Chapter 37, Rolling Rally, August '09
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Wednesday, August 12, 2009: Today turned out to be museum day after eating a great fresh toast souffle cooked by Gwen. The first museum we visited was the Ranch and Rodeo Museum in John Day. Several of our Chapter 37 members have been ranchers in a past life and were anxious to visit the museum. John is holding the bull nose ring pole and opened the museum for a special tour just for us. Today was not a normal tour day. We learned a lot about Grant County rural history. |
In the afternoon, we went to the Kam Wah Chung & Co. Heritage Site, an Oregon State Park in downtown John Day. In 1862, Grant County was the site of a gold rush. By 1890, 10,000 chinese lived in the area to work the gold mines. Two Chinese men, Doc. Ing Hay and Lung On because key to the lives of the Chinese and whites in the area. Lung On created a very successful general store while Doc. Hay served the community as an herbal Physician. The Oregon State Park system has created a very organized, structured tour of the building the two men shared with their businesses. Our little group has walked the city of John Day several times including these two museums. Tomorrow is a travel day to Baker City. The weather forecast is for cooling weather. I think everyone is looking forward to more comfortable temperatures. |
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Thursday, August 13, 2009: We left John Day at 10:30 but didn't drive far until we stopped at Prairie City to inspect the Sumpter Railway museum and have lunch. After lunch we drove for an hour to Sumpter, Oregon to view the Sumpter Dredge. The Dredge is a state park so there was no charge to view the dredge. This was our first time to try to keep five rigs together while traveling from one location to another. |
It worked well for us because we all used FRS walky-talky radios and communicated with each other as we drove the highway. This huge dredge was in operation until the 1950s. It would scoop up tons of rocks to 18 feet deep then sort out the smaller rocks while spitting out the larger rock out the back. I was dredging for gold finding $350 million dollars in gold during the lifetime of the dredge. Of course it made quite a mess in the process of the Powder River. At the time, it was more important to get the gold and provide jobs than it was to take care of the environment. They even used liquid mercury to help extract the gold. Does this sound familiar, extract the natural resource to meet a temporary need and provide jobs without regard for the long term damage to the environment? Click any of these photos, above and below, to enlarge. |
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We've reached Baker City. I made arrangements to park in the Baker City Christian Church parking lot for the two days we plan to stay. Of course, our first activity is eating out and we suggested Barley Brown's Brew Pub. Yes, it's the same location Gwen and I dined when stranded in Baker City a few weeks back. |
| Friday, August 14, 2009: Our group drove to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center on the east side of Baker City. This is a history of those who took the Oregon Trail between 1843 - 1860 to locate a new life. The center is run by the Bureau of Land Management which meant that I could use my Senior Pass to get both Gwen and I entrance into the center, a savings of $16. The first person to greet us was a BLM employee who gave us a short description of what we would find and what we should see. |  |
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He continued to tell us of the dioramas we would visit and not to miss the discussion by Ezra Meeker (actor) who had been over the trail three times. Once in 1852, again in 1906 and again in the 1920s by air. The dioramas were very well done and you got a good feeling of what it was like to travel the 2000 miles from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon. The pioneers had to make many tough decisions along the route and each choice is described in the center. I am a direct descendant from an Oregon Trail family in 1847 who left Indiana. |
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According to our guide, families would leave for Oregon to get the 320 acres promised them by the US government. They also left due to the poor economic conditions in certain states. Basically, the promise of a better life in Oregon. The photos above are of the actual Oregon Trail as it passes near the Interpretive Center. The wagon in the photo at the left is sitting on the trail. The two Dicks, Doris and Mary Ellen are standing on the Oregon Trail. You can click the above photos to enlarge and the photo to the right . I'm standing with the actor playing the character of Ezra Meeker. He gave a very informative lecture telling of the Oregon Trail experience from a personal view point. By the time the pioneers got to the Baker City area, they had already gone 1700 miles and were dead tired. They still had the Oregon Blue Mountains to cross and then find a land grant and set up some sort of shelter before winter arrived. They would be arriving in October, the beginning of the rainy season in Oregon. The book Ezra recommended to read is, "The Plains Across" by John D. Unruh. Tomorrow is another travel day, off to Joseph, Oregon. |
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Saturday, August 15, 2009: Two rigs are staying an extra day in Baker City while three rigs are traveling on to Joseph. Before leaving Baker City, however, the two Dicks, Mary Ellen and Doris toured the Alder House Museum. The Alder House is a well preserved early 1900s house with furnishings from the period. The whole group had to visit shops in the town too, such as a Coffee shop, fabric and yarn shop, quilt shop, second hand book store and the Farmers Market. No RVer can pass up a well stocked Wal-Mart, especially a Supercenter. We found this one at Island City which is just east of La Grande, Oregon. Once we arrived in Joseph, of course, food was on everyone's mind. Here we |
are eating again while enjoying a live local musician. Our Joseph campsite does not look all that attractive from this view point, but it is really our best site so far. It is private, quiet, far from any noise, on a creek yet less than a mile from main street Joseph. There is also plenty of shade should it turn warm again. This location is at the far end of the Chief Joseph Days Rodeo grounds owned by the Chamber of Commerce. The boondock camping fee is only $5/night. The other two rigs will arrive tomorrow and will fit nicely into the mowed grass area next to the Everest fifth wheel on the right. |
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Monday, August 17, 2009: Today was a leisure day to explore the Wallowa area. Our first stop was the old Chief Joseph grave site. Old Chief Joseph died in 1872, it was the younger Chief Joseph who led the US Army around four states before surrendering 40 miles from the Canadian border. Old Chief Joseph refused to sign the treaty which gave the US 95% of the Nez Perce tribal area. |
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Next, we stood on the north shore of Wallowa lake. Gwen and Mary Ellen are clowning around with this fellow who looks like he has made a home on the bench. The panorama below is the only one in this group to click and enlarge. Doris likes horses so I caught her taking their photos. No one in the group had the courage to take a ride on horse back into the Wallowa mountains.
We all had the courage to try a "Mountain Berry" milk shake however, although mine was coffee flavored. Apparently, "Mountain Berry" is a mixture of 5 different berries (perhaps whatever was spilled on the floor the day before).
Tuesday, August 18, 2009: All of our group drove to Hells Canyon Dam today, an all day round trip. Gwen and I already spent 18 days in Hells Canyon so we spent the day back at camp. I had wanted to get my eyes checked so had made an eye doctor appointment in Enterprise. My eyes have changed enough in the last several months that I need a different prescription. As it turned out, the Optometrist, Troy Bailey at Winding Waters Eye Clinic got his degree from Pacific University, the same university as my son, Ben. While in Enterprise, we went to our favorite bookstore and found a used copy of "The Plains Across" which I mentioned above. |
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