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Highlights

Okanogan Family Faire this weekend Oct. 11-14

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SERVING WASHINGTON’S

OKANOGAN VALLEY

SINCE 1905

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Duncan seeks to cut VA red tape

AN ANCIENT RIVER OF GOLD

NVH Commissioner travels to D.C. to meet with Sen. Murray BY BRENT BAKER BBAKER@GAZETTE-TRIBUNE.COM

Photos by Gary DeVon

R.V. “Bob” Larson near one of the stakes that show where he and his prospecting group, Similkameen LLP drilled in December of 2005 and in the spring of 2006. The site, part of what Larson describes as a buried paleo-river channel, is north of Shanker’s Bend on Bureau of Land Management land.

Golden Opportunity! ‘Paleo-river channel source of Rich Bar’ BY GARY A. DEVON MANAGING EDITOR

OROVILLE – Bob Larson believes he’s located gold in what he calls a paleo-channel, an ancient river bed that parallels and crosses the Similkameen River. He and his partners in Similkameen LLP feel this could be a major find, but they don’t have the financing to continue their exploration. “It’s going to take more resources than our group of prospectors have,” said Larson on one of his frequent trips to the area from his home in Bellingham. “I know there are people out there that would be interested in this. We’re going to have to see what comes out of the woodwork.” Most of the exploration he and his group have done has been on BLM land upstream of Shanker’s Bend. Their 88 acre claim is not far, he says, from the Rich Bar in the Similkameen, the first gold strike in Washington State in the mid-1800s. The stakes where Larson and his team drilled in December of 2005 can still be seen. At that time they drilled three test holes and returned in the spring of 2006 and drilled two more. On two black sheets of construction paper Larson has laid out samples of the gold they found in their test holes with the various depths noted where each sample was gathered. He said the placer gold they discovered got courser the deeper they drilled. “We made gold discoveries at 35 feet to 75 feet. Of course we’d like to go deeper, but I feel beyond a shadow of a doubt that we’ve found the source for

TONASKET - The U.S Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides critical services for the men and women who have served in the nation’s armed forces. Dealing with the VA’s bureaucracy, however, can be a frustrating endeavor, as North Valley Hospital personnel have discovered as they attempt to keep their thriving VA clinic fully staffed. Lael Duncan, who sits on the North Valley Hospital District’s Board of Commissioners, is optimistic that a recent Lael Duncan visit to Washington, D.C., will bring about some needed changes in the credentialing system for health care providers. NVH Business Development Director Terri Orford had reported at a September board meeting that she had run into numerous obstacles in getting providers into the Tonasket clinic, even though several had expressed a willingness to come and who had credentials in place. The VA, however, required that providers be credentialed out of the each office that oversees specific regions -in this case, providers working out of Tonasket must be credentialed through the Spokane VA Medical Center. So, for example, a physician already working under the auspices of the VA at the Naval base in Bremerton could not work in Tonasket until going through the entire credentialing process again with the Spokane VA. Duncan, who flew to Washington

for a conference for her work with the Okanogan County Community Action Council, was able to schedule time with U.S. Senator Patty Murray and also met with Sen. Maria Cantwell’s staff. “There were numerous delays (with the credentialing process) that were really over and above what was reasonable,” Duncan said. “I’ve been in enough meetings with Sen. Cantwell and knew that even if Sen. Murray wasn’t interested, Sen. Cantwell would be like a dog with a bone. She’s very passionate about our veterans and for rural communities, people living with distance barriers.” As it turned out, Duncan said, Murray was more than interested, spending a solid 15 minutes alone with her discussing the issue. “She was very well-informed about it,” Duncan said. “Both she and her assistant said that they’d been working to try to establish this compatibility of credentialing, so that if someone had worked at a university or public hospital, to allow people to be more portable in how they moved through the system. They want to cut the delays in getting physicians to communities that need them.” She said that the visit itself was a little intimidating. “When you walk into the Russell Building, where Sen. Murray is, the ceilings are probably 20 feet high,” she said. “You really know you’re in a special place.” She said that staffers in the Armed Services Committee office went Patty Murray out of their way to be helpful, as well. “I was early, so I stopped in and told them I was meeting with Sen. Murray and told them the situation,” Duncan said. “They helped me get some additional information off the internet, and

SEE RED TAPE | PG. 3

Henneman will be crowned rodeo queen One of Bob Larson’s photos of the drilling rig used to gather test samples on BLM land near the Similkameen River in the spring of 2006. Larson (below) shows off the drill samples of placer gold he said his group found when they drilled test holes. the Rich Bar,” he says. Larson, who is the author of Gold Prospecting, The Ultimate Adventure, talks about the Similkameen in his story, The Mystery River. He has also written of his prospecting efforts in the area in ICMJ’s Prospecting and Mining Journal. In his research the prospector points to mentions of placer gold finds in the Oroville Gazette from Oct. 2, 1931. “The gravel is said to carry placer gold all through it and not only at bed rock,” writes the Gazette at the time. “To hear Mr. Thorn tell it the operation is as simple as shooting fish in a tub, if you know how.” Larson’s research also brought him to N.L. “Bill” Barlee’s Book Gold Creeks and Ghost Towns of Northeastern

OKANOGAN VALLEY GAZETTE-TRIBUNE Volume 108 No. 41

Washington. Barlee, who had a popular television show on Canadian television, talks of placer gold in several locations in north Okanogan County, and particularly about the 1859 gold find near Shanker’s Bend by U.S. Army soldiers doing a boundary survey. Barlee describes the Similkameen as “one of the greatest placer gold rivers in the state yielding a bonanza of over 31,000 ounces of gold. A large piece of an iron dredge that was used to scrape the river bottom in the 1930s can still be seen along the shores of the Similkameen. Further evidence of the rivers popularity with would-be prospectors are the great number of modern suction dredges that can be seen working the riverbed each summer. Larson believes that a former, prehistoric river, or paleo-channel, was the source of the placer gold found in the Rich Bar in the mid-1800s. “The Shanker’s Bend Loop is very important. The channel crosses the Similkameen in at least two places, it’s so obvious once you know it’s there,” he said. Larson and Similkameen LLP’s claims are north of Shanker’s Bend on BLM and some private land, he says. Their company can be contacted care of James Hoogestraat, Attorney at Law, 119 N. Commercial St., Suite 186, Bellingham, WA 98225.

BY BRENT BAKER BBAKER@GAZETTE-TRIBUNE.COM

TONASKET - Karlie Henneman, a Tonasket High School senior, will be crowned Miss Tonasket Founders Day Rodeo Queen on Saturday, Oct. 13. Henneman was the only candidate in this year’s competition and will succeed Cortney Ingle in the position. Henneman was the runner-up to Ingle last fall. The incoming queen lists her interests as: rodeo, riding horses, snowboarding, kneeboarding, sports and 4-H club activities. In school she is a member of FFA, T-Club, has been an ASB officer and participates in basketball and track. She plans on attending Walla Walla Community Karlie Henneman College or Spokane Community College to obtain at least a two-year degree in agricultural business management. As Henneman was the only candidate this year, there will be no try-outs. The coronation will take place Saturday at 7:00 p.m. at the Tonasket Eagles. Karlie Henneman’s Tonasket Founders Day Rodeo Queen application letter

INSIDE THIS EDITION

Hello everyone, my name is Karlie Marie Henneman. I am 17 year old, going on my senior year at Tonasket High School and I am gladly running for your 2013 Miss Tonasket Founders Day Rodeo Queen. I am the daughter of Mike and Toni Henneman and I have two younger siblings, Brock and Katie Henneman. We live on Spectacle Lake and have a family business that consists of orchard and cattle. I am really involved with your 4-H club with the horse project that consists of going to 4-H shows and clinics throughout the summer. I also have been participating in the Okanogan County Fair for the past six years now with my horse, which is always my favorite part of the year. Having the opportunity to become Miss Tonasket Founders Day Rodeo Queen would be an amazing honor and a great chance to represent the town that I was born and raised in. I would also get the great experience to become a role model and show my dedication to my community. This is why I would like the great honor and amazing opportunity of becoming your 2013 Miss Tonasket Founders Day Rodeo Queen. Thank you!

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