Thursday, March 30, 1972
Frances Terrell. O’Brien, is happy to have her daughter, Patricia Smith of Arleta, CA, and her grandson Jeff and his friend spending their Easter vacation with her.
Ruth Grimes arrived March 22 from Chesapeake, Virginia for an extended visit with her daughter Ruth E. and her grandson Robin, residents of Selma.
Bobby Don Barnes, 8 years old, came alone on the bus from Portland to visit his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Donley Barnes during vacation week. His mom and dad, Alberta and Roberta, came to get him Friday and stayed until Sunday.
They brought Michele Jones with them, the Barnes’ great-granddaughter. Also visiting Sunday were their sons Jerald and two more grandsons, Kevin and Shawn, and Gerald’s niece, Esther Kleyne.
June Kerslake of Aloha and Beatrice Barnett of Seaside, daughters of Osmond and Margaret Henry, are visiting their parents for a few days. They have visited here before, but this is the first time the sisters have come together and without their families.
The quiet of our “peaceful haven” has been shattered. The shouts of children ring through the forest and the door keeps banging. The Pfefferle’s grandchildren, Kevin, Wendy, and Michael Mepham, and their parents, Stuart and Marian, came from San Bruno, California to spend Easter vacation with Phayo and I.
We are happy they can spend a few days with us. We are glad they came at the same time as June and Beatrice because they are Marian’s cousins and have not seen each other for about 15 years.
Tuesday evening, we had company from Grants Pass, Dick and Greta Ras and Greta’s sister, who has recently come from Amsterdam, Holland, and who does not speak English. The Mepham’s recently spent nearly a year in Holland and even the children speak Dutch. Stuart showed many slides he took while living in Holland and the Ras’s and Mepham’s enjoyed conversing in Dutch.
Bob and Beverly Cournoyer had company last week, Marilyn Dickinson and her two boys Jeffry and David.
Others entertaining company last week were Mr. and Mrs. John Cunningham. Their visitors were John’s sister and brother-in-law from Bend and their son Jim.
The Ten Eyck Motel on Redwood Highway near O’Brien has sold to D.D. Givens. The former owners, Mrs. Kat Gazarian and her sister Mrs. Gladys Roussell, have moved back to Grand Junction, Colorado, where Mrs. Gazarian has property.
There are many stories about large gold nuggets which have been found, but some tales have been greatly exaggerated. Here is a run-down on some of the nuggets which were found in the early days of mining in the Illinois Valley area and some areas of Josephine County, which are quite well authenticated. Early day miner William Mums missed a nugget weighing $1,100. He mined around a big fir stump, leaving it standing. Not long after, Mr. Sanders worked the ground, removing the stump and found the biggest nugget under it. The next big one was found a half a mile away valued at $1,500.
Both nuggets were found near Browntown and the foregoing statements were taken from a 1912 account. The largest nugget ever found in the Southern Oregon district was one discovered by Mattie Collins in 1859 on the Althouse Creek. It weighed 204 ounces or 17 pounds troy, and was valued at $3,500. Other finds were as follows: 1858-Vawn nugget, $800, found near Browntown; 1892-Oscar Creek nugget, $365; 1904-Klippel nugget, $500, McDowell Gulch. In the early 1900’s several large ones were found weighing $240, $125, and $100. In 1934-Burns nugget, 34.37 ounces, about $1,000, found near Leland. In 1934, a piece of float was found on Foots Creek while placer mining, weighing more than $450. If these gold pieces were found recently (*1972) the price would be more than twice the amount quoted.