The IssaquahPress
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Community
Wednesday March 19, 2014
Lying with legends Local barbecuer is immortalized on quilt By David Hayes dhayes@isspress.com hroughout the ages, tribute to the greats have been immortalized in art of all genres — Abraham Lincoln has his 98-foot sculpture at the center of the Washington, D.C., memorial; Gilbert Stuart’s unfinished painting, the portrait “Athenaeum” of George Washington in the National Gallery of Art; and the godfathers of competition barbecue in a quilt. The original of the latter was bought at auction for $800 at the 2013 National Barbecue Association trade show. But a copy of the quilt, featuring digitized images of 16 of the earliest and most honored barons of barbecue, can be found atop Bob Lyon’s bed. “It’s the only place big enough in our apartment to display it,” Lyon said. Lyon’s own smile is featured in the quilt’s biggest image, a photo his wife Sandra snapped in 2009 at a Hooters restaurant in Independence, Mo., an informal get-together of some of the biggest names in barbecue. “There is over 250 years of experience in that photo,” Lyon said. In the ’80s and ’90s, Lyon was the leader of the competition barbecuing team the Beaver Casters. The team was voted the road team of the ’90s by National Barbecue News
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“The most fun I have is when I put my shoes on, I get to sit on Bob’s face.” — Sandra Lyon Wife of barbecuing legend Bob Lyon
for all the titles it won. Pictured with Lyon are renowned pit masters Gary Wells, founder of the Kansas City Barbecue Society, and his wife Carolyn; Paul Kirk, the baron of barbecue himself with more than 475 cooking and barbecuing awards, including seven world barbecue championships, and his wife Jessica; Steve Holbrook, whose recipes regularly turn up in the pages of barbecuing cookbooks, and his wife Cheryl; and competition barbecue circuit veteran Ardie Davis. Lyon said the irony of the photo is the group of master barbecuers was in a joint not renowned for barbecue, and they were talking about everything but barbecuing. The quilt also depicts images of fellow grilling legends Mike Mills (with his daughter Amy), Jim Tabb, Billy Bones and Joe and Carlene Phelps. The 7 ½-by-6-foot quilt was a gift from Linda Orrison, NBBQA Trade Show chairwoman, whose family runs the Shed Barbecue near Ocean Springs, Miss. The family’s antics have been chronicled in the
Photos by David Hayes
Bob Lyon, of Issaquah, stands over a quilt featuring his and other likenesses of barbecue legends. Atop his bed is the only place big enough to fully display the 71/2-by 6-foot quilt in his appartment in the Timber Ridge at Talus retirement community.
Food Network reality show, “The Shed.” In the tight-knit community of competition barbecuing, Lyon knows the Orrisons well. “Their son Brad was a
ne’er-do-well in his youth,” Lyon recalled. “He went off to college, got a degree in business.” Brad and his sister Brooke wanted to continue in their family’s barbecue
tradition and open a joint of their own, Lyon said, hoping they’d get to open it on a piece of the family land. “Their parents warned them, ‘And don’t you dare ask your grandparents for
a cent,’” he said, adding that the two opened The Shed by maxing out their grandmother’s credit card. “Today, the whole family works for them at the restaurant,” Lyon concluded. The quilt from Linda Orrison came as a surprise on his doorstep. Lyon said he had to call her to make sure she wasn’t the one who spent $800 on the original and sent it to him, thinking he wasn’t worthy of such extravagance. “Heck, one of my old See QUILT, Page A8
Espionage and coal: Mining Issaquah’s World War I history By Laile Di Silvestro Issaquah History Museums It was July 29, 1914. Austria launched a bomb attack on Serbia, and Russia commenced mobilization for an attack on Austria. The German “Count” Gustav Konstantin Alvo von Alvensleben was in Germany, where the government was about to declare war on France and Russia. On that same day, in the small town of Issaquah, Dave and Ann Morgan welcomed their first File child, Ivor, into the world. He This is most likely an occasion described in a Seattle Times article from July was born in coal company hous19, 1013, which read in part, ‘Two hundred fuel dealers and their wives... were ing owned by von Alvensleben. the guests of the Issaquah & Superior Coal Mining Company at its mines in While von Alvensleben Issaquah... The trip was made in a special train of three cars that left King Street made plans to return to North Station at 9:30.’ The article describes the procession from the Issaquah Depot America, Dave Morgan tended to the mine offices, where Issaquah Mayor P.J. Smith gave a rousing speech. The donkeys for von Alvensleben’s coal company’s sales manager, J. F. Grant, replied with the interesting (if not true) Issaquah and Superior Coal fact that Issaquah meant ‘beautiful maiden,’ whereupon he welcomed Blodwyn Mine on the west side of town. Watkins, ‘the pretty daughter of Superintendent J. R. Watkins, dressed in Indian The donkeys hauled carts of costume, who emerged from a stand erected for the purpose.’ coal from the dark, dusty, noisy
and wet depths of the mines to the surface, where the coal was crushed, sorted and cleaned in preparation for shipment. The Issaquah and Superior mine was an extensive operation, with immense bunkers, cart trestles, and train tracks, along with an impressive hotel and company houses to accommodate dozens of workers. The enterprise encompassed 2,000 acres of land under which tunnels extended as much as 1,700 feet below the surface. The “Count” planned to employ 500 workers to mine 2,000 tons of coal per day. The coal was to be used for fueling steamships and steam locomotives, and to create fertilizer in a future chemical plant. To realize his dream, von Alvensleben had taken out a mortgage, cultivated German investors (purportedly including German Emperor Wilhelm II),
IF YOU GO Residue of History I: Olde Town Mine History Hike 410:30 a.m. March 29 4Meet at Issaquah Depot Museum, 78 1st Ave. N.E. 4Join Doug Bristol of guided walking tour of mining areas in downtown 4392-3500 4www.issaquahhistory.org
and hired local workers at a good wage. Under his guidance, the Issaquah and Superior mine started producing coal in 1912. Despite von Alvensleben’s absence, the Issaquah and
Maywood Kiwanis Builders Club helps children, seniors The latest addition to the Kiwanis Club of Issaquah family is the Maywood Middle School Kiwanis Builders Club. The chartering of the Maywood Builders Club was initiated two years ago by Key Clubber Lisa Antonio, currently lieutenant governor of PNW Key Club Division 28. It took two years to find a faculty adviser, Samantha Neff. With her leadership, the Kiwanis Maywood Builders Club recently engaged Kiwanis and Key Club with the project of making hospital dolls for Seattle Children’s. Doctors use the dolls to explain medical procedures by drawing the procedure on a doll, which is then given to the patient. Club members also made paper flowers to be given to the Spiritwood at Pine Lake
assisted living community in Sammamish to brighten the day of the residents. Kiwanis is a global service organization of “volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time.” The Kiwanis family consists of K-Kids for elementary schoolers, Builders Club for middle school, Key Club for high school, Circle-K for colleges and universities, and Aktion Club for adult with disabilities. The Kiwanis Club of Issaquah was founded in 1929 and sponsors Atwork!, the Aktion Club of Salmon County, Key Clubs at Issaquah and Liberty high schools, and a Kiwanis Builders Club at Pacific Cascade Middle School. Learn more about the Kiwanis Club of Issaquah at www.issaquahkiwanis.org.
See HISTORY, Page A8
OPENING THE ARCHIVES AN ONGOING LOOK AT MEMORABLE IMAGES FROM ISSAQUAH’S PAST
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Interior Issaquah State Bank, 1914 p39, #57 Arcadia book caption: The interior of the Bank of Issaquah was rich with detail. Note the art deco trim along the ceiling. The building was known as one of the most sophisticated in Issaquah. Its current appearance is due to a renovation in the 1940s, which covered up its ornate detailing. By the time this picture was taken in 1914, the bank had changed hands and had become the Issaquah State Bank.
The Issaquah History Museums take requests regarding what people would like to see in the Digital Collection. Roughly quarterly, volunteers have a dataentry day and prep a bunch of records for upload. If there is a particular name, place or item you’d like to see more images of on the website, email Erica Maniez at erica. maniez@issaquahhistory.org. If you have a photo or subject you would like to see in this feature, email editor@ isspress.com.