— FALL 2016 —

CONTENTS THE ORIGINS OF THE LATINO COMMUNITY IN JEFFERSON COUNTY THE NUŇEZ FAMILY- One of the first Latino families to settle in Jefferson County REMEMBERING TRAIL CROSSING • THYREICIA SIMTUSTUS HUMAN & NATURAL HISTORY OF “FIVE CRATERS” JCHS News • Donations • Book & Video Reviews

N.S. 6 Welcome to the Agate #6

ere’s Issue #VI of our new-format THE AGATE, the Jeffer- son County Historical Society’s biannual journal of local Hhistory—and welcome to it! With this issue, we complete three years of publication, and we are grateful to Tony Ahern and the Madras Pioneer for once again widening our range by sending it out to Pioneer subscribers. We have made every effort to make sure that JCHS members who are not Pioneer subscribers receive THE AGATE, but if we’re missing anybody please let us know. And we’re eager to hear from our readers—with criticisms, corrections, Jefferson County Historical suggestions, leads on local history topics we should be covering in Society Officers, Directors future issues. In this issue, you’ll find an important, ground-breaking lead President: Lottie Holcomb • 541-475-7488 essay by Jane Ahern on early Latino families in Jefferson County, V. President: Betty Fretheim • 541-475-0583 along with photo-features “discovering” an all-but-forgotten Cen- Secretary: Wanda Buslach • 541-475-6210 tral Oregon transportation site (Trail Crossing) and a geological Treasurer: Elaine Henderson • 541-475-2306 wonder (Five Craters) that was well-known a hundred years ago, but now unknown. Also in this issue: Historical Society news and Charlene McKelvy Lochrie • 541-475-2049 doings, and reviews of new books on local and regional history. Jerry Ramsey • 541-475-5390 Jim Carroll • 541-475-6709 Dr. Tom Manning • 541-475-6241 Campaign for Westside Becky Roberts • 541-475-4525 Community Center and Museum Jennie Smith • 541-475-1159 David Campbell • 541-475-7327 CHS members and local museum-lovers generally will be Dan Chamness • 541-475-7486 heartened to know that planning for Westside Community Margee O’Brien • 541-475-3533 JCenter (in the old high school), with the new JCHS Museum in the South Wing, is advancing toward a vigorous capital campaign in 2017. Jefferson County Historical With the support and leadership of the Bean Foundation, and Society Advisory Council input from the Friends of Westside, the Historical Society, Kids Don Reeder Pete McCabe Club, and other interested groups, the project has made major Joyce Edgmon Lola Hagman progress this past summer, thanks in large part to the work of Lu Cavenaugh, Campaign Manager, and Teresa Hogue, who has been Bob Rufener Tony Ahern examining financial and business matters for Westside. Darryl Smith Doug Macy Meanwhile, with the project this far along, the JCHS Board is Carol Leone Garry Boyd preparing to get down to cases on the design of the new museum. If you’d like to be involved in planning our new showcase, and with The mission of the Society is to research, gather setting it up, please contact THE AGATE, or any of our directors. and preserve the history of Jefferson County and Central Oregon for public education through the display of artifacts and archives.

COVER PHOTO: Burned remnant of Nuñez family’s immigration photo taken Editor: Jane Ahern at the American office in Mexico just before they left Mexico in 1955. Pictured Designer: Tom Culbertson are mother, Juanita; father, Juan; oldest daughter, Maria de Jesus (aka Susie); youngest daughter, Manuela; and Teresa, on left, image mostly burned off in Publisher: Jerry Ramsey the fire that destroyed the family home.

2 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON The Origins of the Latino Community in Jefferson County he beginning of the end of this story came for a family, withBy very Jane little Ahern of a personal nature identify the writer, and locate the homestead. He in the early 1970s, when a young man registered. It was definitely not a self-conscious carefully transcribed it in typescript, and even n September of 1957, a caravan of omy, the Latino community’s history in in the Steens Mountain region. Not im- carsnamed and Ricktrucks Donahoe full of was families tearing rolled down “literary”Jefferson record. County But whohas gonekept it?largely There unwrit was no- drewmigrants, up an alphabetizedreally, vaqueros index ofhad names lived of andpeo- Tan old outbuilding on his farm north of Redmond, name, but clearly the writer was part of a farming ple mentioned in the entries. Eventually, he and his around Juniper Butte and into Culver. ten and unrecorded. Anyone wondering worked in California back when it was IOregon. In one of the walls, he found a tattered family, first in Michigan, and after the move to -Or wife Mary sold their farm and re-settled in Ohio, Riding in the back of a tarp-covered flat- when and how the local Latino commu- part of Mexico. ledger-book,bed truck wereits pages Juan filled and with Juanita daily entries Nuñez in egon,nity gotthey startedwere homesteaders, and how itstruggling grew will to prove find andThese in 2010 early he contacted forays me,into wondering Oregon if by the exJef-- pencil,and three dating of from their January children: 1912 Teresato September (11), upvery on littleand gain information title to the 160 available. acres they’d claimed. fersonplorers, County mule Historical packers Society and would vaqueros, give the 1917,Manuela beginning (8), andin central Juanito Michigan (1). Their (Saginaw old- But where? Was the writer a man or a woman? “mysterywhile interesting ledger” a home to note,in our did archives—and not result if County)est daughter, and abruptly Susie breaking (17), rode off somewherein one of theeast (How the SOMEbook ended CONTEXT up in a shed many miles Iin personally any significant would like to population take a crack atof solving Latinos ofcars Madras, holding Jefferson her babyCounty, brother, Oregon. Jorge, in from its place of origin was, and remains, part of itshere. puzzles. An Oregon Encyclopedia article by her Itlap. didn’t The seem Nuñezes to be a proper had diary—more,moved many he its mystery.)he same is not true west of the Cas- Jerry Garcia (no, not that Jerry Garcia) thought,times ina kindthe ofprevious “day book” two or journalyears—from keeping Rickcades, Donahoe where was the fascinated Latino community by the led- entitled “Latinos in Oregon” states that San Luis Potosí, Mexico to Texas, Okla- was established earlier and where by 1930 still only 1,568 Mexicans or Mex- careful track of work, visits, income and expenses ger-bookT and the story it might tell, if he could homa, Arizona, and Independence, Ore- institutions such as our state universities ican-Americans lived in Oregon full-time. gon—to stay in labor camps and work in have fostered efforts to document its his- What finally did bring Latinos to Oregon the fields, but their days as migrant labor- tory. University of Washington professor in greater numbers was the Bracero Pro- ers were coming to a close. Erasmo Gamboa has written and edited gram. After the potato harvest was completed several books about Latinos in the Pacific The Bracero Program was the result of in late fall 1957, the caravan of workers Northwest. One, entitled Nosotros: The a bilateral agreement between the Unit- moved on, perhaps back to Texas to spend Hispanic People of Oregon: Essays and ed States and Mexico that allowed US the winter months in a shack near the Rio Recollections, provides a useful summa- employers to hire Mexican men to ful- Grande as many of those on “the circuit” ry of Latino history in Oregon beginning fill short-term contracts. The braceros did. But the Nuñez family stayed in Cul- with Spanish explorers of the 17th Centu- mostly did farm work, but there was also ver, thus becoming one of the first Latino ry, who mostly explored the coast and left a bracero program for railroad workers. families to settle in Jefferson County and behind place names such as Heceta Head The program operated nationwide from live here year-round. and Cape Blanco. 1942-1964 and was instituted to allevi- From that In the mid- ate labor shortages during World War II nucleus, the 1800s, Mexican when millions of young men and wom- Latino popu- “... the Latino population of Jefferson mule packers en were serving in the military or find- lation of Jef- County ... forms the backbone of our were working ing better-paying jobs in factories and so ferson County in Oregon, most were unavailable to work in the fields. has grown so local workforce in agriculture, manu- notably during Administered by then-Oregon State much that it facturing, and the service industry.” the Rogue Riv- College, the Bracero Program in Oregon amounts to er War between ran for just four years, from 1943-1947, about one- 1855-56 when but still managed to bring in a whopping fifth of our total population (closer to some were hired by the Second Regi- 15,000 workers. The braceros stayed in one-third in the cities) and it forms the ment Oregon Mounted Volunteers to car- labor camps all over the state, harvest- backbone of our local workforce in agri- ry their food and other supplies. (This is ing hops in the Willamette Valley, sugar culture, manufacturing, and the service likely the same outfit referenced in Jerry beets in Eastern Oregon, and potatoes in industry. In our classrooms, it is not un- Ramsey’s story “Henry Larcom Abbot in Klamath County, among other crops. Ac- usual for as many as one-half of the chil- Central Oregon” on page 13 of the spring cording to an Oregon Public Broadcasting dren to be Latino and a glance down our 2016 issue of THE AGATE.) production entitled “Oregon Experience: main streets reveals a growing number of By 1869, another set of Latino workers, The Braceros,” the braceros made an Latino-owned businesses. vaqueros, had spread from California into important contribution to the war effort Despite its significant size and indis- Eastern Oregon, working for cattle ranch- because the labor shortage was so severe pensable contributions to the local econ- ers such as John Devine and Pete French that farmers could not have harvested 3 their crops without them. by 1979, federal support for the organi- and was renamed Colegio Cesar Chavez. A side-effect of the Bracero Program zation had petered out and it ceased op- Although these institutions had largely was that it gave Mexican workers a toe- eration. faded away by the end of the ‘70s, they hold in Oregon as well as in other states. The VML at its peak was part of El served to forge a community. Now that they were familiar with Amer- Movimiento, aka the Chicano Movement, ican agricultural communities and their which was the Latino civil EARLY DAYS IN crops, it was easier for them to return JEFFERSON in subsequent years, albe- it illegally, and when they COUNTY returned they sometimes 4 Peña kids: brought their wives and Back row: Ricardo, Maria n Jefferson County, the sit- Front row: Yolanda, Porfirio, Jr. children. They spread the uation was different. There word to their friends and rel- Idoesn’t seem to be any evi- atives back home in Mexico, dence that the Bracero Program with the result that the Lati- operated in Jefferson County no labor force in Oregon has and it is easy to see why. When continued to grow ever since. the program was launched in The Latino workers who Oregon in 1943, this area still came to Oregon during and did not have irrigation so the after the Bracero Program farmers mostly grew dryland lived under difficult condi- wheat. They hired seasonal tions. Their wages were low, labor, but not in great enough their children did not get ad- numbers that they needed bra- equate education because they ceros. By the time irrigation moved around so much, their spread throughout the county housing was substandard, and from south to north, in 1946- the workers had little recourse 8, the Bracero Program was if their employers treated them wrapping up. unfairly. To address these prob- But with the irrigation lems, a support network for mi- came potato farmers and as grant workers developed slowly the acreage of potatoes in over time. The Portland Archdi- Jefferson County rose, so ocese of the Catholic Church set did the need for workers at up a Migrant Ministry in 1955 harvest time. In those days, and hired a Mexican priest, Fa- the potato harvest was very ther Ernesto Bravo, to provide labor-intensive. The farm- masses in the Willamette Valley. ers would use machinery to In 1965, the Migrant Ministry, turn over the earth and ex- along with other church groups pose the potatoes and then and social activists, established the workers would have to the Valley Migrant League, which come along and pick them secured a $700,000 federal grant rights movement up by hand. to set up offices in seven counties in the of the 1960s and ’70s. California labor Manuela Nuñez Wickham, who came Willamette Valley. According to the Ore- leader Cesar Chavez organized strikes to Culver with her family to work the po- gon Encyclopedia entry “Valley Migrant and demonstrations in the Willamette tato harvest, said, “I remember they had League” by Kathy Tucker, the VML pub- Valley during those years in an effort to these big belts with hooks on them in lished a newspaper and offered day care improve wages and working conditions. the back and in the front. My dad would programs, job training, and adult educa- In Gervais, the Centro Chicano Cultur- put like 50 sacks on each hook and one, tion. In 1974, the VML reorganized and al was established in 1972 and in 1973, on hooks, in the front. Then he would became Oregon Rural Opportunities but Mount Angel College changed hands bend over and he was like a machine.

4 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

He would straddle the row and he would the people who remember it today were ceived by the community, Hagman said, pick those potatoes so fast I would see a children at the time and they took note “The agricultural community was glad to cloud of dust behind him.” of the kinds of things children notice. have them.” According to Macy, before Young as she was, Manuela helped her Manuela estimates that there were 15-20 the migrant families began coming to the parents harvest potatoes on the week- small houses at the camp, many of them area the Culver schools would shut down ends. “My dad would take one row and occupied by families, but perhaps a few for a few weeks during harvest so that my mom and I would take a row. I would were for single men. farm kids could help. try to imitate my dad, but there was no According to Manuela, the Culver la- Still, almost as soon as the labor camp way I could keep up.” Manuela’s older bor camp housing was on a par with the was established, farmers began to acquire sister Susie would help harvest too and Willamette Valley labor camps her family new machinery that reduced the need for Teresa, two years older than Manuela, had stayed in. “They were small cabins workers during the potato harvest and would stay home and take care of their and we just absolutely had fun because led to the camp’s demise. According to younger brothers. the walls had cracks in them and we Macy, the Central Oregon Potato Grow- To fulfill the need for workers, the Cen- could see outside when people were com- ers eventually sold the property the labor tral Oregon Potato Growers established a ing. And the floors had holes in them so camp was on and invested the proceeds labor camp just outside of Culver. Its res- we could get on our bellies and look at all in research on potato crop diseases. idents were mostly, if not all, Latino and the bugs that were crawling around,” she However, the closure of the labor camp typically came over from the Willamette said. by no means meant the end of the Lati- Valley in September after they finished “All I know is that there was a lot going no population in Jefferson County. By harvesting strawberries, green beans, on, and everybody was making their little the time it closed, several families had hops and other crops. food and Mama would send us to get the jumped off the circuit and found ways of According to both Richard Macy and water because there was an outdoor fau- supporting themselves year-round in Jef- Tom Kirsch, two of the three remain- cet for the cabins,” Manuela said. There ferson County. ing members of Central Oregon Potato was no indoor plumbing, so outhouses Growers, the camp served all of Central were provided. WORK AND WORKING Oregon. Some of the workers worked on Culver residents Mark Hagman and CONDITIONS FOR THE farms near Culver, but others worked on Carolyn Herringshaw both recall the the Agency Plains or even as far away as school bus stopping at the labor camp to FIRST LATINOS IN the Redmond or Prineville areas. pick up the students who lived there and JEFFERSON COUNTY It is frustrating to try to pin down the both mentioned that the same families hard facts about the labor camp—what would return each year. or Latino agricultural workers who year it opened, the name of the person “They were migrant all right,” said wanted to be able to stay year-round who operated it, how many years it op- Hagman, “but their migration was set. Fin the same place, Central Oregon erated, how many dwellings there were, We had about 5 or 6 kids in our class and was attractive because the potato grow- etc. Perhaps one reason for this is that the some were there year after year.” ers needed workers even after the har- camp was fairly short-lived. It opened in Culver-area farmer Richard Macy es- vest was done. Once picked, the potatoes the late 1950s—certainly by 1957 because timated that when the migrant families had to be sorted and packed, a job that the Nuñezes lived there that year—and it were staying at the labor camp from Sep- could last through the winter. According fell out of use in the mid or late 1960s. tember to November class size would in- to Tom Kirsch of Madras Farms, potato Another reason for the dearth of infor- crease by about 25 percent. packing could even go on into June. Af- mation about the camp is that most of As to how the migrant families were re- ter the potato packing wrapped up and

5 before the next potato harvest began in He was very good at raising mint,” says help people,” said Richard Peña. September, workers could go over to the the Peña’s oldest son, Richard Peña. “He Peña faced other challenges as well. Willamette Valley and work the harvests always had the highest oil-producing “The issue with my dad’s body and fender there, thus making a full year of work. fields.” business is that usually for any business When mint became widespread in Jef- The Peñas moved to Jefferson County you have to get a loan and that was one of ferson County in the mid-1960s, it also to work for the Osborns on their farm and the big barriers that he had and a lot of provided work for Latino families in the later worked for the Brooks, the Vibberts, people had, being a person of color,” said spring and summer months. It was very and Madras Farms. Porfirio was involved Porfirio Peña, Jr. Both Porfirio, Jr. and common for the whole family to work to- in growing potatoes for the Brooks, Richard speculated that competing busi- gether hoeing mint. earning an award in 1965. His children nesses played a role in keeping their fa- While it is true that most Latinos who still have the metal plaque, which reads ther from getting what he needed to suc- came to Jefferson County in the 1950s “Spud champ 1965.” Measuring about 2” ceed, perhaps acting in an underhanded and ‘60s performed unskilled labor, it is x 3”, the plaque appears as though meant way. “He was a good businessman, but important to note that some Latino ag- to be affixed to a trophy but inexplicably he didn’t want to fight. He didn’t have ricultural workers arrived in Jefferson never was. enough money to fight, to get a lawyer,” County with highly valued skills. One ex- Talented as he was at growing crops, Richard said. Sadly, Peña had to give up ample is Porfirio Peña, Sr. who came to Peña had always wanted to own his own the business after about three years and the Madras area with his wife and chil- business. After his service in World War go back to agricultural work. dren in 1964, having acquired a wealth II he had used the GI Bill to get trained in Still, the family thinks his might have of experience with mint in Central Wash- body and fender work and so, in 1967, he been the first Latino-owned business in ington. It is unclear whether Peña had a opened Peña’s Body Shop on the Culver Madras. “It was the only business owned special title, but he was more than a field Highway. Unfortunately, the business by a Latino at that time,” said Rich- worker; he helped oversee the growing struggled from the start. For one, thing, ard Peña. “There weren’t any Mexican operations. The farmers he worked for Peña allowed friends to use part of his restaurants there at that time that I can trusted him to make decisions about shop for their own body and fender work, remember.” the work to be done, the irrigation, and thus diminishing his clientele. “Dad had Before, during, and after Porfirio Peña, more. “He was a professional grower. such a big heart. He always wanted to Sr. had his shop, his wife, Tiburcia, con-

ABOVE PHOTO: Plaque received by Porfirio Peña, Sr.

PHOTO RIGHT: Porfirio Peña, Sr at work.

6 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON tinued to do field work and their children Another source of work for Latinos WHAT WAS LIFE LIKE worked in the fields on weekends and was the railroad. Juan Romero, a friend FOR THE FIRST during the summers. For a time, they of Manuela’s father, Juan Nuñez, helped worked for a contract foreman, a Latino him get a job working on a four-man LATINO FAMILIES IN man who assembled a work crew of as crew that maintained a 60-mile stretch JEFFERSON COUNTY? many as 50 people that he hired out to of track. Other co-workers included Tony various farmers in return for a cut of their “El Gordo” Torrez and Alfonso Villanue- s noted above, conditions at the wages. There were a few such contrac- va. Manuela does not remember exactly labor camp in Culver were prim- tors operating in Jefferson County in the when her father got the job, but it must Aitive, with no indoor plumbing 1960s and 1970s, but the Peñas could not have been before 1960 because that’s or electricity. Manuela recalls that there remember their names. Manuela Wick- when the railroad transferred him to was no kitchen in their little house either, ham and Juan Romero both mentioned Bend. He was transferred back to Ma- so the family learned to eat sandwiches— the name DuPont and Romero also men- dras in 1963. “That was a major change bologna on white bread. Still, Manuela tioned a Padilla who was a contractor. for us as a family,” Manuela said of her and her siblings did not mind much. ”For “There were some high school kids out father’s railroad job. It was year-round us as little kids, it was just a total adven- there (meaning Anglos),” Richard Peña job, it paid better than farm work, and ture.” says of the work crew. “They couldn’t better housing was provided to the rail- Of course, the Culver labor camp was make it the whole day. It was too hot, road workers. not the only place Latino families stayed, they’d say ‘I don’t get paid enough to do When Romero and Nuñez first began whether migrant or year-round resi- this hard work’ and they would leave. But working for the railroad, it was the Spo- dents. According to Manuela and her we were used to it. Of course, Mom, she kane, Portland and Seattle (SP&S). In the husband, Jesse David Wickham (who would stay and we weren’t going any- 1970s, it became the Chicago, Burlington goes by David), there was also farmwork- where without her. So it was hard work. and Quincy (CB&Q) and later still the er housing along 9th Street on the south- It was hot and sometimes dangerous be- Burlington Northern. Romero was a sec- ern edge of Metolius. “There was a series cause sometimes there were rattlesnakes tion foreman and worked for the railroad of small cabins. I think the last of them out there in those fields.” for 39 years before retiring. are gone, but some of the people still live “You had to have the hoe in front of you Local industry provided work opportu- there,” David said. The cabins have been for scaring the rattlesnakes away,” Por- nities for Latinos and Anglos alike in Jef- replaced by more modern dwellings. firio, Jr. added. ferson County. According to Bright Wood The Wickhams also mentioned a col- Despite the sometimes difficult work- CEO Dallas Stovall, the mill’s workforce lection of tiny trailers in Metolius that ing conditions for Latino farmworkers, remained at or below about 100 employ- were originally used to house some of the the Chicano Movement which roiled Cali- ees until an expansion in 1983 brought workers who built the nearby dams in the fornia in the 1970s and spread to the Wil- on another 20 or so workers. Stovall 1950s. It was not a labor camp per se, but lamette Valley and beyond did not take said about a quarter of those were Lati- the trailers were subsequently used by root in Jefferson County. Porfirio Peña, no. Since then, the proportion of Latino farm workers. “It was a trailer park for Jr. was president of the Chicano Student employees at Bright Wood has grown to itty-bitty trailers, David clarified. “I think Union at OSU in the 1970s. He said that about 35-40 percent. The Seaswirl boat you can still see the cement pads near the the organization held small rallies to sup- factory in Culver and the Gourmet po- mini-storage there. port farmworkers, but he never knew of tato processing plant in Metolius were Manuela’s oldest sister Susie lived any such activity here. He speculated on both good sources of employment in the in one of the trailers with her husband some reasons: there were still not very 1970s that helped keep Latinos in Jeffer- when she was first married. “I remem- many Latino families living here, the son County year-round, even as demand ber on Sunday after church we would crops here were different—grapes were for workers in agriculture decreased a bit take Susie a bag of groceries and it was so ground zero for the movement—and due to mechanization and changes in the small that the little bed where they slept, there was no college here. kinds of crops grown. they popped it up and it turned into a ta- “College students can be quite radical. ble. So we’d put the groceries on the table A lot of these movements are started at and we’d just congregate outside the little colleges and they’re propagated by the trailer,” Manuela said. college students because they like to get Another housing site for migrant work- involved,” Peña said. ers was on 8th Street in Madras between

7 “B” and “C” Streets. That location is now Wickham added. Peña. “Dad was going to make sure we part of Sahalee Park, but long before the Adding to the mix of Latinos in Jef- weren’t migrants.” According to another street was vacated and the park expand- ferson County were a few families who son, Porfirio Peña, Jr., the move to Jef- ed, there was some housing originally moved here from other states. Their fam- ferson County was motivated by his fa- built for Army officers and enlisted men ilies had been Americans for generations, ther’s desire to advance in his career and with families who were stationed at the so they had the advantage of being US cit- improve the family’s circumstances and air base during World sure enough, when the War II. “It was very com- Peñas arrived at their mon news that if you new home on the Os- were seasonal you stayed born farm on the Agen- there,” Manuela said. “I cy Plains, they found a had some girlfriends that much nicer house than were going to high school the one they had left in and living there.” Manu- Central Washington. ela said a few might de- “This house had an cide to stay on after the indoor toilet. It had a seasonal work was done, shower and all the oth- but most would leave. er amenities we never “Because maybe they had had before. It wasn’t an established home in that great, but for us it Texas or most likely they was ‘what more do we would go back because want’?” said Richard they had their home in Peña. Mexico.” Within a few years, In addition to these the Peña family was group housing sites, Lati- able to buy a small no families would look house on Buff Street for almost any place they in Madras. The whole could afford to rent while family worked to earn doing seasonal work. Peña family photo with grandkids: Back row is Antonio, Felipe, Diana, Yolanda, Porfirio Jr., the money. “One sal- Manuela’s family moved Maria, Ricardo. Front row is Maribel, Tiburcia, Angelica, Porfirio Sr., Olga. The young grand- ary could not do any- daughters are Maria’s kids. Last name Moralez several times while her thing,” said Porfirio, father was doing odd Jr. “But when you jobs. “We moved to a lot of little places, izens and of being fluent in English. The pool it, you can do something. We paid, if depending probably on how much the Peña family is one example. The patri- I remember correctly, $9000 for it, which rent was, depending on how much Daddy arch, Porfirio Peña, Sr., was born in Tex- was more than what it’s worth now,” he was making,” Manuela explained. “Es- as, had earned a purple heart in World added jokingly. sentially, anywhere there was a little old War II, and as noted above was a skilled The Vigils were also US citizens, with building that could be used temporarily, mint grower. “We weren’t migrant work- deep roots in Colorado. They came here you found a way to make it work,” David ers,” said Porfirio’s oldest son, Richard by accident, according to Sarah Vigil. Her

8 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

husband, Rudy was on his way to take a job at a mill in Albany when his car broke down in these parts. Rudy stayed with Sarah’s brother, who happened to live in Culver, while his car was being re- paired and ended up taking a job at the Tallman’s mint still. Sarah and their six children moved from Colorado to join him just in time for them to start school in Metolius. The Vigils soon moved into Madras and all the children graduated from Madras High School. “I always wanted to go back home (to Colorado), but the kids loved it here,” Sarah Vigil said. As teenagers they worked at The Buff, the DQ and the gas stations rather than in the fields as so many other Latino teenagers did. School experiences for the first Latino families in Jefferson County were mixed. Manuela started first grade in Culver, at age 8, a little older than her classmates. She was behind because she was still learning English and she had moved BAPTISMAL CELEBRATION AT THE ROMERO HOME IN CULVER. Top Left to Right: George DuPont; around so much and in fact repeated first a friend, Anselmo; Mr. DuPont-the Godparent of Juanito Nuñez; Juan Nuñez; and Juan Nuñez’ closest grade for the same reason. Nevertheless, friend, Juan Romero. LADIES AT THE SAME CELEBRATION. Below Left to Right: Mrs. DuPont; Viola Manuela loved school, even earning a DuPont; Deloris Romero; Maria de Jesus aka Susie Nunez; Anselmo’s wife; and Juanita De La Rosa Nuñez. perfect attendance award in her first year. Manuela graduated from Madras High School and went on to attend the Univer- sity of Oregon, but some of her siblings had a more difficult time in school, due in part to family circumstances, and did not graduate. “My sister Susie tried to go to school,” Manuela said, “but she just couldn’t make it. She was too old, she was 15 by then, she had to be in high school and the challenge was she didn’t know too much English. And there was peer pres- sure, you know, she was an out-of-town person, so she just wasn’t making it with the youth there. She was very sad and didn’t want to go to school, so Dad said, ‘okay then, you’re going to help me in the field.’” So Susie quit school and worked with her father to support the family. Manuela’s other older sister, Teresa, who was two years older than her, also

9 gave up on school. “She just struggled in school and I think it has to do with brain THE NUÑEZ FAMILY damage we got when we were hungry,” Manuela said, referring to the time be- fore they left Mexico when both of them n the accompanying story, Manuela Nuñez Wickham is quoted extensively suffered from malnutrition. Her par- about her family’s experiences as one of the first Latino families to settle in Jef- ents finally allowed Teresa to quit in the ferson County but the quotes only cover a small part of their story. What follows 8th grade to help her mother around the I is a more complete portrait, strung together from an extensive interview with Man- house. uela and from Manuela’s own writings that she set down for posterity. The Nuñez The Peña children have happy memo- family story is representative of countless other immigrants to our county but also ries of going to school in Madras. They ar- involves what is still one of the worst tragedies to occur in Jefferson County. rived in spring, near the end of the school The Nuñez family story begins in a tiny Mexican village called Villa de Ramos, year. Their first day, they got on the school bus with the Osborn children. Porfirio, nestled among hills in a dry, barren landscape. At one time the family had a thriv- Jr. remembers, “Mrs. Smoot was the bus ing farm, but eventually lost its land in a dispute with a neighbor. In order to sur- driver. She was a little lady and she was vive, Juan Nuñez went with his older brother to work in the United States. The year very, very bubbly, jovial, welcoming. She was 1935 and Juan was 18 years old. In the ensuing years, the brothers returned always made us feel welcome.” to the village for visits and on one such visit a young girl in braids caught Juan’s Richard Peña was in the 6th grade at eye. A very young girl, indeed-- Juanita De La Rosa was just 14 years old when they Buff Elementary. “I noticed I was the only married in 1939. By that time, he was 21. person of color in that classroom. But the For the next 16 years, the young couple carried on what today would be called a kids were great. The teacher, Mr. Jensen, long-distance relationship as Juan continued to work in the United States, send- he was very nice, didn’t embarrass me at ing money back to Juanita and visiting when he could. Juanita gave birth to three all.” Porfirio, Jr. was in 2nd grade and he daughters and suffered the loss of a set of twins while he was away. He happened to said, “What’s interesting was, when I first be home on a visit when she lost another set of twin infants. Alone, Juanita raised entered my classroom, I was unique. They her daughters in a tiny one-room house using the money Juan sent her to buy flour were super, super welcoming because I was unique.” for tortillas and pay a neighbor girl to do errands for her because custom dictated Manuela felt comfortable and well-re- she must not be seen on the streets alone. ceived at school, but things were different In 1955, Juan was offered an opportunity that changed all their lives profoundly. outside of school. “We almost never min- A Texas rancher wanted to hire Juan on a permanent basis and helped him acquire gled with English people,” Manuela said. the necessary documentation to bring the family to the United States legally. “Not as a family. We always stayed to The move was bittersweet for the Nuñez family, Manuela Nuñez Wickham writes, ourselves.” The family socialized instead “After all, from the moment nuestra madre helped us, Mela (me, age 6) Teresa, (my with Juan Nuñez’ Latino co-workers from sister, age 9) and Maria de Jesus (our oldest sister, aka Susie, age 14) step into the the railroad and with Latino friends from church or Latino friends they had met working in the fields. The family would occasionally go to dances that were held in the summertime on the Agency Plains, also attended almost exclusively by other Latinos. When Manuela helped her mother do the shopping in Madras, she noticed that the shopkeepers were not very friendly towards them. Manuela’s mother always felt she had to compensate for the family’s Work crew: Manuela Nuñez Wickham, far right, bending down; foreignness by making sure that her chil- her mother, Juanita De La Rosa Nuñez, bending down in hat, dren were immaculately dressed, their fifth from right. hair combed, their faces clean.

10 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

Then again, in the aftermath of the trag- ic fire that killed Manuela’s parents and three of her little brothers, the commu- nity—Anglos and Latinos alike—rallied around the remaining siblings. “What the community did back then was just ab- solutely never to be forgotten,” Manuela said. Attorneys Sumner Rodriguez and George Nielsen managed and safeguard- ed the donations that flowed in from all over the country. The Lange family—Os- car, Mac, and their daughters Phyllis and Annette—took in all of the Nuñez chil- dren, provided them with a place to live, and helped care for the youngest chil- dren. Many other people helped them in countless ways. SUMMARY

he history of the Latino community in Jefferson County seems to divide Tneatly into two distinct periods. This article has covered the first period, starting in the late 1950s, when the first Latino families began settling in Jeffer- son County up to about 1980. During this time, the Latino community grew steadi- ly, but very slowly. Census data for Jeffer- Tallman Mint fields on the North Agency Plains. Left, Mrs. DuPont; Right, Juanita De La son County before 1980 have proved elu- Rosa Nuñez. sive, but by all accounts, there were only a few Latino families living here during bus in our small and poor little village of Villa de Ramos she would never see her those decades. In 1980, according to the brothers or sisters, her father, cousins, and aunts or uncles again! The crying and US Census, Only 762 out of 11,599 resi- hugging can still resonate in my memories as a little six ½-year-old. The bus drove dents identified as Hispanic. my familia away from a life of poverty and uncertainty and the road was taking our In those first few decades, most of the life toward the country where nuestro padre had been working away from us for first Latino families were drawn to Jeffer- so many years. The United States had given my dad new hope for his little family.” son County by the prospect of work in ag- Almost as soon as the family arrived at their new home in Texas, it was dealt riculture, particularly potatoes. For most, Jefferson County was but one stop ona another reversal of fortune. Their sponsor, the kindly rancher who helped them year-long circuit that started and ended in get their legal permission to work in the US, died unexpectedly. Now homeless, the Mexico or Texas, but a few decided to stay Nuñez family began to migrate and work at seasonal jobs in agriculture. and eke out a living working in the potato Without cell phones, social media or the Internet, and lacking even a permanent sheds, doing odd jobs wherever possible, home with a landline, they figured out where to go by word of mouth. “As men do, working the harvest in the Willamette they’d get together and talk and give each other ideas and the word came that in Valley during the summers. Some were Oregon was where the work was,” Manuela recalls. Juan Nuñez and some other lucky enough to get steady, better-paying men somehow arranged a caravan of cars and trucks to carry several families to the jobs in industry or with the railroad. Willamette Valley. They picked strawberries, and green beans and hops through A few Latino families who came to Jef- the spring and summer. ferson County in the 1960s and 1970s moved here from other states such as

11 Colorado or Texas. Their families had been Americans for generations. As US “Mama and Dad were very happy because we were working. I would stay with citizens and speakers of English, they had the little babies (two new brothers born in 1956 and 1957) and take care of them . greater opportunities than some of their . . Susie, of course, was the older one, so she was always going to work with Dad. Latino counterparts. They became labor Susie was the only one out of us three girls that worked in the hops,” Manuela said. contractors, foremen, growers, business The fall of 1957 found the Nuñez family at the labor camp in Culver, harvesting owners. potatoes. After the harvest, the family made the momentous decision to stay in Latino workers were needed and re- Culver instead of migrating to the next crop. Manuela in particular was very happy spected for their ability to do the hard because this was the first time she could spend a whole school year in one place. jobs, but outside of work the Latino com- After about a year or two—Manuela is not sure, exactly—of working seasonal jobs munity largely kept to itself, especially around the Culver area, a friend of Juan’s from church, Juan Romero, helped him the older generation or those who did not get a job with the railroad. “Papa was at last comfortable with his work, his job was speak much English. It was different for steady, he even had railroad insurance for the first time in his life. He was making the youngsters in school. Latino children a good wage,” Manuela wrote.” were mostly welcomed by teachers and classmates; they learned English, made The railroad job took the Nuñez family to Gateway for a few years and then to Anglo friends, and thrived. Bend for a few years before Juan was transferred to Madras. They were assigned Sometime between 1980 and 1990, the to the old depot agent’s house as their living quarters and it was far superior to the Latino community entered into the sec- housing at the labor camps or the tiny rentals they had lived in when they were ond period during which its population migrant workers. began to really take off. According to US Manuela has fond memories of living there. She writes: “The house was big, Census figures, between 1980 and 1990, plenty of room for us all; a porch surrounded the entire house. My younger broth- their number grew to 1,433 Hispanic ers were able to run and run around the house. The windows were tall and long residents—an 88-percent increase. And and great for sneaking in from the outside and great for jumping out on to the the next decade, 1990 to 2000, saw an porch. On many Saturday mornings the thundering of feet could be heard as John incredible 133 percent increase in the and George and little Joe David and little Carol chased each other all around the number of Latino residents. Since then, porch.” the population has continued to increase, Juan Nuñez beautified the house with his green thumb: “Nuestra casa was like an but at a more moderate pace. This trend mirrored the state and na- oasis with tall, shady trees that covered the porch area so during hot summer days tional trends. According to Pewhispan- my brothers could play all they wanted . . . There were a lot nice changes that our ic.org, which calls itself a “non-partisan dad did to this railroad property. This lot was dry, no grass, no flowers only trees fact tank,” immigration from Mexico to for shade. Dad loved to plant flowers, especially roses. He began watering the dry the United States peaked in 2000, then grass and eventually it began to change into a beautiful lawn. The lawn now sur- dropped off, spiked again in 2005, and rounded the entire lot. The front of the house that faced the main traffic was where then fell precipitously during the Great rose bushes were planted and the lawn very nice and inviting,” Manuela wrote. Recession. In other words, nationally, Manuela continues, “This house is critical in order to understand the whole sto- immigration from Mexico tends to rise ry. This house, esta casa, is the last place that our parents, nuestros papases, were when the US economy is strong and fall alive. Their dream of working, educating, and making a home for us, the De La when the economy is weak and the same Rosa- Nuñez children, was coming to full circle. This was the first time in their lives appears to be true on the state and local that they were making decent money to pay bills, send money to our relatives.” The levels. Nuñez family’s joy in finally being all together in a roomy, attractive home with a Statistics are interesting and necessary to understanding our history, but more comfortable income only compounds the tragedy of what was to occur. interesting are how and why the Latino In the early hours of Dec. 22, 1966, Juan Nuñez got up to stoke the coal heater population grew. Even Latinos have ex- that warmed the old depot house. He mistakenly thought the coals had gone out, pressed astonishment at the growth in so he put some gasoline on the fire, causing an explosion. The house was quickly Jefferson County’s Latino population. engulfed in flames. Ultimately, the only survivors were Manuela, her older sister “I’m not totally surprised that there’s a Teresa, and their younger siblings, Carol and Ruben. The oldest sister, Susie, was bigger community in Madras, but boy it sure happened pretty fast,” commented

12 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

married and living with her hus- band at the time, so she was not in- jured. Juanito held on for a week or so as he was treated at OHSU in Port- land but could not recover. Manu- ela was badly burned and was also treated at OHSU. The community in Madras embraced the remaining members of the Nuñez family, as detailed in the accompanying story. Even the local police helped out by looking the other way when Manue- la and Teresa out of necessity drove their parents’ car without driver’s licenses and staff at Madras High

School worked with Manuela so she Left to right: Richard Peña, Porfirio Peña, Jr. and Antonio Peña. Taken Aug. 2016. could stay on track to graduate after missing many weeks of school. Porfirio Peña, Jr. AUTHOR’S NOTE: Being an Anglo myself, I have felt a little But without their parents to bind Some questions still waiting for an- sheepish about taking on the task of documenting the Latino them together, the family began to Community in Jefferson County. However, the simple fact is swers: What effect, if any, did the Immi- that so far nobody else has published much on the subject. I disperse. Soon Teresa got married gration Reform and Control Act of 1986— hope that this first attempt will spur others to augment and and took the two younger siblings often referred to as “amnesty”—have on improve on my efforts. If you have something to add, please to live with her in Portland. Man- our local population? At what point and contact me at [email protected]. uela graduated from high school why did we start to see immigrants from BOOKS and took advantage of the Upward countries of Central America? Surely by Gamboa, Erasmo and Carolyn M. Buan, eds. Nosotros: The Bound program that helped her now we have developed a second or even Hispanic People of Oregon. Oregon State University Press, 1995. Gonzales-Berry, Erlinda and Marcela Mendoza. Mexicanos in get into the University of Oregon. third-generation Latino community, so how has that affected the larger commu- Oregon. Oregon State University Press, 2010. There, she met her husband, David Gonzales-Berry. “From Sojourners to Settlers: Mexicanos in nity? Wickham. Eventually, the Wick- Oregon.” To Harvest, To Hunt: Stories of Resource Use in the A good starting place for those who can American West, ed. by Judy L. Li, Oregon State University Press, hams returned to Jefferson County speak Spanish is a series of interviews 2007. and raised a family. Now retired, DOCUMENTARY conducted by staff from two different Or- “The Braceros.” Oregon Experience, written/produced by the Wickhams live in Eugene to be egon State University programs, Juntos Eric Cain and Corita Gavitt, co-production of Oregon Public Broadcasting and Oregon Historical Society, first broadcast on near their children and grandchil- and Oregon Multicultural Archives. They OPB May 7, 2007, 27 min. available at http://www.opb.org/ dren, but they look back on their life interviewed local families involved in television/programs/oregonexperience/segment/the-braceros/ in Jefferson County with fondness. the Juntos college preparation program ELECTRONIC ENCYCLOPEDIA Garcia, Jerry. “Bracero Program.” The Oregon Encyclope- Before moving away, Manuela at Madras High School about their lives dia, Oregon Historical Society, accessed 9-15, 2016 https:// served on the board of the JCHS before coming to the United States, how oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/bracero_program/#.V-G5psY- they got here, and their experiences in VDwo and it was always her goal to help --- “Latinos in Oregon.” The Oregon Encyclopedia, Oregon preserve the history of Latinos in the United States. Some of the questions Historical Society, accessed 9-15, 2016, https://oregonencyclo- pedia.org/articles/hispanics_in_oregon/#.V-G0FsYVDwo Jefferson County and that of her concern the Latino community and the broader community in Jefferson County INTERVIEWS beloved parents in particular. She and the answers are illuminating. The in- Peña, Richard, Porfirio Peña, Jr. and Antonio Peña. Personal shared her family’s story with read- interview. Aug. 13, 2016. terviews can be accessed at http://scarc. Wickham, Manuela Nuñez and Jesse David Wickham. Per- ers of THE AGATE as a way of hon- library.oregonstate.edu/oma/latinos. sonal interview. Aug. 12, 2016. oring their memory. html. Unfortunately, they are only avail- able in Spanish.

13 “Remembering Trail Crossing” By Jerry Ramsey

etween the early settlement of both sides of Crooked River in the early wagons and even autos to stop at the north Central Oregon in the 1900s, and especially with the construc- tops of the north and south grades and B1870s and ’80s, and the open- tion of the Oregon Trunk and DesChutes send someone down at least part way ing of the “Dalles-California High- railroad lines in 1910-11, vehicular traf- to see if anyone was crossing the bridge way” bridge over Crooked in the opposite direction or River Gorge in 1927, the to try to stop them if they main route northbound were about to come up. The and southbound across the Trail Crossing route was gorge went through “Trail busy enough in the teens Crossing.” and twenties of the last cen- Located about a mile tury that a Redmond store, upstream (east) from the “Lynch and Roberts,” paint- modern bridge complex, ed a billboard to advertise and originally (as its name itself on a prominent rim- implies) a place where hors- rock just north of the bridge es and cattle could nego- (heading for Redmond). tiate the canyon and ford Sometime after the cre- the river, a wooden bridge ation of Jefferson County in was built at the site about 1914, the new county moved 1890 (apparently by Crook to replace the old wooden County), with timbers from bridge, by now becoming Trail Crossing. 1910 the Mailing mill at Grizzly. very rickety, with a modern Around this time, the original rough fic—farm wagons, stage coaches, heavy steel structure, mounting it on tall con- trail straight north out of the canyon freight wagons—increased drastical- crete pillars well above the river, so as (still visible today) was replaced by the ly, and the crooked, steep, and narrow to avoid high water in run-offs. It was building of a steep narrow roadway that grades out of the canyon on both sides a timely and probably expensive move; angled up on the cliffs north and west caused frequent right-of-way arguments but in the often wasteful way of prog- of the bridge. Much of the route was and accidents—some of them fatal. ress, the opening of the Dalles-California “rip-rapped” by hand by piling rocks up In 1910, Crook County undertook bridge in 1927 abruptly terminated the against the steep angle of the slope. improvements on the grades, but still, importance of Trail Crossing as a crucial With the advent of homesteading on it continued to be common practice for if scary component of early transporta-

14 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

tion through Central Oregon. But for a McPheeter’s Turf is now) was called from the bridge, where the currents run few years after the opening of the expan- “Trail Crossing.” It had a school, and its slowly. According to Mrs. Anna Martin sive new highway, drivers found them- own “Neighborhood News” column in Merchant’s fond recollection in Jeffer- selves traversing Crooked River Gorge the Madras Pioneer, and also a derisive son County Reminiscences, the wor- by dropping into it and crossing at Trail nickname, “Heelstring Nation,” mean- shippers would then enjoy an old-fash- Crossing! Eventually, Jefferson County ing that its residents were supposed to ioned country potluck picnic, before sold the steel bridge (to whom, heading back up the grade. and for what, is unknown), Today, although its ner- and it was removed, along vous early traffic of wagons, with a short metal bridge over buggies, and “motor-cars” a deep ravine across the north is long gone, the site of Trail grade, ending all travel on the Crossing is still spectacular, old route. with Crooked River rushing But in Trail Crossing’s hey- darkly over its rocks, and the day, making the trip into and pinnacles of Squaw Rock and out of the canyon by wagon, Mendenhall Ridge looming buggy, or Model T left an indel- over the near eastern horizon. ible impression on many peo- But approaches from both the ple. In his unpublished mem- north and the south are pri- oir, the late Sid Elliott (who vately owned, and posted; and farmed just north of the site) Northside grade to the bridge. would-be visitors also need recalled his Elliott grandpar- to consider that the cliffs on ents coming from The Dalles both sides are active eagle and in 1909 to take up a homestead hawk nesting sites, and should near Terrebonne via Trail be strictly left alone between Crossing. His grandmother from February to June. had been asleep in the wagon but awoke as they approached the bridge. “She looked around SUGGESTED READING: and said, ‘George, is this the Sid Elliott, “Juniper Trees, Sagebrush, only way out of this country?’ and Rock—then WATER”, ms in JCHS Archives He said ‘Yes!’, and she said ‘I’m Steve Lent, entry in Central Oregon staying!” Place Names. Vol. II, Jefferson County. With the opening of the Bend: Maverick Publications, 2008. highway bridge, the half-cen- Anna Martin Merchant,”Trail Crossing,” tury of Trail Crossing’s re- in Jefferson County Reminiscences. Portland: Binford and Mort, 1956, 1999, gional importance ended, and Trail Crossing today. pp. 70-80. memories of its use, like this one, quickly faded. You won’t find it be barely holding on by their heelstrings. marked on modern maps, and it’s not Maybe so, but the old-time residents even in McArthur’s Oregon Geographic of Trail Crossing community kept their Names. A few oldtimers will remember earthly spirits up and their eternal pros- that a small farming community just pects bright by holding religious services north of the site (roughly around where and mass river baptisms just upstream

15 Local HistoryThe Mystery Comes Homesteaders to the Third Grade By Jarold Ramsey hen JCHS Directors Margee O’Brien and Jerry Ram- ranching, freighting, the coming of homesteaders and railroads. he beginningsey volunteered of the end ofto this talk story about came local historyIt didn’t to the seem four to be a properAmong diary—more, other treasures, he they he showed were homesteaders, his young struggling listeners to a provebranding up on in thethird-grade early 1970s, classes when a at young Buff man Elementary thought, in aMadras kind of last “day book”iron, or journala huge keeping horseshoe, anda fleece gain title and to sheep-shears.the 160 acres they’d claimed. But Wnamed Rick Donahoe was tearing down careful track of work, visits, income and expenses where? Was the writer a man or a woman? (How spring, they knew they had their work cut out for them. After all, The two followed each other through all four third-grade Tan old outbuilding on his farm north of Redmond, for a family, with very little of a personal nature the book ended up in a shed many miles from its in an age of smart phones for kids, tweeting, texting, and prima- classes over two days, and encountered eager attention and Oregon.ry-level In Internet one of the fluency, walls, he found a tattered registered.bright-eyed It was interest defi- in placethe Oldenof origin Days, was, and with remains, questions part of boilingits mys- ledger-book,what interest its couldpages theyfilled nitelyover not about a self-conhow it -was aroundtery.) here, way back then. After the visits withspark daily in entrieseight-year-olds in pencil, sciouswere “literary” over, the record. kids wrote lettersRick Donahoe to O’Brien was and fascinated Ramsey, by reportthe led-- datingwith storiesfrom January and artifacts 1912 to Buting who on keptwhat it? they There enjoyed ger-book about theand visits,the story and it whatmight they tell, ifwere he could still Septemberfrom the 1917,undigitalized beginning wascurious no name, about. but clear- identify the writer, and locate the homestead. He inOlden central Days? Michigan (Saginaw ly the writerPerhaps was partpredictably, of carefully a number transcribed of them it in weretypescript, provoked and even by County)On theand otherabruptly hand, breaking our a O’Brien’sfarming family, mention first that drewthere up was an alphabetizedno toilet paper index in of 1916 names Madras of peo- offfearless somewhere historians—both east of Madras, inhouseholds, Michigan, and and after that out-of-dateple mentioned Sears in the Roebuck entries. Eventually, and Montgom he and his- Jeffersonretired County,teachers—knew Oregon. theery move Ward to cataloguesOregon, providedwife Mary acceptable sold their farm substitutes. and re-settled Ramsey’s in Ohio, they had two huge assets showing the branding iron was another provocation, some ex- to play with: the insatiable, pressing indignation and unself-conscious curiosity sympathy on behalf of the of third-graders, and their calves. One thoughtful boy, boundless enthusiasms. however, reasoned that They also knew that their “they burnt the cows so that visits would be careful- they would know whose ly prepared for by the Buff they were.” teachers: Emily Crowley, All in all, the visits Davinie Fiero, Cora Flores, seemed to prove that, ap- and Margie Long. (Margie proached imaginatively and Long joined in the fun later, “hands-on,” today’s kids herself, by impersonating are open to learning about a 1916 school teacher, with local history—life as it was authentic classroom props from her per- here a century ago. And sonal collection.) O’Brien and Ramsey agree So O’Brien and Ramsey decided to that they were privileged go in as “historical personages,” some- to catch glimpses of what how transported to Buff Elementary in third-graders in 2016 think 2016 from Madras in 1916. O’Brien dressed up as a homemak- about their own time, historically, in relation to the past. Consid- er just coming home from the week’s household shopping, and er, for example, “Felicia’s” comment: she brought along a trunk full of irresistible artifacts, including “In my opinion the best part of 100 years ago was that there a 1912 Sears Roebuck catalog, kitchen appliances, and a vintage was no electricity. Because every time the lights go off, I get to toy washing machine for doll clothes, borrowed from JCHS Trea- stay up late, and staying up late is fun. When the lights go off, we surer Elaine Henderson. spend more time together, and I like it. We play board games. Ramsey came as “the Oldtimer,” wearing cowboy boots and And read with a flashlight!” hat, and carrying a gunny sack (“What’s a gunny sack, Old- Next year, the teachers and the JCHS hope for more class- timer?”) full of items that allowed him to hold forth on life in room visits, and a “field day” visit for third-graders to the pioneer these parts before 1916—Indian customs, early sheep and cattle homestead house and country school at the Fairgrounds.

16 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

Thyreicia Simtustus participates in National History Day 2016

adras High senior Thyreicia Simtustus was a partici- pant for the second time in the National History Day Mcompetition held in Maryland last June. A two-time Oregon History Day winner, “Reicie” began her remarkable ca- reer in historical research and exhibit design at Madras Mid- dle School, under the tutelage of Courtney Lupton (JCHS Beth Crow Award winner, and recently retired from teaching). In Lupton’s words, “Thyreicia was amazing in her event. For the second time, her exhibit was selected to represent Oregon at the Kenneth E. Behring National Museum of American Histo- ry, and this year she had the unique opportunity to discuss her topic and research with Mr. Behring one-on-one as he toured the Museum during this day-long event. Although Reicie didn’t ‘win’—there were thousands of kids there—she had a wonder- ful experience doing the project (Jan.-June), and representing MHS at the state contest, and Oregon at the national contest.” Lupton went on to say, “For me, the best part of Nation- al History Day is always the growth that happens to each stu- dent who commits to the NHD process. Starting with the 2016 theme—Exploration, Encounters, Exchange—Reicie worked toward her topic selection: ‘Celilo Falls/Mid-Columbia Indi- an Trade Network.’ Along the way she connected her topic to her own family and tribal history, and worked on the project after school, weekends, and spring break. I love the NHD pro- cess where students commit to their projects and take charge of their learning, and it was great to be a part of the experience as ‘Guide on the Side.” The JCHS is proud to have supported Thyreicia’s successful trip to National History Day, and we wish her continued success in her senior year at MHS and beyond! And we hope that, with Courtney Lupton’s retirement, a way will be found to contin- ue her splendid long-time work with students on History Day projects.

17 Human and Natural History at ‘Five Craters’ By Jerry Ramsey

t’s convenient to talk about “human history” and “natural his- being washed by the waters of Crooked River. This rock is named tory” as separate things—the first concerned with human affairs for the Sheriff of Linn County [John Smith, later a long-time super- Iand what people do with their earthly chances, the second deal- intendent of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation].” The reference ing scientifically with the forces and conditions of the earth, the at- almost certainly refutes a local oral tradition, that the landmark was mosphere, plant and animal life, and so on. named for a soldier named Smith who was killed by Indians nearby, But in truth, it’s an artificial distinction, a necessary but some- or jumped to his death from a pinnacle rather than be captured by times misleading way of thinking. In a region like Central Oregon, them—versions of a tale for which no solid evidence has been found. “natural history” and “hu- But another episode man history” are so closely earlier in “Octtoco’s” narra- connected, so inter-pen- tive illustrates the interplay etrating that studying the of human and natural his- general history of our neck tory vividly. Following the of the woods requires care- Santiam Wagon Road east ful attention to both. The past its summit and down story of local exploration, past Big Lake and Hayrick settlement, and develop- Butte to Cache Creek and ment is profoundly condi- the Cache Creek Toll Sta- tioned by natural forces at tion, the Linn County trav- work here over eons—un- elers inspected “three old avoidable premises of our dry craters, which appar- human history from the be- ently have blown out their ginning. lives centuries ago . . . . One A neat example of this of them contains at its bot- inter-connection came to tom a cold spring of ice. light a few years ago, when These craters average about the late Madras historian 60 feet in diameter and 60 and educator Beth Crow feet deep. They stand in a was delving into the ori- row about ten yards apart.” gins of the name of “Smith Now here is a puzzle—in Rock,” now a popular state a long-forgotten 1867 news- park just over the Deschutes paper article, mention of an County line. In a microfilm unusual and intriguing geo- of the August 10, 1867 issue logical feature, apparent- of the Albany, Oregon State ly unknown today? Three Rights Democrat, Beth small craters in a row, near found a historically-rich the well-documented Cache letter to the editor by some- Creek Toll Station, but not one calling himself “Octto- “Five Craters” from the air. to be found on the U.S. For- co” (possibly a misprint for est Service “Deschutes Na- “Ochoco”), narrating a recent journey he and four companions had tional Forest Map,” or on the more detailed USFS “quad” maps of made over the just-opened Santiam Wagon Road, into Central Or- the area? Nobody seems to have heard of the place—not at USFS egon. One of his fellow travelers was Capt. J.A. White, who was in Headquarters in Sisters, not in the hiking and climbing community. charge of work on the road; another was “Jackie” Settle, for whom So, an informal search was mounted a couple of years ago—be- (through mispronunciation) Suttle Lake was named. ginning with an online MapQuest search, which promptly turned “Octtoco” mentions that his party first reached the Crooked up clear images of not three but five small craters running down River “at Smith’s Rock, a high promontory of marl and sandstone equidistantly from USFS Road 500 to the Old Santiam Wagon

18 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

Road. The site is a few miles south of the Jefferson County line. Road settlers, miners, drovers of livestock, speculators—the little craters 500 is most easily accessed from FS 1028 off the McKenzie Highway may have become a sort of roadside attraction. Apparently they were about seven miles west of Sisters. 1028 meets 500, in fact, near the something of the sort nearly a half-century later, in July 1913, when location of the Cache Creek Toll Station, where there are historical members of my father’s family, the Ramseys, Wattses, and Wilsons, interpretive signs of interest. came by in their wagons on the home stretch of an epic excursion Maybe a mile up 500 (westbound), the highest of the craters will from Agency Plains around Mt. Hood to the ocean at Depoe Bay, be obvious on your left, with Mt. Washington looming in the south- and back by way of Sweet Home and the Santiam Road. They duly west as you start down climbed up the ridge the ridge. A fairly to see the craters, steep but easy scram- and took a photo of a ble down the ridge member of their party will show you each standing on the floor of the five craters in of the biggest one. (See turn. They are larger, “A Trip to the Ocean and deeper, and quite by Wagon,” THE AG- a bit more impressive ATE, NS I, Winter and than “Octtoco” sug- Spring 2014, p. 13) gests . . . probably How has this lo- 200 feet wide, 100 cal geological feature feet deep or more, been so completely and maybe a hundred forgotten in a little yards apart. The fact more than a century? that he counted only Apparently, as traffic three suggests that, over the mountains hiking up the ridge shifted in the 1920s from the Wagon Road, from wagon road to he and his mates sim- “motorways,” (the ply turned back too Santiam and the McK- soon. enzie Highways), the The ridge is only site was bypassed, sparsely vegetated and disappeared from with vines and scrub travelers’ memories. evergreens, and like- Why the Forest Ser- wise the surface of the vice and the US Geo- craters themselves— Middle Crater 1913. Middle Crater 2015. detic Survey have ne- as if the site is still re- glected to note it on covering from what must have been a spectacular blowout, whether their maps is harder to figure. But Five Craters are really there—a all at once or in sequence. Coarse red cinders are underfoot, and small-scale and accessible natural wonder, re-discovered by acci- spiral-shaped “lava bombs” and other volcanic detritus are strewn dent in the course of historical research: human and natural history about. wonderfully intertwined. Go see for yourself! When were they created? With no geological investigation of the site, any answer is guesswork, but the general area is known to have SUGGESTED READINGS: been volcanically active in the “Middle Holocene” era, 3000 to 1500 “Letter to the Editor by Octtoco,” Albany State Rights Democrat, August 10, years ago. This is the interval when Yapoah Crater, Belknap Crater, 1867 Four-in-one Cone, and other volcanic features in the neighborhood Ellen Bishop, In Search of Ancient Oregon. Portland: Timber Press, 2003, 2007, were thought to have been busy. Our “Five Craters” are unlike any of pp. 238-242 them, and they are craters, with no elevated rims or cones—indicat- Lawrence Neilson, Doug Manning, George McCourt, Pioneer Roads in Central ing a brief but violent blowout, probably along a fault-line marked Oregon. Bend, Maverick Publications, 1985, pp. 74-8. by the ridge itself. One wonders how “Octtoco” and his companions knew to look for the craters as they came down the Santiam Wagon Road. Very likely Capt. White, who was in their party, knew about them from his recent work building the road. As traffic increased along its route—

19 Donated Organ Joins Museum’s Musical Collection

recent donation of a Victorian-era parlor organ has en- riched the museum’s collection of vintage musical in- Astruments. The organ, given by Joyce Moore Atchison of Brownsville, was passed on to her as a girl in 1947 by her maternal grandpar- ents, Henry and Lucille Thornton, homesteaders in the Pony Butte area. It came into Central Oregon in the early 1900s with the Musgrave family, who homesteaded near Ashwood. Their daughter, Lucille, married Henry Thornton. Joyce says she learned to play the organ, but then had to Two Videos on transition to the pi- County Historical Sites ano for lessons. Like most foot-pumped wo video documentaries featuring Jefferson County his- home and church or- torical sites have been in the works in 2016 and should be gans in this country, it available by early 2017. was “modernized” by T installation of a vacu- One of the documentaries, Bridging Urban America, made by Basia and Leonard Myszynski, presents the remarkable life um-cleaner motor and and career of Polish-American bridge engineer Ralph Modjes- pump. . . and it still ki. Between the 1890s and the 1930s, Modjeski designed major plays, robustly! bridges across America, all of them still in use—for example, the The Musgrave-Thorn- Ben Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia, the Huey P. Long Bridge ton organ joins other in New Orleans, the Oakland Bay Bridge, the Broadway Bridge notable musical in- in Portland—and in 1909-10 he designed for James J. Hill and struments in the Mu- the Oregon Trunk Railroad our iconic “Crooked River Bridge.” seum collection—a In its time, the “High Bridge” was the tallest bridge of its kind pre-1900s upright in the U.S. grand piano, original- Initially the Myszynskis weren’t sure they would include the ly owned by Jack Ed- structure in their coverage of Modjeski’s work, but a winter wards of Hay Creek 2015 visit to the Crooked River Gorge convinced them to in- Ranch, a fiddle owned clude it, and the footage includes spectacular close-up views and played for years of the bridge’s venerable structure taken by a drone-mounted by local country fid- camera. dler Amos Fine, and Startling drone-camera images also figure in a short but im- a very rare early nine- pressive video by Donnell Alexander and Sika Stanton on John teenth-century con- A. Brown, early African-American homesteader here in the certina, still playable, 1880s, and his namesake canyon along Highway 26 northwest donated by Howard of Madras. Working with a grant from Oregon Humanities, Al- Turner. exander and Stanton, both from Portland, interviewed Dave When we re-open the Campbell and Jerry Ramsey on John Brown and the lore of his museum at Westside, canyon, and visited the site of his homestead house and truck why not a “musicale” garden. featuring these historic The Historical Society gave support to both projects, and instruments? hopes to show the documentaries to the public in 2017. Stay tuned—especially to our website (http://www.jeffcohistorical. org).

20 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

Agate VI Birthdays Welcome to New wo long-time Jefferson County residents, both strong sup- Tporters of the Historical Society, celebrated special birthdays Members of the this summer, and THE AGATE proposes a toast to Margaret De- Historical Society! ment for attaining 105, and Edna Campbell Clark for reaching 100! Fred Monroe Margaret was a champion and mainstay of the museum in its Karleen Sykes early formative years, and as a local historian and genealogist she Phyllis Kollen has continued to strongly support the cause of local history. Nancy Moore Edna—youngest daughter of pioneer homesteaders Ed and Sarah Rodman Campbell, sister of historian John Camp- Frank Hoffman bell, and great-aunt of current JCHS Directors Dave Campbell & Joy Harvey and Jennie Smith—was instrumental in furnishing the Farrel Margaret Floyd Bauer Homestead house at the Fairgrounds and single-handedly wall- Dement Guy Swanson papered its kitchen with old issues of the Madras Pioneer, exactly as it was done in the homestead era. Val Johnson Edna We gratefully salute Margaret and Edna—indispensable long- & Pat Dinsmoor Campbell term players in the Society’s mission to preserve and cele- Clark brate Jefferson County history!

History Pub Features Don Ratliff

n Thursday, Oct. 27, starting at 5:30, at Great Earth Deli in downtown Madras, the Historical Society will Ohold another of its popular “History Pubs”—this time featuring Don Ratliff, long-time PGE fish biologist at Round Butte, talking about the natural and human history of trout and salmon in the Middle Deschutes River. Because of lim- ited space, reservations are suggested, at Great Earth or by calling 541-475-1500.

The new (fourth) Jefferson County Courthouse!

21 Two New Book Reviews By Jerry Ramsey

proved to be difficult and chanc- contend with, and the scarcity of ey, if not downright impossi- juniper for firewood and fence- ble—this despite the cheerful posts that he mentions was not assurances and promotions of a problem here! The main differ- agricultural “experts” like Har- ence is that whereas our home- dy Webster Campbell, whose steaders here were talking about dry-farming gospel was widely irrigation as early as 1912, their accepted. Water—for crops, for Montana counterparts had no domestic use—proved to be, in such prospects; and although both regions, in chronically short the hardiest settlers here held supply; extremes of weather (es- on and at length realized their pecially in Montana) and short dream of irrigated farming, the growing seasons turned out to Great Midwestern Drought and be heavy burdens. Both regions the Depression left Wollaston’s Percy Wollaston, “boomed” when they did in part home country basically desolated Clifford Foust, HOMESTEADING: because of sometimes-extrav- by the 1930s. (Wollaston himself John Frank Stevens: A Montana Family Album - agant promotions by the rail- left the farm as a young man, and CIVIL ENGINEER. Forward by Jonathon Raban. roads. worked for power companies in Bloomington and Indianapolis: New York: Penguin Books, 1999. In Montana as in Oregon, Western Montana.) And whereas Indiana University Press, 2013. the homesteading-boom popula- under the New Deal abandoned tion was diverse—including sav- homesteads in the southern his little book will be of vy Midwestern farmers seeking and eastern uplands of Jeffer- f James J. Hill and his Great interest to Central Ore- a new start, educated urbanites son County were “reclaimed” for Northern empire drove and Tgon readers with affinities wanting to “get back to the land,” grazing and recreation under Ipaid for the extravagant con- to the subject of homesteading, European immigrants, and hope- the National Grasslands pro- struction of the Oregon Trunk reminding them that our region lessly naïve and agriculturally gram, nothing equivalent seems up the Deschutes River to Ma- was not the only late (1900- clueless would-be homesteaders. to have happened in Wollaston’s dras in 1909-11, the chief insti- 1920) homesteading boom-ter- Out of this diversity, Wollaston home country, which remains gator and pilot of the project was ritory in the West. Percy Wol- (whose parents and grandpar- very sparsely populated to this a larger-than-life engineer and laston’s memoir vividly recounts ents came from England) fondly day. railroad-route “locator” named what it was like for his family remembers the emergence of a His book thus has a bleak John F. Stevens. and neighbors to try to “prove local culture of “neighborliness,” plot-line, in terms of the pros- Along with his remarkable up” their claims and succeed tolerance, and mutual support . pects for homesteaders like skills as a finder of rail routes at dry-farming around 1910 on . . exactly what came to pass out his parents and family; but the through difficult country (he sin- the steppes of eastern Montana here in communities like Agency charm of this book lies in his gle-handedly discovered Marias (near the town of Mildred)—in Plains, Culver, and Ashwood. sharp-edged, loving recollec- Pass in the Montana Rockies for exactly the same time-frame as It’s fair to say, in fact, that tions of eccentric but mostly the Great Northern in the win- their counterparts out here. Wollaston’s hard-pressed “en- good-hearted neighbors, and the ter of 1889, and Stevens Pass The similarities and differ- trymen” and those in what be- funny incidents that lightened in Washington State is named ences between the two farming came Jefferson County had more the daily struggles of homestead- for him), Stevens also had cor- episodes are equally illuminat- in common than otherwise. To ing life on the eastern plains. porate cloak-and-dagger skills ing. In eastern Montana as in be sure, our forebears didn’t ______that a century later would have Central Oregon, dry-farming have disastrous prairie fires to qualified him for the Secret Ser-

22 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

vice and the CIA. With a blank which his Central Oregon adven- “Henry Larcom Abbot in Central without him? And Foust is very checkbook and carte blanche ture appears as only one colorful Oregon, 1855,” THE AGATE, V, astute in offering revealing per- from Jim Hill in 1909 to get the episode (he never returned to Spring 2016). sonal details about his impa- jump on Edward Harriman and Central Oregon after 1911, but Having gotten the Canal tient, tenacious, supremely re- the Union Pacific in what be- in later years cherished his time properly located, and having sourceful protagonist. It turns came “the Deschutes Railroad here). And maybe this suggests created a basis for eradicating out that during his “fishing trip” War,” he managed to buy up the one very good reason to read the yellow fever in the construction along the Deschutes in 1909 he defunct “Oregon Trunk Railroad book: it puts Stevens’ achieve- zone, Stevens resigned from the took along his thirteen-year-old Company” and its crucial Central ments here with the Oregon project (infuriating Teddy Roo- son, Eugene. And earlier, in St. Oregon right-of-way holdings, Trunk in the context of an inter- sevelt in doing so), and soon Paul in 1903, he got into an epic clinching the secret deal in style national professional career that signed up again with Hill, this fist-fight with Jim Hill’s son and in a clandestine meeting with OT would seem improbable for its time to make history in Central chief assistant, Louis Hill. Ap- stockholders at midnight in a range and historical significance Oregon. And shortly after the parently the younger Hill resent- Portland park. And shortly after- if it weren’t so well documented. end of WWI, he was chosen to ed Stevens’ special rapport with ward, in June 1909, he personal- From Foust, we learn that in lead an international mission to his father: reportedly Stevens ly surveyed the route up the De- the years just before coming to consolidate and modernize the came out on top, as he usually schutes in disguise as a wealthy Oregon for Hill, Stevens served Russian railroad system! But did in his engineering skirmish- Scottish angler and sportsman, as Chief Engineer (with Presi- this grand project was doomed es. The altercation illustrates not “John F. Sampson” (to keep Har- dent Roosevelt’s strong support) to failure from the start, with just Stevens’ formidable temper, riman’s spies off his trail), culti- of the American Panama Canal the post-Revolution Bolshevik but also Jim Hill’s unshakeable vating unsuspecting locals like Project. Once again his “locating” government collapsing under it, allegiance to him—with conse- Howard Turner (Mayor of Ma- skills helped him to campaign and stymieing nearly all of the quences soon to come out here dras) for what they could show successfully, against strong improvements recommended in Oregon. and tell him. opposition, to build the Canal by Stevens and his commission. ______When the Oregon Trunk line above sea-level, with two locks, Finally, after nearly six years, arrived in Madras for “Railroad rather than at sea-level. An in- headquartered in what was then Day” Feb. 15, 1911, Stevens was teresting side-note: in this cam- Russian Manchuria, he resigned rightly celebrated as featured paign he was allied with another and came home to America, and speaker and guest of honor—at prominent engineer with Cen- a retirement full of honors and which time he jovially apolo- tral Oregon credentials, Henry awards. He died at 90 in 1943. gized to Turner and his other Larcom Abbot, who in 1855 had Reading Foust’s account of local fishing and socializing bud- surveyed the Deschutes Basin for the astonishing scope and mag- dies for deceiving them about his possible railroad routes. Abbot nitude of John Stevens’ career identity and motives. Evidently concluded then that a railroad reinforces and sharpens one’s they forgave him . . . . would be impossible to build appreciation of what he accom- Clifford Foust’s biography of through these parts; Stevens plished mid-career in Central Stevens tells the full story of his and Hill (and Harriman) would Oregon. What would our rail- long and far-reaching career, in later refute that judgment! (See road history here look like, now,

23 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

Box 647, Madras, Oregon 97741

THE AGATE • JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY PLEASE JOIN US! Membership (please check box): New Renewal Individual Jefferson County Historical Society Box 647, Madras, Oregon 97741 Family Patron Benefactor 541-475-5390 • Website: www.jeffcohistorical.org (Make check out to JCHS; mail to address at left) MEMBERSHIP DUES 2016: Yes, I’m interested in becoming a History (Individual: $25 Family: $50 Patron: $150 Benefactor: $500) Volunteer Name: ______Yes, I would like to make a donation to the Address: ______JCHS (the Society is a registered non-profit organization; donations and gifts to it are City: ______State:_____ Zip:______tax-deductible) Phone: ______I have artifacts, photos, written material I Email: ______would like to donate to the JCHS Museum