HEALTH
LOCAL MASSAGE THERAPIST WORKS AT OLYMPIC TRIALS
THE
BSERVER
SERVING UNION AND WALLOWA COUNTIES SINCE 1891
Vietnam Veterans Moving Wall
Local Marine veterans Butch Boettcher (left) and Bob Moxley (center) and Navy vet Byron Whipple raise the flag during opening ceremonies for the Moving Wall Thursday.
• On display at La Grande Gun Club through Monday Bill Rautenstrauch :The Observer
Moving Wall opened for public viewing at the La Grande Gun Club. Capping a months-long effort to bring the display to Union County, unifonned veterans raised a flag to half
By Bill Rautenstrauch The Observer
Alocal, five-day tribute to the nearly 60,000 service members who gave their lives in the Vietnam War got under way Thursday, as the
mast as a crowd of about 200 people looked on. Not long after that, High Valley VFW Post Commander Ken McCormack took the podium and delivered some remarks. See WAIL,5A
Theater Bringing history to life shooter kills12
Union County Museum helps us remember the old days, good and bad
• Colorado crime one of deadliest mass shootings in recent U.S. history
By Mike Shearer Observer Correspondent
UNION- Both how history is written and how museums present our past is sometimes determined by how we like to remember ourselves. But not all of our past is pretty. As hosts at the Union County Museum can affirm, many ofthose coming to see the exhibits, relics, and photos ofUnion County's past want to see glimpses of their own pioneer families as they were. The museum is rich with displays, archives, geA local Klansman wo re this hooded robe in KKK ceremonies and parades. nealogy, yearbooks, and general insights into our ancestors, but occasionally visitors see something they may not want to see. Included in that past is the strength of the local klaverns of the Ku Klux Klan, and the well-documented injustices toward the Chinese and Americans Indians. Standing at the case containing relics of the Chinese past in the area, curator Blanche Kohler says, ''We didn't treat the Chinese well." On the case is an article in a folder visitors may read about the 1887 massacre of 34 Chinese miners 40 miles northeast of Enterprise. In La Grande in 1893, vigilantes burned what was known as Chinatown, an area where the library and dental school are now located, and the Chinese were forcibly expelled. According to Lee C. Johnson in "A Brief History ofUnion County, Oregon," "Similar violence was shown to the Chinese in the Cove region, but those around Union were not molested."
Of yokes and songbooks The Union County Musemn display includes a yoke worn across the shoulders of a Chinese laborer who would have hauled stones for 10 cents a rod for building stone fences. According to Kohler, the yoke was found buried in manure in a shed near the Union railroad junction on the Lowell Hutchinson Land and was donated to the museum by Niola and Vance Pumphrey in 1999. The case also contains the songbook owned by the Chinese man who operated the laundry that extended over Catherine Creek in Union."The Chinese people were a part of our communities," Kohler says, "and not only as laborers. The early settlers highly regarded the Chinese for their use of medicines." The museum display includes some items used by local Chinese herbalists. Atop the display case is a jacket that was worn by Hop Lee, a Chinese laborer in the late 1800s, possibly on the railroads, in the Summerville area. Hop Lee proudly wore his rnilitmy badge, which visitors to the museum can see stiHon his jacket. The items came from the Summerville McKenzie estate. Although they came a little later, equally notorious to the vigilantes who terrorized the Chinese were the region's active Klansmen. The rnusemn has a small display of Ku Klux Klan material, including a hooded robe from a local Klansman from the early
Mike S hearer photo
Doppler radar spots tornado over Cove Mike Shea rer photos
Above: Hop Lee, a Chinese laborer in the Summerville area in the late 1800s, w ore this jacket Left: Military badge w orn by Hop Lee.
Hop Lee proudly wore his military badge, which visitors to the museum can see still on his jacket. The items carnefrom the Summerville.NicKenzie estate.
See MUSEUM, 2A
INDEX Classified ....... 48 Crossword ..... 78 Health ............ 18 Record ........... 3A Obitu aries ...... SA
WEATHER Opinion ......... .4A Outdo ors ....... 1C Religion .........6A Sports ............SA Television ...... 3C
MONDAY IN SPORTS
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Full f orecast o n the back of 8 section
AURORA, Colo. (AP) - A neuroscience graduate student in a gas mask barged into a crowded Denver-area theater during a midnight showing of the Batman movie on Friday, hurled a gas canister and then opened fire, killing 12 people and injming at least 50 others in one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent US. history. When the smoke began to spread, some moviegoers thought it was a stunt that was prut of the "The Dmk Knight Rises,"one of the most highly anticipated fihns of the summer. They saw a silhouette of a person in the haze near the screen, first pointing a gun at the crowd and then shooting. "There were bullet (casings) just falling on my head. They were burning my forehead," Jennifer Seeger said, adding that the gunman, dressed like a SWAT team member, fired steadily except when he stopped to reload. "Every few seconds it was just: Boom, boom, boom," she said. "He would reload and shoot and anyone who would try to leave would just get killed." The suspect was taken into custody and identified by federal law enfurcement officials as 24-year-old James Holmes. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Authorities did not release a motive. The FBI said there was no indication of ties to any terrorist groups. Holmes had an assault rifle, a shotgun and two pistols, a federal law enforcement official See SHOOTING, 3A
By Bill Rautenstrauch The Observer
Though on-scene sightings m·e lacking, tl1e National Weather Service in Pendleton said that radar spotted fonnation of a tornado near Cove during Wedne..sday evening's thunderstorms. Shortly after 6:30 p.m., the weather service issued a tornado warning for central Union County and west-central Wallowa County, based on Doppler radar data. Tornado warnings are issued when strong rotation is detected in a storm. A tornado may already be on the ground or is expected to develop shortly. The local warning was issued after radar showed strong rotation in the storn1 near Cove, 13 miles east of La Grande. But the See TORNADO, 5A
CONTACT US
CORRECTION Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center is not the recipient (owner) of the Forest Service Compound, the City ofWallowa is, and MHIC will enter into an agreement with the city.
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Issue 131 4 sections, 44 pages La Grande, Oregon
BABE RUTH 14-15 TAKES SWING AT STATE
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