Historic Klamath Potluck Picnic Social – Notes July 27, 2004

History buffs, irrigators and local residents were invited to a historic potluck picnic social at the Pacific Power Keno Recreation Area Park on July 27, 2004 from noon to 3:00 p.m. The Klamath River Watershed Working Group had organized the event to share historical perspectives, practices, anecdotes, and reminiscences of the Klamath River .

Pacific Power representatives provided back-ground information on the Keno Dam, generating facilities, and the irrigation project. Some of the information gathered at this event may be incorporated into a watershed assessment collection to show how historical uses around the river have changed over time.

Speakers and attendee’s:

Mike Connelly, Co-chair of the Klamath Watershed Council.

Purpose of this Historic Potluck Picnic: We need personal histories of Klamath Basin residents to flesh out the scientific reports and data. Josh and Terry are here from Klamath County TV to video tape the speaker’s oral histories.

Jim Kerns: Owns J.W. Kerns Irrigation and is interested in the whole basin surviving and having a good life by it.

Ben Kerns, brother to Jim Kerns: His grandfather came to the Klamath Basin in 1916 and brought his kids here. He farmed in the Keno area, owned and operated the first Keno Dam which generated electricity for the little town of Keno .

Mavis McCormick

Paula Long, wife of Dwight Long

Ann Malone: Works for the Oregon Department of Forestry in Klamath and Lake Counties . She’s interested in watershed issues.

Chuck Mayor

Elaine Kerns, mother to Martin and Sydney. Farmed with her husband east of Keno on the banks of the Klamath River and in the Ft. Klamath area. She now spends her winters in Klamath Falls and her summers up at Ft. Klamath .

Sydney Kerns Giacomini grew up on the Kern farm east of Keno on the banks of the Klamath River .

Martin Kerns now farms his parents farm on the banks of the Klamath River east of Keno. Lived here all of his life except for the three years he was in the service. “There has been a lot of changes in the last 50 years.” He farms outside the Klamath Project and has had to prove his water rights in the Oregon Adjudication. “Lawyers are always saying ‘prove it’.” “When people first came here, they just did it. No records of proof. There were many man hours of sweat to build the dikes and change the land. We can see the changes.” But proof is hard to find.

Changes in farming in the basin has increased production and the changes won’t stop.

Shirley Kerns married to Martin Kerns in 1961, originally from Kansas . Came to the Klamath Basin in October and hated it. She works part time for the Fremont-Winema National Forest .

Evelyn Honeycutt lives in Merrill and is related to the Icenbices. She related how the Honeycutt’s came to the Klamath Basin in 1914 from Bandon , Oregon ; it took them 2 months by wagon. Evelyn came to the Basin with her parents when she was 8 months old and they lived at Adams Point. Just this year, she went down Topsy Grade for the first time.

Barbara Hooper Lindland related how her ‘grandfolks’ came to Miller Island in 1909 from North Carolina . Miller Island (now known as Miller Hill) was a real island at that time, surrounded by marshland. Her grandfather, John D. Hooper and grandmother with 8 kids moved into an old cowboy shack on Miller Island that was built in 1870. They started clearing sagebrush and building dikes to drain the marsh for farmland. His sons picked up more property in the area. She has left Klamath several times but she always comes “home.” Barbara was born in Midland (just south of Klamath Falls ), went to Henley High School , and now works at the Klamath County Museum .

Paul Sabo told how his dad and grandfather came to the Swan Lake area (east of the Klamath Basin ) in 1909. Paul was born in 1923 and he worked for the O’Conner Livestock Company for 20 years and also worked for Weyerhaeuser.

Mary Jane Sabo met Paul at Oregon State College and came to Klamath Falls as a bride. She was originally from Buffalo , Wyoming . She keeps in contact with her family back in Buffalo and they are having the same problems there as we are having here.

Paul Hollinger came to the Klamath Basin from Wisconsin in the mid 1960s. He owned the Shell Station on Greensprings. He helped build PP&L’s Keno Park (where we are today), the flood gates on the Keno Dam, worked for the Bureau of Reclamation building the 4 water lifts (pumping stations) on the Strait Drain, and helped build the Oregon Technical Institute Campus. Paul can’t understand why Los Vegas is welcoming 5000 new residents a month and having to import water. “Why don’t the people move to where the water is?”

Jean Hollinger came to the Klamath Basin in 1966 from Wisconsin .

Rodney Todd was born on an irrigated farm in the Sacramento Valley . He worked for the Tulelake Irrigation District as an engineer and in 1964 went to work for Oregon State University as the Basin’s farm agent.

Ron Hathaway graduated from the University of Nevada in 1972 and moved to the Klamath Basin . He and his wife only planned on staying here for three years and then move someplace to get a ‘real’ job. 33 years later, he and his wife are still here.

Larry Peacore and his wife Carolyn farm on Keno Road . Larry came to the Klamath Basin in 1964.

Luther Horsely, a board member of the Klamath Drainage District farms in Midland and around the lower lake area. He stated that the air quality is better now then when dust storms used to cross South Hwy 97 and cause accidents and the wigwam burners are all gone. They used to put a lot of pollution in the air. “Water management is getting better [in the basin].” Part of the KDD’s job is to conserve soil and keep it out of the drain ditches and the river.

Dan Keppen, Director of the Klamath Water Users Association (KWUA) came to the Klamath Basin in November of 2001. His father worked for the Winema National Forest and when he retired decided to stay here.

Brooke Heiney is an intern with KWUA and is from Tulelake. She’s studying Civil Engineering at UC Davis and wants to get her degree and come home to work in the Klamath Basin .

Lynn Long’s grandparents came to the Klamath Basin in 1854 by wagon train. Lynn remembers his grandfather telling him about seeing spawning salmon in the Wood River . He doesn’t know numbers or species.

Lynn related the story of how Topsy Grade got its name: There was a stage stop/café at the top of the grade and it was owned and operated by a black woman named “Topsy.”

Joe Frost is the manager of the Klamath Drainage District and has lived here all of his life. “All these wetlands, have you ever noticed that the birds and animals live all around the edges but there’s nothing living in the middle of them.”

Kelly Hollums used to work for the BLM and just two weeks ago, she went to work for Ore-Cal Resource Conservation & Development in Dorris , California as their Project Assistant. Ore-Cal covers the Oregon counties of Klamath and Lake ; Modoc, Siskiyou, and Shasta counties in California . Her work includes studying water in the basin. She’s been in the Klamath Basin for 10 years and is from suburban Detroit . She loves the natural beauty of this land.

Lewis Furber was unable to attend but he called the moderator last night and asked that she relate the following stories:

Lewis Furber is a long time Basin resident at Miller Island . His family has been here since the early 1900s. His home on the south side of the Klamath River is possibly the first house built on that side of the river.

According to Furber, there used to be bullheads in the river but none since the dams were built. The river is devoid of fish since he was a kid.

Being an amateur archeologist, he went down to the basalt reef in the Klamath River right after they blew a section out before building the present Keno Dam. He found obsidian embedded in the basalt reef and what looked like a broom handle. He removed it and saw that it had engravings on it. The wood had a toggle on it and Furber thought it was a salmon spear. It was 5 feet long and the end was fire hardened. He took it to several people in the basin including Carroll Howe and Cap Collier because he was concerned about deterioration out in the air. Collier told him to place it in a pipe and pour linseed oil in with it, cap the ends, prop it up against his barn, and leave it alone for a few years. The salmon spear resembles ones found down on the Pit River . Furber also found an old Indian dugout canoe and both it and the salmon spear are in the Klamath County Museum .

Some one from the audience mentioned an article in the Merrill Centennial Magazine that tells of catching steelhead on the Lost River near Merrill.

(The Pacific Power and Light representative handed out excerpts from 50 Years on the Klamath by John C. Boyle and talked about the Keno Dam, McCormick Site, Southern Pacific Power Site, Southern Oregon Water Company, Keno Power Company, and the Bureau of Reclamation. The following is taken directly from the handout:)

Keno – A Little History

Keno: Keno was the control point in the Upper Klamath Basin where the Klamath River left the agricultural land and regulating lakes and stared down the canyon through the Cascade Mountains on its course to the Pacific Ocean . Keno has also been marked as the point of division between irrigation and power, however diversions for irrigation were proposed at points below Keno.

McCormick Site: On February 20, 1906 an agreement was made by the Reclamation Service with Thomas McCormick for purchase of water rights and the rights of way for building a cut in the Keno reef for lowering the Klamath River , possibly lowering Lower Klamath Lake and providing a better discharge channel for waters from the proposed Lost River diversion canal. The McCormick site was a strip 400 feet wide, 9000 feet long on the south and west bank of the Klamath River, including power development possibilities in this strip of 68 feet fall.

Bureau of Reclamation: During March and April 1906, the Reclamation Service made preliminary surveys of the power possibilities below Keno (McCormick Site) to Beswick , California .

Southern Pacific Power Site: The property acquired by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company was purchased from it by Copco in 1921. It had a possible diversion dam site at the old crib dam and bridge on the Klamath River six miles below Keno. The Southern Pacific had made preliminary investigations and had excavated a bench along the north side of the river about three quarters of a mile long which could be used in connection with any power development planned by that company.

It was assumed that this site together with a site on the North Umpqua River and one on the Willamette River, were part of a program to electrify the railroad from Redding, California to Eugene, Oregon if and when such a rail road was built.

Southern Oregon Water Company: A proposed development was that of the Southern Oregon Water Company who owned considerable of the riparian lands between Keno and the California-Oregon state line. The land was subsequently transferred to Weyerhaeuser to develop power and use it in their mills . . . but were since convinced that they could buy power cheaper than they could develop it. Negotiations resulted in the purchase of all the holdings by Copco.

Keno Power Company: The Keno Power Company’s first plant was put into operations in 1912.

On April 4, 1917 the Keno Power Company asked the city of Klamath Falls for a franchise and grant for 25 years to supply all purposed, electricity within the city limits and within any future extended boundaries.

Copco asked for and obtained an injunction against granting such a franchise.

This caused a battle between the two power companies.

Keno Power’s power plant was being used to supply power and lights to a few farmers in the neighborhood of Keno, but it had no line within the town of Klamath Falls and nor line leading to it.

The power plants and distribution lines of the Keno Power Company were acquired by Copco on April 1, 1920 .

In an August 8, 1919 reconnaissance report on the Klamath River at Keno the following data was included:

Drop in Kerns plant about 30 feet
Dam about 400 feet long, rock ribs filled with loose rock

and timber of all kinds

Two-inch planks placed vertically against upstream face

of timber and rocks

Canal 300 feet long, 30 feet wide at water surface,

lined for 125 feet at lower end with concrete

Old power house No. 1 (125 KW) no longer used
Penstock to No. 2 power house made of concrete with

wooden gates in concrete guides

New power house No. 2 in fair shape, 360 KW generator

An additional 750 KW unit No. 3 was moved from the Gold Ray Power Plant on Rogue River and installed in 1921 by Copco.

The Bureau of Reclamation: Advertised the McCormick site for sale on January 18, 1927 . Many protests were filed against the sale, so on the date of sale Copco made public a statement “ . . . that it was not interested in making a bid for purchase of the McCormick power site as it was not an economical site on which to build compared to some of the lower sites.” However, if any bids were received Copco would withdraw this statement.

Brief History Hydro Development on Klamath

1879 Thomas Edison invented the incandescent electric lamp

1882 West Side ( Keno Canal ) had a flour mill ( Link River )

1896 East Side , small electric plant built

1902 Reclamation Act passed, appropriating all

unappropriated rights in Basin

1903 Fall Creek hydro plant constructed

1908 Power lines extended from East Side plant to Merrill and Bonanza

1909 B.E. and J.W. Kerns applied for a water right here in Keno

for a diversion dam and power plant (805 second/foot water

right) and to irrigate and drain “Keno Flat”. Went into

operation in 1912, acquired by Copco in 1920. Three

power houses.

1911 Copco formed from consolidation of several small

hydro companies

1917 Dept. Interior and Copco sign agreement to build Link River

Dam

1918 Copco No. 1 hydro plant was completed

1921 Link River Dam completed

1922 Copco purchased Keno and Ankeny canals

1923 East Side and West Side plants rebuilt (West Side originally

built in 1908)

1925 Copco No. 2 hydro plant was completed

1951 Initiated steps to license Big Bend (later to become J.C.

Boyle)

1958 J.C. Boyle hydro plant was completed

1962 Iron Gate hydro plant was completed

1967 Keno Dam was built

(Below are pictures of the Keno Dam. The current Keno Dam was built in 1967 to replace old the original hydroelectric dam. The current dam does not have hydroelectric capabilities; its total function is for flood control and the release of water from the Upper Klamath Basin to the Klamath River . )