July 27, 1972
Kim and Jeff Whiteman spent an enjoyable week with their grandparents, Jack and Blanche Whiteman. Their parents, Bill and Pat Whiteman of Cottage Grove, brought them to Cave Junction July 18 and returned home the same day. When I talked with the children, they and their granddaughter were visiting Randall and Jenny Palmer. Kim is very interested in her church activities and the week before coming to Cave Junction she attended the church camp.
Myron and Faye White, Carmel, Calif., have been guests at the home of Clifford and Margaret Pullen and their daughter Sharon, Holland Loop Road. July 17 the Pullens and the Wrights went to Diamond Lake by the way of Medford and Crater Lake. While at Crater Lake they even enjoyed a snowball fight, even if there were only patches of snow left. Sharon reported that everywhere they looked they say brown butterflies—they covered everything. They arrived at Diamond Lake in the afternoon and took a boat ride. After dinner they went fishing but had no luck. At 5 Tuesday morning they rented a boat and fished all day. The party caught 18 trout, 8 by Sharon. They came home Wednesday after a wonderful three-day vacation. While at Diamond Lake they were surprised to see Keith and Gail Wells of Grants Pass. Mrs. Wells is the former Gail Barlow of Cave Junction.
County Commissioner Henry Lasher and his wife Blanche of Deadwood, S.D., with his brother Charles Lasher and wife Catherine of Medford, visited their cousin Honey Egger and her husband Ralph of Caves Highway recently. The Henry Lasher home is located just beyond the edge of the Rapid City flood disaster. Although they received 17 inches of rain they had no great damage. Before returning to South Dakota, they visited other relatives in Eugene and Portland.
Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Owings left Cave Junction July 16 to meet their son Douglas when he arrived on the USS Coral Sea at Alameda, Calif. Before they returned home Douglas took his parents on a tour of the aircraft carrier, which they greatly enjoyed. They came home Tuesday. Douglas has just completed a 9 months cruise of Vietnam. He signed up for three years in the navy and has 10 months yet to serve. He returned to duty on Wednesday.
Osmond and Margaret Henry were delighted to have two of Margaret’s sisters and her brother visit them. They were Wilma Vaughn, Boise, Esta Vaughn, Emmett, and the Rev. Eldred Schneider, pastor of the Assembly of God Church in Cambridge, Idaho. On their way they stopped at Crater Lake which they had never seen before. They arrived the 23rd and returned home Sunday. During the time they were here they visited Jedediah State Park, as Estra and Eldred had never seen the Redwoods before. They had dinner at the Ship Ashore and drove to Brookings. The next day they went to the Oregon Caves and the Kerbyville Museum. They also visited Jim and Viola Higgins and the Phayo Pfefferles.
It had been 10 years since they Margaret had seen Esta and Eldred and it had been many years since the three sisters and their brother had been together, so they had a good time telling of their children and all of their grandchildren and great grandchildren. Margaret’s sister Wilma visited her sister and brother-in-law here 5 years ago. All the visitors said this was the most beautiful country they have ever seen.
Herb and Beulah Higgins, Dick George Road, had overnight guests recently. Gene and Frances Dresher and 12-year-old granddaughter Tammy Hatfield from El Centro, Calif. came in their travel trailer. They had been touring the Eastern States and stopped on their way home. They returned via the coast route so Tammy could see the Redwoods.
Early Saturday morning four men started for the coast to spend the day fishing. They not only had fun, but success. John England got the biggest salmon, but Herb Higgins pulled in 3 and Bernie Fantas got one. Stan Keifer had to settle for black snappers because he was not lucky enough to catch a salmon.
Mr. and Mrs. Bernie Fantas, owners of the Kerby Trailer Park, had a visitor from Waukegan, Illinois. Bernie’s brother Herb Fantas arrived at the Medford Airport while Bernie was at the coast fishing, so his wife drove to the airport and Herb was waiting to greet his brother when he came home with his salmon. He returned to Illinois Saturday.
Ralph and Dottie Chastain went to the church Singspiration at the WWI grounds last Saturday evening. When they arrived home there were more than 20 relatives and friends waiting for them. It was a surprise to celebrate the Chastain’s 35th wedding anniversary and Dottie’s birthday, both of which occurred Sunday. Many gifts were displayed on the tables, and one special gift was brought out which they had hidden until the moment of presentation—a white Pomeranian puppy for Dottie. Before the guests left, they were served coffee.
Sunday Ralph took Dottie for a ride, then out to dinner. In the afternoon more friends came to congratulate the couple. The Chastains went to church bot morning and evening.
After 35 years of marriage the Chastains are still happy together and enjoy each other’s company, and Dottie says they wish they could have another 35 years together.
Would you like to go on a trip with us this week? Not to the coast or San Fransisco, both are much too far. To take this trip you must turn back time to 1911, so our journey will be a freight wagon, freighting from Waldo to Grants pass and return. Early in the morning there is much activity as the large team of horses are harnessed and hitched to the freight wagon, which already has the bottom filled with hay, some quilts, a few groceries, including bacon, potatoes, and coffee, plus the cooking utensils which consist of a coffee pot, one kettle in which to make mulligan, and the skillet. Don’t you know what that is? Just a fancy name for a cast iron frying pan.
The freighter has already climbed to the right side of the seat, and an excited small boy will occupy the left side for the next four days. Little sister must stay home this time. Slowly the horses pull the wagon over the dusty roads which are bordered by beautiful trees for mile after mile. There are no bridges to cross, so all the streams must be forded. We pass the Fulks home were Fort Briggs stood until it burned a few years before this trip. Kerby is an active little community and many miners can be seen as we pass through the town. Slowly the team keeps moving. It is now late evening and we reach Deer Creek. The horses must be taken care of first, then we can have a delicious meal of bacon and fried potatoes, with hot coffee, all prepared over an open fire, and all of it well-seasoned with wood ashes. Our quilts are spread over the sand bar and the bed time music is the water of Deer Creek as it goes over the riffles. After looking at the multitude of stars, we are soon asleep.
The next morning, we are up at dawn and on our way. At the top of Hayes Hill, (which followed almost the same route as the present highway down the mountain, except that it was narrow, rutted and dusty,) we stop long enough to cute a nearby fir tree to tie to the rear of the wagon. It will act as a brake. You’ll soon find that the hill is steep and a one-way road winds to the bottom, so the horses and the wagon brakes need extra help.
It is now late afternoon. We have arrived at Grants Pass and the team has been put in the livery stable on 7th St. Near G. The father and son have a two-bit (25 cent) meal at the American Restaurant, and then check with the wholesale dealers to see that all orders are ready. A wide-eyed boy sees the large passenger and freight depots and thrills to his first sight of many passenger trains and other city wonders.
On the morning of the third day, we will start for Waldo with the freight. We cross the Rogue River on a large wooden bridge and then over six miles of the best road in Josephine County. It is a wonderful road, hard packed with gravel called macadam. We won’t have any traffic problems as we go along that road (which will be known as Redwood Avenue in a far distant 1972) for there is only one house and the road goes through thick manzanita brush from Rogue River to the Applegate. The man guides his team as the Applegate if forded, then past the 13-mile house and on to the Love’s Station, where Lincoln Lodge now stands. The load is too heavy for the steep Hayes Hill, so one half of it is unloaded here and left, while the trip is made to the top. The balance of the freight is unloaded at the top and, with another tree attached, the descent to the Love’s Station is made. Loaded again, the weary man and the horses climb the steep hill. At the summit, the load is again combined. It is soon another night and we are sound asleep. On the way again the fourth morning, just at sun-up, we pass Anderson’s Station, come through Selma and Kerby, as the day slowly wears on. (Remember that Cave Junction does not exist, not one house until the late 20’s.) We plod down the stage road and finally reach Waldo. George Elder, owner of the Waldo Store, and several men help to unload the freight.
What do you want? It is probably among that three tons of crate—dry goods, canned goods, soap, candy, and dynamite, and supplies of all kinds are all part of the needs of this community.
With wagon unloaded, the weary drives his team home to deliver one still excited small boy, some candy and four bits worth of wieners to his family. Now how about a four-day vacation like this that you will vividly remember 61 years from now?