mountains-beyond-blog

[mountains-beyond-blog]

[mountains-beyond-blog]

Where adventure begins

[mountains-beyond-blog]

My Oregon roots. Great-grandparents and their schoolmates. Taken near Logsden, Oregon, circa 1918.

The day is sunny enough to cast shadows, which means, in the Coast Range, the coming of summer. High school graduation. Walter will go to work in the woods, felling trees by hand with a double-bit ax and cross-cut saw. He’ll build a road over Nash Mountain, and teach in the winter months. He’ll marry one of the four young women in his graduating class.

Harriet was born here. Her great-grandfather arrived in the Oregon to homestead. He put up a small shack, which became a cabin. By 1900, the third generation has built a two-story Victorian farm house, where Harriet was born.

She and Walter marry, and run the family land, called simply “the ranch.” At the time, it is about 850 acres, deep old growth forest, and a rich valley bottom of grass for horses and cattle to graze, with a creek running through.

Harriet will fish salmon here, and picks peas and apples and berries.

Walter will build a large barn here, and his grand-daughter will learn to ride a horse here. He will say, “A little girl shouldn’t grow up without a horse.”

The little girl will grow up and have me and my sister. And we will play in great-grandpa’s barn, and learn to ride.

In his 70s, after a lifetime of hard work, Walter dies of a heart attack while haying.

Harriet remains on the ranch, and passes away in her sleep, age 98.

They are both buried, side by side, in a small cemetery, not far from where this photo was taken.