The Canyon Weekly
February 6, 2015
Volume 6, Issue 6
75 cents
Your local news source for the North Santiam Canyon
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Serving the communities of Lyons, Mehama, Elkhorn, Mill City, Gates, Niagara, Detroit, Breitenbush, Idanha and Marion Forks
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North Santiam River Guides dinner features the history of the drift boat
Author Roger Fletcher of Dallas, Oregon has a life long passion for the small wooden boat. So much so that he wrote a book about them: Drift Boats and River Dories. Fletcher has
Above: Bob Lusk, the outgoing president of the North Santiam River Guides Association, reports on the annual fish count totals for 2014. He then announced the newly appointed president, Bill Sanderson, pictured at right, drifting down the N. Santiam River.
been researching, building and writing about them since 1995, and presents with an apparent and deep love for both the rivers and wooden boats that float them. Set in the backdrop of the Gates Fire Hall, Fletcher addressed the crowded room of boaters and guides after enjoying a dinner prime rib catered by Trexler Farms. The presentation featured historic photos and films of boats on the river showing men in hats and ties, and women in skirts and furs, out for a day on the water.
Excerpt from Drift Boats and River Dories:
If you have felt the quiet wake of wood on water, Or the tranquility of a river canyon made crisp by your oneness with that milieu; If you have danced with white water under crystal skies, Or nestled on a velvet sandbar under panoplies of stars, Then you have felt the river’s touch.
Our history: Living in Niagara during WWII
everything a kid needed at that age was raYou didn’t go by fashion; you wore what tioned. Shoes were hard to come by, and our could be bartered. You didn’t go by style, Vignettes in time, as told Mom, Eda Stafford, was dedicated to good you went by need. When school was out, by lifelong Canyon resident feet, but our feet grew faster than you took your shoes off and Carmen Barnhardt to her You kept track those stamps. We did a lot of traddidn’t put them on again undaughter, Melody Munger of neighbors ing of those ration stamps, espetil school on August 22, 2014 cially for shoes. On Christmas Eve started in the fall. in Niagara so of 1941, Aunt Florence Muise died Yes, everybody kept track we could trade Part 1 of 3: and Wiley, Ollie and Louise came hand-me-downs. of what everybody else had Sugar. Coffee. Shoes. Gas. Tires. to live with Grandpa and Grandma and kept in mind what othYou didn’t go Marvin Stafford, my brother and I were 10- Nystrom. er people needed. We took by fashion; you care of each other. 11 or 12 years old during WWII and about If Wiley or Ollie had outgrown certain sizes, then Mar- wore what could Regarding other rationed vin’s shoes went to items, some people weren’t be bartered. them. You kept track You didn’t go by physically up to tending a of neighbors in Niaggarden, so we traded. style, you went ara so we could trade There existed a great tradby need. hand-me-downs. ing business and people There were 14 kids in were fair-minded. George Niagara at that time and I was and Eda Stafford, our Mom and Dad always the only girl. My hand-me- had a big garden. Once in a while, by trading downs, which were lovely, vegetables we would get gas stamps saved came from a neighbor, Bur- ahead and then we would trade gas stamps nell and Francie Stone who for sugar. lived a couple miles away at Everyone’s rations were pretty short. Mom the Fred Stone place locat- needed sugar to do all the canning she did… ed on the s-curves between over 2,000 quarts of fruit, beef, salmon, venGates and Niagara. ison, jams and jellies and (cont’d on page 4) 1 By Melody Munger