Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
January 12, 2017
By Pat Edwards

Fortunately, the predicted ice storm that I mentioned in last week’s column produced few power outages in our area… no more big limbs or trees came down at our place, but it did cause many of us to be homebound for several more days while we waited for the roads to clear of the ice-crusted snow that remained from the previous week. The roads were clear and even dry in most spots today (Thursday) when I made a 10:00 a.m. appointment in Eugene, but I still need to put my little Jeep Compass in 4WD just to get out of our driveway. Snow, snow, go away; Come again… next winter, please! I don’t know about

There’s some Lorane news to report, but not much. Most of us have been so intent on staying warm and staying on our feet when we venture outside that we’re not making many plans.

I missed getting the information on the David Doughty celebration of life into last week’s column. It will take place on Saturday, January 14 at the Deep Woods event center in Elmira, so it will already have passed by the time you read this. Knowing how much David was respected and loved by our community, I have no doubt that there will be a packed house for his funeral. He was a good man.

For those interested in becoming members, the Lorane Grange will meet on Thursday, January 19 at 7:00 p.m… a new time. Their next Spaghetti Dinner and Bingo night is scheduled for Saturday, January 28. Dinner will begin at 5:30 p.m. and bingo for the whole family starts at 6:30 p.m. It’s a fun, raucous time and I hope to see a big crowd there. Proceeds go towards maintenance of the hall. Contact Lil Thompson (541-942-5701) if you have any questions about grange membership and/or the upcoming events.

Many of you know that somehow, over the years, I have gotten involved in researching, writing and publishing local history information… first, Lorane’s and then the history of U.S. Highway 99 through Oregon. I never was a history scholar in school, so it’s surprising that I’ve grown to love it so much in my later years.

I’ve written an open letter to the people of Lorane and Crow to try to interest you in establishing a written and pictorial history of our area extending beyond the boundaries that were in place for our research on Lorane for the 1987 and 2006 editions of Sawdust and Cider; A History of Lorane, Oregon and the Siuslaw Valley. I’d like to concentrate on families living in the area lying between Lorane and Crow and Crow, itself… i.e. Gillespie Corners, Simonsen Road, Powell Road, Hadleyville (Briggs Hill Road), Doane Road and on into Crow.

When  Nancy O’Hearn, Marna Hing and I researched the Lorane history in the 1980s, we were able to conduct interviews of the people whose ancestors were some of its earliest settlers. We were told first-hand stories of the early part of the 1900s and were given access to vintage pictures from personal family albums. Most of those people we interviewed who had grown up in the early 1900s – my generation’s parents and grandparents – have passed on. In fact, those in my generation, born in the 1940s and 1950s, are now the “old timers.”

There is a lot of interest in the stories, pictures and information shared by those who lived in the early-to-mid 1900s. I’ve seen the interest first-hand and I worry that area histories that have not yet been documented might be lost.

I would like to set up a depository of stories, photos, letters, diaries and other documents so that they can be recorded and published and can be shared for generations. I can donate my time in organizing the information, editing, doing the layout and publishing everything as a book, but I no longer have the time or energy level to take on the info-gathering portion of such a project.

If this is something the community wants to do, then I would love to see it happen as a community project. Proceeds for book sales could go towards community needs and events.

If you’re interested in participating in this project, please read the full letter for more information. It’s posted on the Lorane, Oregon Facebook page. You can also contact me at edwards@groundwaterspublishing.com for a copy of the letter and/or for the guidelines for submitting photos and other material.

It’s up to you whether or not it happens.