real time. We often hear about the dangers
of too much screen time — and Johnson says he “definitely can see it,” a decline in students’ skills in face-to-face and in groups. Phones have brought a new challenge, as teachers try MAIL TRIBUNE/FILE PHOTO to figure out South Medford High School freshman Carrie Frost uses whether conthe classroom’s whiteboard computer to help her world flict between studies class pick the next recipient of a microloan. kids happened “at school,” which would be the school’s business, home to decompress from school. But or if it happened in cyberspace, which on the internet, they can keep going.” might not be, says Johnson. Do students still read books? “Oh, “A lot more parents want us to deal yes,” says Johnson. “They read. We with online problems, so we coach have a great checkout rate at the them how to support their child, but library.” sometimes we have to say, ‘This just isn’t a school issue.’ But we always John Darling is an Ashland freedo what we can. Before phones, con- lance writer. Reach him at jdarling@ flicts used to go away when kids went jeffnet.org.
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From invisible to vibrant Latino leaders participate in all sectors of life in the Rogue Valley and have a seat at the tables where decisions are made. Bilingual education is now in the schools, Spanish language book collections are in the public libraries, and Spanish language fluency is an asset to employers. COURTESY PHOTO
Participants get ready to run at the 2018 Dia de los Muertos race in Talent.
The Rogue Valley’s Latino community has exploded in the past 27 years By Maureen Flanagan Battistella for the Mail Tribune
In 1982, Our Valley looked at jobs people do, with articles on truck driving, ranching, forestry and other occupations. One article, “Invisible Hispanic population pursues American dream,” considered how the Rogue Valley’s Latino families earned a living and worked to maintain their cultural heritage outside of the public eye. While some of the 1982 article focused on migrant workers, yearround Latino residents were also covered. That year the Mail Tribune reported there were about 2,000 Latinos living in Jackson County, with the number growing to about 4,000 during harvest season. The Rogue Valley’s Latino community today is an economic
engine and a force for social justice, making up 12.9 percent of Jackson County’s population — more than 28,000 persons. In 1982, the Mail Tribune wrote, “They fill shopping carts at the discount stores on Saturdays, and fill the drive-in theater to watch Spanish-language features on Thursdays. Those are two of the few instances when Jackson County’s Hispanic population makes its presence known.” Jan Wilson, then a Jackson County Health Department nurse, was quoted as saying, “They are a very invisible population.” Chela Sanchez, co-founder of el Dia de los Muertos race and celebration, grew up in Talent and remembers how different it was when her family first arrived in 1979. Her parents, Avigael and Gumaro, came to the Rogue Valley
PHOTO BY CHELA SANCHEZ
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Chela Sanchez, who is bilingual and bicultural, painted half of her face with traditional sugar skull face paint for last year’s Dia de los Muertos race and celebration.
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from California, seeking a better place to raise a family. “With documentation issues, people were afraid to be at the head; no one wanted to be the first one,” explains Chela. “I think people back in the day were interested in assimilating, becoming part of the community rather than exposing their differences.” Avigael remembers how hard it was to find the foods she was familiar with in Mexico, but today Avigael says almost anything she would find in Mexico is in the neighborhood grocery store. “Before I made do with what I found in the store; prepackaged tortillas were almost impossible to find, the stores never seem to carry enough, so they would always be out. Today, mangos, avocados, Mexican brand dried goods, snacks are all readily available,” says Avigael. “There’s a selection of tortillas to choose from, not to mention various brands of specialty masa.” The number of Latino-owned businesses has increased dramatically since 1982. That year there were about 1,900 Latino-owned businesses in all of Oregon. Today, Jackson County Latinos own and operate businesses in real estate, sales, manufacturing, services and other industries. As of the last census, there are more than 1,100 Latino-owned businesses in Jackson County alone, representing 10 percent of all businesses operating in the county. The Rogue Valley Latino community today is an important part of the workforce and is vocal and engaged, sharing a rich cultural heritage with the broader community. Latino leaders participate in all sectors of life in the Rogue Valley and have a seat at the tables where decisions
are made. Bilingual education is now in the schools, Spanish language book collections are in the public libraries, and Spanish language fluency is an asset PHOTO BY MAUREEN FLANAGAN BATTISTELLA to employers. Avigael and Gumaro Sanchez in front of their Phoenix home. Revista Caminos has published Talent’s Dia de los Muertos annual since 2010, growing from just a 12-page local publication to serve an ever-in- celebration and race started in 2013 with creasing regional community both in 150 runners; in 2019 it will be a citywide, print and online. Caminos is central to weekend-long festival commemorating Latino traditions. Its slogan is “Run. community cohesion. A number of Latino community mem- Culture. Community.” “We consider it as a bridge event bers influence inclusion and equity through the Medford Multicultural through food and music and now art,” Commission, a group with the cultural says co-founder Chela Sanchez. “All our competencies needed to advise the city heads are bilingual and bicultural.” Despite many advances, Rogue Valley on policy and procedure. “We were formed as part of the visioning Latinos continue to experience disprocess that Lindsay Berryman undertook crimination and micro-aggressions, in her administration,” explains Debra complicated by today’s political climate Lee, a member of the commission and a and immigration policies. lawyer with the Center for Nonprofit Legal “We have to change people’s hearts Services. “The commission was intended in order to change their minds, educatto be broad and not consider only one ing the public so they know Latinos are demographic; we are all part of the com- part of this community,” says Virginia munity, and we are diverse.” Camberos with Unite Oregon. “It’s a The commission recently worked difficult conversation, but it is one that with the Medford Police Department to is necessary. People are going back into improve relationships between the Latino the shadows because there is so much community and police officers so the offi- fear about not being welcomed, because cers could be viewed more as community of the color of your skin, how you look. support. The commission also organizes We’re here for the long run.” civic engagement through the annual Multicultural Fair, which is now in its You can reach Ashland freelance writer 26th year and is the longest-running mul- Maureen Flanagan Battistella at mbatticultural fair in Oregon. tistellaor@gmail.com
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Still a voice of reason Today, 36 years after Mohr’s story ran and 50 years after her accident, she is retired. But the Rogue Valley native is still teaching, going into classrooms to talk about safety around dogs as a volunteer with the Humane Society ANDY ATKINSON / MAIL TRIBUNE
Kathy Mohr looks at the 1983 issue of Our Valley, when she was featured as a young teacher.
A car crash crushed Kathy Mohr’s vocal cords, but not her dream of teaching By Kaylee Tornay Mail Tribune
Not every public school teacher knows what it’s like for a man to show up to class during school hours offering to perform a healing. But Kathy Mohr still remembers her experience. “This guy came and he knocked on my door and he said ... ‘I’m a faith healer. I can heal your voice,’” Mohr says, recalling the story decades later from her Central Point home. “He just showed up at my classroom.” Mohr declined because she had a classroom of students waiting for her, she says. And Mohr’s choices in life show that nothing — not even the quiet voice the stranger offered to heal — is able to pull her away from teaching. Mohr, whose career spanned about 32 years, says she “always” knew that she wanted to teach for a living. “This is something I wanted to do,” she says. “And I had my family’s support and my husband’s support, and I just persisted.” 16 || OUR Sunday, April 28, 2019 16 VALLEY
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A major car crash threw her dream — and in the immediate aftermath, her survival — into uncertainty the summer after she graduated from Ashland High School. She sustained head and brain injuries and both lungs collapsed. Her vocal cords had been crushed against the steering wheel, leaving her voice with a fraction of the force it once had. The 1983 issue of Our Valley, which came out 14 years after the crash, told about how Mohr fought through some difficult years to overcome obstacles. The injury to her vocal cords appeared as if it would end her teaching dreams. When she was partway through her degree at Southern Oregon State College, Mohr was told she couldn’t continue as a teacher because they thought students wouldn’t be able to hear her voice. Dr. Kenneth Sublette, one of her doctors, spoke up for her. “Kathy can do whatever she wants to do,” Mohr says, recalling his words. “She can do it.”
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The college relented but required her to use an amplifying system so her voice could be heard. She used it only once, though, because she didn’t like it. She started as an instructional assistant at Talent Elementary School, getting her first experience leading the classroom on her own as a substitute. She was hired next at Phoenix Elementary as a second-grade teacher. Later, she taught sixth grade, and then third grade at Orchard Hill, one of the first staff to work at the school when it opened in 1983. “So I’m old,” she jokes. When Mohr recalls how people doubted her ability to teach after the crash, she does so without anger or bitterness. Much more apparent is her smile as she talks about her classrooms and students. “I just like being with the kids,” she says. “I just liked the idea of being with kids and teaching them and helping them learn. I always loved reading and math, so it was kind of fun to help children get that same love.” “She didn’t let (the crash) be the final answer,” says Dave Mohr, her husband. “To her, it was basically a challenge. And that’s always been her approach to life.” Kathy Mohr was known to many as a strict teacher — she laughs remembering an
instance when a student at Phoenix Elementary told her principal, James Buck, that Mohr had “yelled” at him for playing disruptively outside her classroom. Today, 36 years after Mohr’s story ran and 50 years after her accident, she is retired. But the Rogue Valley native is still teaching, going into classrooms to talk about safety around dogs as a volunteer with the Humane Society. She also leads vacation Bible school for the First Presbyterian Church in Central Point and at her kitchen table, home-schools her three grandsons two days a week. She and her husband have considered leaving the valley before, but their son and his children kept them here. Mohr was featured in the Mail Tribune a number of times, including being voted Best Elementary School Teacher in the Best of Our Valley. “It’s always nice to see someone who didn’t take no for an answer,” she says. “I think it’s good for kids to see that you can overcome different obstacles, and that everyone has something that they have to deal with and just to show them that they can do that as well.” You can reach Mail Tribune reporter Kaylee Tornay at ktornay@rosebudmedia. com or 541-776-4497. Follow her on Twitter @ka_tornay.
The 1983 issue of Our Valley, which came out 14 years after the crash, told about how Mohr fought through some difficult years to overcome obstacles. The injury to her vocal cords appeared as if it would end her teaching dreams.
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Promises kept, gains shared The Cow Creek have invested heavily in local economic development projects, providing economic stability and enhancements for the tribe and the greater community through jobs, improved medical care, social programs and philanthropy. FLICKR.COM
In 1992, the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians was the first Oregon tribe to negotiate a gaming compact with the state, resulting in Seven Feathers Casino in Canyonville.
The Cow Creek have come a long way in the past 35 years By Maureen Flanagan Battistella for the Mail Tribune
From 650 enrolled members scattered around Southern Oregon to 1,500 members today, the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians is a growing and self-sufficient nation. The tribe received federal recognition in December 1982, 129 years after the Cow Creek Band signed a treaty with the U.S. government in 1853, giving away 800 square miles of ancestral lands. Federal support improved essential services and medical care in the early days, and today the Cow Creek tribe is an economic powerhouse and a major philanthropic benefactor. The tribe has found its voice and its Takelma language. “And it all started with bingo,” says Michael Rondeau, CEO of the 18 | | OUR Sunday, April 28, 2019 18 VALLEY
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Cow Creek Band. “The Cow Creek Band was technically terminated in the 1850s, and many of our members went north to the Siletz and Grand Ronde, but there were still Cow Creek here that didn’t go,” explains Rondeau. Members of the tribe tended to live in family units rather than in larger communities, complicating the Cow Creek’s petition for federal recognition and the reservation lands promised in the 1853 treaty. Recognition of the tribe meant that the Cow Creek were eligible for federal money in the same way that states were eligible. Just two years after recognition, an article in the 1984 issue of Our Valley reported that federal home improvement funds were used to repair houses for the elderly, the SEE 1984, PAGE 20
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1984
From Page 18
Indian Health Services began to deliver health care in Canyonville, and the tribe hired a general manager. In 1985, a settlement with the U.S. government brought restitution for the more than 500,000 acres taken at the time of the treaty, a payment of $.025 per acre. The settlement gave the Cow Creek Band an interest-bearing fund to plan for the future. “We were blessed to have a board in the 1980s that was progressive and yet conservative,” Rondeau says. “The board had values derived from the Depression Era: holding onto property, trying to be conservative with money, but helping as many as possible ... We’ve always run two tracks: the social and cultural side and the economic side, which we had to have to run those programs.” The first Cow Creek land purchase was in 1986, an old drive-in motel in Canyonville. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988 paved the way for casino-style gambling, and in 1992 the Cow Creek Band was the first Oregon tribe to negotiate a
gaming compact with the state. “Initially the location of Seven Feathers was a bingo hall; the footprint was very small and it grew into what it is today, with a hotel of 300 rooms. Across the way there was a gas station with a very simple convenience store that everyone in south county knew as Fat Harvey’s,” says Susan Ferris, a consultant who works with the Cow Creek Band. “The tribe bought that, and now it’s a fueling station for traffic up and down I-5, with gasoline and diesel, an RV park and a rest stop for travelers.” The Cow Creek have invested heavily in local economic development projects, providing economic stability and enhancements for the tribe and the greater community through jobs, improved medical care, social programs and philanthropy. Since its inception in 1997, the foundation arm of the Cow Creek Band has contributed nearly $18 million to nonprofits in the tribe’s ancestral lands. In January 2019, 73 nonprofits received $496,500. The Cow Creek also work to preserve a rich cultural heritage, and revive the Takelma language. Edward Sapir, who was a linguist and anthropologist, documented the Cow
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Creek Band and Takelma, the language used by the Cow Creek Band in field work conducted at the turn of the century. Sapir’s work is the basis for the revitalization of the Takelma language, and his writings, including Takelma word lists and pronunciation guides, are available online in The First Nations Collection of the Southern Oregon Digital Archives at Southern Oregon University. “Tribal elders drew pictures of the basic words — bird, fish, mother, father, tree — then people became immersed with phraseology,” Ferris says. “Michael Rondeau said to me, ‘Things that my parents and grandparents did and said were more readily understood because the words were more specific.’” In 2018, the Western Oregon Tribal Fairness Act was enacted into law, returning 17,500 acres of the Cow Creek Band’s ancestral lands to the tribe. The 1853 treaty promised the Cow Creek a permanent reservation, and after years of legal action, an act of Congress fulfilled the promise made 165 years before. Reach Ashland freelance writer Maureen Flanagan Battistella at mbattistellaor@ gmail.com.
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Lip-smacking cuisine Mexican restaurants have multiplied over the past 34 years by about 1.5 eateries per year. Numbering 20 in 1985, establishments devoted to south-ofthe-border cuisine have swelled to 75, and that’s not counting six Taco Bell locations in Jackson County.
JAMIE LUSCH / JAMIE LUSCH
Caroline Francis, owner of Two Peas Food Truck, cooks up one of her specialties at the Ashland Growers Market. Food trucks were virtually unheard of when Our Valley looked at local tastes in 1985.
International flavors have spiced up the local restaurant scene over the past 34 years By Sarah Lemon for the Mail Tribune
A look back almost 35 years at the unique flavor of a community must include its food. And a present-day glance reveals that while some tastes remain much the same, our options have grown more cosmopolitan. Mexican restaurants still dominate the Rogue Valley’s options for “ethnic food,” as it was dubbed in the 1985 issue of Our Valley. That year’s publication highlighted the people who make Southern Oregon unique, with stories about living, working and playing here. The variety of international cuisine made news 34 years ago under the headline “Restaurants here widen offerings.”
In 2019, dining is still branching out into enterprises that would have had few to no cultural references in 1985. The rapid rise of food trucks serving globally inspired fare, fusion dishes and specialties for special diets typifies the current trend. “A lot of these mobile units are testing that market because they’re able to do it at lower overhead,” says Chad Petersen, Jackson County’s manager of Environmental Public Health, which inspects restaurants. “They’ve exploded.” The proliferation of mobile food units locally also has gotten a jolt over the past couple of decades from the region’s fondness for coffee, whether sipped on a SEE 1985, PAGE 22 Our Valley | Sunday, AprilVALLEY 28, 2019 || 21 OUR 21
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Dim sum and Thai chicken satay at Bambu.
1985
From Page 21
sofa or gulped on the go. Among the scores of businesses dedicated to serving coffee, Dutch Bros. locations alone number 20, according to Jackson County’s online restaurant and food-service inspection database HealthSpace. Mobile businesses constitute about 14 percent of Jackson County’s licensed food-service operations. Just over 700 fixed-location restaurants and 115 mobile units make up the local dining landscape, says Petersen. The total number increases by about 5 percent annually, he says. Mexican restaurants have multiplied over the past 34 years by about 1.5 eateries per year. Numbering 20 in 1985, establishments devoted to
south-of-the-border cuisine have swelled to 75, and that’s not counting six Taco Bell locations in Jackson County. “They’re on every corner,” Petersen says of Mexican restaurants. Hailing from even farther south are the latest cuisines to make their mark: Peruvian preparations and Argentinian empanadas. There also are businesses serving arepas from Colombia and Venezuela, and Salvadoran pupusas. Six restaurant newcomers offer Middle Eastern falafel, kebabs and other items served inside or alongside flatbread. Indian cuisine, which had yet to make inroads in 1985, has enjoyed a steady following over the past couple of decades with four establishments in Jackson County. Hardly on the radar, with just two restaurants in 1985, Japanese and
sushi eateries have edged out Chinese for the title of most popular Asian food. The former ethnicity claims 22 restaurants, the latter 18, representing sluggish growth from its 1985 number of 10. Other, more general Asian eateries add 10 more to the genre, while Thai restaurants — virtually unheard of in the 1985-era Rogue Valley — number 14. Also newly appreciated locally are Hawaiian and other Pacific Island fare, with 13 establishments. Some things remain, improbably, unchanged. Thirty-four years after Our Valley gave readers an eaters’ translation for kimchi, the county still counts just one Korean restaurant, Soo Rah, although Korean dishes can be ordered at many present-day Asian restaurants, including Misoya Bistro, Hiro Sushi, Bonsai Teriyaki and Sushi, Bambu and Tot.
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Other, more general Asian eateries add 10 more to the genre, while Thai restaurants — virtually unheard of in the 1985-era Rogue Valley — number 14. Also newly appreciated locally are Hawaiian and other Pacific Island fare, with 13 establishments.
Jackson County still has one German restaurant, Schoolhaus Brewhaus in Jacksonville, and one Polish restaurant, Julek’s in Talent. While 10 Italian restaurants existed in Jackson County in 1985, the cuisine is so widely interpreted and embraced by any number of mainstream menus that it defies separate specification in 2019. Pizza eateries — from 1960s holdover Abby’s to the more recently lauded Kaleidoscope to newcomer MOD Pizza — number 45, compared with 28 in 1985. You can reach freelance writer Sarah Lemon at thewholedish@ gmail.com.
ANDY ATKINSON / MAIL TRIBUNE
Falafel Republic owner Sam Jackson prepares meals for customers.
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Special deliveries The 1986 issue of Our Valley followed a 14-year-old paper boy on his route delivering the Ashland Daily Tidings. The Our Valley theme that year was “24 Hours in Our Valley,” which saw 25 reporters and nine photographers chronicle a “typical day in the Rogue Valley.” JAMIE LUSCH / MAIL TRIBUNE
Mike Harding said he’s scared away at least seven bears with his vehicle while delivering Mail Tribune and Ashland Tidings newspapers in Ashland.
Today’s newspaper delivery people aren’t the school kids of yesteryear By Caitlin Fowlkes for the Mail Tribune
Newspaper delivery professional Linda Hardwick pulls up to the Mail Tribune office at 2 a.m. and quickly inserts advertisements into the waiting newspapers that are hot off the press. Then she stuffs the papers into plastic bags and heads out to her paper route. She’s done this every night for nearly 20 years. Once on her route, it takes her an average of four hours to travel approximately 50 miles and deliver 400 papers. Hardwick says she’ll occasionally pick up an extra route when a carrier quits, in which case she’ll deliver about 600 papers. Hardwick, 75, says she has developed close relationships with her customers over the years. “I know a lot of my customers, and 24 || OUR Sunday, April 28, 2019 24 VALLEY
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I know their circumstances because I’ve done it so long,” she says. She says many people are waiting when she pulls up. “Some people live for that daily newspaper,” Hardwick says. “Especially some of the older people. Some people are up at 5:30 waiting on me.” She says she gets out of her car to hand deliver the paper at many homes. “I have a lady that is 94 years old, so I’ll ring the doorbell and hand it to her, because a few weeks ago she stumbled when she went to get it, and luckily I was there,” Hardwick says. “So, I told her she was done, and I would hand it to her from now on.” She says when it rains, she leans the paper against a garage door or puts it on the porch. SEE 1986, PAGE 26
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123RF.COM
Father and son reviewing the newspaper in different formats today.
1986
From Page 24
“It takes more time, but it makes for a happier customer,” Hardwick says. “It’s really easy to please these people, it just takes some listening.” She says she gets great tips from her customers because of the extra work she puts in. Sometimes her tips come in the form of homemade goods. Mail Tribune Customer Service Office Manager Vickie Risner says carriers live on tips the same way waiters do, though carriers do get paid per paper they deliver. Hardwick says it’s a difficult job, but she loves it. “Delivering papers is very complicated. You have to have a good memory for numbers,” Hardwick says. “You have to remember which ones stop, which ones are on vacation, which ones are on vacation but want their paper saved, and in Ashland you have to know who gets the Tribune or the Tribune and the Tidings.” She says you also must have a good
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arm for the job. She says there are negatives to the job, such as having both car windows rolled down in harsh weather and coming across questionable characters at night. “One of my drops is downtown, and I won’t get out because there are so many homeless people there,” Hardwick says. “I’ve had homeless people come up and ask me for rides or offer me drugs for rides. You have to be careful of things like that in some areas.” She says she once flipped her car sideways in the snow, but the most frightened she’s ever been was when a man in a truck tried to run her off the side of a mountain and yelled at her to “get off his mountain.” She says luckily that night she wasn’t working alone. In some ways, the job hasn’t changed a great deal in the past 33 years; in other ways it’s much different. The 1986 issue of Our Valley followed a 14-year-old paper boy on his route delivering the Ashland Daily Tidings. The Our Valley theme that year was “24 Hours in Our Valley,” which saw 25 reporters and nine
photographers chronicle a “typical day in the Rogue Valley.” The article described Erick Winchell’s rush to deliver papers to 19 downtown Ashland businesses by 5:30 p.m. on a weekday, back when the paper published in the afternoon. The Mail Tribune and the Tidings switched to morning publication in the late 1990s and early 2000s, says District Manager Chris Brown, so the papers now must be delivered by 6 a.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. on weekends. Erick was one of 40 carries in Ashland, with 300 carriers delivering papers to 24,500 homes and business in Jackson County in 1986. Nowadays, there are six Ashland carriers and 39 in the county, and just one man continues to carry on foot. Mike Harding is one of the six Ashland carriers. He’s delivered about 200 papers daily for the last year and a half. He said in Ashland he often runs into bears, coyotes and other wildlife. He said he’s “one of the best.” “I’m not perfect,” Harding said. “I do make mistakes, but not that often.”
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Shellie Loucks has delivered for the Mail Tribune since 1999. She said there’s not much to see at 3 a.m., but the wildest experience she ever had was finding a lost senior suffering from Alzheimer’s. The man said he was walking to his brother’s house in Michigan. “It was 4 a.m. in Jacksonville,” Loucks said. She said she picked him up, took him to a gas station and called the sheriff to retrieve him, before continuing her route. She called to follow up on the man and learned that he had left the store and fallen into a ditch, so the sheriff never picked him up. She said she found him again and returned him to the senior center. District Manager Brown said he was shot at while filling in on a route in Rogue River. He said he was driving up a narrow road in a large van and looking for a place to turn around when three shots were fired in his direction. He speculated that he’d gotten too close to a marijuana farm and the shots were a warning. District Manager David Deming said he was held at gunpoint by a drunken group returning home around 2 a.m. in downtown Medford. Both Brown and Deming got away without injury, but it was a shock, they said. Brown said there’s a reason some people come out only at night. “You just see some weird things on the job,” Brown said. Deming said he wishes customers would realize the work carriers put into the job. Some carriers deliver about 900 papers a night, and some travel hundreds of miles every single day. “It’s not 1940,” Deming said. “We don’t have kids deliver the paper anymore in the afternoon. These people are driving in the darkest of dark.” Loucks said her customers are sometimes ornery. All the carriers and managers agreed that customers can become irate at the slightest of changes. “A lady came out of her house waving a cane at me Monday,” Loucks said. Pay for carriers differs with each route. They are considered independent contractors and are managed by the district managers. Contact Tidings reporter Caitlin Fowlkes at cfowlkes@rosebudmedia. com or 541-776-4496. Follow her on Twitter @cfowlkes6.
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Flowing free In the past, dams were controversial, causing tensions between landowners and those who advocated for aquatic habitat and fish passage. Today, state and federal policies and Southern Oregon public opinion tend to advocate for fish.
MAIL TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO
Construction crews prepare for removal of Savage Rapids Dam in 2009, which allowed that section of the Rogue River to flow freely for the first time in 88 years.
Numerous dams have come down in the past two decades, opening up fish passage By Maureen Flanagan Battistella for the Mail Tribune
The dams that form Emigrant, Applegate and Lost Creek lakes are well known. Many longtime residents recall devastating floods that prompted the construction of the dams and are grateful for the protection they provide. Farmers and ranchers appreciate the reservoirs of water available during the growing seasons, the lakes provide a welcome relief during hot summers, and water released from the Emigrant Lake Dam produces hydroelectric power for the region. The dams also allow for measured and temperature-adjusted water releases to help fish survive. The importance of these three Army Corps of Engineers dams is not in question, but hundreds of other Southern Oregon dams are subject to increasing scrutiny because they impede fish passage. 28 || OUR Sunday, April 28, 28 VALLEY
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In 1987, Army Corps of Engineers Project Manager Vince Steinkamp touted the benefits of the Elk Creek Dam near Trail and reported on construction progress in an Our Valley feature called “A River Runs Through It.” Just three years later, the Elk Creek Dam was stalled in court and the Mail Tribune headlines read, “A debate over dams, recreation groups see effect on runs.” It wasn’t until 2008 that the Army Corps of Engineers began to notch and deconstruct the barriers on Elk Creek and restore the natural flow of the water. In the past, dams were controversial, causing tensions between landowners and those who advocated for aquatic habitat and fish passage. Today, state and federal policies and Southern Oregon public opinion tend to advocate for fish. “We have a huge momentum for restoration of fish passage highlighted by the older mainstem
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MAIL TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO
Construction crews are sheltered behind a coffer dam as they chip away at Gold Ray Dam on the Rogue River in 2010.
dams removed 2008-2010, Gold Hill, Savage Rapids and Gold Ray,” says Dan Van Dyke, a fish biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “We have a lot of opportunities to restore passage here in the Rogue.” “We’re still finding dams that nobody knows anything about. They aren’t serving any purpose, nobody remembers why they are there,” Van Dyke notes. “There was one on Lazy Creek in Bear Creek Park in Medford; I remember during a storm watching some steelhead trying to pass but they didn’t make it. We finally worked with the city to remove the dam. There was another one on Jones Creek in Grants Pass that didn’t have a purpose anymore.”
Dam removal is complicated by a patchwork of private, public and utility landowners. A dozen or more governmental and quasi-governmental agencies work together to facilitate dam removal, improve fish passage and manage water flow. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife maintains a registry of dams that impede fish passage, prioritized by severity of barriers to fish passage, the quantity and quality of species blocked and other factors. The list provides a rational basis for the allocation of scarce funds to the most critical dam removal projects. The 2013 list notes two Evans Creek dams near the confluence of the Rogue
River as the top priority. These dams, Wimer Dam and Fielder Dam, were removed in 2015, opening up 70 miles of fish passage. Other Southern Oregon dams of lower priority have been identified for removal on Little Butte Creek, the Klamath River and the Applegate River. Alexis Larsen is fish passage project manager with the Rogue River Watershed Council; she specializes in small dam removal work that can be concrete, or seasonal “push-up dams” made of cobble and rock. Sometimes the push-up dams are only two or three feet in height, but they block juvenile fish passage. “Most of the dams we work on are
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MAIL TRIBUNE/FILE PHOTO
Army Corps of Engineers employees and media representatives check out the newly notched Elk Creek Dam in 2008.
Dam removal is complicated by a patchwork of private, public and utility landowners. A dozen or more governmental and quasi-governmental agencies work together to facilitate dam removal, improve fish passage and manage water flow.
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on private property and also involve water rights. We begin with phone calls and letters and connecting with our partners who might be doing work in the area to get in touch with the landowners and start a discussion about what a dam removal project might look like, how it might benefit them and preserve their water rights,” Larsen says. The Rogue Valley Watershed Council will work with licensed engineers to design alternative irrigation systems that allow for fish passage. Trout Unlimited provides other options for landowners if they don’t want to retain water rights; water rights can be leased or transferred back to the stream. Dam removal results in increased sediment and involves bank stabilization and habitat restoration. According to Larsen, these are generally short-term concerns. “Our project on Wagner Creek took about
two weeks to complete, and part of that was waiting on concrete to dry for the new intake system,” Larsen says. “We built a rough in channel using rocks and boulders to create a certain grade to help flow and fish passage; once that project was complete, it looked like a natural stream.” “You can’t block fish passage; that dates to even pre-statehood,” Dan Van Dyke says. “You have to maintain fish passage with what you do in the waterways or you have to ask for a waiver or an exemption. There’s a clearcut direction. We definitely want to maintain fish passage. “People cared. People fought hard, because dams aren’t good for salmon and steelhead,” Van Dyke adds. Reach Ashland freelance writer Maureen Flanagan Battistella at mbattistellaor@gmail.com.
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Eternal friendship, 39 years in
Even though the Eternal Friendship Pact seemed to have lapsed, the relationship was strong when the 1988 story ran. And 31 years later, Southern Oregon University and Dankook University remain connected, even as both institutions have expanded and changed with time. JAMIE LUSCH / MAIL TRIBUNE
Mary Gardiner, director of international programs at Southern Oregon University, points out a tree of eternal friendship that was planted on campus in 1970.
By Kaylee Tornay Mail Tribune
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When two men planted what is now a 48-yearold cedar tree on the northeast side of Churchill Hall at Southern Oregon University, the school had a different name. Dr. James Sours, one of the planters, was president of Southern Oregon State College, the name under which the institution operated until 1997. The other arborist that day in 1970 was Chi Dong-Shik, a visiting professor from Dankook University, which at that time was a single campus of about 6,000 students in Seoul, South Korea. Almost half a century later, the relationship continues — weathering, like the tree, even the harsher elements that threaten its health: time, cultural differences and distance. “We are confident that our institutions’ friendship will continue to benefit students at both SOU and Dankook University, and promote cultural understanding and respect between our countries,” wrote current SOU President Linda Schott in a letter in April 2017, congratulating the Korean university on its 70th anniversary. The two academic institutions became connected after Chi approached Sours in 1969 to propose a pact of eternal friendship between his university and the state college where he was teaching history for one year. Sours told the Mail Tribune 19 years later that he had replied in the affirmative mostly as a
matter of courtesy, but that “the last thing on my mind at that point was probably getting involved with a Korean university that I’d never heard of.” When Dankook’s president, Chang ChoongSik, showed up at the Medford airport a few months later, however, proposing to establish a sister institution relationship, that courtesy began to move toward commitment. The two universities signed an official “Eternal Friendship Pact” in late 1970. When Joe Cox was SOSC president, he and Sours recounted the story for the 1988 edition of Our Valley. The issue that year was “Our Valley, Our World,” with an emphasis on the many ways that the Rogue Valley was “inextricably linked to the global village.” Even though the Eternal Friendship Pact seemed to have lapsed, the relationship was strong when the 1988 story ran. And 31 years later, Southern Oregon University and Dankook University remain connected, even as both institutions have expanded and changed with time. Mary Gardiner, SOU’s director of international programs, says it’s common for universities to partner with other institutions internationally. “They kind of ebb and flow,” she says. “It depends on presidents of the university and their relationships.” SOU also has a relationship with the University of Guanajuato, Mexico, which launched the eventual sister-city relationship between Ashland and Guanajuato. This April, the cities and schools will
4/13/2019 1:19:33 PM
celebrate the 50th anniversary of that establishment. Those years have seen a steady interchange of students, faculty and gifts between the two. Though the Dankook-SOSC arrangement was designed so that faculty, students and administrators could go back and forth between the two institutions, the 1988 Our Valley article noted that the flow was lopsided. More faculty and students had come from Dankook to SOU than went the other direction. That dynamic persists today, Gardiner says. Korean students and faculty have learned English, but American students and faculty often haven’t been exposed to the Korean language. “Our faculty wouldn’t be fluent in Korean,” Gardiner says. “So as far as teaching ... they wouldn’t really be able to teach.” Every year, however, two or three SOU students pack their bags and head to Dankook for a summer program called the Academic Program of the International Summer School. The program is taught in English, and is an intense four weeks of classes, field trips and other cultural experiences. Some students also opt to participate in the English Village for three weeks prior to the summer program. In that, they teach small groups of Dankook students English in exchange for free housing for the duration of both programs and a $1,200 stipend for airfare reimbursement. Gardiner says student trips have even included a view of the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. “I always get a really positive response from students who participate,” she says. Dankook’s presence spread beyond campus into Ashland. For many years, Yoonjae Barchet, who came to teach at SOU from Dankook, and her husband, Bill, operated Hana Sushi in downtown Ashland. The restaurant is no longer open. Gifts sent from the Korean university adorn the Dankook Room in the top floor of the Stevenson Union, a visual reminder of the friendship with a distant partner. “As a higher education institution, it’s something we really value — that students have the opportunity to kind of explore beyond,” Gardiner says. Reach Mail Tribune reporter Kaylee Tornay at ktornay@rosebudmedia.com or 541-776-4497. Follow her on Twitter @ka_tornay.
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Still fighting for statehood
You are now entering Jefferson, the 49th State of the Union. Jefferson is now in patriotic rebellion against the states of Oregon and California. The state has seceded this Thursday, Nov. 27, 1941. COURTESY PHOTO
Bob Chard, Oregon coordinator for the State of Jefferson, poses with the Oregon Duck at the 2018 Pear Blossom Festival in Medford.
A new generation of State of Jefferson proponents continues the case for secession By Tammy Asnicar for the Mail Tribune
In the 1989 edition of Our Valley, the focus was on the Rogue Valley’s colorful past. The publication chronicled centuries of landmark events, bloody conflicts, fascinating-yet-forgotten communities and influential, though sometimes controversial, characters. One article spotlighted the fabled secessionist movement of November 1941 to create the “State of Jefferson.” A rag-tag militia armed with shotguns stopped cars along U.S. Highway 99 outside of Yreka, California, and handed out leaflets announcing “The 1941 Proclamation of Independence” to drivers headed north and south. They told travelers: “You are 34 || OUR Sunday, April 28, 34 VALLEY
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now entering Jefferson, the 49th State of the Union. Jefferson is now in patriotic rebellion against the states of Oregon and California. The state has seceded this Thursday, Nov. 27, 1941.” The proclamation, declaring Yreka as the state capital, was signed by John Childs, a retired Crescent City judge who later was appointed “governor.” The incident brought reporters from San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles to the Oregon-California border, where they heard grievances about crumbling roads and bridges that prevented the miners from digging into the region’s purported rich vein of copper ore. Editorials at the time brushed the “revolt” off as nothing more than “theatrics” — a SEE 1989, PAGE 36
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SISKIYOU COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Armed Yreka area residents held a “patriotic rebellion” in November 1941, stopping motorists on Thursdays along Highway 99 near Yreka to pass out leaflets to let drivers know they were passing through the wannabe State of Jefferson.
1989
From Page 34
headline-grabbing stunt orchestrated by Gilbert Gable, mayor of Port Orford, and perpetuated by the fanciful prose of Stanton Delaplane, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize for his seven-day series about the 1941 “uprising.” The plan to “rebel each Thursday and act as a separate state” was quickly overshadowed by Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The United States’ entry into World War II quashed the threat of the State of Jefferson. The State of Jefferson has become the stuff of legend and lore. Beginning in 1971, plans to resurrect the fight for secession largely have been dismissed as “hare-brained schemes.” The State of Jefferson is often referred to as the “mythical state of Jefferson.” The headline of the 1989 Our Valley article reads, “Jefferson
State Never Succeeded.” Fast-forward 30 years. A new cadre of citizens is lobbying for secession and the establishment of Jefferson as the 51st state. Separated by hundreds of miles, supporters say the distance from Salem and Sacramento is as much philosophical and political as it is geographical. “As the Oregon Legislature takes the progressive/liberal/socialist/ Marxist/communist fork in the road, we believe many of the rural counties will want to part ways,” says Mark Johnson, who heads a steering committee in Josephine County. “We want an amicable parting of the ways.” The proposed new state would encompass an area much larger than the one proposed in 1941. Borders would extend far beyond Southern Oregon and Northern California. In addition to Josephine, Douglas and Klamath counties in Southern Oregon, people in Central and Eastern
Oregon counties are jumping on the bandwagon. In total, steering committees have been organized in nine Oregon counties to lead the movement north of the border. People in 23 counties in California, including those in the central and eastern parts of the state, have signed “declarations of independence.” “There may be more history being made now than in all of SOJ51’s past history,” says Bob Chard, Oregon coordinator for the State of Jefferson. The modern-day State of Jefferson movement was launched Sept. 3, 2013, by Yreka rancher and radio station owner Mark Baird at a meeting of the Siskiyou Board of County Commissioners. The commissioners voted 4 to 1 in favor of secession. It’s not about federal and state government “butting heads” with the citizens, says Baird. Rather, “a state that has buried its head,” he argues. Quoting Thomas Jefferson, Baird says, “the greatest danger to American freedom is a government that
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By Tammy Asnicar for the Mail Tribune
The State of Jefferson has become the stuff of legend and lore. Beginning in 1971, plans to resurrect the fight for secession largely have been dismissed as “hare-brained schemes.
In the 1989 edition of Our Valley, the focus was on the Rogue Valley’s colorful past. The publication chronicled centuries of landmark events, bloody conflicts, fascinating-yet-forgotten communities and influential, though sometimes controversial, characters. One article spotlighted the fabled secessionist movement of November 1941 to create the “State of Jefferson.” A rag-tag militia armed with shotguns stopped cars along U.S. Highway 99 outside of Yreka, California, and handed out leaflets announcing “The 1941 Proclamation of Independence” to drivers headed north and south. They told travelers: “You are now entering Jefferson, the 49th State of the Union. Jefferson is now in patriotic rebellion against the states of Oregon and California. The state
has seceded this Thursday, Nov. 27, 1941.” The proclamation, declaring Yreka as the state capital, was signed by John Childs, a retired Crescent City judge who later was appointed “governor.” The incident brought reporters from San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles to the Oregon-California border, where they heard grievances about crumbling roads and bridges that prevented the miners from digging into the region’s purported rich vein of copper ore. Editorials at the time brushed the “revolt” off as nothing more than “theatrics” — a headline-grabbing stunt orchestrated by Gilbert Gable, mayor of Port Orford, and perpetuated by the fanciful prose of Stanton Delaplane, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize for his seven-day series about the 1941 “uprising.” The plan to “rebel each Thursday and act as a separate state” was
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Saving Bear Creek Oregon’s water quality is officially overseen by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, an agency that has been collecting and analyzing Bear Creek water samples taken at Kirkland Road in Medford since at least 1990.
MAIL TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO
Frances Oyung, a volunteer and water-quality monitoring coordinator for Rogue Riverkeeper, takes a water quality sample at Bear Creek Park in Medford in 2016. The creek still has many challenges, but it’s not as polluted as it once was.
By Maureen Flanagan Battistella for the Mail Tribune
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Bear Creek and other Rogue Valley waterways have carried waste away from fields and towns for generations. In 1927, the state of Oregon named Bear Creek “a river of sewage,” one of Oregon’s most polluted rivers. Since that time, cities have become better stewards of their effluence, watershed partnerships have changed public behavior, and science helps to analyze and interpret findings. Thanks to many partners working together, Bear Creek’s water quality has improved over the last 20 years, and fish are returning to their natural habitats. The 1990 issue of Our Valley focused on land, air, water and urban sprawl, with a section on
each area. Climate change and global warming were scientific purviews and largely unknown to the layperson, so Our Valley’s water section covered supply and demand, city water supplies, and there was a major spread titled “Saving Bear Creek.” “Ten years ago, Bear Creek was little more than a sewer lined with shopping carts and tires, choking with waste and chemicals,” read the 1990 article, which featured Eric Dittmer, who was Rogue Valley Council of Governments watershed coordinator at the time. That 1990 article updated an even earlier report from 1987 that also featured Dittmer, “Curing a Creek: Bear Creek Battles Back After Decades of Human Abuse.” Over the years, Dittmer and RVCOG carried much of the SEE 1990, PAGE 40
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MAIL TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO
Chinook salmon spawn in Bear Creek near Rogue Valley Mall, a sign that water quality has improved in the creek, which was once considered “a river of sewage.”
1990
From Page 38
responsibility for improving Bear Creek water quality, and today that responsibility is shared by a tight partnership of Rogue Valley agencies with a common mission: clean water. Oregon’s water quality is officially overseen by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, an agency that has been collecting and analyzing Bear Creek water samples taken at Kirkland Road in Medford since at least 1990. Water samples are also collected at this point by watershed partners and reported to DEQ, all available online in public databases such as the Oregon Water Quality Index and the Oregon Water Quality Monitoring Data Portal. The Bear Creek Watershed
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catchment area covers nearly 400 square miles of agricultural, residential and urban properties and is recognized as one of the most urbanized watersheds in the state of Oregon. Used for irrigation, storm-water runoff, municipal discharge and other uses, the creek runs about 26 miles through private and public lands and is administered by a partnership of agencies invested in protecting and improving the watershed. John Speece, water quality project manager with the Rogue River Watershed Council, says that since 1997, stakeholders have spent $39.5 million on water quality improvement projects within the Bear Creek Watershed. That investment has paid off with a gradual improvement of Bear Creek’s water quality report card, moving from
“very poor” to “poor,” one year even reaching “fair.” “In the 1970s, we were testing for fecal bacteria indicating human or animal contamination of the waters,” recalls Dittmer. “I didn’t have the equipment to test for fertilizer residue or things like that.” Dittmer also monitored water temperature. Dittmer was able to track down decades-old mis-connects between storm drains and sewer lines, identify aging septic systems along Bear Creek, and advise on wastewater treatment to reduce storm-water runoff. Fecal coliform counts of 5,000 per 100 ml in the 1970s now typically measure between 42 and 345 per 100 ml. The reduction in fecal contamination is a clear measure of the improvement in Bear Creek water quality. Other DEQ water quality indicators
| Our Valley
4/13/2019 1:20:17 PM
Used for irrigation, storm-water runoff, municipal discharge and other uses, (Bear Creek) runs about 26 miles through private and public lands and is administered by a partnership of agencies invested in protecting and improving the watershed.
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include water temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, solids, ammonia, nitrate and phosphorus. Water flow volume can also be an important factor in understanding water quality, but DEQ does not monitor flow at this time, nor does DEQ track specific pesticides or herbicides. The Jackson County Soil and Water Conservation District, the Rogue Valley Watershed Council and the Rogue Valley Council of Governments are just three of the agencies that provide education, technical assistance and support to rural and largely urban regions along Bear Creek. Irrigation districts have reduced sediment inputs into Bear Creek, while the Jackson County Soil and Water Conservation District helps farmers and other land managers to improve practices. The watershed council and other partners work to increase shade and restore riparian habitat, changes that reduce water temperature.
Greg Stabach, natural resources manager with the Rogue Valley Council of Governments, admits that with more than 110 miles of canals moving water around the valley, it can be hard to identify specific sources of contamination, making education and watershed restoration key to the health of Bear Creek. It’s easy to get involved, according to Stabach. At Stream-Smart. com, citizens can pledge to protect the valley’s waterways, find information about water quality and get matched to volunteer opportunities. “It’s a work in progress. We’re not going to see the results in 10 to 15 years, but you have to plow forward and look ahead,” Speece admits. “Bear Creek is the success story of the state of Oregon as far as improving the urban watershed.” Reach Ashland freelance writer Maureen Flanagan Battistella at mbattistellaor@gmail.com.
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Why write? There are dozens of books, most of them leaning on screenwriting techniques, about writing for a commercial audience. Some novels are all about action and suspense and shocks. Some novels are about deep engagement and feeling. None are both.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Former Ashland teacher Sandra Scofield has written seven novels. She won the Texas Institute of Letters Best Fiction Award in 1997, and was a 1991 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow.
Novelist Sandra Scofield follows her passion — and encourages others to, too she once called home. MT: Describe your writing process. SC: I have written all my life, but I didn’t In 1991, Sandra Scofield was a 47-year- think about publishing until I was an adult. old former teacher living in Ashland who My first publication was a story in Redtwo years prior had published her first book. I wrote a couple of short novels just novel, “Gringa.” to try out the form, and I learned a lot by Interviewed for an article in that year’s feeling free of pressure, and buoyed by Our Valley, Scofield said, “I discovered after my sense of exploration. I wrote “Gringa” all those years of other ambitions that what because I’d always wanted to write about I really like is to be by myself.” my time in Mexico, and I suddenly had Now, 28 years later, Scofield is still time — my teaching contract with Ashwriting, though not locally — she moved land Public Schools wasn’t renewed — and to Montana and, according to her website it poured out of me, over 1,000 pages. (www.sandrajscofield.com), she divides From there I shaped and pruned. I never her time between Missoula and Portland. wrote like that again. Once you publish, She’s written seven novels, a memoir, self-consciousness affects process. But a book of essays about family, a book of each of my novels did begin with a story I short stories and two books about the craft felt passionate about, something I wanted of writing. to tell. I worked on different books in In an interview with the Mail Tribune, different ways, never in a formal outline the National Book Award finalist dis- manner, but with broad plans, frequent cussed her process, the life of a writer summaries, a lot of talking to myself and and a work-in-progress set in the place jumping around. By Joe Zavala Mail Tribune
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| Our Valley
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MT: Has that process evolved over the years? SC: I expected to write novels forever, but in 2005 we moved from Ashland to Missoula after my husband retired from teaching at Crater High School. Montana was home for him, and he was the one who had held a steady job his whole life, so though I had expected to live in Ashland the rest of my life, I agreed to the move. We had been in Jacksonville and then Ashland since 1978. It threw me for a long time. I really couldn’t write. That’s when I increased my teaching — I’ve taught at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival for 25 years, and for the Solstice MFA Program at Pine Manor College (Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts) since 2006. Teaching sort of saved me, really, and I have written four books since that move, including a book about my family, “Mysteries of Love and Grief,” a book of short stories, “Swim: Stories of the Sixties,” and two craft books for fiction writers. MT: Current projects? SC: I’m finally working on a novel right now, “Little Ships,” and it is set in small-town Southern Oregon. The
other endeavor that has shaped these years since the move is painting: I’ve been painting landscapes in oils for the last 10 years, and I travel every year to Europe to see exhibitions and study. MT: OK, here’s the million-dollar question ... why do some books sell spectacularly while most disappear into obscurity, never to be heard from again? SC: I don’t really want to go there. There are dozens of books, most of them leaning on screenwriting techniques, about writing for a commercial audience. Some novels are all about action and suspense and shocks. Some novels are about deep engagement and feeling. None are both. I send people to Donald Maass writing books. I teach some very strong skill sets in my Iowa workshops every summer. But publishing is a lot like the movies: everyone wants a blockbuster even though the best products are the indies. MT: There’s not much money in writing, you have to do it alone and the positive reinforcement that many of us who hold regular 9-to-5 jobs take for granted barely exists.
So, why write? SC: I wouldn’t suggest novel writing as a career for anyone. You have to want it enough to figure it out. In some ways, it’s a calling. That said, I think writers write novels because it’s how they see the world and how they look for meaning. They have stories to tell. I encourage anyone who wants to write with that kind of attitude to go for it. Join a class or a group. Apply to a low-residency program like Solstice. Work with a paid mentor one on one. Look at my “The Scene Book” and “The Last Draft.” You can share with friends, you can self-publish, you can try to find an agent. Just don’t think you’ll make a living. The world is full of MFA grads, and there aren’t teaching openings for them. It’s the way of the world in any of the arts. My daughter, Jessica Scofield, is a jeweler. She makes a modest living selling online, but the real success for her is that she’s happy making jewelry. That’s how writing has to be if you don’t want to suffer. Joe Zavala can be reached at jzavala@ rosebudmedia.com or 541-776-4469.
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Sex and singles — revisited Several local people interviewed for this story say AIDS had affected the way people date, including using condoms, being more cautious about who they date or just abstaining from sex altogether.
MAIL TRIBUNE / CAITLIN FOWLKES
Jamie Cook, 30, shows what the dating app Bumble looks like as she sits at the bar of Common Block Brewing Co. on a Friday night.
Dating apps and HIV drugs have changed the dating scene in the past 27 years By Caitlin Fowlkes for the Mail Tribune
Only a couple of decades have passed since the height of the AIDS epidemic, but nowadays many young people assume it won’t affect them — if they even think about it at all. Eva Albert, a Jackson County care coordinator for the Eugene-based nonprofit organization HIV Alliance, says more and more young people between the age of 18 and 24 are being diagnosed with HIV in Jackson County. “I think medication has made it seem like it’s not out there anymore, but it is,” Albert says. “I think they just think they’re invincible and that it’s not going to happen to them.” The 1992 issue of Our Valley was titled “A Survival Guide for the Nineties,” and an article in the section titled “Sex and Singles” had a subhead
that read, “AIDS scare turns 1990s dating game into serious affair.” But 27 years later, Albert says fears of contracting the virus have significantly decreased now that there are treatment options. Compared to when she went to school in the ‘80s, there’s not as much education in the schools about the various ways one can contract HIV, she says. The HIV Alliance works with about 200 people in Jackson County and takes in one to two new clients diagnosed with HIV or AIDS every month. Albert says she knows about 20 to 30 clients younger than 24. Marilyn Mihacsi, HIV Alliance education coordinator, says as of Feb. 4, 102 males and 26 females in Jackson County were living with HIV, plus 140 males and 27 females with AIDS. SEE 1992, PAGE 46
MAIL TRIBUNE / CAITLIN FOWLKES
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Faith Walker celebrates one year of breast cancer recovery with a whiskey at Common Block Brewing Co.
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Ashland Tidings / Caitlin Fowlkes Neil Bergin, 24, plays cornhole outside of Common Block Brewing Company in downtown Medford.
1992
From Page 44
When the HIV Alliance receives new clients, it collects data about whether they’re using dating apps and protection. “If you are a marginalized population such as a man seeking sex with another man, especially in a rural area, (dating apps) are going to be your best bet in terms of finding someone,” Mihacsi says. A popular dating app with this population, she says, is Grindr, which allows users to post their HIV status, which can help avoid having difficult conversations. Several local people interviewed for this story say AIDS had affected the way people date, including using condoms, being more cautious about who they date or just abstaining from sex altogether. But casual sex is a term that is used openly by many, and countless young people use dating apps such as Tinder to have meaningless sex with other app users — based on a small gallery of pictures and an even shorter bio. There’s even a joke many men use in their bios along the lines of, “If you’re looking for 46 || Sunday, April 28, 2019 46 OUR VALLEY
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a relationship, keep swiping.” Such behavior has created a sense among many singles that frequent, casual sex is the norm and that sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV aren’t prevalent anymore. Jamie Cook, 30, of Medford, says she’s not looking for one-night stands. Cook and her friend Jessica Bosman met at Common Block Brewing Co. on a recent Friday night and agreed to talk about what they are seeing on the current dating scene. “Tinder is the hook-up app and not for relationships,” Cook says. “It hit my self-confidence in a way that I haven’t felt since being single. Am I being swiped left?” She says she had matched with only one woman in the three days since downloading the app Bumble. She says her friends influenced her to put up flattering pictures of herself and say things to garner attention that she wouldn’t normally say. “Pick this one, you look adventurous, or pick this one, you look smart, but I’m none of those things,” Cook jokes. “Of course, everyone wants to be the best version of themselves.” She says she hasn’t thought about contracting HIV from a partner in the 11 months she’s been single, and she says
lesbians in general aren’t very concerned with it, either. She says she wants a long-term relationship, and in general she’s been dissatisfied with dating apps, but she believes it can’t hurt to use apps in the process. Bosman, 31, says her friends pressured her to use dating apps, but she isn’t satisfied with them, either. “I grew up in a time when there wasn’t dating apps, and now ... it’s the norm to use them,” Bosman says. “Personally, I believe in meeting someone organically. In this day and age, you never know if you’re going to get an inappropriate message. “I’ve never used them sober,” Bosman says. “It kind of becomes a game, which has completely ruined dating for millennials. It’s so weird, because it’s as if everyone is like, ‘I’m not comfortable in public, but I’ll go home with you.’” Some dating apps apparently work, she says, because she’s known people who have met on apps and have been married for years. She says she doesn’t think about contracting HIV from a partner, because she usually gets to know the person very well before having sex. But she adds that there’s
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nothing wrong with one-night stands. “Women are allowed to like sex — it’s 2019,” Bosman says, as a few people at the bar shouted their agreement. Faith Walker sipped a whiskey drink alone at a table behind the bar as she celebrated a year of post-breast cancer recovery. She says she got divorced before her diagnosis and hasn’t been ready to date yet, but she’s close now that she’s healthy and her hair has grown back. She says she doesn’t use dating apps and doesn’t think about contracting HIV. “I’m such a romantic,” she says. “I’m not a casual dater, so I don’t think about that. Being a single mom and a cancer survivor, I’m more intentional about who I spend my time with.” Walker says she believes in meeting people by crossing paths at the right time. “I think I’ve redefined my idea of forever, my life is so different now,” Walker says. “After going through that ordeal, I know what I want in my life now, and until I have a man-spice taking me out, I’ll take myself out.” Neil Bergin, 24, who sat at a picnic table outside the brewery, says he uses dating apps, but he sees them as just another social-media platform that often projects
a false representation of a person. “I’m at a point in my life where I’m done having sex with strangers and then never talking to them again,” Bergin says. He says he usually uses protection with strangers, but he described himself as “a gambler.” “The chance of you getting HIV while having protected sex are slim to none, so I’m willing to bet I won’t get AIDS while having sex with a condom,” Bergin says. People younger than 35 made up approximately 56 percent of new HIV diagnoses in the U.S. in 2017, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Mihacsi says HIV positive people often lead normal lives and can date and have sex with people who don’t have HIV. It takes daily medication and regular checkups to maintain an undetectable level of the virus. Combine that with condom usage, and a drug called PrEP, which the partner takes, and “the chance of HIV being spread is essentially nonexistent.” The PrEP drugs can be up to 90 percent effective during sex, considering factors such as how long it’s been taken and what part of the body is used during sex. She says the existence of such medications is one difference between HIV in our
society today compared to the ‘90s. AIDS was the number one cause of death for U.S. men ages 25-44 in 1992 and was the leading cause of death the following year for young adults in 64 U.S. cities, according to the HIV Alliance. Headlines late last winter trumpeted the fact that a second person had recently been cured of AIDS, but Albert says it’s not reasonable to expect a cure anytime soon. She says it’s a step in the right direction, but many factors played a role in the so-called cure. Experts say it’s too soon to tell whether the person has truly been cured or is only in remission. Mihacsi recommends that anyone who needs a test or wants more information should contact the Jackson County Health Department at jacksoncountyor.org/ hhs/Public-Health/Welcome. For information about navigating the system for medications such as PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), see hivalliance.org. You can vcontact Ashland Tidings reporter Caitlin Fowlkes at cfowlkes@ rosebudmedia.com or 541-776-4496. Follow her on Twitter @cfowlkes6.
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Recovering the past Census records show the Chinese worked as miners, cooks, domestic servants, laundry operators, doctors, carpenters, barbers, butchers, merchants, gamblers and more. Many miners worked in the outlying areas of the Applegate Valley. MAIL TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO
Anthropologist Mark Tveskov and Southern Oregon University archaeologist Chelsea Rose examine a photographic glass plate found at an excavation of the Britt property in Jacksonville.
Excavations continue to reveal Chinese influence in early Jacksonville By Vickie Aldous Mail Tribune
From opium containers to dice made of bone, recent archaeological finds are revealing how Chinese people lived in Southern Oregon before they were driven out by economic changes and discriminatory laws. The artifacts paint a picture of a little-known aspect of local history. In 1993, Our Valley was devoted to the settlement of Southern Oregon. It delved into the history of European-American pioneers and Native Americans who lived here, but dealt with the history of Chinese immigrants in only two sentences — noting they lived in Jacksonville, but “left the area in the face of anti-Chinese
sentiment in the 1880s.” Like settlers of other ethnicities, the Chinese were initially drawn to the area after gold was discovered in the 1850s. Hundreds once lived in the Chinese Quarter centered on Main Street in Jacksonville. “It was a really bustling, active part of the community,” says Chelsea Rose, a research archaeologist with the Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology. Rose has been involved in several Jacksonville archaeological digs in the Chinese Quarter, including the 2013 excavation of a home that burned during a Sept. 11, 1888, fire that destroyed a portion of the town. While the fire was devastating to the still-unknown inhabitants
MAIL TRIBUNE / JAMIE LUSCH
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Zach Rodriguez, an archaeologist with Klamath National Forest, excavates artifacts from a house in 2013 in Jacksonville.
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The population of the Chinese Quarter would swell for celebrations, including the traditional Chinese New Year, which is still celebrated annually — now by the whole town of Jacksonville.
of the home, ash and other debris helped preserve 60,000 artifacts there, ranging from seeds to fully intact pottery. “We knew we’d find something, but we had no idea the scale that was under there. Basically, what was under there was a time capsule,” Rose says. The finds show what daily life was like for the Chinese community, which at its height was made up of hundreds of men but fewer than two dozen women. Census records show the Chinese worked as miners, cooks, domestic servants, laundry operators, doctors, carpenters, barbers, butchers, merchants, gamblers and more. Many miners worked in the outlying areas of the Applegate Valley. The population of the Chinese Quarter would swell for celebrations, including the traditional Chinese New Year, which is still celebrated annually — now by the whole town of Jacksonville. But during the 1800s, some whites complained about the “infernal din” of Chinese firecrackers and “heathenish music.” At the same time, they noted the economic impact of Chinese purchases of chicken, pigs and other goods for the New Year festivities, according to the Oregon Sentinel newspaper. A particularly interesting find at the site of the burned home was a pair of cap guns. With so few women and children in the Chinese Quarter, the guns may not have been used as toys, Rose says. Instead, they may have been used as substitute noisemakers by Chinese revelers due to restrictions placed on firecrackers, she says. Another cause for alarm among whites was Chinese use of opium. Metal opium boxes were discovered during the excavation. “Folks were smoking opium to relax, for pain relief, as a social lubricant the same way that you would whiskey or see other types of social drugs in other contexts,” Rose says. She adds, “I’ve never excavated a Chinese site that didn’t have opium there. That being said, I’ve never excavated a European-American site without whiskey, including the head of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union’s house in Central Point.” European-Americans were also using opium, but instead of smoking it in pipes, they usually consumed the drug in laudanum, a tincture marketed as a cure
MAIL TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO
Volunteers Greg Applen and Gayle Lewis, with archaeologist Chelsea Rose of Southern Oregon University, sift through soil excavated off Jacksonville’s Main Street in 2013 looking for Chinese artifacts.
for everything from diarrhea to coughs to menstrual cramps. Opium wasn’t declared illegal in the United States until 1909, after authorities recognized its addictive properties. The opium resin used by the Chinese settlers came in sturdy metal boxes that were often repurposed. Boxes were used to store medicine, or were cut up to form gaming tokens. The ubiquity of opium boxes in households led some archaeologists in the past to overestimate the amount of the drug used, Rose says. Gambling was a favorite pastime among settlers of all ethnicities. While European-Americans favored cards, Chinese-Americans played a range of games, as evidenced by the wide variety of tokens found during the excavation. Some tokens came from China. But with limited access to game pieces from their homeland, they substituted buttons, Chinese and Vietnamese coins that didn’t have monetary value in America, pieces of opium boxes and other items, Rose says.
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MAIL TRIBUNE / JAMIE LUSCH
Chinese coins emerge from a dig site in 2013 at the historic Chinese district in Jacksonville.
Some games were for high stakes, while others were just for fun. “It was a way to pass the time. It was a way to hang out with your friends after a long day,” she says. The excavation uncovered tiny dice made of bone. In an era before plastic, bone was used by all immigrants for a variety of household products, including toothbrush handles. Rose says Chinese and European-American settlers intermingled and sold goods to each other. Jacksonville’s small size meant the Chinese Quarter was basically a neighborhood, not the type of separate Chinatown found in big cities like San Francisco. Many homes contained a mix of European and Asian items. But there was still friction. Some Western towns, including
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Ashland, adopted a soap tax to target Chinese laundry operators. Mining laws prevented them from filing original gold claims, meaning they had to work secondhand mines after whites extracted the easy gold and moved on. Oregon required Chinese and Hawaiian merchants and traders to pay a steep fee of $50 per month, and a $5 annual poll tax was levied against Chinese, African-American, Hawaiian and mixed-race residents. “Could this people be taxed as to exclude them entirely, it would be a blessing,” the Oregon Sentinel opined about Chinese miners in 1866. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers. In Jacksonville, the Chinese population was waning because of the onerous
laws, hostility from whites and changing economic times. The height of the gold rush was over, and many Chinese moved on to coastal canneries, Willamette Valley agricultural jobs or new lives in big cities. Others moved back to China and reunited with their families, Rose says. Meanwhile, settlers such as Peter Britt, originally from Switzerland, were able to stay and establish themselves and their families. A painter, pioneering photographer and orchardist, Britt captured images of the wide variety of settlers and Native Americans who once called Southern Oregon home. Rose says Chinese workers helped build and maintain the railroad through Southern Oregon, contributed to the economy as workers and
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MAIL TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO
A Chinese stoneware piece was recovered from a 2012 excavation site in Jacksonville.
consumers and played key roles in mining and other industries. Archaeological digs are helping to fill in that missing history, revealing a more complete picture of all the people who helped build Jacksonville and the region. “There are parts of that community that were critical in its early days that are no longer represented — and the Chinese Quarter is one neighborhood that’s been erased over time,” Rose says. “And so archaeology is a way that we can bring that neighborhood back to life.”
Insert staff photo here
Reach Mail Tribune reporter Vickie Aldous at 541-776-4486 or valdous@rosebudmedia.com. Follow her at twitter.com/VickieAldous.
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Climate change in Grants Pass
In 2016, Grants Pass was ranked number eight among the “Top Ten Best Performing Small Cities,” according to the Milken Institute, a nonpartisan think tank that looks at economic policies and innovations that “create jobs.” PHOTO COURTESY OF TRAVEL GRANTS PASS
Street artist Meredith Morin shows off her street-painting skills at the Art Along the Rogue festival in Grants Pass.
By Tammy Asnicar for the Mail Tribune
The 1994 issue of Our Valley took an in-depth look at the Rogue Valley’s far-flung communities through the eyes of their residents. Those interviewed dug up tales from the past, gave opinions about the present state of affairs, and shared thoughts about the future. Grants Pass was one of those communities featured. A sign stretching across Sixth Street in the heart of downtown touted: “It’s the Climate.” In 1994, the “climate” was stormy. Grants Pass, once called “the timber capital,” was in transition — the forecast was not favorable. Thousands of jobs in the woods and in the mills had been lost after protections for the spotted owl were enacted in the late 1980s and wilderness areas were deemed off-limits. The flow of 52 || OUR Sunday, April 28, 2019 52 VALLEY
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revenue from Oregon and California Railroad timber lands was running dry, and entities that relied on those receipts, such as schools and law enforcement, scrambled for funding. Jim Childers was one of those interviewed in 1994. The Grants Pass native who grew up during the timber industry’s heyday wasn’t optimistic about the town’s economic future. A high school teacher, he saw Grants Pass-based Rogue Community College as a bridge for “the kids to eventually get out of here” and find job security elsewhere. A political watchdog group, the Josephine County Taxpayers Association, pitted citizens against local government and created an “us vs. them” climate. As a result, several school levies and bonds were voted down. Then-Josephine County commissioner Harold Haugen saw the town of 17,000 losing its
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AL CASE / FLICKR.COM
Downtown Grants Pass at sundown in 2018.
small-town friendliness. “There’s a lot of angry people,” he said, describing the tone of public comment. Dennis Roler was managing editor of the Grants Pass Daily Courier in 1994. During his watch between 1987 and 2013, he saw the city thrive in the best of times and survive the worst of times. Twenty-five years later, the “It’s the Climate” sign is still a downtown landmark, and Roler believes there has been “a climate change” in the city of more than 37,000. The median age of Grants Pass residents is 39, which means more young families are staying put, and the city’s amenities are attracting young professionals. “Grants Pass as a whole seems to be vibrant these days,” says Roler. “It’s not dependent on one huge industry, as it used to be when the timber industry was king and later when it depended on large defense contractors (Litton Industries).” From the factories of Masterbrand and Fire Mountain Gems and health service jobs at Asante’s Three Rivers Community Hospital to small,
entrepreneurial operations, “thousands of jobs are spread over the landscape,” he adds. Now a Grants Pass city councilor, Roler points out Grants Pass’ revitalized historic downtown. “Grants Pass has always had a fairly lively downtown compared to other cities, but I think it has grown even livelier the past 25 years,” he says. “Empty storefronts are rare, and downtown restaurants are hopping, especially on weekends.” Big-box stores such as Walmart, Fred Meyer and Home Depot have opened, and shopping centers in east and west Grants Pass have been expanded. “My family used to go to Medford fairly often in 1994, mainly on shopping expeditions,” recalls Roler. “That isn’t necessary anymore with the growth of retail stores in Grants Pass.” In 2016, Grants Pass was ranked number eight among the “Top Ten Best Performing Small Cities,” according to the Milken Institute, a nonpartisan think tank that looks at economic policies and innovations that “create jobs.” Grants Pass joined the list of 200 cities in 2015 and quickly jumped
Due to its proximity to the Rogue River, ample recreational opportunities, mild seasons, moderate politics and a lively art scene, Grants Pass is frequently ranked as one of the best places to retire.
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FLICKR.COM
There’s always been something about the climate in Grants Pass.
48 places, from 56th to eighth in just one year. Driving factors included the expansion of health care services, the emergence of Mycorrhizal Applications as a regional leader in agriculture products, and Dutch Bros.’ explosion as the largest privately held drive-thru coffee chain in the United States. Politically, the Grants Pass area is as conservative as it was 25 years ago, says Roler. Although residents recently agreed to a five-year public safety levy, it still is an uphill battle to win approval for capital improvement bonds that would upgrade schools and the city’s aging infrastructure. Like in other cities, affordable housing in Grants Pass is in short supply. A report by Realtor.com published in early February listed Grants Pass as the third most unaffordable place to rent or buy a home behind Santa Cruz, California, and Miami, Florida. Wages haven’t kept pace 54 || Sunday, April 28, 2019 54 OUR VALLEY
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with rising prices, and with 25 percent population growth since 2000, supply hasn’t kept up with demand. A report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition last year said that a renter in Grants Pass would have to earn more than $17 an hour to afford an average two-bedroom apartment. Due to its proximity to the Rogue River, ample recreational opportunities, mild seasons, moderate politics and a lively art scene, Grants Pass is frequently ranked as one of the best places to retire. Much of the demand for housing comes from retirees moving to the area, which has driven up prices, said the real estate report. According to studies by the city’s Housing Advisory Committee, the housing shortage and affordability crisis is a dark cloud in an otherwise brightening economy. You can reach Grants Pass freelance writer Tammy Asnicar at tammyasnicar@q.com.
MAIL TRIBUNE/FILE PHOTO
Boatnik events in Grants Pass include a parade.
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He’d rather be fishing As the Savage Rapids removal deal morphed into a very public debate, congressional support for keeping the half-built Elk Creek Dam mothballed eroded, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers notched it with nine blasts of dynamite beginning July 15, 2008. JAMIE LUSCH / MAIL TRIBUNE
Bob Hunter makes a cast while fishing for steelhead at Rogue Elk Park in March.
And today, after helping return the Rogue to 157 miles of free-flowing water, Bob Hunter can do just that By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune
During more than 30 years of advocating on behalf of the Rogue River and its wild salmon, lawyer Bob Hunter was very much the accidental activist. The soft-spoken, fly-fishing barrister with a distaste for attention and a dislike of confrontations plunged himself into bitterly divisive battles that eventually led to the removal of five fish-killing dams in the Rogue Basin, including two — Savage Rapids and Gold Ray — that returned the Rogue to 157 miles of free-flowing water for the first time in more than a century. “It’s not like there aren’t other things I’d rather be doing,” Hunter was quoted as saying in the 1995 issue of Our Valley, which highlighted, in part, local grassroots movers and shakers. “I’d rather be fishing.” And that’s just where you will find Hunter, 65, of Eagle Point, today. “That’s what I’m doing now. I’m just hanging out, doing some fishing and bird-watching,” Hunter says. With the dams gone and in-stream water 56 || OUR Sunday, April 28, 2019 56 VALLEY
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rights helping wild salmon, Hunter has quietly retired to fly-fishing the Rogue and elsewhere in between leading birding trips for local avian groups — though he still serves on the board of directors for the Rogue River Watershed Council and WaterWatch of Oregon. Hunter landed in Medford in 1978 to get a broken fly rod fixed, then found a job and joined the Rogue FlyFishers Association before beginning a water-law career that saw victories early and late. He helped draft Oregon’s once-controversial in-stream water rights bill that allowed state agencies and others to apply for water rights for in-stream use — rights that didn’t supersede previous irrigation rights but put fish in line to receive water when available. He was also an early opponent of finishing Elk Creek Dam, whose construction was halted in 1986 to study the cumulative impacts of Lost Creek and Elk Creek dams on changing water temperatures and their effect on wild spring chinook salmon eggs. But Hunter was the front-man for convincing the Grants Pass Irrigation District that it needed to replace Savage Rapids Dam on the Rogue near Grants Pass with electric pumps to
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keep the district viable. A state review of GPID’s water rights showed that enough acreage had fallen out of the district that its new legal water right was less than needed for operating the old dam and its antiquated fish ladders. Hunter worked 21 years on that project, pushing the rock uphill to get GPID to agree to the removal, then helping find the federal funding to make it happen. As the Savage Rapids removal deal morphed into a very public debate, Congressional support for keeping the half-built Elk Creek Dam mothballed eroded, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers notched it with nine blasts of dynamite beginning July 15, 2008, which opened a major upper Rogue spawning and rearing sub-basin to wild salmon and steelhead. “Once the deal on Savage went through, it kind of changed the thinking on the Rogue,” Hunter says. “There was a feeling with these other projects that this can be replicated. A lot of great things happened, and they all kind of happened at once.” On Oct. 9, 2009, Savage Rapids Dam gave way to Savage Rapids — the first time the Rogue had flowed freely through the site in 88 years. Less than a year later, Aug. 11, 2010, Gold Ray Dam came down. Hunter semi-retired after that, but he stuck around enough to facilitate the removal of two old dams from Evans Creek — Wimer Dam in April 2014 and Fielder Dam in July 2015. “A lot of great things happened, Hunter says. “They all came together.” Those goals that seemed at times so close yet so far 10 years earlier all came to be. “I believed they would all happen a lot faster than they did,” Hunter says. “I think some of that naivety kept me going, because I thought they would happen so much quicker.” Since then, the data on returning salmon and steelhead suggest that the dam-removal projects have made a difference. “It sure is great to go out to the river and see how it has reclaimed itself,” Hunter says. “It’s really rewarding to see that.”
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Reach Mail Tribune reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or mfreeman@rosebudmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ MTwriterFreeman.
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Buddhists have found a home Tracing its lineage through venerated teachers for approximately 2,600 years, Buddhism ascribes to the doctrine of the historical Buddha, who sought to transcend the human experience of suffering through inward extinction of the self and the senses, culminating in spiritual illumination.
MAIL TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO
Lama Pema Clark stands in the shrine room at Kagyu Sukha Choling in Ashland.
By Sarah Lemon for the Mail Tribune
The worldwide growth of Buddhism echoes a broader secular interest in such disciplines as meditation, say local Buddhist leaders. “Mindfulness has completely saturated our culture … that can be a gateway for people,” says the Rev. Kigetsu Ramana Weymire of Ashland Zen Center. Established in 2003 on Tolman Creek Road, Ashland Zen Center is one of two high-profile Buddhist temples that have found fertile spiritual soil over the past two decades in Southern Oregon. The other, Kagyu Sukha Choling (KSC), sited its Tibetan Buddhist center in an eye-catching example of iconic architecture off Hersey Street. “The building itself draws attention,” says Lama Yeshe of KSC. “They want to figure out what it is.” Opened a decade after KSC teachers first came to Ashland, the
KSC temple isn’t the region’s only grand monument to Buddhism. In 1980, Tashi Choling Center for Buddhist Studies put down roots in the Colestin Valley south of Ashland. It remained Southern Oregon’s primary Buddhist congregation in 1996, when The Spirit of Our Valley delved into religion and faith to increase understanding and tolerance for the region’s wide-ranging spiritual branches and to honor the human drive for connection that runs throughout. Tracing its lineage through venerated teachers for approximately 2,600 years, Buddhism ascribes to the doctrine of the historical Buddha, who sought to transcend the human experience of suffering through inward extinction of the self and the senses, culminating in spiritual illumination. To this end, Buddhists practice meditation, visualization, chanting and rituals, while adhering to ethics that promote self-restraint and
MAIL TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO
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Philip Thomas spins prayer wheels in the prayer garden at Tashi Chöling Center for Buddhist Studies in the Colestine Valley in 2007
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MAIL TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO
Members of Kagyu Sukha Choling, a Tibetan Buddhist center in Ashland, meet in the dodecagon at Buckhorn Springs.
harmony grounded in nonviolence. Along the way, practitioners cultivate inner peace, compassion and insight. Buddhism migrated more than a millennium ago from India through China, Japan and Southeast Asia to Western countries. Also featured in the 1996 edition of Our Valley was a Zen community in Mount Shasta, California, which has trained and sustained Buddhist monks since 1970 while also offering retreats that introduce participants to meditation and the Buddhist path. Nearly 25 years since The Spirit of Our Valley looked at local ways of worship — exercising a belief in a higher power and incorporating it into one’s daily life — local Buddhists have grown in number, a trend that holds true nationwide, its leaders say. “For the size of our town, the size of our temple is very typical,” says Weymire, who estimates the size of Ashland Zen Center’s congregation — or “sangha” — at about 30. “There are Buddhists everywhere,” says the Rev. Tendo Stacy Weymire. “Little, tiny towns I’ve never heard of.” “We started in people’s living rooms,” says Yeshe. “There are many other Buddhist groups in the valley now.” Both Ashland Zen Center and KSC, which claims an active membership of about 100, consider themselves in service to the entire region, summoning practitioners from Grants Pass and Klamath Falls. While there is interest in establishing satellite sitting groups or centers in Southern Oregon, Buddhism faces the same challenges as most religions worldwide: an aging clergy and difficulty recruiting and retaining young trainees. “We often say we wish there was a lama college,” says Yeshe. “We’re looking toward younger people to pick up that
mantle.” And unlike the lamas of decades past who studied in Eastern countries and brought Buddhism to Western audiences, more and more contemporary teachers were born and educated in North America, says Yeshe. In fact, it’s been the intent of congregations such as hers “to be rooted in this ground.” Despite mystical connotations, “the presenting faith is very simple and straightforward,” says Yeshe. Some of Buddhism’s defining features have even become mainstream, she adds, citing Western medical texts that uphold meditation as an effective treatment for anxiety and other psychological disorders. “They work just fine outside the Buddhist context,” she says. “Most people who come to Buddhism started somewhere else.” Those newly drawn to Buddhism often have deliberately stepped away from other religious teachings and traditions, says Ramana Weymire. Others may bring an entirely secular outlook but are looking for peace, perhaps after experiencing a personal upheaval or life transition. Some local families simply want to explore other spiritual avenues and send their children to Ashland Zen Center’s summer camps. “The diversity of Buddhism is something that most Americans are just starting to learn about,” says Stacy Weymire. “Sometimes, it’s just a small awakening.” Local Buddhist centers are open to the public and post calendars of events online. To learn more, see www.ashlandzencenter.org, www.kscashland. org and tashicholing.org. Reach freelance writer Sarah Lemon at thewholedish@gmail.com.
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Vigilance has kept gang problems light
It noted some graffiti and some teens “wearing baggy pants and talking tough,” but high school students felt safe from “gang pressures.” Maybe a dozen kids in high school admitted to being in gangs.
JAMIE LUSCH / MAIL TRIBUNE
Arturo Vega, a school resource officer, sits with students during lunch at McLoughlin Middle School.
By John Darling for the Mail Tribune
In 1997, Our Valley worried about how, even though many people moved here because it’s an idyllic place to live and raise families, some of the problems they were running away from were finding their way here. So, staring the millennium in the face, Our Valley published “a tribute to the wonder and innocence of childhood,” along with an honest look at problems that loomed. It studied how life was for children in simpler times when there were no cars and virtually no mention of sex in polite society — only marriage in a distant adulthood. It quoted many children in hopes they “will recognize themselves, rediscovering their vitality and joy,” while for their parents “the effect may be more sobering.” For this year’s issue, we decided to highlight one 22-year-old story that was headlined “Rogue Valley 60 || OUR Sunday, April 28, 60 VALLEY
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teens see little evidence of gangs.” It noted some graffiti and some teens “wearing baggy pants and talking tough,” but high school students felt safe from “gang pressures.” Maybe a dozen kids in high school admitted to being in gangs. One student called them “posers.” Today, police and schools feel they’ve come a long way and, with student resource officers on the job since that time, says Kevin Campbell, Medford School District director of secondary student achievement, “we don’t see a lot of evidence of gang activity.” Campbell says that, a couple decades ago, he was “taking care of tagging, displays of gang sects on book covers, and we would be pretty vigilant on dress codes, not allowing any such attire or messages in school. That was the time of sagging pants, and we had them hold pants around the waist. Right now, I wouldn’t even call it minor.” SRO Arturo Vega of McLoughlin
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MAIL TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO
The Medford Police Department SWAT team completes a search of a house on Falcon Street in White City during a gang sweep in 2014.
Middle School says there is “some gang activity, but it’s very, very low. It would be foolish to do it. We see some graffiti in the alleys, but we have a good idea who is doing it. I wouldn’t call them organized gangs. They don’t know what they’re doing. They’ve been looking at too much rap music and gang movies on TV.” Medford police have five SROs in schools now and, says Vega, “If we nip it in the bud in middle school, we can keep them on track.” Vega recently arrested a boy on a parole violation for wearing gang colors and had “a chat” with his mother, establishing the fact that “we’re not going to tolerate this silliness … I’m
basically a babysitter.” Signs of gang activities go in cycles, and five to eight years ago, notes Vega, “it was pretty active, with some drivebys, but those were mostly adults.” Medford police Lt. Mike Budreau says gang activity was up on the west side a few years ago, and much of it was mitigated by rapid graffiti removal and beautification organized by neighbors. “Graffiti incites gang behavior and the cycle of retaliation. Tagging is a big thing of gangs, and it was really organized three or four years ago,” says Budreau, “but immediately removing tagging significantly reduces the cycle.” He credits the decline of gang activity
to the SRO program, and such community efforts as LifeArt, Kids Unlimited and the LAB (Life and Basketball) program. “Our SROs play a big part in identifying trends. If they see a kid displaying gang behavior and going down the wrong path, they intervene and get parents involved. They have enough of a positive relationship with students that someone will tip off the SRO if there’s going to be a gang-related fight. News travels fast with all the texting, and we often intervene.” John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.
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Bypass is what the doctor ordered
Not only was the north interchange completely redone in 2006 at a cost of $36 million, but a four-milelong bypass for Highway 62 has been under construction for three years and should be finished in April.
JAMIE LUSCH / MAIL TRIBUNE
Gary Leaming, spokesman for ODOT, walks on the Highway 62 bypass. The long-awaited project is set to open in April.
By Damian Mann Mail Tribune
In 1998, transportation officials had heartburn about congestion on Highway 62 and warned it would be a roadblock to future growth. “Highway 62 is a disaster that we need to address,” said Stuart Foster, a Medford lawyer who was on the Oregon Transportation Commission back in 1998. “In terms of local need, Highway 62 north interchange is No. 1.” Apparently, Foster’s words and warnings from others were heeded. Not only was the north interchange completely redone in 2006 at a cost of $36 million, but a four-mile-long bypass for Highway 62 has been under construction for three years and should be finished in April, cutting the commute time for folks living in Eagle Point by 5 minutes. The interchange not only improved the flow of traffic 62 | | OUR Sunday, April 28, 62 VALLEY
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to Interstate 5, but the Oregon Department of Transportation widened Biddle Road, putting in new sidewalks and other improvements. At the time, four years of planning had gone into the project. The original interchange opened in 1962 when the surrounding area was still undeveloped. One of the big changes from the old to the new interchange was a bridge over Biddle Road that improved traffic flow on both Highway 62 and Biddle. After the Biddle Road project, transportation officials turned their attention to a bypass for Highway 62. The intersection at Delta Waters Road is the busiest intersection in southwestern Oregon, with traffic counts rivaling those on Interstate 5. Plans were initially drawn up to connect the bypass with Interstate 5 and extend it to almost Eagle Point, estimated to cost $400 million.
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MAIL TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO
Traffic, especially along Highway 62 in Medford, is one of the most visible signs of population growth in the Rogue Valley.
In 2009, the Oregon Legislature approved the Jobs and Transportation Act, which provided $100 million in funding for the project. ODOT had an additional $20 million, so with $120 million of the $400 million needed, a scaled-down plan was devised. The $120 million project involves building 4.5 miles of freeway from Poplar Drive in Medford north to Corey Road in White City along the Old Medco Haul Road. The route runs parallel to Highway 62, which is to the east, and the new stretch of freeway will be called the Rogue Valley Expressway. As a result, Highway 62 has seen almost $160 million in improvements in the past two decades. “This is the last big project we have for this area for the foreseeable future,” said Gary Leaming, spokesman for ODOT. Once you get on the bypass, you
won’t be able to get off. There won’t be any on- or off-ramps at Vilas Road. The four-lane freeway, built by Knife River Materials of Central Point, will have a speed limit of 55 mph. When it opens, it will divert 40 percent of the traffic between Interstate 5 and White City. In the past few months, Knife River has completed the roadway. After discussions with police and fire officials, ODOT decided to add a few more emergency entrances and exits to the bypass in case of accidents and to allow access for emergency crews. As a result, there will now be five emergency access points instead of two. Leaming said ODOT doesn’t have any other big projects in the works, though there is some effort underway to strengthen and widen the Interstate 5 viaduct through Medford. The viaduct
is in danger of collapsing in an earthquake. Leaming said Foster, former Rep. John Watt and the Chamber of Medford/Jackson County were among local leaders who pushed to find solutions for the congestion on Highway 62. Before 2000, transportation officials worried that the Rogue Valley wasn’t getting its fair share of gas-tax dollars. Because of local efforts, including by legislators and others, it has helped get some of the big road projects to the valley, including new interchanges in most local communities. Leaming said he expects widening the Interstate 5 viaduct could be a project for the future, though funding hasn’t been set aside for it yet. Reach reporter Damian Mann at 541-776-4476 or dmann@ rosebudmedia.com Follow him on twitter.com.reporterdm. Our Valley | Sunday, AprilVALLEY 28, 2019 || 63 OUR 63
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Wired up Today, such universal, instantaneous connectivity is a given and includes officers’ cellphones, bodycams, dashcams, all intermeshed with a records management system that allows retrieval of a universe of data from a driver’s license, car license plate or anything else.
ANDY ATKINSON / MAIL TRIBUNE
Ashland police Chief Tighe O’Meara shows how onboard computers help officers in the field.
Law enforcement has benefited greatly from technology tools By John Darling for the Mail Tribune
In the 1999 edition of Our Valley, titled “Working With Technology,” we focused on “how computers and other scientific wonders are affecting businesses and their employees.” That was two decades ago, when a veritable “digital spring” was exploding across the world, changing not just our businesses, but everything we did, what was in our pockets, how we communicated — everything. A story in that issue about computers in law enforcement had interviewees reminiscing about how dispatchers always took 911 calls on the phone, wrote down the information with a pencil, checked paper files for criminal histories, decided which agency should handle the problem and 64 || OUR Sunday, April 28, 2019 64 VALLEY
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called them up. But in 1999, according to Our Valley, all regional law enforcement agencies would be “hooked up to computers that … officers have in their cars, so the information will appear on their screens instead of a dispatcher telling them over the radio.” The future had arrived. Today, such universal, instantaneous connectivity is a given and includes officers’ cellphones, bodycams, dashcams, all intermeshed with a records management system that allows retrieval of a universe of data from a driver’s license, car license plate or anything else an officer wants to plug into his or her in-car computer. Technology has also allowed police to solve crimes using DNA analysis. “It’s fantastic,” says Ashland
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police Chief Tighe O’Meara. “Such great investigative tools, being able to have that insight into someone’s life, the relatively easy DNA analysis. It’s given us a much better chance to get justice for victims of crime.” Because we live in an ocean of data now, some people may worry about loss of privacy, but for law enforcement, “digital forensics evidence” increases the evidence trail and makes society more safe, O’Meara says. For instance, in 2011, an Ashland man was beaten so badly he almost died — and became homeless for several years. A suspect was arrested by Medford police and convicted on multiple other charges, but O’Meara wanted to nail down the assault charge. The assailant left a baseball cap at the scene. O’Meara sent it for DNA testing. He dug into the suspect’s cellphone, finding texts bragging about the beating, with pics the suspect shot of his own bloody hands. “I’m not claiming any big Sherlock Holmes credit,” he says, “but the victim was a homed, working member of our community. I wrapped up my case, assault-3, in 2014, and got two years added to his sentence.” Even if the offender is smart enough not to self-incriminate with texts and pics, cellphones communicate with towers, leaving traces of where offenders were and potentially placing them at crime scenes, he says. Back in the day, it was common to hear police complain about paperwork and the hours needed to do it all. Now, says O’Meara, “CAD (computer-aided dispatch) does it all, types
in the case number, date, names and it appears at once in RMS (records management system), with the ability to appear everywhere else.” The bodycam video is linked to the case number and can be easily called up for use in court. Tickets are written with just a scan of the bar code on the back of your license. A geo-tag app in officers’ cellphones keeps their locations known and on-screen. Many police agencies scan license plates in four directions at all times, looking for stolen cars and wanted suspects, but this tool is only needed in large cities, he says. However, officers can scan any particular plate instantly. Demographic tracking, required by a new state law to reduce profiling, has cops ticking off the race, homeless status, apparent gender and other such information on all stops. The data is monitored by a committee at Portland State University and, he says, any disproportionate hits will be investigated. The program starts July 1, but Ashland is already “the guinea pig,” testing it out. What’s the impact of the digital revolution? Instantaneous access to any piece of information you want, O’Meara says. Pictures of anyone. Access to a database that’s far-reaching and integrated. A data-extraction app that can bypass the password and pull information and pics out of a cellphone, after police get consent or a search warrant based on reasonable belief that evidence of a crime exists on the phone.
Access to a database that’s far-reaching and integrated. A data-extraction app that can bypass the password and pull information and pics out of a cellphone, after police get consent or a search warrant based on reasonable belief that evidence of a crime exists on the phone.
John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at jdarling@ jeffnet.org. Our Valley | Sunday, AprilVALLEY 28, 2019 || 65 OUR 65
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Growth points to the Points In 2000, the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department estimated Eagle Point would grow to 9,530 residents by 2020, and the last snapshot offered by the U.S. Census Bureau said the city had 9,139 people in 2017.
ANDY ATKINSON / MAIL TRIBUNE
New housing is going up off North Ross Lane in Medford.
Affordable housing critical to accommodate new arrivals By Ryan Pfeil Mail Tribune
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| Our Valley
The two Jackson County cities to see the most population growth from 2000 to 2010 — Central Point and Eagle Point — are expected to maintain the highest growth rates until 2068, according to a report from Portland State University’s Population Research Center. Eagle Point grew from 4,952 residents in 2000 to 8,508 in 2010, while Central Point went from 13,310 to 17,736 in that 10-year span. In the year 2000, Our Valley was titled “Growth,” and Mail Tribune reporters dissected current trends and future projections to come up with a portrait of what the valley might look like in 50 years. As it turns out, the population forecasters we talked to were close to the mark in their predictions for where we’d be today. In 2000, the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department estimated Eagle Point would grow to 9,530 residents by 2020, and the last
snapshot offered by the U.S. Census Bureau said the city had 9,139 people in 2017. Central Point was projected to reach a population 18,581 by 2020, and it had reached 18,234 by the end of 2017, the Census Bureau said. Medford, which had a population of 60,561 people in 2000, was predicted to reach 80,043 people in 2020, and as of 2018, the county’s largest city had already hit 81,780. Jackson County as a whole had 177,982 people in 2000, and Oregon’s Office of Economic Development predicted we’d have 221,665 people in 2020. According to the U.S. Census, we hit 217,479 people in July 2017. Ashland’s population is lagging a bit in terms of predictions made in 2000. The city had 19,524 people in 2000 and was predicted to have 21,120 people in 2010 and 22,846 by next year. Instead, the city was at 21,117 people in 2017, according to the U.S. Census. PSU’s population forecast SEE 2000, PAGE 68
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MAIL TRIBUNE / JAMIE LUSCH
New houses are under construction near RoxyAnn Winery off of East McAndrews Road, but the pace of building needs to improve to solve the regional housing shortage, experts say.
2000
From Page 66
predicts that 285,046 people will live in Jackson County in 2050. Estimates by the state in 2000 projected we’d have a county population of 264,933 in 2050, so the estimates for Southern Oregon are climbing. The 2000 issue of Our Valley took all of those projections and asked experts how growth would play out on the ground in terms of traffic, parks, schools and quality of life. With sky-high rents and a severe shortage of affordable housing — not just here but across the country — the issue urban planners are grappling with today is where people are going to live. “I am confident that housing will be built,” says Michelle Glass, director of the Rogue Action Center, a nonprofit in Medford working toward solutions for the housing shortage among other issues. “I think the struggle is going to be making sure that we’re building the right kinds of diverse housing options in the right places, and that we’re getting a diverse mix of affordability levels.
“When you look at the housing needs analyses for any given city in our region, a lot of our cities actually have a surplus of luxury housing and a deficit of housing that is more workforce or affordable. And so I think that the specifics are going to really matter. I think that policy is going to be super important on the local and state levels.” Policies she thinks would contribute in a positive way would include legislation that supports “diverse housing types,” she said. “Re-allowing cottage housing, more townhomes, more duplexes is going to be really critical,” Glass said. “The majority of households in Oregon consist of one or two people now, and both millennials and retirees are wanting smaller homes, or needing more rental units.” Glass said she’s encouraged by Medford’s affordable housing excise tax — a tax of one-third of 1 percent on major construction projects that would fund low- and middle-income housing projects in the city — and SB 608, a statewide rent-control bill that passed this year. “I think stabilizing the rental market is a critical piece,” she said. “SB 608 was a critical first step.”
On the zoning and development code side, she pointed to HB 2001, which would allow for multiunit housing types such as duplexes to be built on lands zoned for single-family dwellings within the urban growth boundary of Oregon cities with populations greater than 10,000 and in counties with populations greater than 15,000. A few quick facts provided by the U.S. Census Bureau about Jackson County population show that as of July 2017: ■ The county had more people 65 and older (21.5 percent) than people 17 and younger (20.7) ■ 89 percent of households had a computer ■ 81.2 percent of households had a broadband Internet subscription ■ 89.3 percent of people 25 and older had a high school diploma ■ 26.8 of people 25 and older had a bachelor’s degree or higher ■ The median household income (in 2017 dollars) was $48,688 ■ The per capita income (in 2017 dollars) was $27,081.
Reach reporter Ryan Pfeil at rpfeil@ rosebudmedia.com or 541-776-4468.
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Still a hero of learning ... Alvarez used her roots to fuel her involvement with a minority teen empowerment program known as “Standing Together,” which used monthly workshops to present education and career possibilities to high school students of Latino, African-American, Asian and Native American descent.
PHOTO COURTESY SOU
Alma Rose Alvarez, featured as an unsung hero in the 2001 issue of Our Valley, meets recently with a student in her SOU office.
By Nick Morgan Mail Tribune
In her 22 years as an English professor, Alma Rosa Alvarez says she has watched Southern Oregon University and the broader community improve the ways they reach students from underserved communities. In a recent interview with Alvarez in her office, she broke away several times to provide positive feedback to students, saying, “You did a really good job” and “Nice work,” as students picked up graded essays on a Tuesday afternoon. Alvarez is in her third year as chair of SOU’s English Department, though she’ll relinquish that title at the end of the year for a planned yearlong sabbatical in which she intends to brush up on new technology to better prepare her students for the future. Her role as an educator is a 70 || OUR Sunday, April 28, 2019 70 VALLEY
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long way from her roots as the daughter of Mexican immigrants who each had no more than a sixth-grade education while she was growing up in blighted and gang-ridden Paramount, California. In 2001, Our Valley profiled Alvarez as one of three dozen “Unsung Heroes” serving the Rogue Valley. The story focused on the way Alvarez used her roots to fuel her involvement with a minority teen empowerment program known as “Standing Together,” which used monthly workshops to present education and career possibilities to high school students of Latino, African-American, Asian and Native American descent. Bigger and more comprehensive programs have since taken its place. “What’s been really great is that we’ve had other folks come and take sort of the lead
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on student programming,” Alvarez says, commending the work of others within the university. For instance, she points to the efforts of Minority Outreach Program coordinator Jonathan Chavez-Baez, who can collaborate more closely with area schools within Phoenix-Talent and Medford school districts through its Pirates-toRaiders, Bulldogs-to-Raiders and Hornets-to-Raiders programs, which incorporate tutoring, mentorship and parent involvement to help Latino students find pathways to college. While Alvarez says she “loved our little program when it existed,” she remembers making her own Costco runs for programs that ran only once a month. “A lot of the kids would be like, ‘Aw, a Saturday,’” Alvarez says. “This is a more sustained effort.” In fall 2018, Hispanic students made up 10.8 percent of the 6,114 students enrolled at SOU, according to the university. Though she sits on planning boards for many of the university’s multicultural programs, she primarily serves as an education advocate for the Latino community through Our Lady of the Mountain Catholic Church in Ashland. She recalls a recent conversation with a mother concerned about her teen daughter’s plan to drop out of high school. “The mother was really mortified by that,” Alvarez says, describing how “she knew what that meant,” and how she came to this country to provide her daughter with an education. Alvarez recounts that the woman knew her daughter was struggling with math, had already pursued tutoring but was starting to “check out.” “There’s a level of knowledge there,” Alvarez says. “She knew that there was tutoring there ... and it’s like, what can I do to help my daughter?” In that circumstance, pushing the teen through high school didn’t
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Though (Alvarez) sits on planning boards for many of the university’s multicultural programs, she primarily serves as an education advocate for the Latino community through Our Lady of the Mountain Catholic Church in Ashland.
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seem to be the right approach. Instead, Alvarez told the mother that two people in her master’s program at University of California Santa Barbara originally dropped out of high school before pursuing higher education again. Even Alvarez’ father, who came to the United States with a thirdgrade education and speaking no English, applied himself after long days working at a tire factory when she was young, taking English classes and night school and ultimately earning his GED. “Then he decided he loved school,” Alvarez says. “We always had books in the house.” Attributing it partially to her father’s passion for learning, Alvarez says her brother and sister have earned master’s degrees. “To me there isn’t a ‘There has to this way,’” Alvarez says. “You don’t have to do it the conventional way.” You can reach Mail Tribune reporter Nick Morgan at nmorgan@rosebudmedia.com.
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It’s the climate Hydrologist Charles Lane, an environmental science professor at SOU, says warming is changing the state’s characteristic winter precipitation, shifting it from snow to rain, reducing high-elevation snowpack that provides water during hot summer months. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The sun sets behind smoke from the Taylor Creek fire in 2018, one in a series of smoky summers in the Rogue Valley.
By John Darling for the Mail Tribune
The 2002 edition of Our Valley was titled “The Nature of Our Valley” and sought to outline its natural history, from the Rogue Valley’s geologic origins millions of years ago to our present surroundings: the plants, animals, mountains and unique weather. While all of these may sound like things that are steady and unchanging, there’s one that, in the ensuing 17 years, has shown plenty of change — and in unsettling ways. We call it “climate change,” a tame-sounding phrase that potentially packs a big punch. One story, headlined “Don’t Like the Weather? Just Wait About 25 Years,” prosaically recited the wet-dry half-century cycles of cold, wetter La Nina and warm, drier El Nino patterns and, toward the end of the story mentioned global warming, with climatologist 72 || OUR Sunday, April 28, 72 VALLEY
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Roger Williams of Medford’s National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (now retired) saying the human contribution to warming is “much smaller than what nature has to offer.” But the onslaught of heat waves, hurricanes, ocean rise and, especially for our region, drought, wildfire and smoke have spurred scientists to deeply research our climate and, more importantly, predict how it likely will behave in future decades. “We have a much clearer idea that warming is because of trapped gases,” says Philip Mote, director of Oregon State University’s Oregon Climate Change Institute. “That (Our Valley) story 17 years ago missed it. It’s a formal science now called attribution that distinguishes between global and individual climate events. Since 1960, climate has departed from the way it behaved in previous history.
2019 | Our Valley
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“The field of attribution has demonstrated that global warming can’t be attributed to natural causes. We put all this carbon in the atmosphere.” Mote says temperatures have exceeded the global average year after year, and “for the Northwest, you can’t explain the past six decades with volcanoes or natural variability, and there’s no debate among practicing scientists in the field. The strength of evidence is overwhelming.” Scientists can’t accurately set dates on what will happen when but, says Mote, “the higher the carbon dioxide, the more disruptive. … My colleagues and I have demonstrated the link of fire to climate. With increased temperature, you get more fire. The speculation of 20 years ago is now an every-summer occurrence. The more greenhouse gases, the more climate surprises.” What’s helpful, he adds, is to think of the process in terms of a bus — and “every time we pass a bus stop and don’t get off, we go farther down the road. Fire is happening now. The disappearance of Arctic sea ice is much more rapid than expected, and it’s irreversible. It will continue to get faster as long as we emit more greenhouse gases than nature can absorb. CO2 is now 410 parts per million. You have to go back 5 million years to find that level.” Hydrologist Charles Lane, an environmental science professor at Southern Oregon University, says warming is changing the state’s characteristic winter precipitation, shifting it from snow to rain, reducing high-elevation snowpack that provides water during hot summer months. This means drier forests and more fire. “It matters what form and what time the precipitation comes in,” Lane notes. “A lot of rain in winter does us relatively little good. … Our water conveyance system here is built on snow, not SEE 2002, PAGE 74
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MAIL TRIBUNE / JAMIE LUSCH
The 2014 Oregon Gulch fire sends up a large plume of smoke near the Greensprings southeast of Ashland.
2002
From Page 72
rain. Hyatt and Howard (reservoirs) are not built to hold massive amounts of water a long time. They’re built to collect snow melt as it slowly melts over spring and summer. “For water resource management, the real question is if climate change is driving more rain, relative to snow. If so, that’s a problem. The indicators are making people nervous, as we’re seeing more rain than snow.” A big conversation in the American West now, adds Lane, is whether we should engage in a new round of reservoir building, because “if the current reservoirs aren’t big enough, that’s the obvious answer. I don’t know if that will happen, because the expense
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would be huge.” Atmospheric scientist Karen Shell, a professor at OSU, operates computer models of Earth’s climate to predict what the climate will do next. “We know a lot more about climate systems now (than when the 2002 Our Valley story was published),” says Shell. “The effects from increasing greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels are becoming very clear. We can break it down for regions now,” with reports linked online. A record low snowpack hit Oregon in 2015, she notes, “because it’s warmer and melts off in spring, with low storage and runoff in summer. Mountain streams go low and it ripples to agriculture. Water is scarce, forests dry out, there’s more fire.” Should we be afraid? “Good question,” says Shell. “These
are serious impacts that greatly affect people’s lives. You don’t want to get paralyzed, though. There are things you can do individually and there are more technologies available. One of the big positive stories is the decline in the cost of solar, especially compared to building new coal plants. We can cut meat consumption, because we’re finding livestock produce a lot of greenhouse gases. You can still eat meat sometimes, but you can get a lot of protein from fish, chicken, vegetables without impacting the quality of your life.” Is it going to get worse? “Yes, it’s going to get worse,” says Shell. “We’re going to see more summers like last summer, increased wildfire, stronger hurricanes because of warmer ocean temperatures.” Is the public will changing? “I
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For water resource management, the real question is if climate change is driving more rain, relative to snow. If so, that’s a problem. The indicators are making people nervous, as we’re seeing more rain than snow.
MAIL TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO
Fire retardant bombers and helicopters work a wildfire near Ashland.
mostly talk with other scientists, but polls say more Americans believe the climate is changing because of human activity. Outside the U.S., most people believe that’s the case.” It’s a serious problem, says Mote, but he points to reasons for optimism. “It’s solvable if you imagine a better future and make it happen,” says Mote. “Polls over the last 15 years show a large
majority of the public support renewable energy and other steps to reduce emissions. Opinion is polarized … the voice of the vast middle is not as well represented in Congress as the fringes. The politics of climate is not reflecting what people actually want.”
— Charles Lane
John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.
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Flavors of the Rogue Valley Sixteen years after that publication — and 27 years since the 222-page cookbook was printed — you can still find a new or used copy of “Rogue River Rendezvous” online at places such as Amazon, Thriftbooks and Barnes & Noble.
“Rogue River Rendezvous” immortalized pears, steelhead and other local foods By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune
In 1990, the Junior League of Jackson County waded out of its comfort zone of community fundraising efforts and found itself testing waters never tried here this way before. The League wanted to produce a cookbook, but not your everyday cookbook. The “Rogue River Rendezvous” not only would offer special recipes highlighting the region, such as Wild Rice Roxy Ann and China Bar Chicken, it also would detail other aspects of Southern Oregon, including drawings of fishing flies used to catch steelhead featured in the book. “Honestly it was written with recipes that represented the people in the valley, not just the latest thing you might read in a magazine,” recalls Carole Schuler Powell, who co-directed the three-year effort. “They were people’s favorites, recipes they were comfortable with and were known for.” “Rogue River Rendezvous” hit with a splash in 1992, winning the Tabasco Community Cookbook Award, and it had sold more than 40,000 glossy copies by 2003 when it was featured in the Our Valley edition titled “The Way We Are,” which did a deep dive into understanding what it is to be Southern Oregon. Sixteen years after that publication — and 27 76 VALLEY 76 || OUR Sunday, April 28, 2019
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years since the 222-page cookbook was printed — you can still find a new or used copy of “Rogue River Rendezvous” online at places such as Amazon, Thriftbooks and Barnes & Noble. “That’s a real testament to what we accomplished,” says Powell, a former North Medford High School health teacher now living in Walla Walla, Washington. “I’m happy to hear that.” The Junior League currently sports about two dozen members — one of the smallest of its kind in the country — so the cookbook serves as a link for current members to the group’s heyday here. “It’s kind of one of those legendary things we did when we were a really big league,” says Oakley Day, last year’s League president. No current League member was involved when the book was first published, she says. The League cleaned out its office last year and found two copies of the book, and Day was surprised to hear it was still for sale. Just as the cookbook was used as a community fundraiser, the League continues to hold fundraisers, Day says. The fifth annual Spring Tea Fundraiser is set for April 14 at the Rogue Valley Country Club, with proceeds benefiting the Family Nurturing Center in Medford. In 1990, Powell co-chaired the effort with Michele Hefley, and they originally focused on what foods and flavors were unique to Southern Oregon — especially “pears and fishing,”
| Our Valley
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Powell says. Hefley and Powell attended seminars in Philadelphia with the book’s eventual publisher to learn the craft of cookbook construction. The publishers offered a template for how it works, but the cookbook would be 100 percent the League’s, Powell says. “We had backgrounds in cooking and real passions for cooking, so we thought we’d do well,” Powell says. They solicited recipes from the community, receiving what they believed was the best of the best. They included her father-in-law’s salmon recipe and an uncle’s rib recipe that was famous in his hunting camp. “These were recipes people fine-tuned after years and years,” Powell says. The recipes were meted out to League members working within their specialties, such as breads, salads and fish. “We double- and triple-tested all of those recipes that came through,” Powell says. Some of the recipes were tweaked a tad, and they were all given names representative of the Rogue Valley, including Rogue Caesar Salad and Horseshoe Bend Barbecue sauce. A professional photographer came in to shoot the various dishes throughout the valley. “We put so much into it,” Powell says. “My children call it the cookbook years. They were used to going out with me to do photo shoots.” It was an instant hit, and for years it was given away by car dealers, Realtors and others as a keepsake or welcome introduction to the Rogue Valley. Powell says she uses the cookbook all the time. An orzo recipe, for instance, is a family favorite that “everybody has memorized.” “I also like the chocolate frosting recipe really well,” she says with a laugh. Powell says she always hoped “Rogue River Rendezvous” would have a long shelf life and remain relevant as a snapshot of the food and tastes of the Rogue Valley. “It was an opportunity to show off our valley, our cuisine,” Powell says. “It was a labor of love.” You can reach Mail Tribune reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or mfreeman@rosebudmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ MTwriterFreeman.
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Our Valley | Sunday, AprilVALLEY 28, 2019 || 77 OUR 77
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Thrivers, more than survivors The OSF family is cast anew each July, as the actors are invited (or not) to join the company for another year. Actors read the plays and the artistic director asks whether they’re interested or would they rather take a break? PHOTO BY JENNY GRAHAM
Vilma Silva, right, is shown with Eduardo Enrikez in “Destiny of Desire” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2018.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival veterans share what keeps them in Ashland By John Darling for the Mail Tribune
In 2004, Our Valley explored the notion of survivors who, against all odds, persist and thrive through the years — “All have compelling tales to tell, whether they’re trying to keep tradition, art, communication or themselves, alive.” The issue invited readers to discover cultural touchstones, the natural world, structures and businesses that have endured and enriched our lives. Chief among them was the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and a small group of incredibly talented people — in the mold of founder Angus Bowmer, 84 years ago — who found the theaters and the town of Ashland the perfect place to evolve their visions and skills, year after year. Fifteen years later, we talked to three OSF veterans about their experiences with the company.
Tyrone Wilson As he starts his 25th OSF season, actor Tyrone Wilson, a native New Yorker, reflects 78 || OUR Sunday, April 28, 2019 78 VALLEY
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that when he got here, he viewed OSF as one of many stops in a long career that would include television, Los Angeles, Broadway — all the usual career-making opportunities. “Obviously that changed, because I’m still here,” he says with a chuckle. “After a while, my friends and agent in New York said, ‘Hey, you’ve got a good gig. Stay there.’ Soon I had two sons being raised here, and I was saying to myself, ‘You absolutely need and want to be here.’” So, what’s the draw? “The festival is different than other theaters. You want to be part of this family of OSF and this community of Ashland. It’s not just a job, and it’s bigger than just being part of the festival. Both my sons were Scouts, and my oldest son is in the orchestra at Ashland High. I started a weekly hiking group, and we hike all over Southern Oregon and Northern California.” What really surprised Wilson was when he went back “home” to New York and was visiting the 9/11 site, he was asked where he’s from and he blurted out “Oregon,” not New York. “That’s when I knew,” he says. “I’m from here. … And I’m pleased to watch how the
| Our Valley
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Pacific Northwest is changing, and I think it’s a little healthier than many other places. We’re moving more toward a kind of caring for humanity more than some other places — and part of it for Ashland is this strong influence of our artistic energy. It’s moving us all in a good, positive direction.” Is racism a thing here? “It’s less and less,” says Wilson, who is African-American. He recounts years ago being called the n-word from a truck and notes it can still happen. At OSF, acting often goes way beyond performing a role and can be life-changing, creating a depth and bonding in the theater company, as well as the audience, he says. So it was in 2017 in “Henry IV,” when Wilson’s friend G. Valmont Thomas, dying of cancer, valiantly summoned the strength to play Falstaff, who died in the play. Understudy Wilson would often fill in and took over the role when Thomas died. “I was there to see his final journey. I don’t think anyone will ever forget that experience and how he tried to keep up the energy — and how he hated not to be able to perform. I was there for his final transition. There is no more significant blurring of the lines between life and death. That’s what it’s all about, the temporary existence of both art and ourselves. It’s here and it’s gone. That appearance changed me. I have a different perspective on what’s important in life. That happened here in Ashland, and I can’t imagine it happening in any other place. It’s because we are family.”
Vilma Silva Silva got offered an OSF slot in 1995 doing one show, “Blood Wedding,” then was offered a full season. She had booked other work and said no, but the festival called again and she’s been an integral part ever since. “I was very, very lucky,” she says. “I’m still here. I have loved being part of a resident company, because you’re always growing and changing.” Silva is a “survivor” but rejects the word, “because the process is about thriving, not surviving,” she says. “I love being able to walk in a room and, like most people, know at least a few people in the room because of our shared history. You welcome newcomers and feel
what they feel showing up on that first day. I love to be part of that energy that welcomes people to an artistic family. My husband and I made a family here.” The OSF family is cast anew each July, as the actors are invited (or not) to join the company for another year. Actors read the plays and the artistic director asks whether they’re interested or would they rather take a break? “I’ve been lucky enough to be invited back every season. … I love Ashland. I grew up in San Francisco and am partial to cities, so I miss that energy, but I also love a place where I can walk to work, get to know Ashland people outside the theater. It’s small enough to do that. I’ve been very happy to be part of the community, do volunteering, get to know storekeepers and those who support the restaurants and are part of the ecosystem. It’s all part of the DNA of the town.”
PHOTO BY JENNY GRAHAM, OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
Tyrone Wilson (Adam), being held by Román Zaragoza (Orlando de Boys), in the 2019 production of “As You Like It.”
Carol Jones Box Office Manager Carol Jones, now in her 45th year at OSF, is the first face of the company that many see, and the greeting in her mind — and the one she trains her staff of 27 to give — is “Welcome to a wonderful experience in live theater, how can I help you?” She reminds staff to smile when they talk, “because they can hear that smile on the phone,” especially when they’re rejiggering everything in the face of the newly challenging wildfire smoke of late summer. Ultimately, she says, her job is about how OSF can give patrons “what we can and make it safe. We had challenges during smoke, but we worked through it and identified what we can do better as we went. Smoke has been the hardest, because it’s one of those things you can’t do much about. “Smoke and air quality seem part of our life now. One of the biggest things was when the Bowmer Theatre beam broke (in 2011) and everyone had to work together to get the tent set up in the park. Moving plays to the Mountain Avenue Theater last year during smoke all happened so quickly, but we worked together and did it.” John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. You can reach him at jdarling@ jeffnet.org.
Carol Jones
PHOTO BY JENNY GRAHAM
Vilma Silva was cast in the title role in “Julius Caesar” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2011. Our Valley | Sunday, AprilVALLEY 28, 2019 || 79 OUR 79
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Water in the works The source of the water is a spring at the base of Mount McLoughlin, so it is filtered through volcanic rock and comes right out of the ground with perfect pH. Risser’s family currently does a limited run of bottling in glass containers.
JAMIE LUSCH / MAIL TRIBUNE
Bill and Delora Risser are the owners of Cascade Mountain Spring Water in Butte Falls.
The bottling of water from Ginger Springs is still percolating By Damian Mann Mail Tribune
Years ago Butte Falls residents floated an idea to bottle their pristine spring water and sell it to the world. That idea treaded water for more than two decades, but a relatively new company on the scene — Cascade Mountain Spring Water — hopes to make the flow from Ginger Springs at the base of Mount McLoughlin available to a wider market. The idea of selling Ginger Springs water has resonated in this town of 444 residents for a long time. “We have the land,” said community organizer Joyce Hailicka, in 2005, when Our Valley looked at efforts to bottle Ginger Springs water in an article titled “Time in a Bottle.” 80 | | OUR Sunday, April 28, 2019 80 VALLEY
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The theme of Our Valley that year was “Where are They Now?” which indicates that even back then, the water-bottling idea had been rattling around for a while. “We have the logo, and we have the right to sell the water, but we don’t have any money for the plant just yet,” Hailicka said in 2005. At the time, the town was selling bulk water and was in the process of building a pipeline to make it easier to fill water trucks. “We’re moving forward with the bulk water plan,” Hailicka said then. In the intervening years, the bottled-water idea has had its ups and downs, and the company running the bottling plant has changed hands. In 2007, Jerry and Christina Beams incorporated Ginger Springs Water Bottling Co., but
| Our Valley
4/13/2019 1:26:26 PM
the economy took a downturn. In 2014, Cascade Mountain Spring Water took over the operation and has been putting the spring water in glass bottles, distributing them at 700 locations, including Safeway and Albertsons. “When we get more money and investment, we’ll really scale up,” says Wyatt Risser, whose family runs Cascade Mountain Spring Water today. “We’re getting a bunch of industry professionals on our team.” The source of the water is a spring at the base of Mount McLoughlin, so it is filtered through volcanic rock and comes right out of the ground with perfect pH. Risser’s family currently does a limited run of bottling in glass containers. Former Butte Falls Mayor Ron Ormond had been trying to get a bottling plant for the town since the 1970s, when he first served as mayor. He thought the plant could help revitalize the economy of this former
timber town, which lost most of its family-wage jobs in the 1980s. In 1993, residents voted to bottle and sell the water from Gingers Springs as natural mountain spring water. In 2005, the town was still trying to attract a bottling-plant company to the community, which sits at the edge of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. The city water system was overhauled prior to 2005 to allow diversion of excess water before it is chlorinated and goes into the municipal supply. The Risser family divides its time between Butte Falls and Santa Barbara, California, where the family runs another water business, W.H. Risser Inc. Bill Risser, president of the company and Wyatt’s father, says he hopes to one day tap into 200,000 gallons a day from the Butte Falls spring. “I think we can create a lot of jobs with that volume,” he says, adding
that the family plans to continue putting the water in glass bottles. Bill Risser hopes that after several years of effort, he’ll soon be able to announce a venture with another company that wants to bottle the water under its label. “We’re climbing a hill and getting over the worst hump,” he says. “We’re getting the backing from key people in the food and beverage world.” Risser says the water business is pretty competitive, and it has a lot of big corporate players, such as CocaCola Co. and Nestle. He says the existing bottling facility in Butte Falls would have to be upgraded to handle the extra volume. “We want to get a crew up there working full-time,” he says. “We’ve been working hard to make it come to life.” You can reach reporter Damian Mann at 541-776-4476 or dmann@ rosebudmedia.com. Follow him on twitter.com/reporterdm.
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Our Valley | Sunday, AprilVALLEY 28, 2019 || 81 OUR 81
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Historic haunts of Jacksonville Eerie tales are plentiful about the historic Jacksonville Courthouse and the old Jackson County Jail, which sit next to each other on North Fifth Street between E and D streets. The courthouse now serves as City Hall, while the jail is an art gallery. PHOTO BY DENISE BARATTA
Carolyn Kingsnorth of Historic Jacksonville Inc. stands on the steps of the historic Jacksonville Courthouse, which is now used as Jacksonville City Hall.
Spirits linger in buildings with secret pasts, residents say By Vickie Aldous Mail Tribune
Jacksonville is known for its historic buildings, but it’s also making a name for itself as a place to indulge in ghost stories. Tours of reportedly haunted buildings and homes are a way to learn about the history of the town that dates from the 1850s. Carolyn Kingsnorth of Historic Jacksonville Inc. says history is more than a series of dry facts. But that’s how many people were taught history in school. “They learned it as names, dates, places and battles. They had to memorize it for the test, spit it out and promptly forget it. And that’s not what it is. It’s the people and their stories,” she says. Historic Jacksonville offers Haunted History walking tours the first Friday night of each month 82 || OUR Sunday, April 28, 82 VALLEY
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from June through September, then adds more dates during October. The Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce has Haunted Trolley tours in the days running up to Halloween. Jacksonville’s historic houses and buildings also regularly pop up on websites devoted to haunted houses and ghosts. The 2006 issue of Our Valley, which spotlighted local curiosities and legends, described several buildings where locals and visitors claimed to have spotted spirits. Jacksonville’s spooky reputation has only grown since then. Eerie tales are plentiful about the historic Jacksonville Courthouse and the old Jackson County Jail, which sit next to each other on North Fifth Street between E and D streets. The courthouse now serves as City Hall, while the jail SEE 2006, PAGE 84
2019 | Our Valley
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Our Valley | Sunday, AprilVALLEY 28, 2019 || 83 OUR 83
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Historic photo of a hanging scaffolding in Jacksonville taken by Peter Britt.
2006
From Page A82
is an art gallery. The first jail on the site was built in the 1850s. That simple structure was replaced in 1875 with a brick building reinforced with iron spikes and thick wooden planks. When the building burned down in 1889, there was no chance of escape for the three inmates housed there at the time, according to the Jacksonville Heritage Society. A later jail featured iron cages and padded cells. One of the more infamous inmates housed in the jail was Louis O’Neil, who was found guilty of shooting Lewis McDaniel in the face with a shotgun in Ashland in the 1880s. O’Neil had been having an affair with McDaniel’s wife. While awaiting execution, O’Neil complained to the sheriff that he was being
kept awake by a Chinese man yelling and throwing objects in the cell next door, Kingsnorth says. “But there was no one in the cell next door,” she says. Jacksonville had a thriving Chinese neighborhood in the 1800s. Like settlers of European descent, many were drawn to the area by gold fever, then started other businesses. Fans of the paranormal theorize the ghost of a Chinese man wanted to have his remains returned to China for burial. O’Neil’s reports of ghostly harassment didn’t change his fate. On March 12, 1886, he was hanged on a scaffold outside of the courthouse. About 200 men, women and children received tickets to witness the event, which had been closed off by a high fence to keep gawkers at bay. Jacksonville volunteer firemen armed with rifles served as guards. Once O’Neil was dead, the hanging rope was cut into short sections and
distributed as souvenirs. Farther down the road on the corner of Fifth and C streets, the perky yellow Gustav Karewski House was once owned by the county coroner, who used part of the home as his morgue, Kingsnorth says. Her friends once operated a store in the house. They said displays would come crashing down, and they once saw what looked like the ghost of a child peeking from a window. Perhaps they saw a spirit of one of the many children who died of infectious diseases in Jacksonville, Kingsnorth surmised. “She looked like she wanted to go out and join the other children in play,” Kingsnorth says. The Magnolia Inn at the corner of Fifth and D streets is another building with a hidden past. Built in 1928, it opened as a sanitarium and health spa. The sanitarium was part of a wellness movement promoted by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, inventor of Corn
84 April 28, 2019 | Our Valley 84 || Sunday, OUR VALLEY
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Flakes, and an advocate of exercise, vegetarianism and enemas. But when the economy tanked during the Depression, Jacksonville used the building to house indigent county residents and people suffering from mental illnesses, Kingsnorth says. To help them get back on their feet, many of the poor were issued mining permits to search for any leftover gold. They tunneled beneath Jacksonville, creating cavities that continue to cause sinkholes to this day. Others never left the poorhouse, and some believe their spirits linger on. “This was essentially where people were sent to die,” Kingsnorth says. “And so we still have some of them hanging around as well.” For more information about Haunted Trolley tours, visit jacksonville.com. For more information on Haunted History walking tours, see www.historicjacksonville.org. Staff reporter Vickie Aldous can be reached at 541-776-4486 or valdous@rosebudmedia.com.
PHOTO BY DENISE BARATTA
Carolyn Kingsnorth stands on a staircase in Jacksonville City Hall, reported to be haunted by former prisoners of the jail that was once next door.
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On March 12, 1886, he was hanged on a scaffold outside of the courthouse. About 200 men, women and children received tickets to witness the event, which had been closed off by a high fence to keep gawkers at bay. Jacksonville volunteer firemen armed with rifles served as guards
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By hook or by crook In addition, state and federal governments switched their focus to other pollutants — fine particulate matter found in wildfire smoke (known as PM 2.5), and ozone. The recession of 2008 also played a role. MAIL TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO
This air-testing apparatus near Rogue Valley Mall used to measure carbon monoxide pollution in Medford, but it was removed when cleaner-burning cars made it unnecessary. The bigger problems today are particulate matter and ozone.
Air pollution concerns have switched from carbon monoxide to particulate matter and ozone By Ryan Pfeil Mail Tribune
If you went past the corner of McAndrews Road and Riverside Avenue near the Rogue Valley Mall a dozen years ago, you might have seen an Environmental Protection Agency device that monitored carbon monoxide levels. Not that you’d necessarily recognize it as such. The monitor looked like a shepherd’s crook, an ambiguous metal rod that could easily have been mistaken for an odd public statue or a place to lock up your bike. The 2007 issue of Our Valley, titled “Now You Know: Trivial Pursuits of the Rogue Valley,” focused on “stories of the real, actual, literally honest-to-Pete small stuff of our valley — the not-big-enoughfor-the-news stuff, the trivia, the 86 VALLEY 86 || OUR Sunday, April 28, 2019
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oddments, the mundane trifles and forgotten minutiae,” a summary of the issue explained. “They are the footnotes to community, the underbelly of the everyday, the navel lint of history.” Enter: A story about the EPA carbon monoxide hook. Installed in 1986, the hook’s job was to monitor carbon monoxide levels from vehicles, according to Oregon Department of Environmental Quality public affairs specialist Katherine Benenati. The Rogue Valley was awash in pollution in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and it routinely exceeded federal limits for carbon monoxide, airborne particulates and ozone. The hook was placed at McAndrews and Riverside because it was — and still is — a traffic hotspot, says Anthony Barnack, Oregon DEQ air quality ambient monitoring coordinator.
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The device contained a small pump that sucked air through a tube to monitoring equipment installed inside the nearby mall sign. The equipment would shine infrared light through air samples and measure carbon monoxide by gauging how the light beams reacted and dispersed. DEQ offices in Portland received hourly reports and made the data available on its website, www.deq. state.or.us. The region eventually began meeting the standards sought by the EPA, but the hook stayed in place for a time “to make sure (the Rogue Valley) remains in compliance,” according to the 2007 Our Valley story. Three years later, in 2010, it was gone. The monitoring was discontinued because carbon monoxide levels were consistently well below the EPA standards, DEQ officials say. Part of that improvement — and subsequent monitor removal — was due mainly to improved vehicle emissions equipment. “Nationwide, the carbon monoxide levels have gone way down because of cleaner cars, mostly,” Barnack says. Most vehicles now have features such as
electronic timing and catalytic converters to ensure cleaner emissions, he adds. “We were measuring levels that were about 2 parts per million at the highest,” Barnack says. “And the standard is 9.5 parts per million.” In addition, state and federal governments switched their focus to other pollutants — fine particulate matter found in wildfire smoke (known as PM 2.5), and ozone. The recession of 2008 also played a role. “Everybody was taking budget cuts, and so we had to decide which pollutant (programs) to keep running and which ones we had to put up for budget cuts,” Barnack says. Carbon monoxide was shut down across the state except for a site in Portland — still required because it’s the agency’s national core site. Resources for ozone and particulate matter stuck around. In the case of the particulate matter, resources actually increased. “The demand was for more smoke monitors,” Barnack says. “And that’s where we’re at.”
Carbon monoxide was shut down across the state except for a site in Portland — still required because it’s the agency’s national core site. Resources for ozone and particulate matter stuck around. In the case of the particulate matter, resources actually increased.
You can reach reporter Ryan Pfeil at rpfeil@ rosebudmedia.com or 541-776-4468.
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Reel change By 2013, many filmmakers were marking the end of an era, according to an April 2013 article in Variety. The likes of Martin Scorsese and James Cameron discussed the benefits of digital technology while grieving a medium that had been a cornerstone for their craft.
ANDY ATKINSON / MAIL TRIBUNE
James Sandberg explains how digital processors and computers are used for showing films at the Ashland Varsity Theater.
Job of film projectionist hasn’t survived the digital age By Nick Morgan Mail Tribune
Even for Southern Oregon’s oldest operating movie theater, the clicking whir of the projector is a sound lost to progress. For moviegoers, the experience at the Varsity Theatre in Ashland is much the same as it has been since it opened in 1937. The screen is silver and gives the Universal Pictures globe a diameter of more than 20 feet. What’s changed is that the bright light from the room behind the audience no longer has a film reel attached to it — nor a person in the projection room. In 2008, Our Valley explored 130 “Odd Jobs in the Rogue Valley,” including the role of a film projectionist. The writer followed a day in the life of a Varsity projectionist as he spliced together a 75-pound “platter” from 20-minute film reels and got the feature queued up for showtime. According to Coming Attractions 88 || OUR Sunday, April 28, 2019 88 VALLEY
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Theatres, which operates the Varsity and Ashland Street Cinema along with 16 other theaters in four states, no one works with film reels at theaters anymore, and a shift to digital has eliminated the role of projectionist. “We’ve absorbed all of the remaining duties into just regular management duties,” says James Sandberg, director of operations for Coming Attractions based in Ashland. Each of Coming Attractions’ theaters in Oregon, Washington, Northern California and Alaska made the switch to digital projection systems between 2011 and 2013, according to Sandberg. By 2013, many filmmakers were marking the end of an era, according to an April 2013 article in Variety. The likes of Martin Scorsese and James Cameron discussed the benefits of digital technology while grieving a medium that had SEE 2008, PAGE 90
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ANDY ATKINSON / MAIL TRIBUNE
A digital projector begins showing a film at the Ashland Varsity Theater.
2008
From Page 88
been a cornerstone for their craft. Digital has since become the industry standard, not just in the United States, but all across the world. Virtually all of North America’s cinema screens and more than 98 percent of the world’s 171,755 theaters had gone digital by the end of 2017, according to the most recent annual report by Motion Picture Association of America. There are still 2,481 film holdouts, and they’re all in the Asia-Pacific region. Southern Oregon’s Cinemark theaters, including Tinseltown in Medford and Movies 6 in White City, have also made the switch to digital cinema. Messages to a Cinemark spokesman went unreturned, but the chain’s website boasts that digital screens “are immune to the scratches, fading, pops and jitter that film is prone to with
repeated screenings.” In the modern era, Coming Attractions says, it downloads its new releases digitally from a satellite dish, puts them on a server disconnected from the internet, programs the feature with previews and tells the computer when to dim the lights. The process takes “minutes” and requires no specialized training, according to Sandberg. The file sizes involved would rapidly fill a run-of-the mill computer. Depending on the studio’s resolution settings and the film’s runtime, a feature film can be anywhere from 80 to 200 gigabytes, Sandberg says. The 125-minute superhero blockbuster “Captain Marvel,” for instance, shown at Ashland Street Cinemas, has a file size of 151 gigabytes. Once the theater has the movie file, the film distributor separately gives the theater a digital “key” tied to its server, which unlocks the film to be shown with restrictions that could
include one specific screen or only at certain times. “They can specify it down to the second,” Sandberg says. What in 2008 was an arduous task of splicing film previews to the feature’s platter is now an easily-programmed “playlist,” he says. Previews are at the theater’s discretion, although studios typically have suggestions. A watermark hidden in a frame ties the movie to the theater, so the theater takes precautions that include storing the film on a server not connected to the Internet, he says. It takes minutes to pick the previews from the server, put them in order, and even program when to automatically dim the theater lights. When all goes according to plan, there’s no need for a person to be in the projection room. Another boon for digital technology is that Coming Attractions can include promos for the Ashland Independent Film Festival in its film
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It takes minutes to pick the previews from the server, put them in order, and even program when to automatically dim the theater lights. When all goes according to plan, there’s no need for a person to be in the projection room.
previews, Sandberg says, something that would’ve been cost-prohibitive in the analog film era. Even art house films have gone digital, Sandberg says. Many small independent films are sent to the studio via portable hard drives, which then get loaded directly onto the Varsity’s server beside the projector. Sandberg says that the smallest independent releases — about one film a month — will be played from a Blu-ray disc. There’s no film projector in the Varsity anymore, but other Coming Attractions theaters still have them, even though few employees would know how to operate them. “They haven’t even been run in several years,” Sandberg says. You can reach Mail Tribune reporter Nick Morgan at nmorgan@rosebudmedia.com.
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Living virtually in a physical world
The World Wide Web had been around since 1990, but Facebook wasn’t invented until 2004. By 2009 it had garnered an astounding 100 million members; today it boasts a whopping 2.3 billion monthly users — a third of humanity.
MAIL TRIBUNE/FILE PHOTO
Former KDRV weatherman Scott Lewis had more than 300 friends on Facebook when this photo ran in the 2009 issue of Our Valley.
By John Darling for the Mail Tribune
In Our Valley exactly a decade ago, we examined how the internet was changing the way we live, work and play. Readers were swooning over the new social media tool called Facebook, noting it reconnected them with long-lost kin and friends, gave insights into everyone’s vacations, relationships and kids, and in the case of real estate broker Scott Lewis (and millions of others), got his name out there and helped business. The World Wide Web had been around since 1990, but Facebook wasn’t invented until 2004. By 2009 it had garnered an astounding 100 million members; today it boasts a whopping 2.3 billion monthly users — a third of humanity. In the 2009 Our Valley story, Lewis predicted Facebook would make email obsolete, but that hasn’t happened. Email allows greater depth and privacy and lets
you write long ideas or proposals — and they are more easily preserved. After a decade of Facebooking, Lewis, a longtime TV weatherman until six years ago, says, “I’ve learned to keep it short on Facebook. Long posts are tough to sustain. Photos are usually more interesting than without. … I go to seminars, and professionals (in real estate) say communication is all going to video, but I don’t necessarily enjoy sitting there watching video. I don’t have the patience.” The hyper-digital universe of Facebook has, of late, spurred many people to hand-write notes on paper and snail-mail them — and that’s a kind touch Lewis adores. “People love them, even if it’s a short card. I do it with real estate clients and select friends. If I receive a card in the mail, it rises to the top and is the first thing I want to see. It’s so refreshing and personal compared to digital.” Many users have faulted Facebook for lack of privacy and for SEE 2009, PAGE 94
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Petra Lilley, taking a coffee break at Rogue Valley Roasting, calls Facebook “a black hole of time, and I’d much rather spend time with a few people than try to live vicarious lives on Facebook.”
2009
From Page 92
marketing of data that’s in plain view there, causing a shift to Twitter and the simpler, more visual Instagram, but Lewis avoids them, noting, “Urgent things are rarely important, and important things are rarely urgent.” Realtors, he says, are using Instagram, and he’s taken flak for not showing up there, he says. Facebook is a social network, he notes — so he sticks with texts and the phone, with email in third place. Southern Oregon University student Petra Lilley, a landscape consultant, has mostly abandoned Facebook, noting, “It’s
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uninspirational and a black hole of time, and I’d much rather spend time with a few people than try to live vicarious lives on Facebook. We use Instagram. It’s a much cleaner and more simplified interface and more tailored to what I look for in my personal life and what benefits my business.” Twitter, she adds, is “fun and exploratory, but it’s just way too much and too full of ideologues who are unwilling to see things outside their mindset.” Longtime valley musician and tai chi teacher Gene Burnett says Facebook is “a nice way to look in on my friends’ lives, connect with other, likeminded people in various groups, post new things in my world, like videos, gigs, special events. It’s
allowed me to connect with people in my past that I almost certainly would have lost touch with.” Burnett calls for a balance of time on- and off-screen. “Young people spend a ridiculous number of hours daily looking at screens. We are adapted to living in the physical, not the virtual world. The physical world is dangerous and beautiful and worth paying attention to. For that reason, I don’t even have a cellphone. I love the net, but when I leave the house, I want to be alert to the world around me. If you spend more time online than off, it’s almost certain your health will suffer.” John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. You can reach him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.
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Celebrating 37 years of Celebrating Federal Recognition 37 years of Federal Recognition
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The Cow Creek Umpqua Tribe celebrates and the 1930's, the Tribe worked toward Federal This culture of sharing was formalized when the Creekculture established the Cow Creek Umpqua when the with Bills being introduced to CowThis 37th Anniversary Federal RecognitionandRecognition of sharing was formalized the 1930's, thetheir Tribe worked toward Federal The Cowits Creek Umpqua ofTribe celebrates Foundation in 1997. The Foundation in 2019. In 1982, the Cow Creek Umpqua Congress. In 1932, a Cow Creek Restoration Indian Cow Creek established the Cow Creek Umpqua its 37th Anniversary of Federal Recognition Recognition with their Bills being introduced toprovides grants to non-profit organizations with Tribe received word that their Recognition Bill passed both Houses of Congress only to be Indian Foundation 1997.Emphasis The Foundation in 2019. In 1982, the Cow Creek Umpqua Congress. In 1932, a Cow Creek Restoration501(c) 3 status in SoutherninOregon. Bill had passed both Houses of Congress and vetoed by President Herbert Hoover because of provides grants to non-profit organizations with passed HousesIt of Congress onlymidto befor the Foundation is making sure people are fed Tribe received wordstatus that astheir Recognition Great both Depression. wasn't until the their official a federally recognized Billthe 501(c) 3 status in Southern Oregon. Emphasis and that programs and education be in place to by the President Herbertenough Hoovermomentum because of Bill had passed both Government Houses of was Congress and vetoed 1970's Tribe regained Indian Tribal re-established. for the Foundation is making people are fed building strong children andsure families. Depression. wasn't the mid-support their official as a federally recognized allow them to achieveIttheir 1982until Restoration. The status Government-to-Government relationshipthetoGreat To date, granted more than and the thatFoundation programshas and education be in place to the Tribe regained enough momentum Indian Tribal Government wasandre-established. between the Cow Creek the United States of 1970's Restoration created opportunity not only for $16 support million to building more thanstrong 1,600 organizations in families. children and America was formally restored relationship with the passage to allow them to achieve The Government-to-Government Oregon. the Cow Creek Umpqua their Tribe 1982 but forRestoration. Southern Southern To date, the Foundation has granted more than of this Restoration Act.the United States of between the Cow Creek and Oregon, too. As theopportunity Cow Creek not developed Restoration created only forThe $16 lives million of manytopeople in Southern more than 1,600 Oregon organizations in America was restored withefforts the passage were Tribe created. their haveSouthern Cowformally Creek Tribal Members' of over one thebusinesses, improvedOregon. since Cow Creek Federal Cow Creekjobs Umpqua but With for Southern business success, their culture of sharing Recognition was re-established 37 years ago. hundred years of this Restoration Act. were rewarded in 1982 whenOregon, too. As the Cow Creek developed The lives of many people in Southern Oregon their Federal Recognition was re-established expanded and Southern Oregon benefitted. The Tribe is focused on continuing to build jobs were created. With their have improved since Cow Creek Federal Cow Creek Tribal Members' efforts of over one businesses, with the passage of Public Law 97-391. Five Additionally, the Cow Creek had always been community partnerships so increased prosperity business success, culture of sharingmayRecognition hundred years were rewarded in 1982 when wasRogue re-established 37 years ago. come to all in the Valley. known for their givingtheir ways and philanthropy. different times, during the 1910's, the 1920's,
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