Herald and News: Recalling life in the Basin as it used to be

Tales of life as it was in rural areas of Klamath County are told in “Stories Along the Sprague: Sprague Valley Elders Talk to Book Review Young People About Their Lives.”

“There are some great stories,” says Doug Frank. He compiled and edited the reminiscences of 22 people, mostly Klamath Tribes elders who live in the Chiloquin, Sprague River, Beatty and Bly areas.

“Some of these people are great human beings. They didn’t tell us everything, but they told enough.”

Frank, a long-time teacher at the Oregon Extension of Houghton College, in the community of Lincoln on Highway 66 between Keno and Ashland, contacted about 30 people age 60 and older in 2005. Unusually, he worked with the Klamath Tribes and Chiloquin High School to select possible candidates and recruit high school students who conducted the initial interviews.

“The one thing I did that was right was I got the high school kids to hear the stories,” Frank says. “That was the entree to the people. They (the elders) wanted to tell their stories. They felt honored. I feel like a lot of these 22 elders are personal friends.”

Among the Klamaths interviewed are Cleo Atchley, Annabelle Bates, Vince “Buttons” Bodner, Bobby David, James Godowa Jr., Philip Jackson, Buddy Parazoo, Lynn Schonchin, Helen Crume Smith and Albert Lawvor.

Non-Indians with a long history in the region include Gerda Hyde, Jim Goold, Olive Hall, Norma “Normie” Hill, Glen and Bonnie Kircher, Avis Little, Shirley Pederson, Bob Sanders and Edwin “Kenny” Vieira.

“I’m fascinated with the white ranching culture and the tribal culture,” Frank says, noting the idea for the book stemmed from his fascination with the region. “That was just falling in love with the Sprague and Williamson areas and trying to figure to figure out, ‘How can I know it better?’ It’s magical,” he says of the region. “I don’t know how you can’t fall in love with it. I like the history, I like the people.”

Working with the tribes and high school, Frank devised a plan where the high school students — Laramie Brandt of Bonanza High and Wylee Collins, Natalie Fisher, Jaimo Jorge Jackson and Nadia Plascencia of Chiloquin High — would conduct the interviews while assisted by some of Frank’s former Houghton College students — “That brought a little more maturity into the room.”

The taped interviews were transcribed and sent to the interviewees, who sometimes filled in blanks or added new information. Frank later personally met with each of the people interviewed.

The 64-year-old Frank believes the book, which has already sold so quickly that a second edition is being published, honors the elders, records histories that might otherwise be forgotten and fulfills some of his personal goals.

“When you get to be a certain age you ask, ‘What gives me life?’ I feel a pull to the place, some draw to the people and the landscape that’s filling a hole in my life,” Frank says. “I didn’t want to waste the opportunity.”

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