Horizon Fall 2010

Fall

2010

Retrieving History Historic building finds home at museum

Saving the Helpless Rescue gives animals new hope

Overcoming the Odds Gymnast won national championship

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4 Rebuilding history

Editor’s Note:

Volunteers work to bring a piece As we enjoyed the beautiful, long warm autumn of 2010, we couldn’t help but notice how the sunlight played on some of our area’s oldest structures. of history to Newport museum

8 Pend Oreille County Barns

Structures are utilitarian connection to the past

12 The gift of hope Rescue agency offers sanctuary to dogs, cats

17 Small town flying Ione landing strip attracts pilots from all over

23 Local champion Newport teacher excelled in gymnastics

About the cover: Horizon photo|Don Gronning

This barn was built on the Ed Miltner homestead on LeClerc Road, just inside the Washington border. It is still in the Miltner family.

The barns of Pend Oreille County came to life in the fall light, so we investigated the history of these structures and took advantage of the wonderful photo opportunities.

Also in this issue of Horizon, we take a look at a different historic building.

A group of volunteers worked steadily throughout the fall to move an original Civilian Conservation Corps building from Sullivan Lake to the Pend Oreille Historical Museum in Newport.

Another group of volunteers are working to help our furriest community members. The Priest River Animal Rescue has been saving dogs and cats for nearly nine years now, and they do it all through the goodness of the hearts of volunteers.

The Crown Jewel of northern Pend Oreille County, as some call it, is the Ione Airport. This little landing strip has a big impact on the community’s economy and offers pilots from around the region a chance to experience the beauty of Pend Oreille County.

Finally, we visit with a truly amazing man. Newport teacher Steve Shumski overcame daunting odds, becoming a college-level champion gymnast in spite of polio. His inspiring story proves hard work can lead to great ends.

We hope you enjoy this issue of Horizon.

-MCN

Community Horizon PUBLISHED: December 2010 PUBLISHER: Fred Willenbrock WRITERS & PHOTOGRAPHERS: Michelle Nedved, Janelle Atyeo & Don Gronning DESIGN: Michelle Nedved ADVERTISING: Lindsay Guscott, Cindy Boober and Amy Robinson HORIZON is published quarterly as a supplement to The Newport Miner

and Gem State Miner, P.O. Box 349, Newport, WA 99156. Editorial and advertising offices are located at 421 S. Spokane, Newport.

TELEPHONE: 509-447-2433 E-MAIL: theminer@povn.com.

FAX: 509-447-9222 Reproduction of articles & photographs is prohibited without permission of the publisher.

Fall 2010|Horizon 3

Rebuilding history Historic Civilian Conservation Corps cabin moves to Newport

BY JANELLE ATYEO

T

he Civilian Conservation Corps was an integral part of

preserving our local forests in the 1930s and early 40s.

Companies of young men lived and worked in camps scattered through the national forests of Pend Oreille and Bonner counties.

Now one of the few CCC buildings remaining at the Sullivan Lake Ranger District will be preserved at the museum in Newport.

“This is the original history of Pend Oreille County from 1934, so I wanted to make a point to get it down to the museum,” said Duane Becker, who has been leading the volunteer efforts to move the building. “It’s the last building availBecker able that’s in pretty good shape.”

Volunteer crews from the Pend Oreille Historical Society started in mid-October carefully dismantling the one-room building and labeling each beam of lumber so it could be hauled on a trailer and reassembled in Newport.

“It’s a slow process,” Becker said.

By the time the cabin moved to Newport, volunteers had already put 55 hours of work into it. Lately, crews have been building the roof, preparing to button up the project for the winter. It will be spring before the work can be completed. In the mean time, Becker has been gathering information on the history of CCC, preparing to put together an interpretive display museum visitors can read when they visit the cabin.

The little cabin, covered in green Courtesy photo|Sam Brooks shake shingles, was built in 1934. It Paul Wilson helps take down the walls of the cabin at the Sullivan Lake Ranger District. The structure, built by the CCC, was moved to the museum served as an oil house. Trucks would in Newport this fall. rumble up to its deck and unload fuel and motor oil to be stored there. They of the first projects was building the and the growing blister rust problem. created by President Franklin Delano could roll the barrels inside through a airstrip at Sullivan Lake. The first plane The idea behind the CCC was to put Roosevelt. Men ages 18 to 25 were trap door in the back onto an indoor landed there in late September 1933. men to work and help the country out of given manual labor jobs, preserving dock.

Other work “These structures, we don’t have many left.” the Great the nation’s natural resources. The CCC involved Depreswas run by the military, and work was Economic stimulus of its time building sion.

It directed by the U.S. Forest Service.

Duane Becker It’s certain that the oil house was well roads, trails was a There were more than 1,500 camps Pend Oreille County Historical Society Volunteer used during the CCC days. The young and telepublic throughout the states, employing about men at the camp did a great amount of phone lines works 2.5 million men and 8,000 women. In work during the 10-year program. One and helping protect the forest from fires program that was part of the New Deal the Northwest, camps were established 4 Horizon|2010 Fall

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

in the national forests. At the time, what is now the Colville National Forest in Pend Oreille County was known as the Kaniksu National Forest. The ranger station at Sullivan Lake at the time wasn’t much more than a guard station where the district ranger had his summer headquarters, according to a written history from the Colville National Forest.

“This is the Sullivan Lake became one of the original history first CCC campof Pend Oreille sites in the Fort Wright District. County from Men cleared a 5.6- 1934.” acre site and built four bunkhouses, Duane Becker a mess hall, recre- Pend Oreille County ation room, post Historical Society exchange, show- Volunteer ers and toilets.

The experienced woodsmen who helped clear the site were paid $39 a month, plus food and clothing.

At its height, the Sullivan Lake camp hosted 228 men. Most were from Spokane, Ione, Newport and Metaline Falls, but four enlistees came from Georgia, Kansas, Arkansas and New York. Since they lived full time at the camp, they created their own entertainment, playing horseshoes, volleyball, softball and boxing. They started their own baseball team and played teams from neighbor

Courtesy photo|Duane Becker

The original cabin built by the CCC in 1934 was added on to and relocated. The reconstruction at the museum will represent its original state.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

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ing towns. Though away from family, the men had their festivities. An article in the Nov. 23, 1937, Spokane Chronicle listed an expansive spread on the Thanksgiving menu.

“Boys in the CCC camp at Sullivan lake will miss none of the thrill of Thanksgiving, even though they are away from home,” the article stated.

In the first two years, the company left the camp during the winter months.

Most men went to work at Fort Lewis.

The summer of 1935 was spent expanding the camp and constructing permanent, winter-ready buildings. Sullivan was one of 18 CCC camps in the district that remained open through the winter.

Courtesy photo|Pend Oreille County Historical Museum

The CCC camp at Sullivan Lake was the first of several CCC camps in the region, built in 1933. It was shut down in 1941 as the nation turned its efforts to World War II.

The museum is The CCC work- searching for ers built many CCC-related items of the logging to display in the roads in the area, they con- cabin. Anyone structed a bridge interested can at the north end contact the of the lake, and put up an effort museum at 509447-2770. to control the Hard at work

harmful blister rust that was plaguing area forests.

CCC crews built a network of forest lookout towers that for decades were used to watch for wildfires. The men also helped with fire fighting efforts. In August 1936, the Sullivan Lake crew fought a 200-acre lightning-caused fire

Horizon photo|Janelle Atyeo

Duane Becker, back left, Sam Brooks, Jim Mathis and Paul Wilson, and Bruce Taylor, front left, Jason Rhames, Leroy Linton, Cindy Stanley and Gene Reed, along with Merle Hitzel (not pictured) helped bring the cabin to the museum.

near Big Snowy Top, near the Canadian Border and the headwaters of Upper Priest River. A newspaper article noted the company was well organized and was gaining a reputation for fire prevention and fighting.

Sullivan was one of several camps in the area. There were also several “spike” camps situated further into the woods at Gypsy Meadows, LeClerc Creek near the Hanlin guard station, and Stoney Creek. Another full camp was set up at Mill Creek, “That was our across the Pend hope at all Oreille River from what was times, to find the community someone to retain of Jared. The camp at Tacoma its historical Creek is today character and the Air Force interpret it.”

Survival School.

Another Kan- Steve Kramer iksu Forest camp Colville National Forest was on Kallispel Archeologist Bay at Priest Lake, set up in 1934. Recreation was a major focus there. In 1938, crews improved campgrounds at Luby Bay, putting in a gravel parking lot, tent and trailer space, iron stoves, a water faucet, and varnished camp tables. They built a 3-mile trail from their camp at Kallispel Bay, through the Luby Bay campground to Outlet Bay. They made similar improvements at Schneider’s Beach, Elkin’s Re CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

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sort, Reeder Bay and Granite Creek. A fish hatchery was built nearby that was to produce “hundreds of thousands” of fish each year for Priest Lake.

“More and more people, including many from Spokane, will avail themselves of the opportunity and ease with which they may relax in one of the most beautiful regions of northern Idaho. We invite you to the Kaniksu forest and to our camp,” wrote G. H. Steinke, educational adviser of CCC Camp at F-142 at Priest Lake, in a report to a Spokane newspaper.

A vital part of county history

The CCC quickly went by the wayside once America turned its focus to World War II. In November 1941, it was decided the Sullivan camp would close.

The CCC program officially ended June 30, 1942, and the Army transferred the buildings to the Forest Service.

In 1951, the little oil house was moved from the former CCC camp to an administrative site. An addition of about 6 feet was added to the north and east walls and the roof was re-done. Most recently, the Forest Service used the building for storage.

The volunteers from the historical society are reconstructing the cabin as it was originally built, using the original wood. It will have a gable roof and a deck and be painted Forest Service green.

“We were very carful cutting all the

Horizon photo|Janelle Atyeo

Paul Wilson, left, and Jim Mathis stand inside the 1934 cabin Nov. 3 as it is being reconstructed at the museum in Newport.

nails and dropping original four walls on to trailers,” Becker said, adding that when the cabin arrived in pieces at the museum, “it just miraculously went to place. We were able to keep the four walls intact.”

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about $8,000 in moving expenses, Becker said. He’s hoping to find help for moving one other CCC building from the Sullivan Lake Ranger District.

Because it’s larger – 22 feet by 44 feet – it would be more costly to move. The museum is searching for ways to raise

money.

If the museum doesn’t come up with a way to move the building, the Forest Service will look for another party that’s willing to preserve it. If no one else steps CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

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Horizon photo|Don Gronning

This barn was built on the Ed Miltner homestead on LeClerc Road, just inside the Washington border. It is still in the Miltner family.

Pend Oreille County Barns: Stately, utilitarian connections with past way of life

BY DON GRONNING

I

n the old days barns were necessary parts of farm life. They sheltered cattle

and horses and provided a place to store hay that was dry and out of the weather, to name a couple of their functions. But they also served as dance halls and basketball courts for the rural communities.

“I used to shoot hoops when it was cold in the winter,” says Clarence 8 Horizon|2010 Fall

Miltner Jr. His great-grandfather, Ed Miltner, moved out from the Midwest in the 1800s and homesteaded just inside the Washington border on LeClerc Creek Road.

He built a bright red barn in 1914, painted white on the cupola. The property is owned by Art Miltner, Junior’s brother. The barn is used to store machinery and a little hay now, but back in the day Milton remembers putting up 365 tons of loose hay in the barn.

Once, when jumping around in the hay he landed on pitchfork.

“I still have four holes in my butt,” he laughs.

In Dalkena, a hardwood floor was put in on the loft of a barn built by the superintendent of the Dalkena Lumber Company so community dances could be held, according to the barn’s current owners, Jim and Beth LaPorte.

The LaPorte barn was awarded a $15,655 grant by the Heritage Barns of Washington State Program to exten Horizon photo|Don Gronning

CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

The Miltner barn dates back to 1914, as it proudly states on its cupola.

Horizon photo|Don Gronning

This barn on the Robert Cooper place on LeClerc Road was once used as a chicken house. These days it used for pigs and calves.

Horizon photo|Don Gronning Horizon photo|Don Gronning

An inside view of the Miltner barn, which these days is used to store a variety of things that need to be out of the weather.

This barn on LeClerc Road dates back to early 1900s. Now it is home to a couple dozen chickens and Vicky’s Farm Fresh Eggs.

Horizon photo|Rosemary Daniel

Matt Hobbs is shown holding the Heritage Barn registration sign showing the date the barn was built. The barn, located in Ione, is one of three barns registered on the state’s Historic Barns Register.

Horizon photo|Don Gronning

This blue barn just off Highway 2 in the south part of Pend Oreille County was built in the late 1960s. The color is somewhat unusual for barns, but not unheard of.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 Fall 2010|Horizon 9

Horizon photo|Don Gronning

This is one of the many barns on LeClerc Road. Richard Kimble uses the barn to store timothy hay. It holds 200-300 tons.

Horizon photo|Don Gronning Horizon photo|Don Gronning

The afternoon sun casts a shadow across the front of this barn.

The LaPorte Barn in Dalkena had a hardwood floor on the second story and used to be the site for dances.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9

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sively remodel the barn, which was built in 1916. The LaPortes had to have the work done, then were reimbursed half the cost.

“It was about ready to fall over,” said Jim LaPorte. “It was either that or tear it down.”

The Heritage Barns program was started in 2007 to help owners of historic barns restore or maintain the barns in working condition. The program awarded $500,000 in matching grants to 411 recipients before the economic crisis. The program is not expected to make any grants this year, according to the state Department of

Archaeology & Historic Preservation website.

There were three barns selected for the Heritage Barn designation, although the LaPorte barn was the only one to get a cash grant.

In the north end of the county a barn built in 1912 was named to the register.

The barn is owned by Matt and Susan Hobbs and is located near Ione, about 3 miles south of the Sullivan Lake crossing on LeClerc Road, says Matt Hobbs.

The barn’s original owners got the barn built by bartering, Hobbs said.

“The story was that the Panhandle Lumber Company made a deal to build CONTINUED ON PAGE 11

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the barn for access to the river for their logs,” Hobbs said.

He currently uses the barn to store wood, equipment and straw that he uses for the straw houses he builds.

Eventually he wants to use the barn for a community woodworking site.

The third officially designated Heritage Barn is the Herald McIntosh Barn.

It was built in 1940 on Laurelhurst Road in Newport.

There are many vintage barns that are still functioning, such as the one from which Vicky Cahill runs her organic, free-range chicken business. It is located on Highway 211.

“The house was build in 1912 and I assume the barn was built a couple years before that,” she said.

Cahill and her late husband, Jim, came to Eastern Washington from Brooklyn 15 years ago after she read Spokane was a good place to live. But Spokane didn’t suit them so they moved to their current home.

The barn is used to store machinery and as a home for about two-dozen chickens.

Richard Kimball of Dalkena has another working barn on LeClerc Road. He uses his barn to store the timothy hay that he sells. He can get 200-300 tons in the barn, he said.

Barns come in distinctive styles, from the Gothic Arch, with its pointed arch

Horizon photo|Don Gronning

A barn where pigs and calves now live.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 28

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Horizon photo|Michelle Nedved

Two cats hang out at the Priest River Animal Rescue. The rescue currently houses 60 cats and 11 dogs.

Hope for a better life

Volunteers show their love for pets at Priest River Animal Rescue

BY MICHELLE NEDVED

L

arge hopeful eyes stare out from behind a wire cage.

“Pick me, pick me,” they

seem to beg to prospective pet owners visiting the Priest River Animal Rescue. The dogs bark and wag their tails and the cats purr, reaching out their paws for a pet. These animals have been saved from abandonment, life as strays and sometimes starvation.

It’s apparent that animals housed at the Priest River Animal Rescue are in good hands.

The purring that emanates from the cat rooms and the wagging tails of dogs in kennels prove 12 Horizon|2010 Fall

these animals are happy. But, they could be happier. Pairing these pets up with loving homes is the first priority of the rescue, and they’re making progress. Intakes in 2010 were up 7 percent over 2009, and adoptions increased 13 percent.

PRAR is a no-kill organization, meaning they never put animals down because of space limitations. There are currently 60 cats and 11 dogs at the shelter, located on Highway 2 in Priest River. Foster homes are “Just give them a also available for pets loving home.” that need it the most.

Barbi Johnson The rescue is operated entirely by PRAR Volunteer volunteers, except for a professional kennel cleaner to assure cleanliness standards are met. Grants and donations fund the operation, along with the Critters Thrift Store, located adjacent to where the animals are housed.

The thrift store sales pay for the rescue’s overhead costs. It will accept most all donated items, except for mattresses, computers, printers and televisions. Furniture and glassware are its biggest sellers.

A group of animal-loving residents came CONTINUED ON PAGE 13

Horizon photo|Michelle Nedved

This hopeful face waits for someone to adopt it.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12

together nearly nine years ago to fill a void in the Pend Oreille River Valley community. They formed the Priest River Animal Rescue, a non-profit group that not only offers its services in Bonner and Pend Oreille counties, but region-wide. And, it’s known nationwide, according to volunteer Barbi Johnson.

“People tell us we have a great reputation,” she said.

PRAR will take any cat or dog that comes in and refers other types of animals to appropriate rescues.

“We’ve done some pretty crazy things to find room,” Johnson said.

Foster homes are also available for pets that need extra care, providing space for about 20 cats and four to five dogs. A handful of permanent foster homes are available for kittens that need to be bottle fed, dogs that have suffered trauma that need a quiet place to recuperate, and even animals that had been starved that need to be fed small quantities of food on nearly an hourly basis.

The foster owners have dedicated areas of their home and spend 24 hours a day caring for animals that need the attention.

All animals are spayed or neutered, are up to date on their shots and wormed. PRAR contracts with The Animal Doctor, located on Highway 41 in CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

Horizon photo|Michelle Nedved

Brandon Jackson, 15, and his sister Carly, 16, play with Angel at the Priest River Animal Rescue.

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Oldtown, for all surgeries at a discounted rate. The Humane Society in Spokane does the spaying and neutering.

Many of the cats have also tested negative for feline leukemia, a common illness.

If an animal needs surgery, PRAR holds a bake sale. If an animal needs a surgery, the rescue finds a way to pay for it. They’ve had limbs and gall stones removed, anything that will make a pet healthy. Vet bills alone took up 27 percent of expenses “People tell us last year. we have a great “We definitely lose money on reputation.” every animal,” Johnson said. But it Barbi Johnson doesn’t matter.

PRAR Volunteer “We all love animals.”

From Spokane to the border, from Metaline Falls to Bonners Ferry, people are willing to travel the distance to either adopt a pet or drop off animals that need a new home.

Johnson said most of the animals that come to the rescue are stays. Sometimes their owners can’t keep them anymore.

When the economy took a turn for the worse two years ago, Johnson said there was an influx of pets dropped off by families leaving town in their cars, not sure where they are going.

Johnson witnessed one single mother

Horizon photo|Michelle Nedved

This kitten reaches out for a pet at the PRAR. Cats of all shapes, sizes and color are available for adoption.

explaining to her small children that the nice people at the rescue were going to take care of the family pet.

“The kids are bawling, she’s bawling, we’re bawling,” Johnson said. “It’ll change your life.”

Abandoned animals are also brought to the shelter. Angel, a German Shepherd-Husky mix, was recently brought in by a neighbor of the dog’s owner. The owner told the neighbor he was leaving and not coming back. He had left Angel tied up outside. The neighbor fed the dog and watched for a week and no one came back. Finally, when he was getting ready to leave for the season himself, he brought Angel into PRAR. “She’s sweet, well behaved,” Johnson said.

Johnson is one of about 15 volunteers, not counting foster homes, who operate the shelter and thrift store. The nonprofit agency is operated by a board of directors, including Steve McCarron, Ashley McCarron, Don Hamp, Marcie Rentfro, Rosalee McCarron, Cathy Reynolds and Daun Blaire. Darlene Hamp is the president, Reynolds the vice president, Rosalee McCarron secretary and Blaire treasurer.

Most of the volunteers and board members are from Priest River, but the McCarron family is from Elk. Carly Jackson, a homeschooled Newport resident, showed up at the shelter in July, the day after she turned 16.

Her 15-year-old brother, Brandon, also comes to help out now. They are CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

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the son and daughter of Diana and John Jackson.

“It’s always been my dream to work with animals,” Carly said. “I just want animals to know they are loved.”

Brandon likes to play with the dogs, taking them out to the outdoor pen.

“I like the big dogs,” he said.

Carly is learning to administer shots, and helps Johnson take the animals’ pictures to post on the Internet in hopes of finding them a home.

The Jacksons have three pets: two boxers and “It’s always been my a cat. One of the dogs dream to work with came from animals. I just want PRAR. animals to know they “She’s the love of our are loved.” lives,” Carly Carly Jackson said.

16-year-old PRAR Volunteer They brought a black Labrador home to foster it for a few days because it was having a difficult time adjusting to the kennel. A few days later, it was adopted to a good home.

What’s the requirement for adopting a dog or cat?

“Just give them a loving home,” Johnson said.

A dog costs $80 and cats are $50, and discounts are available for senior citizens. Potential adopters are inter CONTINUED ON PAGE 31

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Horizon photo|Michelle Nedved

This golden retriever mix waits for a permanent home at PRAR.

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Courtesy photo|Century West Engineering

Pilots have volunteered their time to keep the Ione airport in good condition. That involves clearing the runway of debris, controlling weeds, painting and keeping the runway lights burning.

A-1 airport

Ione airport, with its quality facilities, is drawing destination flights and joy riders

BY JANELLE ATYEO

T

he Ione Municipal Airport is well renown as a quality airport for

its size, and it’s only getting better, thanks to a handful of busy volunteers and some new grant funding.

“As far as small, rural airports … it rates up with some of the best,” said Tom Sullivan, who keeps his Cessna 182 in a hangar he built there.

Sullivan and his wife, Mary, have been some of the most active volunteers at the airport. They’ve donated countless hours

clearing logging debris and errant pebbles from the taxiways, said councilman John Redinger, the city’s airport commissioner.

The Sullivans have taken it upon themselves to do weed control and painting sheds – Mary’s specialty.

“Volunteerism is alive and well,” Redinger “We all think it’s the said. “It involves pilots crown jewel of Pend and those Oreille County.” who maintain an inter- Tom Sullivan est in flying Ione Pilot as well.”

He added that David Law, while not presently an airplane owner, has volunteered to keep the lights burning along the runway. That was a lifesaver for a pilot a year ago.

It was a foggy, stormy late-November night, and the man and his passenger CONTINUED ON PAGE 20

Courtesy photo|Century West Engineering

Some significant tree clearing was done in 2008 to make the Ione airport safer for takeoffs and landings. A new grant will help the city of Ione prioritize future safety projects.

Fall 2010|Horizon 17

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were traveling from Bellingham to northern Montana in a Beechcraft Bonanza. They were lost, but when their instruments told them an airport was nearby, they took the opportunity to land and did it safely.

“I like to think that the little airport “It’s one of the nicest little saved a couple lives airports in the state.” that night,” Tom John Dills Sullivan said.

Ione pilots are Ione Pilot quick to tell you how the airport benefits the community. Medevac helicopters use its landing pad.

The U.S. Border Patrol utilizes it in its security duties, and the U.S. Forest Service has launched firefighting efforts from there.

Flying for fun

The pilots that base their planes out of Ione use the airport mostly for pleasure. There are currently seven pilots who house their crafts in the hangars there: John Dills, Bob Clark, John Stevenson, the Sullivans, Scott Buck, Willie Kurlo and Don Glass.

Most keep their flights short. They go on day trips to other Northwest towns where they can enjoy a meal or go shopping and return home for the night. Some go up just to look at the scenery of the Selkirk Mountains. Others just like to get airtime to keep their chops up.

So far this year, there have been about 90 flights out of the Ione airport, but there’s no attendant to keep an exact count. Summer is the most popular time to fly.

Several pilots from Spokane have taken a liking to Ione for a destination flight, and the Cabin Grill restaurant across the highway is their favorite hangout.

“The pilots call that their $60 hamburger,” Redinger said. “That’s about what it costs to fly from Spokane up here and back. It’s a destination flight. It gives them time

Courtesy photo|Century West Engineering

The Ione Municipal Airport is the county’s only municipal airport, and it’s in the midst of a series of safety upgrades.

to enjoy what they love doing.”

Tom Sullivan has flown for 42 years, but he’s been based out of Ione for six. He said costs are going up, just like for everything else, but he feels it’s worth it.

“It’s no worse, in my opinion, than someone who owns a horse or a big ski boat or an RV,” he said. “We have our

Ben Franklin

priorities and we budget accordingly.”

Aviation fuel runs about $5.50 to $6.50 per gallon. The Ione airport doesn’t offer fuel on site, so most local pilots fill up in Sandpoint or elsewhere. Dills preferred it when he could use automobile fuel for his Cessna 172. Now CONTINUED TO PAGE 21

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that ethanol is added, it can’t be used for airplanes or many small engines.

Airport named for Robert Davis

Ione pilot John Dills said he’s seen six to eight planes parked at the field on a single day.

They like the Ione airport for its long runway and open field. Ione doesn’t usually have much of a wind problem, and the airport is nicely situated between airports in Colville, Priest River and at Priest Lake. Ione provides a safe landing spot. Much east of there, pilots are faced with tall mountains.

“It’s one of the nicest little airports in the state,” said Dills, who’s kept a plane there since 1980.

The airport has one paved runway. If you’re landing from the south, you’re coming in on Runway 33, and from the north it’s Runway 15. It’s longer than runways at most small airports. While others are typically 2,500 to 2,600 feet long, Ione’s is about 4,000.

Willie Kurlo of Metaline Falls has seen some great improvements. He’s kept a plane there since the 1970s when the runway wasn’t much more than a sod or gravel strip. Now he and Don Glass have a homemade ultralight called Excalibur that he takes for a spin about every other week in the summer.

The runway improvements came years back, thanks to a former Ione councilman who was very active in bettering the airport. The late Robert Houston Davis was involved in numerous civic causes,

Courtesy image|Washington State DOT

The Ione airport has one paved runway that’s longer than the landing strip at most small airports. The runway is lit from dusk ‘til dawn. It also includes a 60-foot square helipad and a number of hangars.

from the Lions Club to the library to the fire department, and the airport was another one.

“He got the county and city to realize what they had here,” Kurlo said.

The airport was dedicated to Davis in a surprise ceremony in 1991. He continued managing the airport until he passed away in 1999 at the age of 79. Howard

Woods, an Ione businessman and an ex-military pilot, was another resident to champion for the airport around the same time.

New grant has safety focus

A few safety projects were completed in 2008. The incandescent bulbs that light the runway were replaced with energy-

saving compact fluorescent blubs. Trees were trimmed from each end of the runway to make take-offs and landings safer.

Last month, the town learned it was awarded a $150,000 grant through the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airport improvement program. Most of it will go toward studies for runway safety projects. The feasibility studies will develop detailed cost estimates for future work so the FAA can’t adequately plan and prioritize funding.

One safety proj- “The pilots call that ect involves their $60 hamburger.” height obstruc- John Redinger tion, and Ione Councilman another embankment filling. Another Redinger points to as a priority is a redesigned turn around at the south end of Runway 33 to accommodate medical emergency aircraft.

Currently the area is too small to accommodate the wingspan of the fixed-wing aircraft. Another plan is to build a road that would access the helipad from the west side. That would keep traffic from having to cross the glide path where aircrafts head in for a landing. The study will determine how much gravel will be needed to complete the road.

Some of the grant funding – about $4,000 to $6,000 – will be used to replace the rotary beacon. The current beacon is more than 40 years old, and it requires CONTINUED TO PAGE 22

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21

annual parts replacement and remounting on its pole.

Under the airport improvement program, airports receive $150,000 per year. They can bank those funds for up to four years for a total of $600,000. But if the money isn’t used after that time, it’s lost. The city of Forks, Wash., was about to lose its funding, so the grant was donated to the town of Ione.

The matching fund requirement is 5 percent. The town may be able to split that with the state. A 2.5 percent match would mean the town needs to put up $3,750.

Some pilots would like to see the taxi ways resurfaced and maybe another hangar. The town owns three hangars, one of which is rented out. The two others are available.

Four pilots with based aircraft have their own hangars.

Some airport funding comes from the tax that’s collected on airplane fuel. The town was vying for some stimulus funding, but it was pulled because it had only five planes based out of Ione instead of the required 10.

Any improvements follow the airport master plan, which the city completed with consultants from Century West Engineering under a grant from the FAA and the Washington State Department of Transportation.

It outlines projects for the next 20 years.

Pilots are thankful for the investment the federal, state and local governments have made in the airport.

“To me, it’s been an asset to the community,” said Kurlo, noting the importance of having a place for medical aircraft to land.

Miner photo|file “We all think it’s the crown jewel of Pend A small prop plane is stored at the Ione Municipal Airport in this 2005 photo. In the last several years, the airport has benefited from a number of Oreille County,” Tom Sullivan said. safety improvements.

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Steve Shumski won collegiate national championship despite polio on duty who suggested there might be another way.

So, after more tests, they decided to fuse his right ankle, add bone to the leg and rework some ligaments.

The operations were successful. Within a couple years, he wasn’t using braces anymore.

But he was still limited. He didn’t take part in PE or any sports. One day when he was a sophomore in high school in Bothell, on the West side of the state, a PE teacher approached him.

“He caught up to me in the hall and wondered why I hadn’t been in PE at all,” Shumski “It was a place to remembers.

Shumski told feel normal.” him it was because he couldn’t do a lot of the activi- Steve Shumski ties in PE because of his Who had polio as a kid legs. “He said ‘sign up and I’ll talking about one thing grade you on what you can he liked about gymnastics do.’”

So he did. One day the class was doing pull ups. Shumski got to 75 and he asked the coach if that was enough.

“He said, ‘yeah, have you thought about turning out for gymnastics?’” he said. Shumski took him up on it.

“I took to it like a duck to water, once I got the basics down,” said Shumski, who learned at a young age to walk on his hands. He qualified for state as a sophomore and ended up 13th in the pommel horse competition.

The taste of success was enough to make Shumski want more. And it wasn’t just the athletic accomplish-

BY DON GRONNING

S

teve Shumski contracted polio when he was six months old and living in Puerto Rico.

“I was diagnosed one day before the boat came with the serum,” said the 52-yearold Shumski.

Polio is a viral infection that can cause paralysis.

Shumski said that it affects individuals differently, but that in his case, it meant he couldn’t walk.

“I felt fortunate because I knew some people who couldn’t move at all,” he said.

So he spent his early years in hospitals. He spent time in an iron lung, had a full body cast, moved to braces and eventually a wheelchair. His father was a career military man, so Shumski changed schools a lot.

A chance at greatness

When Shumski got to Seattle, he went to the Veteran’s Hospital, where a doctor wanted to amputate his right leg. Fortunately for Shumski, there was an intern

Courtesy photo|Steve Shumski

Between high school and college, Shumski is a five time All American gymnast. He is shown here during a winning routine at the NAIA national championships in Fort Hays, Kan., in 1978, the year he won the pommel horse championship.

ment he valued.

“It was a place to feel normal,” he said. He said as a military kid, he was used to being the outsider. But the stigma of being the kid who had polio was far more difficult to deal with. “Being looked at differently was CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

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the hardest part,” he said.

He worked out in the off-season and, when gymnastics season rolled around in the winter, he made it to state again as a junior. This time he won third.

“It surprised me more than I could believe,” he said. While he had finished 13th the year before, he considered the top 10 to be the elite athletes and didn’t really believe he was there yet.

For his senior year he set his sights on a state championship. But his coach told him that wasn’t enough.

“He said that setting a goal to just win isn’t a goal,” Shumski said. “Anybody can say they want to win.” The real goal was to make the sacrifices and do the work necessary to be in a position to win.

Shumski took the advice. It paid off with a state pommel horse championship. He also placed in the parallel bar competition that year.

By now Shumski had the attention of college coaches. He was recruited by the University of Washington, Washington State University, Oregon State University, the University of Oregon and Eastern Washington State College, which is what Eastern Washington University was called in those days. He chose Eastern.

College days

Shumski found that competing at the collegiate level was a step up.

“College was tougher, a lot tougher,”

Horizon photo|Don Gronning

Steve Shumski has been interested in computers for decades. Now he is the Career Technology Education/Technology director for the Newport School District. He is shown in his office.

said Shumski. In high school, you knew most of your competitors, he said. In college you didn’t know what to expect from the competition, he said. So Shumski did what he does best. He worked.

“He would go through 25 routines a day,” said his coach, Jack Benson. “He inspired many with his work ethic.”

“I was working out six hours a day,” Shumski said. “That didn’t count the weight room.”

Success in collegiate gymnastic was about risk, originality and virtuosity, he said. To win, you needed all three.

And Shumski, with his fused ankle, was automatically docked a half point because he couldn’t point his toes.

“They make no special allowances,” he said.

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Shumski made it to the National Association of International Athletics (NAIA) nationals in the pommel horse his freshman year, an accomplishment in an event that takes more technique than raw strength.

He was the best in the nation his sophomore year. The following year he finished second at nationals, .005 behind the winner.

“He was robbed,” Benson said.

Shumski didn’t dwell on it. He said his best memory from the junior year was beating the University of Washington, whose coach had told him it was just as well he didn’t go to school there, because he probably couldn’t have made it.

“So it was a big deal to beat them,” Shumski said.

Shumski’s success in gymnastics meant his older brother Gary wasn’t the only athlete in the family. Gary Shumski was a track standout. He went to the Olympic trials as a hurdler. Now Steve was on the same elite level.

“It was no longer, ‘too bad you’re not like your brother,’” he said.

Gymnastics is dangerous. When Shumski was competing in Canada, he came off the pommel horse and hit one of the legs, shattering his fused ankle. It wasn’t enough to stop him, though.

“I competed that afternoon,” he said.

“I iced it, taped it, took an aspirin and won.”

Shumski had suffered injuries to his ankle, shoulder and wrist. During his senior year at Eastern, he was work CONTINUED ON PAGE 27

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ing out so much that his right side got overdeveloped to the point blood flow to his arm was being shut off. So he had a rib removed.

The injuries were starting to add up and Shumski wasn’t able to compete his senior year.

Hitting the books

By now Shumski’s focus was on academics. Originally he wanted to be an athletic trainer but he discovered economics.

“I loved it,” he said. He switched his major to economics and labor studies.

Shumski, who admits to being an average scholar before he started to bear down on his studies as he neared graduation, said that athletics and academics go together.

“Athletics and studies, you can’t just do one,” Shumski said. “When you learn to discipline yourself, it helps in all areas.”

He graduated and took a job as a human resources manager in the oil industry. He worked in Anacortes for five years before being recruited by Bendex Aerospace in Los Angeles, where he was director of human resources for two divisions.

It was in California where he met his future wife – Peggy Watts. She was born and raised in Newport.

“We hit it off,” Shumski said. Three months later the “confirmed bachelor” was married.

In 1988, the couple had a child –

Courtesy photos|Steve Shumski collection

In these 1978 photos, Shumski is shown going through a routine on the pommel horse. Pommel horse was originally developed to practice mounting and dismounting a horse. Now it is considered one of the more difficult, if not the most difficult, gymnastic events.

Mandy. They were still living in California at the time.

“We didn’t want to raise a child in LA,” said Shumski. His wife was from the Newport area and Shumski was familiar with the Inland Northwest both from his time in Cheney and visits to her family.

“I love this area,” he said. “When I was in college I used to come up here and go fishing all the time.”

The Shumskis jumped right into community life. They opened a non-profit called Rural America Network that provided grant writing and business development services.

Shumski served a term on the Newport School Board. Then his longtime interest in computers landed him a job

with Spokane Community Colleges teaching computer science. He started in Newport at the old Keytronics building, then moved to a full time position in Spokane.

He went to work in the Newport School District in 1997, teaching computer science. Shumski said he keeps in touch with some of his students, who are now working in the field.

“Now I talk to my old students as a colleague,” he said.

In 2000, Shumski was named Washington State Technology Teacher of the Year.

“I still don’t know how they chose me,” said Shumski. “I learned a few years ago that some students had wrote in letters about me.”

His old college gymnastics coach, Jack Benson, wouldn’t be surprised by Shumski’s effect on students.

“He’s very inspiring,” Benson said.

Shumski now works as the Career Technology Education/Technology Director for the Newport School District.

Decades after his time in the iron lung, he finds himself dealing with polio once again. He has post polio syndrome, a condition where his muscles start to weaken. He is back to wearing braces, although they are a far cry from the full leg braces he wore as a kid.

Shumski said there is one thing that his experience with polio has taught him.

“I always tell people to get their shots,” he said.

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Horizon photo|Rosemary Daniel

This Heritage Barn is located near Ione and was built in 1912. It is said that a timber company built the barn in exchange for access to the river.

Horizon photo|Don Gronning

Another view of the stately Miltner barn, where youngsters used to gather to play basketball in the winter.

Horizon photo|Don Gronning

This Heritage Barn is located in Dalkena and is owned by Jim and Beth LaPorte.

The barns of Pend Oreille County have contributed to the area’s agricultural well being for nearly a century.

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28 Horizon|2010 Fall

Horizon photo|Don Gronning

The owners of this barn hope it makes it through one more winter with its moss-covered roof.

Horizon photo|Pandi Gruver

This barn is located on Coyote Trail and is owned by Wes Bailey. The barn was built by his late father.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

roof truss, to the centric round barn, to the more common Dutch barn, with its gabled roof projecting down to the first floor.

Not all barns are red, although it is the most common color. Some say early barns were painted red because of the availability of things from which rust could be scraped and added to paint, which helped with mold.

Whatever the reason, nearly half the barns in the Heritage Barn Program were painted red. Many barns had no paint. If you painted your barn at all and didn’t paint it red, you were most likely to paint it white, grey, brown, yellow or blue, in order of popularity.

Horizon photo|Don Gronning

The beautiful grain on this Pend Oreille County barn is highlighted by the afternoon sun.

Not all distinctive barns are particularly old. Just off Highway 2 in the southern part of the county is a small blue Dutch Gambrel barn.

“It was probably built in the late 60s or early 70s,” owner Reed Eichner said.

Today it is used to store hay.

No matter when they were built, barns have a certain quality that is attractive for what is essentially an outbuilding. They were key to agricultural life in earlier days.

But there is something more.

“I like ‘em, I always have,” said Junior Miltner. “I always marvel at how they built them with just a horse and a block and tackle.”

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up, the building could be torn down.

“That’s what would have happened if hadn’t found the historical society,” Colville National Forest archeologist Steve Kramer said. “That was our hope at all times, to find someone to retain its historical character and interpret it.”

“These structures, we don’t have many left,” Becker said. “It’s just a vital part of the history of Pend Oreille County.”

Every seven or eight years, the Forest Service reviews its facilities plans and decides which buildings are no longer needed. The little oil house had been replaced by another building. The larger building, which served as a mule barn in CCC days, most recently was used as a fire cache, a place to store all the equipment needed for fighting fires. It had also been replaced by a newer building.

There are four or five other CCC structures still in use today in the Sullivan area. One is the original ranger residence that sits near Sullivan

Lake Dam. The two-story multi-room structure still serves as a bunkhouse when fire crews are stationed in the area. An old barn built by the CCC sits north of the airstrip at the lake. It has been condemned, but because it’s a home for Townsend bats, a sensitive species, it remains standing.

This past summer, the Colville National Forest removed a dam near the city of Kettle Falls that was constructed by the CCC in 1937. Scraps from the dam were used to make benches for an interpretive site that tells about CCC history.

As museum volunteers prepare to open the CCC oil house to the public, they’re searching for CCCrelated items to display there. Anyone interested in donating papers, pamphlets, books or any information on the CCC crews in Pend Oreille County can contact the museum at 509-447-2770.

Becker said the historical society is also able to access the CCC records in St. Louis if you have a family member that was part of the program.

“It’s just a great part of history,” he said.

Courtesy photo|Sam Brooks

Historical society members would also like to move this larger CCC building, which measures 22 by 44 feet. They are looking at ways to raise funds to have it moved to the museum.

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Historical society members would also like to move this larger CCC building, which measures 22 by 44 feet. They are looking at ways to raise funds to have it moved to the museum.

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Horizon photo|Michelle Nedved

This dog has been at the Priest River Animal Shelter since 2008. Ten other dogs are housed there currently.

Horizon photo|Michelle Nedved

“Tommy” eats his lunch at the Priest River Animal Rescue.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15

viewed before placements are made and follow up visits assure the animal is a good match for the home, and those that don’t work out can be returned to PRAR. “Every animal is different and every adoptee is different,” Johnson said.

Volunteers are always needed, as are cleaning and pet supplies. The shelter

feeds its animals only Science Diet food.

Volunteers who can’t take on a regular schedule at the shelter can stop by to hold and play with cats and the spend time with the dogs. Anyone under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Just spreading the word about the importance of spaying and neutering pets is a help to PRAR. Visit www.pranimalrescue.org or call 208-448-0699.

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32 Horizon|2010 Fall