In the January 2025 issue, Rob Fraser’s name was misspelled and the photograph of Anthony Stoves was mislabeled. We apologize for the mistakes and are happy to set the record straight.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE CORRECTIONS
As we celebrate the success of our third edition of 1883
Kittitas County, I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude. We love your feedback—your enthusiasm and support have been instrumental in shaping our vision and inspiring us to deliver content that truly resonates with our amazing community.
Your engagement fuels our mission to highlight the vibrant spirit of Kittitas County. Our passion is to ignite your curiosity about the rich history, diverse culture and unique o erings of our county. Whether it’s a suggestion for a story, a note of encouragement or sharing our publication with others, each contribution strengthens our connection to you and to the region we call home.
To our local businesses and potential advertisers I extend an
invitation to be part of something extraordinary.
Partnering with 1883 Kittitas County is stepping into a shared mission to celebrate and elevate our community. By advertising with us, you’ll connect with an ever-growing audience of readers who care deeply about supporting local businesses and embracing what makes our county unique. Join us today and be part of something truly special.
ank you again for taking part in this exciting journey. Here’s to many more stories, collaborations and successes ahead.
Warm regards,
Robyn Smith, Publisher, 1883 Kittitas County
Robyn Smith, Publisher
Rod Harwood, Contributing Writer
Andrea Paris, Editor/Designer Contact us at editor1883kittitascounty@gmail.com
1883 Kittitas County is a publication of Spark Pug Productions. It is a monthly publication. Free editions may be found in numerous sites throughout Kittitas County. Original stories, story ideas, photographs, illustrations, art or poems about Kittitas County are welcome. Send them to editor1883kittitascounty@gmail.com.
1883 Kittitas County is politically neutral and will not publish any hate speech against any person or entity. 1883 Kittitas County reserves the right to publish or not publish any submitted items, edit all materials for content and check for accuracy.
A rainbow appears beside the snow-capped mountains of Kittitas County.
— Photo by Aricka Webb
Legend
Strange ction: Is
there really a Mel’s Hole?
It all started with a fax sent to the host of a national radio program. On Friday, Feb. 21, 1997, a man who said his name was Mel Waters transmitted an intriguing message to Art Bell, the famed host of the late-night nationally-syndicated show, “Coast to Coast AM.”
Bell, who died in 2018, was renowned for his interviews with those who embrace the paranormal, the cryptozoological or the just plain weird. Part of the reason for his popularity was that he didn’t talk down to his guests or callers no matter how bizarre their beliefs or ideas.
In his fax, Waters said he owned property located about 9 miles west of Ellensburg, adjacent to Manastash Ridge. On this land, he claimed, was a roughly 9-foot-wide hole in which he, his neighbors and previous owners had thrown their trash for years. Despite having lled it with everything from their household garbage and broken furniture to construction debris and even dead cows, the hole never seemed to ll up, he said.
Even stranger, when anything was dropped into it, even something as large as a refrigerator, there was no echo or any other noise.
Waters said he tried to determine the depth of the mystery hole and once lowered three reels of 20-pound shing line with a weight on the end (Waters claimed he was an avid shark sherman, which is why he had the shing line lying around). e line stretched some 1,500 yards and yet it didn’t hit bottom.
Next, Waters said he bought bulk spools of shing line and eventually lowered some 80,000 feet of the lament into the hole with 17-to-18 pounds of weight—and still wasn’t able to reach the bottom. A er that, he decided to reach out to Bell and his listeners to see if anyone had any other ideas about what to try next.
Waters also told Bell there was another peculiar thing about the hole, his dogs would not get within 100 feet of it and birds never sat on the stone retaining wall that surrounded the opening, which he kept covered with pieces of corrugated metal.
A er reading the fax to his listeners that night Bell decided to call Waters to get to the bottom of the story (so to speak).
“I’ve got Mel on the line. Mel is the guy with the never-ending hole and we are going to ask him about it here in a moment,” Bell told his audience. “First of all, Mel, thank you for answering. What are you doing up at this time in the morning?”
“Well, a er I sent the fax, I’m living in town here now because we had a couple of our buildings out there, cave in a er the big snows that we had out here last month,” Waters said.
In the course of the conversation, Waters revealed another odd
detail. One time a hunter tossed his recently-deceased dog into the hole. Sometime later he was hunting in the area and saw the same dog wearing the same collar now alive. e revived dog, however, didn’t recognize the hunter.
“If you had a fatal disease, Mel, would you jump in the hole?” Bell asked.
“I would . . . it’s in my will,” Waters said.
During the rest of the show Waters and Bell responded to questions and comments from callers. One caller suggested sending a person down into the hole in a protective cage “just in the event there’s some kind of weird subterranean thing eating all of this garbage down there,” while another asked if Waters had ever considered using radar to measure the depth of the hole.
As if a bottomless hole that might or might not have miraculous restorative powers wasn’t weird enough, Waters, who would appear another four times on Bell’s show, later claimed that the day a er revealing the existence of the hole on the radio program, mysterious military people had shown up on his property and blocked his entry.
“ e next day I go back there and I’m driving up to my property, and even before I get anywhere near the property I’m met with uniformed people telling me that there was a
plane crash on my property and they have to investigate . . . and they’ll let me know when I can come back,” Waters told Bell.
“I’m no dummy, I’m looking around and I don’t see any smoke, I don’t smell any smoke,” he continued. “I don’t see any evidence of what would be a plane crash so I’m pretty believing they’re handing me a bill of goods.”
From there Waters’ story began to take a number of strange twists and turns. In one of his later conversations he said when he insisted he be allowed onto his land, the military gures began to threaten him, including saying they would frame him for operating a drug lab on the property. However, when they saw he wasn’t going to back down they o ered to lease his property for $250,000 a month, which he accepted.
Waters said he used the money to relocate to Australia, where he lived from March of 1997 until late 1999. While there, he claimed he opened a wombat rescue sanctuary in which he invested nearly all of the money he was being paid by the government.
By 2000, Waters said he was largely broke and back living in Washington state. He said one day he agreed to help his nephew move into a new apartment in Olympia. On a bus trip back to Ellensburg, Waters said there was some type of altercation during which he was drugged then severely beaten and, about two weeks later, dumped in an alley is a seedy part of San Francisco.
In addition to losing several of his teeth as a result of the beating, Waters said that by that time he had also lost ownership of the Mel’s Hole property due to it being con scated by the government due to work he allegedly had done illegally on the property like installing a septic tank.
Plunging deep into conspiratorial waters (no pun intended), Waters said the reason he was kidnapped and beaten was because he was wearing a belt buckle of his own design that contained an unusual dime he had found on his property. He said the coin was a 1943 Franklin D. Roosevelt dime that could not have existed because the former president didn’t die until 1945—and the rst o cial Roosevelt dime wasn’t minted until January 1946.
Pressed to explain how such a coin could exist, Waters said he didn’t know but wanted to mention it because he had found it, and nine others like it, near the hole. He had made belt buckles with the coins and sold all of them, except for the one he had been wearing, which was stolen when he was kidnapped.
In 2002, Waters also claimed that if listeners would go to Microso ’s Terra Server website (that contained satellite images from all over the world) the Mel’s Hole property “has been expunged.” He told Bell that when you search for Ellensburg, then zoom out to his property, it only appears as a blank space on the satellite image. Now the Terra Server site is no longer in operation.
And with that piece of information Waters was gone. He never again called into the radio show or made any other kind of public statement.
In 2001, a Cle Elum man named Gerald Osbourne, who called himself by his spiritual name Red Elk, called Bell to talk about Mel’s Hole. Red Elk, who wore a piece of metal around his neck (that he said was part of an alien spaceship) told the radio host he had visited the hole as a young man in 1961 and estimated it was between 24 and 28 miles deep.
About a year later, in April 2002, Red Elk agreed to lead an expedition of 30 people to the site of Mel’s Hole. According to Seattle Times reporter John Zebrowski, Red Elk guided the party along a trail on Manastash Ridge and stopping before a “jumble of tree limbs and stumps o to the right. ‘Dig in,’ he (Red Elk) said. ‘I’m going to take a break.’”
Zebrowski said other members scrambled over the pile but found nothing. Red Elk, who had abandoned the search, decided
to lecture the group about a world he called “Inner Earth,” that was beneath the surface and inhabited, according to the reporter, by “giant lizards that make sex slaves of humans.”
A few months later Red Elk, who had been interviewed by a number of Seattle media organizations, announced he was no longer doing interviews about Mel’s Hole. e self-described intertribal medicine man who died in 2015 at the age of 73, told Seattle radio station KOMO, “It’s far more important to seek your spiritual life. e hole isn’t important. Just stay away from trying to nd it,” he said. “ e government has it. It’s totally o limits.”
Since that time hundreds have listened intently to the Bell interviews, most of which can be found online, to glean clues as to the exact location of the hole and the true identity of Mel Waters (his name has never appeared in any local directories or property records). Some have organized search parties—none of which have been unsuccessful—to try to nd the now-famous hole.
In 2014, the late Mike Johnston, a longtime Ellensburg Daily Record reporter, interviewed a state geologist Jack Powell, who said it was likely the origin of Mel’s hole could be traced to the presence of a real hole, an abandoned gold mine sha northwest of Ellensburg.
Powell and other geologists also said a hole as deep as the one Waters claimed to have found would be geologically and physically impossible because it would collapse under the tremendous pressure and heat from the surrounding strata.
In spite of such evidence, the Mel’s Hole story has refused to die. It appears in dozens of books devoted to local myths, legends, and mysteries as well as on even more websites dedicated to exploring paranormal and supernatural topics.
More recently, Ellensburg’s Iron Horse Brewing Company has released a cra beer entitled, “Mel’s Magic IPA,” which features the image of a deep hole with a cow peering into the opening.
In his 2014 Daily Record interview, geologist Powell said that a few years a er Mel rst appeared on the Bell program he was contacted by a Seattle-based discussion group studying Mel’s Hole. He agreed to talk to the members and take them to the gold mine site outside of Ellensburg.
Following the eld trip, he said, “ ey thanked me . . . but they wouldn’t let go of the possibility of Mel’s Hole.”
Far Right: Iron Horse Brewery’s Mel’s Magic IPA can art depicting a cow looking down a hole. Right: Iron Horse Brewery’s Mel’s Magic IPA cans with its nod to Mel’s Hole. (Contributed photos)
— Richard Moreno is the author of 14 books, including Frontier Fake News: Nevada’s Sagebrush Hoaxsters and Humorists and the forthcoming Washington Historic Places on the National Register. He is the former director of executive communications at Central Washington University and was honored with the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame Silver Pen Award in 2007.
Coal miner’s daughter
e preservation of small town memories
We live in Mayberry,” Ronald Community Club president Cheryl (Briski) Maras said with a laugh. “People grow up here, went to school back when it (school) was here and move away. But when they come back it always feels like they’re coming home.”
A big part of that feeling is through the e orts of the Ronald Community Club and Roslyn-Ronald-Cle Elum Heritage Club and longtime resident and former Coal King, “Queen” Marcy Jean Minerich Bogachus. Bogachus was always active in the Upper County, keeping the spirit of the town she grew up in alive with its rich Italian-Croatian heritage and the stories that make up its history. Ronald (population 251 as of 2022) was built in 1888 two miles west of Roslyn by the Northern Paci c Coal Company, a subsidiary company of the Northern Paci c Railroad. Workers from Northern’s Coal Mine No. 3 lived in the town named a er the superintendent of mining, Alexander Ronald.
Like Roslyn, Jonesville and Cle Elum, Ronald supplied coal for the Northern Paci c Railroad’s steam locomotives. e last coal mine in Upper Kittitas County closed in 1963, but mining heritage remains strong in Ronald, Cle Elum and Roslyn.
Marcy’s ties to the land and the town ran deep into her soul and was as much a part of who she was as her laugh and the character that de ned her spirit.
In her book, Ronald Remembered, Marcy poked a little fun at the a ermath of when Bert Pellegrini’s still blew up in 1928 and the Great Fire that nearly destroyed the town. is passage de ned the character of the daughter of Croatian immigrants, a true coal miner’s daughter.
“(A er the re) it didn’t take the dry-raiders long to arrive. With their hatchets and sledge hammers, they busted all the barrels of moonshine. People gathered up the liquid with anything they could nd,” Bogachus wrote, capturing the spirit of the town that dates back to when No. 3 coal mine was thriving.
“Even the ash and wood pieces didn’t
seem to bother them. As someone quoted, “Half the town was burned out and the other half was drunk.”
Sharon (Roletto) Browning laughed out loud when she listened to the excerpt of Marcy’s writings from her second book.
“ at’s Marcy,” she said in a telephone interview from Gig Harbor where she has lived the past 47 years. “She was such a character. We knew each other since we
were 3-years-old. It seemed like she was just happy all the time. All we did was laugh, whether it was in person or over the telephone.
“We grew up playing kick the can out in the yard. Marcy lived a block away and we’d get together almost every day. We’d go to square dances and church functions. We went to Ronald School (grades rsteighth), then took the bus to Cle Elum for high school. We both graduated in 1958. It was such a wonderful life. A lot of people ended up moving away, but Marcy stayed to marry her highschool sweetheart, Ed Bogachus.”
Marcy was born in 1940, a year a er the Great Depression ended. She grew up with her sister Frances, born in 1936, in a coal mining family. Her ancestors emigrated from Lokve, Croatia, near the turn of the 20th Century. Her grandfather worked in the mines in Roslyn and her father also worked in the mines, starting when he was just 14.
Part of the town came from Croatian
heritage and the other part was of Italian descent. e mine was the common denominator where two cultures blended in a community that cared for one another.
“Unless they had a business or company store, everybody’s dad worked at the mine, pretty much,” Browning said. “It was an immigrant town. My grandparents came from Italy. My grandmother only spoke Italian to me around the house up until I was four. My mother nally told her you better start speaking English because she’s going to school soon. So, I didn’t even speak English until then.
“I was talking to Marcy one time and she started laughing. She said ‘Sharon I know more Italian than I do Croatian.’ She was around my house so much she picked it up. I think she did know some Croation, but we laughed about that.”
Marcy attended Cle Elum High School and married her high school sweetheart, Ed Bogachus, on June 21, 1958, the same month they graduated. A er a honeymoon to Yellowstone, Marcy, 17 and Ed, 19 settled on the Bogachus farm living in the school teachers cottage, the only school on Nelson Siding road and farming more than 100 acres, raising chickens, cows, pigs, rabbits, straw, oats and timothy hay which was exported to Japan for race tracks. Later in 1962, Marcy and Ed welcomed daughter Kimilee (Olver) and daughter Renee (Graham) in 1965 and grandson Weslee (Graham) born in 1989. e family loved the outdoors and enjoyed hunting, shing, and mushroom picking.
Ed worked as an operating engineer on local road construction projects while Marcy was a bookkeeper for Napa Auto Parts, JC Penney, Sears and Western Auto in Cle Elum.
Marcy and Ed were married 57 years and retired from farming the land in 2005. ey spent some time traveling but never too far from home - their paradise. Continued from previous page
Where others like Browning eventually le town, Bogachus became active in preserving the heritage, keeping things simple in a town where everybody knew each
Continued from previous page
other, where families celebrated on the Fourth of July and every Labor Day.
e Minerich’s and Briski’s lived next door to each other on First Street. e
Minerich house was on the corner of First and Arctic and the Briski’s were at 260 First Street. It was an across-thefence kind of relationship between the two families and Cheryl’s mother Angie and Marcy were quite close and later worked together in the Heritage Club.
“Mom was older, but I remember Marcy and my mom connected through the years. In later years, Marcy was so good to my mom. ey were members of the same groups, they shared recipes and they were both into card games,” Cheryl said. “Marcy was so interested in keeping the Ronald heritage alive, she asked all kinds of questions.
“My mom and dad and Marcy and Ed would go to Lake Spectacle for quite a few summers. ey’d sh and camp and
enjoyed the friendship.”
Bogachus was involved with the Roslyn-Ronald-Cle Elum Heritage Club where she held the position of secretary and treasurer. She was instrumental in establishing the east side chapter of the Roslyn-Ronald-Cle Elum Heritage Club, which started in 2003 and helped acquire the funding to build the Coal Miners Memorial Wall that was erected in 2005.
“ e Ronald Community Club was formed back in 1966 when the schools were consolidated. We decided we wanted to keep the building, Hawthorne Hall, which was the gym and the school,” Cheryl explained. “ e school became the center of town and all these years we’ve had many events there.
“My grandparents went to school there. My mom and dad had their wedding reception there. I had my wedding reception there. At one time it burned down but it was rebuilt in 1916. It’s been a part of Ronald for the past
105 years and Marcy was a big part of keeping that part of our history alive.”
Bogachus also was a member and secretary of the Croatian Lodge No. 56 and on the board of directors of the Ronald Community Club.
In her book, From Old Country to Coal Country, Bogachus wrote: “It was such a simple, uncomplicated, wonderful life back then. Talk about the richness of having everything in life that mattered. We had it all. A great life — rich in love, kindness, caring and family and friends in Ronald. It was a memory to treasure for a lifetime.”
It was that part of living in the small town that Marcy cherished. If you close your eyes and listen to the wind, you can almost hear her laugh and see the twinkle in the eyes of someone that loved the township and the spirit of Upper County as much as life itself.
Marcy Bogachus passed away peacefully in 2015 with her family by her side a er a three year battle with cancer.
She leaves a legacy of being honored by the Roslyn-Ronald- Cle Elum Heritage Club as 2015 Coal King “Queen.” e Coal King award is presented to a male member of the community during the Coal Miners Festival on Labor Day weekend. In 2015, members chose to honor Marcy as their Coal King “Queen.”
e March edition of 1883 Kittitas County will feature excerpts of her writing in both Old Country to Coal Country, which features stories from heritage club members in 2005, and Ronald Remembered, preserving the memory of the woman who carried the Upper County and the coal mining community heritage she worked so hard to preserve for future generations.
— Rod Harwood is an award-winning writer and photographer. He can be reached at rodneyharwood149@gmail. com
Le : Marcy and Ed Bogachus. Top Le : Marcy and Ed on their wedding day. Top Center: A metal welcome to Ronald sign. Top le : e Ronald Community Club volunteers outside Hawthorne Hall. Center le : A young Bogachus family. Bottom le : Marcy and Ed celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Above: e Miner’s Memorial in Roslyn. (Contributed photos)
Alcohol-fueled inferno nearly destroys Ronald Lit
While the 1928 Upper Kittitas County re pales in comparison to the modern day mass destruction that’s tolled numerous deaths and forced tens of thousands to ee for their lives, it did destroy 10 percent of the houses in town, burned down several businesses, le one-third of its population (136 people) homeless and came perilously close to destroying Roslyn.
e Aug. 18, 1928 re in Ronald is one of mystery and intrigue during a time when moonshiners and revenuers played cat and mouse, hiding, relocating and searching for illegal distillery operations during the Prohibition.
Liquor violations in Upper County exploded, quite literally, when bootlegger Bertholomes “Bert” Pellegrini accidentally touched o a 250-gallon batch of “White Mule” whiskey in a hidden room underneath the Falcon Pool and Dance Hall.
Fueled by alcohol, a large portion of Ronald was in ames within minutes. Combined with either gasoline or propane, another explosion occurred and the re, fanned by strong winds, spread from the town into the nearby trees and scrub brush, threatening the neighboring community of Roslyn less than two miles away.
“ e map shows this dance hall was right in the middle of town. It’s amazing there was anything was le ,” Kittitas County Historical Museum executive director Sadie ayer said.
All the coal mines from Jonesville to Cle Elum were shut down and the miners were sent to ght the wild re advancing toward Roslyn, according to HistoryLink.com. ey were joined by hundreds of railroad workers, re ghters and citizens from nearby communities. Some 2,000 people joined in the desperate attempt to save what was le of Ronald and keep it from spreading to Roslyn and possibly Cle Elum.
e major concern was the huge stone powder house a half-mile northwest of Roslyn where a considerable amount of explosives was stored. A Northern Paci c freight train was moved into position on a spur to carry away the explosives in case the re could not be controlled. Roslyn Fire Chief Percy Wright brought pumper trucks into the area, but without an adequate water supply nearby, the equipment was relatively useless.
Longtime Ronald resident Marcy Bogachus wrote in her book Ronald Remembered, “On the day of the re, there were 16 barrels of the nished product ready for shipment. According to the many stories, the product was usually loaded in a furniture van and delivered to Seattle,” she said. “It seems like the same old furniture was tied to the top of the van. e revenuers never caught on; even though truckloads of grapes, sugar, oranges and lemons were delivered to Ronald.
“A er the explosion, an inferno started and quickly spread to the old wood buildings. A high wind helped fan the ames. It spread to 32 houses. People were rushing to try to save their belongings - only to have them burned in their yards. Bucket brigades were organized as there were no re engines or pumps.
“People stood by helplessly as they watched everything they owned burn. People were scrambling to dig up their buried gold and jewelry hidden in the yard. Four businesses were lost - the Falcon Hall (meeting place, dining establishment and theatre) the Donadio Garage, the Federal Gasoline Filling station and a bowling alley. All were situated in what is now lower end of ird Street.”
Fire ghters dug wind rebreaks, lit back res, repeated their e orts and then withdrew, waiting for the ames to reach the outskirts of Roslyn, where there was a plentiful supply of water, Bogachus wrote. Late in the evening, the wind suddenly died down and crews managed to check the re’s advance a short distance from the powder house. State Fire Warden Edward T. Lanigan enlisted
THE REFERENCE DESK
FICTION
“A Short Walk rough a Wide World: A Novel” by Douglas Westerbeke
Plagued by a mysterious medical condition, a young woman nds the only antidote for her illness is to constantly travel and never return to a place she has already been. She embarks on a lifelong trip around the globe and along the way nds not only adventure but plenty of self-discovery. e New York Times Book Review describes Westerbeke’s debut novel as “ e Life of Pi, e Alchemist and e Midnight Library rolled into one fantastical fable.”
NON-FICTION
“What I Ate in One Year” by Stanley Tucci
Award-winning actor Stanley Tucci has cra ed a delicious and unique memoir/food diary that chronicles a year’s worth of meals enjoyed alone as well as with friends, family, and even the occasional stranger, in restaurants,
Continued from previous page
75 volunteers to patrol the hills between Ronald and Roslyn throughout the night, watching for hot spots and are ups, according to HistoryLink.com.
Peter Horish Sr. was 16 in 1928 when Pellegrini accidentally touched o the 250-gallon batch of whiskey in the hidden room underneath the pool and dance hall. e re gutted the business district except for the Modern Bakery, and destroyed 32 houses, leaving 50 adults and 86 children homeless.
“Dad saw it all,” Peter Horish Jr. said in a 2020 interview. “Mom was living in Cle Elum. ey weren’t married at the time, but she was around. All they could do was watch everything the family owned go up in ames. But they are lucky to be alive and that’s something.”
According to HistoryLink.com, the Ronald Improvement Club immediately took charge of the relief work, providing food and temporary shelter.
kitchens, lm sets, press junkets, his home and elsewhere. Bon Appétit!
YOUNG ADULT FICTION
“ e Bletchley Riddle” by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin (Reading Ages 10 and up)
is collaboration between award-winning and bestselling authors Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin is a middle-grade historical adventure that follows two siblings at Bletchley Park, the famous home of World War II codebreakers, as they try to unravel a mystery surrounding their mother’s disappearance.
CHILDREN
“A Stickler Christmas” by Lane Smith (Reading ages 4-8)
is holiday picture book from award-winning author/illustrator Lane Smith, features the delightful woodland character, Stickler, who has appeared in several of Smith’s
e American Red Cross, United Mine Workers of America and various local civic organizations joined in the relief e orts, collecting food and clothing and raising money to care for families le destitute.
A survey by the Washington State Insurance Commissioner’s o ce estimated damage to the community to be approximately $100,000. Few people carried insurance. Many were le to cash in their savings in e ort to rebuild their lives. e coal mines in Ronald remained in operation and the Northwestern Improvement Company soon rebuilt the town.
Oddly enough, only Roslyn miner George Radabaugh was injured. Pellegrini later died of severe burns. HistoryLink.com said a 100-yard tunnel was later discovered by Kittitas County Sheri George “Scotty” Gray, running from Falcon Pool Hall to a storage chamber the Donadio Garage, the report said. A sha , equipped with a block and tackle opened into the now
previous works (“A Gi for Nana” and “Stickler Loves the World”) as he wanders the forest delivering Christmas presents. In a picture book that’s both silly and sweet, readers will be inspired by this story of holiday kindness.
Did You Know
e Ellensburg Public Library o ers a variety of online information services to its patrons, including the News Database from the Washington State Library (o ering the Seattle Times and other media resources); Proquest, which allows access to a number of national and regional newspapers as well as national magazines; Kanopy, which is a free streaming service with critically-acclaimed movies and documentaries; and Heritage Quest, a genealogical database that includes federal census records, family histories, local histories and more. e latter is only available on computer terminals in the library.
— e Reference Desk: What’s New at the Ellensburg Library is written by Richard Moreno and highlights the newest books in the Ellensburg Library’s collections.
defunct building where bootleggers would load trucks with barrels of moonshine for transport to Seattle and Tacoma.
In her writing for “Swi water: History of Cle Elum 1848-1955,” Northern Kittitas County Historical Society treasurer Charlene Kauzlarich wrote, “Upper County saloon keepers generally supported the prohibition law, but o en times fell back into old habits, appearing in court every now and then for liquor violations.
“Prohibition was sort of a joke (in Upper Kittitas County). It was a fun cops and robbers story,” she said. “I enjoyed talking to the old timers about the Ronald Fire. ey were all quite young at the time and I’m sure that they heard the stories from their parents. But it was interesting uncovering a buried piece of history.”
Ronald was built in 1888 two miles west of Roslyn by the Northern Paci c Coal Company, a subsidiary company of the Northern Paci c Railroad.
Workers from Northern’s Coal Mine No. 3 lived in the town, which was named a er the superintendent of mining, Alexander Ronald.
Like Roslyn, Jonesville and Cle Elum, Ronald supplied coal for the Northern Paci c Railroad’s steam locomotives.
But on that day in August 1928, the cat was out of the bag on another operation conducted in the shadows.
“It didn’t take the dry-raiders long to arrive. With their hatchets and sledge hammers, they busted all the barrels of moonshine. People gathered up the liquid with anything they could nd,” Bogachus captured in Ronald Remembered. “Even the ash and wood pieces didn’t seem to bother them.
As someone quoted, “Half the town was burned out, and the other was drunk.”
— Rod Harwood is an award-winning writer and photographer. He can be reached at rodneyharwood149@gmail. com
EVENTS CALENDAR
Disclaimer:
Some events require a ticket or RSVP. Please check with the venue for more information.
FEBRUARY 1
Olmstead Place Historical State Park, Cabin and Smith House tours, 9am-3pm Wicked Winter Navigation Race krankevents.com 9am-3pm
Wine Pairing dinner, Valo Cellars, 6pm
Beginning Fused Glass Galaxy Glass Studio, 9am - Noon Open Tumble and Play, e Dance Barn, 10:30am Karaoke, Nodding Donkey, 7-10pm Ellensburg Contra Dance, Hal Holmes Community Center, 7:30pm Melany Richardson, Mike’s Tavern, Cle Elum, 7pm Wine Dinner, Valo Tasting Room, 6pm - 9pm
FEBRUARY 2
Rodeo City Roller Derby New Skater Scrimmage, Ellensburg High School, 12:30pm
FEBRUARY 3
Open Mic Night, Iron Horse Tap Room, 6:30pm Weaving Circle, Kittitas Historical Museum, 6 - 8pm,
FEBRUARY 5
e Gold Souls and e Flat Rocks, Old Skool’s, 7pm Kids Valentines Snack & Cra , Sparrow’s Nest, Fitterer’s Building, Suite 201, 2:30-4:30pm
FEBRUARY 6
Trivia (all ages), Mule & Elk, 6pm
FEBRUARY 7
Community Workshop: Using Your Mobile Device, UKC Senior Center, 11am First Friday Art Walk, Ellensburg, 5pm Loco Motion, American Legion Ellensburg, 7:30pm Palace Gallery e Green Boat exhibit by Karl Schwiesow, 5-8pm Jukebox Central, Gard Vintners, 6pm Spiced Rye Band, Valo Tasting Room Ellensburg, 6-8p Bingo (all ages), Taneum Creek Brewing, 6pm Pat Moss Band, e Mule, 6-8pm
Open Studio Line Dancing, Ellensburg Dance Ensemble Studio, 6-9pm
Trivial Night, Winegars Co ee at Jerrol’s, 6:30pm Peter and the StarCatcher, Odd Fellows Ballroom, 7pm Mr G, Nodding Donkey, 7-10pm EDM with Djs Dusa, Bassam and Nue.Wav!, Old
Skool’s, 8pm
Karaoke, Time Out Saloon, 8 pm
FEBRUARY 8
Girls Night Out Galentines Bash, Ellensburg, 4pm Palace Gallery, e Green Boat exhibit by Karl Schwiesow, Noon - 4pm
Rodeo City Repair, 1900 Brick Road Ellensburg, 10-2pm
Peter and the StarCatcher, Odd Fellows Ballroom, 2pm and 7pm
United States Coast Guard Band Celebration Tour, Hertz Concert Hall, CWU 7pm
FEBRUARY 25
Paint Nite,Valo Tasting Room Ellensburg, 5:30pm Mobile Market free fresh and non-perishable items, 906 E Dean Nicholson Blvd Ellensburg, Noon
February 26
Bryan Bielanski, Old Skool’s, 7pm
FEBRUARY 27
Kittitas County Pride Pint Night, Iron Horse Tap Room, 4-8pm
Trivia Night (all ages), Mule & Elk, 6pm
YOTES - Rockabilly, Country, and Americana Mike’s Tavern Cle Elum, 8pm
FEBRUARY 28
Bingo (all ages), Taneum Creek Brewing, 6pm Big Swing Dance, Ellensburg Big Band, United Methodist Church, 6:30-9:30pm Jared Graham, Nodding Donkey, 7-10pm e Murder Hornets, Keg Cellar Tavern Cle Elum, 8:30-11:30pm
Got an event? Let us know! Email editor1883kittitascounty@gmail.com.
Eye of the beholder
Ellensburg son Rob Fraser comes home
Forty-three years ago on Sept. 15, 1982, USA Today blew onto the scene with a dynamic design style with colorized images that not only dazzled the world, but in uenced the way local, regional and national newspapers worldwide began to present their product.
e world became a di erent place, changing with the times as it were, moving on from the world of black and white to the splash and free form of colorization, much like television did in 1950.
Local photographer Rob Fraser graduated from Ellensburg High School four years a er Bob Dylan’s, e Times ey Are a-Changin,’ set motion to a new way of looking at things. Yet despite growing up in a generation that questioned all the answers, Rob, through his photography, still values the stark contrast that Fred Archer and Ansel Adams developed at the Art Center School in Los Angeles (1939–’40) when they created e Zone System, which assigns numbers from 0 through 10 to di erent brightness values, 0 representing pure black, 5 middle gray and 10 pure white.
e 1969 Ellensburg High School graduate served a tour of duty as an infantryman in Vietnam, worked as a professional photographer in New York City for 28 years and made the transition from Kodak Tri-X lm to digital imagery. He still nds a certain solace in making black and white photographs.
“I spent more than half of my life shooting lm, but I don’t really miss the darkroom,” he said as if still remembering back to chemical lled trays and the somewhat toxic odor involved with making prints.
“I like black and white. ere’s more emotion involved. You feel the occasion in contrast, whereas in color photography you’re o en looking at something familiar. ere’s no translation needed. When people view black and white, there’s translation involved and part of it is an emotional response. You feel black and white more than you do color.”
His images have appeared in World News Report, Newsweek, Architectural Digest and others. His work of the Gulf War victory ticker-tape parade on lower Broadway in New York City in June 1991 is posted on his Instagram page (robfraser51).
Rob has photographed real estate, streetscapes in New York during a time when the Twin Towers still stood, Central Park and many corporate annual reports and weddings, including shooting the candid photos for Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown’s wedding. He’s travelled the world and photographed in South America, Mexico and Europe, working as a freelancer on assignment or just as a photo tourist.
His life has been dedicated to capturing the moment one segment at a time.
“I pretty much don’t go anywhere without a camera these days.
My signi cant other, Natalie, and I have been traveling quite a bit lately and I always bring a high-end camera with me,” Fraser said. “We have cultural di erences all over the United States but it’s more pronounced when you go to another country, another part of the world. It’s invigorating for a photographer.
“I’ve picked up a lot of energy from what I’m doing. I shoot constantly when I’m away and I highly recommend it.”
People throughout the Kittitas Valley have been treated to the world through the eyes of Rob Fraser for years. e former Greasewood City Rambler, Avolition, Chuck Boom and current Feather River drummer has been back for a while and has been posting his work on Facebook and Instagram. His shot of Krist Novoselic from GustFest last summer appeared in the Spokane magazine, Paci c Inlander. His work has also been well received on the cover of the upstart magazine 1883 Kittitas County. e 2018 Arts Commission Arts Treasure Award winner for his photographic work, Rob has a way of seeing the Kittitas Valley from a local’s point of view, bringing its dynamic energy to life with his imagery through black and white lm learned so many years ago from a seminar with Ansel Adams.
“An important thing I bring to my work is knowing what a great print looks like,” he explained. “I look o en at what the master printers have done and what it is about this print that’s knocking my socks o . Knowing this is very important for a photographer.”
His photographs involve anything from people to musicians to landscapes and does a bit of knocking people’s socks o through his own imagery. His landscapes around the Valley have brought to life what locals see every day and what brings visitors back.
“As I drive around the county, I’m always scouting photo locations. I might not necessarily shoot when I nd them,” he explained of the process. “I’ll stop and will watch for a while, guring out what I think might be the best time to come back. I’ll watch for light, contrast, sun positions, contour and any other details and then decide a good return time. I might also take a
Le : Beehives being tended on Radar Road.
Top Le : Mounds of earth were a landscape Fraser found near Spokane. It was the site for an Amazon Warehouse.
Top right: A dramatic sky and wind turbines taken during a time of heavy smoke moving in over the Kittitas Valley from the south.
Above le : Children celebrate Memorial Day by holding the ags in at Shady Acres.
Right: Krist Novoselic at 2024 Gustfest.
On the cover: Rob Fraser’s portrait by Natalie Le owitz.
Continued from previous page reference shot to study.
“I look for places that have full-bodied, deep shadows. I’m looking for contrast and things that intersect. I photographed the light re ecting o the power lines one time that looked like a giant spider web going across the hills. It was an illustration, a shot of energy.
As a musician, Rob has spent a great deal of his time making and playing music. He has a way of blending both experiences from the stage to the audience, from the player’s perspective and from the audience’s. He’s always looking for a new way of seeing things.
“I also like to shoot from the back of the stage, when possible, as it allows a dramatic view of what people see from the audience.”
Bringing a positive energy through his work with the camera or behind the drum kit has put more than one smile on the face around the Kittitas Valley.
Rod Harwood is an award-winning writer and photographer. He can be reached at rodneyharwood149@gmail.com.
Dulcet tones
e ballad of Merrill Womach
Music is unique in the way that it speaks to our very core as human beings. Quite frequently, music can express what we are feeling better than our own words and spans the full range of human emotions like no other art form. Songs get played on repeat when angsty teenagers have a breakup from their rst relationship. Joyful music o en accompanies wedding ceremonies. Events like the Ellensburg Rodeo use music to help amp up the crowd.
And if you’ve ever attended a funeral you have probably noticed that music plays an integral part in that ritual as well. But the way music has been incorporated into the funeral ritual over the last century is an interesting story – with some things changing dramatically and other parts staying pretty much the same.
For the better part of the 20th century music at funerals was always done live. Much as it still is today, when a funeral is held in a church, the music is generally played by the church organist or pianist, sometimes accompanied by a vocalist, with the congregation singing along. During that same period, for services held in the funeral home chapel, the funeral director would usually hire an organist and vocalist to perform the songs requested by the family. ese performances were usually done out of the sight of those in attendance, usually from a dedicated space in the funeral home known as “the organ room.”
As time has passed recorded music has taken the place of live musicians at almost every service not held in a church. But did you know that the introduction of recorded music into the funeral home space was pioneered by a man named Merrill Womach, a lifetime resident of Spokane? He has a fascinating backstory, only part of which I’m going to cover here. But if you want to learn more, simply Google him and learn about what a remarkable man he was.
Womach was born in 1927 and learned early in his life that he was blessed with an amazing voice. A er high school he moved to Seattle and his singing was a regular feature on a daily Christian radio show for three years before he returned to Spokane. He eventually became the music director at Spokane’s Fourth Presbyterian Church while also moonlighting on the side, singing at services held at Riplinger Funeral Home in Spokane. Eventually, his voice became requested by not only the families being served by Riplinger’s, but by other funeral homes in Spokane as well. Since he could only be one place at any given time, Womach decided that 1959 would be the year that he would
launch his own company – National Music Service – and would transform the relationship between funerals and music forever.
See, Merrill had an idea to set up a studio, record his voice singing the classic funeral hymns of the era, and then duplicate those recordings onto “cart tapes” (the commercial equivalent of 8-track), and then lease those tapes and the required player to funeral homes all over the country. Our archives indicate that our rm (known then as Evenson Funeral Home) was an early adopter of this technology, being issued “Machine No. 158” in a year unknown, but shown to still be active up until the mid-1990s. e system was developed with two tape decks – one for “short play” tapes for solo selections and one for “long play” tapes, which served as continuous background music during hours the funeral home was open to the public. Trust me when I say, some of this music is so depressing that if you weren’t sad when you walked through the door, you would be by the time you le .
Regardless of the depressing nature of some of the songs, I must admit that Womach’s system was truly genius. His crew would visit the funeral home and do the installation of the machine, speakers and di erent volume controls. If requested, they would even install a button on the chapel podium so that when the
Le : Merrill Womach.
Above: An advertisement for Womach’s “Musical Presence” stereo marketed to funeral homes.
Top right: What the Womach’s machine looks like. It was wired into a funeral home and used during services.
Right: Some of the taped music library at the ready for a funeral director’s use at a service. (Courtesy photos)
Continued from previous page
minister was ready for the song, all he had to do was press it, thus activating an indicator light in the “organ room” letting the funeral director know to play the next song on the list in the order of service.
As time went on Womach continued to be a pioneer in the industry, transitioning his older systems out for the new “Musical Presence” stereo system which featured compact discs and a CCTV monitor connected to a small camera in the chapel. He would also pioneer the rst concept of the “tribute video” as we know it today, with photos being mailed into his o ce to be scanned, turned into a professional tribute and then returned with the nal product on — you guessed it — a VHS tape!
When National Music Service led for Chapter
11 bankruptcy in 1992, they had more than10,000 funeral home clients nationwide and eventually ceased operations completely in 2006. A er a small hiatus the company was relaunched by his daughter, known now as Global Distribution Network, providing digital copies of Merrill’s amazing voice to funeral homes around the globe.
Womach passed away on Dec. 28, 2014. His funeral was held at the Fourth Presbyterian Church where he was music director decades prior with the arrangements under the skillful direction of Riplinger Funeral Home, his very rst client in his new venture more than 55 years prior. And if you’re wondering –yes, he did sing at his own funeral.
I was fortunate to have salvaged a fully functional original Womach system and accompanying tapes from a funeral home in Tacoma. And while it isn’t
used for anything more than a bit of nostalgia and a conversation piece in my o ce, for the month of February you are invited to stop by to see this piece of history in the lobby of our Ellensburg funeral home. I would be more than happy to visit, show you how it works and let you bask in the greatness that is the voice of Merrill Womach.
— Henry D. Johnston is owner of Johnston & Williams Funeral Homes in Ellensburg and Cle Elum. He is an avid funeral history bu who also enjoys gol ng, boating and spending time with his family.
Kittitas County 15
SHRIMP SCAMPI
Celebrate love with our Shrimp Scampi Sweetheart Special. Tender shrimp are sautéed in a rich, buttery sauce with roasted garlic, sun dried tomatoes, lemon and a touch of saffron. Served over linguini and topped with fresh parsley and green onions, this dish is a perfect blend of savory and zesty—ideal for sharing with someone special.
COMPOUND BUTTER
1 pound butter, softned
1 T roasted garlic
1/2 c sundried tomatoes, chopped
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon
2 T fresh basil, chopped
1 T fresh parsley, chopped
1 T capers
Pinch of saffron (about 15 threads)
1 T Worchestershire sauce
2 t salt
1 t pepper
1/2 t chili flakes
INSTRUCTIONS
Blend softened butter in a food processor with the garlic, sundried tomatoes, lemon zest, lemon juice, basil, parsley, capers, saffron, Worchestershire sauce, salt, pepper and chili flakes. Process until smooth and fully mixed.
Transfer butter mixture to a bowl and refridgerate until firm, about 30 minutes.
CREATED BY KC (KEVIN CAMARILLO) CORNERSTONE ITALIAN KITCHEN EXECUTIVE CHEF
SCAMPI
2 oz extra virgin olive oil
10 - 12 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 T sliced garlic
Pinch of salt
Pinch of black pepper
2 oz white wine
3 oz compound butter
3 oz heavy cream
3 oz sundried tomatoes
4 pieces of artichoke hearts
10 oz cooked linguini
Pinch of green onion and parsley for garnish
INSTRUCTIONS
Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the shrimp, garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook the shrimp on both sides until pink and cooked through, about 2 -3 minutes per side.
Add the wine and allow it to reduce until almost dry, about 2 minutes.
Add the butter and heavy cream to the pan, stirring until the sauce thickens, about 3 - 4 minutes.
Stir in tomatoes and artichokes, simmering on low for another minute until everything is well combined.
Add cooked linguini to the pan. Toss to coat pasta.
Transfer to a serving plate and garnish with a sprinkle of green onions.
Dream big
Valley eatre Company has plans
It’s been a quarter of a century in the making, bringing to life theatrical musical presentations with such precise clarity of interruption that an amateur production comes o with a professional feel.
e Valley Musical eatre has been the driving force in Ellensburg since 1999. In moving forward into the next 25 years the organization has rebranded, transforming into the Valley eatre Company with plans to develop drama productions, workshops as well as theatrical educational opportunities. e 3-10 year strategic plan approved in September is a blueprint to development with four de ning principles, executive director Jessica Solberg Black said.
• Balanced organizational growth
• A dedicated facility
• To optimize and develop resources
• Developing and expanding educational opportunities ey have big plans moving forward with the goal of establishing a permanent home and a city performing arts center.
VALLEY THEATRE COMPANY
Website: Valleytheatreco.org
Facebook: @Valley eatreCompany
Instagram: @Valley eatreCompany
WINTER PRODUCTION
Peter and the Starcatcher
February 7, 8, 13, 14, 15 at 7 p.m.
February 8, 9, & 15 at 2 p.m.
LOCATION
e Oddfellows Ballroom, I.O.O.F., 307 N. Pine Street
“Ellensburg could be a hub for theatre, not only performance, but also theatrical education and ongoing technical education. We have an amazing amount of talent in this community,” she said. “Our inter focus has been not just putting out a good musical theatre production, but trying to put out community excellence and build up the people that come in to work with us.
“Training the stars. Training the tech people that come in. Training is de nitely an area we are working to develop moving forward over the next 10 years.”
A major piece of the puzzle is to establish a permanent place to make the magic with costume and set storage, as well as a stage.
“We’re going into our 26th year and we have always been a nomad theatre without a permanent home,” said Black, who is an Ellensburg native with an extensive background in the arts and non-pro t sector.
“It brings a lot of challenges with logistics because we don’t have our own space. We have to store all of our props, our costumes. We don’t have a place
to build our sets and it’s always a scramble every year: Where are we going to build our sets for the productions people love to see?”
ey’ve rented spaces not necessarily designed for theatre and transformed them into a workable venue. Places like the Hotel Windrow Ballroom, the Ramsay Building Ballroom, Central Washington University and now the Oddfellows Ballroom where they will feature upcoming Winter production Peter and the Starcatcher.
“It would be really nice to have a performing arts facility in Ellensburg,” Black said. “A full performing arts facility is a community coordinated endeavor. We have the ability to become the center for the arts right here in the center of the state. It’s an exciting time.”
Dream big and shoot for the stars and see what the next 25 years will bring, said Black, who returned to Ellensburg in 2018 and has led Valley eatre Company since August 2019.
As for the immediate future the rst production of 2025 will utilize the Oddfellows Ballroom on Pine Street for the rst time. e space was renovated and developed a couple of years ago. e historical downtown building o ers a unique opportunity for both audience, cast and crew.
“ e Oddfellows Ballroom has character,” she explained. “It’s a very unique space. e building is historic. It has that delightful feeling. Lighting and sound will have its own challenges, but we will make it work because that is what we do.
“We’re building a stage so the audience will be on three sides. It’s not theatre in the round, but three-quarters. It’s wonderful and something we’ve never been able to do before. I think the audience will really enjoy what we’re doing with this space in making it into a theatre.”
Peter and the Starcatcher is directed by Riley Newman, utilizing 13 actors playing multiple roles. It’s based on the ve-time Tony Award-winning play.
Peter and the Starcatcher o ers a fresh, imaginative prequel to J.M. Barrie’s classic Peter Pan. It weaves the backstory of how a despairing orphan became “ e Boy Who Would Not Grow Up.”
It presents a journey lled with pirates, jungle tyrants and the bonds of friendship and a sense of duty and love.
“Peter and the Starcatcher is based on imagination, fun and play,” said Newman, who has been with Valley eatre Co. For three years and recently joined the board of directors. “ ere is a lot of movement and action and a lot of it is being told through suggestion and using the power of imagination in both with the audience and actors.”
It is the rst performance in the Oddfellows Ballroom and the three quarters stage presentation. With the audience on each side of the stage as well as out front, Newman is faced with a number of di erent challenges.
Continued from previous page
“It’s a completely di erent approach in directing style. ere’s considerations you have to make so that no matter where they are sitting, the audience is engaged,” he explained. “You have to make sure of where people are standing, location of props so there is a clear line of sight. It’s all part of the process.”
e biggest struggle with set design Adrienne Leyvas said, is having space to build the stage and put together props for the production. Leyvas toured with Cirque Du Soleil, a Canadian entertainment company and the largest
contemporary circus producer in the world, for 10 years, so she is quite familiar with life on the move and the process.
“You almost need a separate room to build, then move it into place,” she explained. “I’ve never done a threequarter setup. So, being the rst time, we’re going to make this set very simple. It’s easy to take apart, it’s easy to put together. Nothing too bulky and use this long, beautiful room.
“Because the audiences is on both sides of the stage as well as out front, you have to be aware of line-of-sight so people aren’t being blocked. at’s the
beauty of this performance is that we can use a barebones approach because so much of it is le up to the imagination.”
e cast of 13 performing multiple roles requires attention to detail as well costume director Cami Reinke said.
“ is is kind of an unusual show. With a normal stage, the audience is 30 feet away. If you have an orchestra in front it could be 40 feet. But with the threequarter stage the audience is literally 5 feet away,” said Reinke, who’s done set design and costuming for 20 years, seven with VTC. “An audience won’t notice some things with costuming when it’s 30 feet away, but they sure will see from 5
feet away.
“It’s more like a fashion show. e shape of the stage is like a catwalk. e way they move around with the audience on three sides, everything has to be a little more precise.”
e name might read Valley eatre Co., but the production is the same attention to detail Kittitas Valley theatre lovers have come to expect and admire with its local theatrical group.
— Rod Harwood is an award-winning writer and photographer. He can be reached at rodneyharwood149@gmail.com
Above: Peter and the Starcatcher actors Brock Bowers, le playing Smee, and Kyle Nolan, playing Captain Stache, work during rehersals.
Top Right: Valley eatre Co. crew members from le : Taylor Solomon, Adrienne Leyvas, director Riley Newman and Jared Carter peek out from behind part of the set.
Top right: Valley eatre Co. crew members help construct the set for Peter and the Starcatcher. (Contributed photos)
HEARTSTRINGS
ENJOY THIS DRINK THAT PULLS ON YOUR HEARTSTRINGS WITH YOUR SOMEONE SPECIAL!
CREATED BY JENSEN LOPEZ CORNERSTONE & THE DIRTY OLIVE BAR MANAGER
INGREDIENTS
Absinthe wash (coat the glass)
• 3/4 oz Elderflower liqueur
• 1 oz Empress Gin
• 1/4 oz fresh lemon juice
• 3.4 oz Bordeaux cherry juice
INSTRUCTIONS
• Shake all ingredients with ice
• Strain into a class with a King Cube
• Top with a float of Louis Jadot Chardonnay
THE EMBLEM (2020)
Soon a er Callie Rushton begins work as a tutor for a prominent businessman’s children, she meets his right-hand man, Gabe Ward, and is undeniably drawn to him. She has every reason to believe her feelings are mutual. But she lives in the small, coal mining town of Roslyn and it’s the 1930 when racial tensions are high.
Callie knows that a relationship with a man of color would jeopardize her standing in the town and compromise Gabe’s position. ough Gabe insists they maintain their distance from each other, the two keep meeting by accident. When their employer’s young son touches on a mystery pertaining to the rst African Americans to arrive in Roslyn, they are brought together again.
rough their search for the truth of the past, Gabe and Callie are made aware of unspoken societal boundaries and the cost of love across color lines. e Emblem, while ction, draws its inspiration from events of the Roslyn strike of 1888-’89 when more than 300 African Americans arrived to town, not knowing they’d be made strikebreakers.
Written with compassion and heart, this story invites readers to consider the hardship and decisions placed upon its characters.
Historical ction inspired by the rst Black pioneers, the Craven Family to Washington state. Articles and interviews with the Craven family and book purchases can be found on author’s website: www.alisaweis.com
