Category: Community

Suggestions for Ecomonic Plan

Leave a comment

Happy Campers received an invitation to a meeting by the Karuk Tribe for input on an economic development plan for our local area. We applaud the Karuk Tribal leadership for taking seriously the importance of economic vitality of this area and look forward to that meeting. In the meantime, a Happy Camper has suggestions…..

Dear Sirs

In response to your letter concerning the public meeting to develop a 5 to 10 year economic development plan.

A 5 to 10 year economic plan is a laudable project.

The things that can be produced from the 1.2 million acres of Karuk Ancestral Territory are mining, farming, logging and tourism.

On mining the Karuk Tribe needs to pressure the California legislature to end the moratorium on gold dredging which will bring back the gold tourism activity. This would have an immediate economic benefit to the community.

Tourism includes hunting, fishing and camping. The Karuk Tribe needs to set up a fish hatchery and begin stocking the Klamath River and its tributaries with fish species that can be caught and kept. This can provide jobs for community members running the hatchery and delivering the fish as well as boosting fishing tourism.

The Karuk Tribe needs to take over management of the forest and resume logging to clear land so as to increase the grazing for deer and elk. This will produce larger herds and increase hunting tourism. Before 1850 the Karuk Tribe managed the tree density by burning portions of the forest to create feed for the deer and elk.

The Karuk Trbe needs to build a saw mill to take the logs cut by community members and turn them into lumber that can be sold to produce income for the community members.

The Karuk Tribe needs to encourage local farming of organic vegetables and grains so that local people can buy locally grown foods that are more nutritious than the stuff available from the super markets.

There may be other possibilities but these are the obvious ones.

Sincerely
Pete McLaughlin
Happy Camp, CA

Community, Opinions ,

Art & Treasure Weekend

Leave a comment

Perspectives by Pete

Perspectives by Pete


©2011 Pete Winslow

One of the very best marriage advice tips I ever received was “Don’t marry anyone without playing at least one game of monopoly with them.”

I’ve done that, intentionally with a few friends and, even with people I’ve known for years, there’s something about the Monopoly experience that will reveal something about your former friend that you never dreamed was lurking inside.

Yard-saling is kinda like that, which is what happened this weekend in Happy Camp, CA. Over one hundred years ago, one of my most favorite authors, James Allen, said, “Circumstances don’t make the man, they reveal him to himself.” And, like a rousing game of Monopoly there is something about being at the helm of a yard sale that reveals qualities in my neighbors, friends, and other visitors that any other normal village activities would not provide the necessary catalyst for; revealing the some time scary depths of an individual or group.

An artist may kindly inform you that the picture you have priced at $.50 is really worth $25 and then gladly pay it. Another “bargain hunter,” and hunter is the operative word, may stomp out of your yard in an indignant huff because you refuse to sell earrings, marked down to $20 for only $.25 cents.

To offer another comparative example, like golf, yardsaling can be a character building experience. In the game of golf, for a right hander, if it curves to the left it’s called a hook, to the right it’s a slice and if shot straight, it’s a miracle!” So there are some who will try and slice your potential profits down by 90% or more.

Others will recheck you up with the inherent true worth of your beloved treasure. But if you are lucky, your day will mostly provide the middle of the road folk who will gently haggle, usually leave with something, including good feelings in you to accompany the few dollars that changed hands. These good vibes are the daily miracles in life and, in the end, are the only really good reason to interact with anybody.

So what does the “Art & Treasure Weekend mean to me? I have, yet again a much DEEPER APPRECIATION for the gentle Art of respectful dialogue and the absolute Treasure of those gentle souls who never lose contact with the with the inner knowledge of the inherent value of every individual we came in contact with!

This weekend, including the preceding days of preparation, have been an enjoyable, exhausting, trying, aggravating, mix of cheerleaders, those diseased with what I call “monopoly heart” and a completely refreshing breed of those who cannot help but breathe life into every situation they bless with their presence.

Community, Opinions

Have a Blessed, Garbage FREE Day!!

2 comments

At this glad time of year when there is so much celebration with Hanukkah and Christmas and all they bring, sometimes sadness creeps in, like the Grinch that stole Christmas. Sometimes there are sad memories or missing loved ones who are far away now, but that is usually balanced with the happy and joyous memories of Christmas past.

However, should sad things come along that might ruin the celebration, remember the Rule of the Garbage Truck applies. A recent e-mail explained that “many people are like garbage trucks, they run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger and disappointment.

As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they’ll dump it on you. Don’t take it personally, Just smile, wave, wish them well and move on.

Don’t take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home or on the streets of Happy Camp.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life’s too short to wake up in the morning with regrets.

So Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don’t. Life is 10% what you make it and 90% how you take it. Have a blessed, garbage-free day!”

Community, Editorials, Happy Camp

Happy Camp Community Spirit

One comment

To the Editor:

Volunteers! Donations of time, labor and materials! That is the kind of community spirit that built needed places for the local folks in the history of the Happy Camp area, and other towns of Siskiyou County.

Indian Creek School 1883 and 1890, log church, 1928, log high school 1933, Grange hall, (Red Cross) First Aid Station, town Fire Hall, Lion’s Boy Scout building, Library, and the volunteer firefighters, ambulance services and other community efforts. Donations of land, timber, plywood, equipment, and money, manpower and ambition…that is the kind of community spirit that built the Happy Camp Health Services.

I do not believe that local citizens will stand for seeing that Health Service taken over without a fight.

James A. Waddell

Roseville

Note: Jim is a Happy Camp citizen who moved away awhile. Five white generations of his family have been the pioneers who called this area “home” since gold prospecting and he is also a member of the Karuk Tribe of the Klamath River. He lived on the family homestead (of 1900’s) in the Happy Camp area for over fifty years and enjoyed hunting, hiking the mountains, appraising of timber, working as fishing guide and takes absolutely wonderful outdoor photographs. He helped us with technology at the Happy Camp Community Computer Center for awhile also. Lately he has been blessing us with the stories of the history of this area through tales of his family,  for which we are grateful! A cd of beautiful photos of the area is available (see ad on frontpage of Happy Camp News for further information)~jbushy

Community, Happy Camp Health Service, Volunteers

Happy Camp Is Like A Fish Bowl

3 comments

A View From My Hill

Wild flowers at Wingate River Access

Happy Camp Is Like A Fish Bowl

By Linda Martin

Happy Camp is a small town and there’s no bad side of town. Every side is just about like any other. And this causes some people discomfort.

You see, if you’re used to being able to live on the good side of town in a larger community, it is a step down to come to a place like Happy Camp where we’re all together – the good, the imperfect, and whoever comes to live with us.

We’re deep inside the Klamath National Forest – a group of less than 1500 souls. Some were born here. Some have had family here for many centuries and others for more than one century. But many of us have no idea where our ancestors came from. We were born in this country which is not our ancestors’ native land, and we struggle to find a place we can call home. We’ve been drawn to this remote mountain community either by the hand of fate or the will of God, where we learn that Happy Campers are all like one big extended family. We’re together here, deep in the most remote part of the forest, trying to make the best of it.

So if you’re reading this website thinking you might want to move here as many have done before you, consider this. In Happy Camp we’re not just talking about the unity of mankind. We’re living it. There are no bad people here, but there are plenty of imperfect ones and if we’re going to be honest we’ll admit that everyone is imperfect. There are those who let it show and those who try to hide their imperfections, but in general we’re all pretty much alike.

Though there are no bad people here, there are bad drugs that cause some of our citizens to act in ways others consider to be irresponsible and immature. And in a larger town most of those people would be living on ‘the other side of town’ – forced by economic necessity to rent places that we can not see or be bothered by because we never go there.

Well in Happy Camp, we don’t have that type of luxury. There’s no bad neighborhood. All neighborhoods are pretty much alike with both good and troubled people in them. And though we may complain about our neighbors, they are still like our cousins, brothers and sisters, and they’re probably not going away any time soon. So like any big family there are sometimes petty arguments, then we usually get over them because that’s what people in families do.

So if you’re used to luxury living, it is possible Happy Camp isn’t the place for you. True, you could buy a home outside of town and only drive into town to get your mail and groceries, but then you’d miss the true beauty of Happy Camp. By true beauty I mean the friendships and comaraderie you find by associating with all classes of people here. Yet this apparently is not for everyone.

As editor of this news site I have met people who learned about the town from this site and came here to buy property. Please consider this your warning. Though Happy Camp is a beautiful and isolated community in the middle of a gorgeous national forest, we’re not all upscale and if you find that bothersome, you may want to look for other lodging.

However if you love humanity, care about people, and want to join together with all classes to help and find new kinds of friends, this is a great fishbowl to be in.

———-

Linda Martin is the editor and publisher of Happy Camp News. She writes novels in her spare time. Her writing website is at http://www.lindajomartin.com.

Community, Editorials, Happy Camp, Linda Martin, Opinions

Courteous, Concerned Community Dialogue Furthers Happy Camp Progress

Leave a comment

by Judy Bushy

In my column in the “Pioneer Press”  last week, I said that the present Happy Camp Health Services Board, considering comments from the majority of voting members, chose not to give the building to another organization and that  “The Karuk Tribe has already put a new building for these services on their property between Second Avenue and the Highway.”

I was mistaken that the new modular was for the doctor’s offices and services that are presently in the Happy Camp Health Services Building. The modular moved unto the property will house program staff moved from the building next to the Administration Building; information technology and self-governance. The building next to the Administration Building was originally designed for a Medical and Dental Clinic and that is the area being remodeled, at considerable cost, for the medical services. The former Council Chambers will be the medical reception, medical records and nurses station. That wing is being remodeled for examination rooms. 

That is why the Karuk Tribe of California notified the Happy Camp Health Services that they were NOT interested in buying or leasing the Happy Camp Health Services building and said they planned to be moved out by end of September.To hold a NEW board of VOLUNTEERS responsible for past years isn’t really fair since they coveyed their desire to listen and learn what needed to be improved.

Even though I usually ask readers to respond and share with me, I don’t get large volumes of mail in response! Last week was an exception; I received quite a few calls about the column.  A caller might have given me information on corrections,. since she said I was ignorant, and was writing illegal slander, but never gave me a speck of information on what might need correcting. I did ask, but the phone slammed down! I’m still of the same mind, that Happy Camp needs mental health and similar services which are not adequately available, and that a community group, everyone working together, like the Happy Camp Health Services has always been, could help in this regard. I’m a good listener, but after calling names, no one gave me any specifics. We just don’t need more vacant unused buildings sitting around for years when there are nearly a dozen organizations that need places to meet. We can help each other when we can work together more effectively. I’m happy to listen to anyone’s views, but a few pertinent facts might be more effective than bluster and name calling.. I listened quietly to the name calling but got hung up on when I asked for help in understanding their point of view.  

 

The speaker who rudely accused John Godwin of the Happy Camp Health Services of rudeness when he is the quietest, kindest and a hard working volunteer who called the meeting to hear all views, made me wince. That is why Leon Hillman’s comments to friends and neighbors that whatever the disagreement, we will go on being friends and neighbors was so moving. Sharing viewpoints helps us all learn, when it is done in that frame of reference.

We respect the fact that Tribal members families and also many other members of the community and their families were also active in building the clinic building. The land, milled lumber, and many hours of labor were donated by the mill and citizens of the community. Wasn’t it a wonderful accomplishment they achieved together! It reminds me of the Memorial Log Building which was built with community working together, to provide education for our children, also, (although that was before my time!)

 We need more mental health services in Happy Camp and lease of the building to an organization working with Behavioral Health, is one way that it could be provided. Also, I see some value in some organization that could be the whole community working together, not exclusively for any particular group to the exclusion of others. Amazing things can be accomplished when we work together!

Give me a call, I’ll be happy to hear your views. If I’m busy at the moment, I’ll be happy to call you back. Also appreciate your telling me of any news and announcements that you have to share. That is why living along the wild beautiful Klamath River in the midst of the green forest, with blue skies above is so wonderful. We have great neighbors, mostly courteous and concerned about the community.

Community, Happy Camp, Happy Camp Health Service, Opinions, response