Sweet Lorane Community News – November 26, 2015

November 26, 2015Newspaper ColumnsCalapooya Mountains, Christmas dinner, Folk History, Groundwaters, Holiday Market, Ira Hawley, Jo-Brew, Joe Blakely, Lane County Author and Artist Fair, Lorane Grange, Oregon's Main Street, Robert H. Ward, U.S. Highway 99paedwards Leave a comment

Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
November 26, 2015
By Pat Edwards

I hope that everyone took some time this past week to contemplate all the things in life that we can be thankful for. Sometimes it’s easy to allow the trials and tribulations to take over the focus of our lives, but there are usually multiple “some things or some ones” that we can add to the blessings’ side of our lists. Thanksgiving is the time to make a point of recognizing them.
Be sure to mark you calendars for the Lorane Grange Christmas dinner on Sunday, December 13 at 1:30 p.m. Turkey, gravy, ham, and potatoes are furnished by the grange, everything else is potluck. He community is invited.
Thanks to quite a few of our Groundwaters’ Lane County Authors for participating in the West Lane Holiday Bazaar the weekend of the November 21. We were set up at the Applegate Regional Theater on Central Road and we had a successful sale. We really appreciate the support shown by the community, too.
If you are at the Holiday Market at the Lane County Fairgrounds, Joe Blakely, Jo-Brew and I are sharing a booth there to sell our books. So far, we’ve been very successful and Jo’s and my Highway 99 books as well as Joe Blakely’s “Oregon’s Coast Highway” and other books are selling quite well. Stop by our booth (#206) in the southeast corner of the Holiday Market building just to say “Hi” if nothing else. It’s always fun to see people we know.
I don’t have any more community news to report that I didn’t cover in last week’s column, so I’ll include a short piece from one of our Highway 99 books.

An excerpt from OREGON’S MAIN STREET: U.S. Highway 99 “The Folk History”:

“After 1865, the stagecoaches no longer used the steep Territorial Road to cross the Calapooya Mountains, past the Cartwright House/Mountain House Hotel and Lorane on their way to Eugene City. Instead, they were rerouted by way of an old road which wound through Pass Creek Canyon. The road was poor, soft and muddy along the creek bottom and the canyon passage was narrow.
“Robert H. Ward, who lived at the southern end of the new route, built a corduroy road by laying 8-foot cedar logs side by side across the road through the pass. This road became known as Ward’s Toll Road, with Ward collecting a toll from northbound travelers and Ira Hawley collecting the southbound tolls.
“On the stage route, Hawley’s Station was located 10 miles north of Estes Ranch on the Ira B. Hawley Donation Land Claim. It provided a rest stop and a horse-changing station there.
“The passengers found food and overnight accommodations at the house and a big barn sheltered the team of horses on the large 4,000 acre cattle and sheep ranch. There was also a small community school on the property that served the surrounding area.
“Today, U.S. Highway 99, south of Cottage Grove passes the red ranch buildings and barns which belong to the present Hawley Land and Cattle Company on the site of Ira Hawley’s Stage Station.”

Sweet Lorane Community News – October 29, 2015

October 29, 2015Newspaper ColumnsAva Linder, Joe Blakely, Linda Hughes, Lorane Grange, Lorane Movie Night, Rebellion Murder and a Pulitzer Prize, Rural Art Center, Spaghetti Dinner and Bingo, The Farm Store, The Rainbow Chasers, The White Man's Brotherpaedwards Leave a comment

Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
October 29, 2015
By Pat Edwards

I’m very late in reporting on the passing of another long-time Lorane resident… Linda Hughes. I didn’t hear about her death until a week or two after she passed away on September 28 and feel badly that I haven’t mentioned it until now. Linda lived on Gowdyville Road with her husband Vergil. They had three children, Grant, Rick and Jason. The Hughes family moved to Lorane in 1966 and I got to know Linda when she’d come by the store while I worked there. She was involved in school activities in those days and later became active in making crafts of all kinds. She proved to be quite gifted and sold many of them through the old Lorane Country Café and craft sales around the area. Our thoughts and prayers have been with the Hughes family for their loss of a very caring wife, mother and grandmother.

With Halloween in the past (and even before), the stores have been telling us that we need to be thinking about Thanksgiving… and even Christmas. It seems that with such early reminders each year, the excitement and anticipation begin to wear thin by the time that the actual celebrations get here. I don’t know if it’s just my age or if others feel relief to get through the holiday season and move into a new year.

In truth, I love Thanksgiving Day, especially when our family gathers at our house to give thanks for our blessings. I hand over the potato peelers to Steph and Lins (this year it will be Hayley since Linsey is in Italy), the carving knife is presented to Gloria and the table setting duties to everyone else. Christmas day itself is special for that same reason. I guess that it’s the expectations and yes… commercialism… surrounding both holidays so early in the season that tire me out and turn me off.

Be sure to mark a couple of upcoming events on your calendar. The next Rural Art Center Lorane Movie Night will be held on Saturday, November 14 at the Lorane Grange. It will feature the movie, “Royal Wedding,” with Fred Astaire. You can find all of the information on times and schedules at at http://www.ruralartcenter.org/#!movie-night/ck0q.

The next Spaghetti Dinner and Bingo Night will be on Friday, November 20, beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Lorane Grange. It is fun evening with good food, good friends and lots of fun for the whole family.

Beware! There have been recent theft and suspicious activities reported in both the Lorane and Crow areas. Try to be alert to cars and people in the area who seem out of place or acting strangely. A man was seen wandering through the arena building of a local stables this past week and ran away when confronted. A theft was reported at a home between Simonsen and Briggs Hill Roads. We all need to watch out for our neighbors and report any incidents or concerns to the Lane County Sheriff’s tipline at 541-682-4167 or their non-emergency line at 541-682-4141.

The staff of Groundwaters would like to thank the Soverns at The Farm Store in Veneta for agreeing to be the local distributor for our new annual issue, Groundwaters 2015: an Anthology. They have a supply on hand right now, so if you’re missing our quarterly issues that we’ve had in the past, drop by to pick one up at the Farm Store located on Territorial Road, south of Veneta or at the Lorane Family Store in Lorane.

We have also just completed two more books by local authors. A new novel by Elmira author, Ava Linder, called The Rainbow Chasers, is a sequel to her first book, The White Man’s Brother, and both take place in the 1850s. The Rainbow Chasers brings Bob and Rebecca Tanner to the Oregon Territory where they settle in the Canyonville area. Ava was featured in a recent Fern Ridge Review article.

Another new book is Rebellion, Murder and a Pulitzer Prize by Joe Blakely. Joe lives in Eugene, but has had Groundwaters publish his last two books. This one tells about the actual murder trial of the leader of Southern Oregon’s “Jacksonville Rebellion,” Llewellyn Banks. The 1933 change of venue trial was held at the Lane County Courthouse and resulted in a Pulitzer Prize being awarded to Robert Ruhl of the Medford Mail Tribune. Joe’s books are available on his website at https://joeblakelyauthor.wordpress.com/

Check out all of our Groundwaters’-produced books at https://allthingslorane.com/published-books/.