Oct. 16, 2019
Two giant shovels graze where deer used to play. Evidently it is going to be a wet and muddy construction season on Summit Road.
Grazing shovels
Oct. 16, 2019
Two giant shovels graze where deer used to play. Evidently it is going to be a wet and muddy construction season on Summit Road.
This is the final edition of the East County News
"35th Year, No. Z --- Wednesday, October 9, 2019"
Dating McCleary Photos
Sept. 30, 2019
This photo of an early sawmill currently on display in the Summit Pacific Clinic can be dated after Sept. 1902 but probably before 1910. The clue is in the background toothpicks that used to be trees.
The devastating 1902 fire wiped out the entire town of Rayville and most of what we call White Star. Rayville was an embryonic town that used to exist in the area where the Elma-Hicklin Road crosses the railroad tracks and joins the old 410 highway, now called the Elma-McCleary Road.
The flames headed east and in no time at all surrounded the new logging camp. But then the ring of fire just stopped rather mysteriously. So for years the burned trees just stood, shorn of their limbs by flame, baton noir. For some time the children would come home covered in soot after playing outside.
The 1902 fire was region-wide and later called The Big Burn or the Yacolt Burn, but actually was many individual forest fires that took place in a short span of time. My grandmother, who was 11 at the time and living in Centralia, said the smoke was so thick that daytime turned into night and some felt the End of the World had arrived.
The Welcome Bear
Apparently someone sat on the head of the concrete bear in front of City Hall at the SW corner of Anarchy Intersection during the Bear Festival parade and broke the head off. At some point in early August this little chain-saw carved Welcome Bear appeared as a replacement.
Goodbye to the McCleary Museum?
Avarice and fear have combined to force the McCleary Museum to probably leave their structure and thus evict and scatter the collection unless some creative solution is employed.
Your Speed
July 16, 2019
A new gizmo planted at Simpson and 7th. It only has enough room for numbers with two digits.
Here Comes the Space Age
July 14, 2019
1959 Cadillac at the Bear Fest car show. The car and the Bear Fest were created in the same year.
Dick Balch
July 14, 2019
This Corvette is beautiful but what really caught my eye was the Dick Balch license plate border. Balch was famous in the region nearly a half century ago for slamming his autos with a sledge hammer followed by a high-pitched silly laugh as part of a TV advertising gimmick.
Ley Lines?
July 13, 2019
Has some pseudoscience mower has been cutting strange paths in the fields next to the VFW Hall and Rainbow Park with a purpose in mind?
Now Here's Something You Don't See Every Day
July 13, 2019
Dr. Health E. Hound in front of the clinic.
Bear Stew on the Float
July 13, 2019
When it comes down to it, McCleary is really a weird town without knowing how incredibly weird it really is. This lack of self-awareness about their own weirdness is what makes McCleary genuinely weird rather than the pretentious self-conscious or rehearsed weird of other places. The day we see coffee cups or shirts proclaiming "Keep McCleary Weird" will be the day McCleary has become gentrified and no longer weird. And I am afraid that day will come sooner than we think.
Bear Festival Float Preparation
July 13, 2019
The parade floats for McCleary and Shelton prepare for the Bear Festival shindig in the shadow of the Simpson door plant.
Kucinich
Rep. Dennis Kucinich ran for US President in 2004 and 2008. Never say die. I have come to regard this bumper sticker as one of the icons of the town. I mean, we're the place where a huge photo of Gov. Rosellini hung in City Hall for three decades after he left office.
Tree Gallery
July 2, 2019
A charming lineup of trees on canvas drawn by children adorn the locomotive display at the park.
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