Busy Week Along the Klamath!

Take a Drive this Weekend along the State of Jefferson Scenic Byway, named for the 1940's movement to form the State of Jefferson!

Take a Drive this Weekend along the State of Jefferson Scenic Byway, named for the 1940’s movement to form the State of Jefferson!


by Judy Bushy
The Happy Camp Elementary School students are on Summer Vacation!! I missed the Eighth Grade Graduation Wednesday when my brand new ’87 Blazer had to be towed home over a little problem. The Happy Camp High School Students still need to take their Final Exams and finish the work for the year. But this is the last week!! Most of the week will be minimum days so the students study up for the finals, and Friday night at 7 is graduation night for the Senior Class of 2014!!

That should be enough excitement for one week, but there is more going on. The Happy Camp Chamber has had fliers up and down the River to announce the Art & Treasure Klamath River Highway 96 Yard Sale Weekend (June 14th.) Some Yard Sates will begin the day before and some will continue on Sunday, but all will have “treasures” out for sale on Saturday. What a wonderful time for a drive down the beautiful State of Jefferson Scenic Byway and stop at Yard Sales on the way. At the Klamath River Community Hall there will be a Flea Market and Craft Sale. They will also have a Brunch and a BBQ on Sunday and even some Horseshoe Games.

Saturday, Seiad Valley Volunteer Fire Department will be having a big sale and already four or five other sales are happening in the Seiad Valley. Then on to Happy Camp for more sales at various places.

The Scott Valley Bank Chili Cook-Off will take place in the River Park on Saturday as well. Contestants have already signed up to show off their best recipes for chili or salsa. This is a fun time at the Pavilion and the Chili will be made at the park and judged at one o’clock.

There will also be the Lawnmower Races next Saturday and Sunday, in fact, it is the first Race of the season and the first round of the Western Mower World Series Races. Saturday you can sign up at 1 pm for a $20 entry fee and $5 pit pass and Race at 3 p.m. On Sunday 11 o’clock is the sign up and noon is the Race Start. Kid’s Races after Lawnmowers are done. For further information call Deputy Gabe 493-2772.

Sunday is Father’s Day as well. Thanks to all the Father’s who loving care for their children every day of the year!

Friends from Maine Visiting!

New Friends, Peter and Karen from Maine.

New Friends, Peter and Karen from Maine.


The best part of the evening was the opportunity to meet new friends from Maine, Peter and Karen Benson. They brought a very special gift, a first edition of “Dear Mad’m” from 1956 that had belonged to Alice Buck from New Hampshire. Alice Buck had read “Dear Mad’m” and written a fan letter to Mrs. Patterson. Unfortunately, Stella Patterson had passed and Fred (Dear Sir) answered the letter. In fact, he said that he had hundreds to answer and was behind!

Alice Buck kept his letter and it has been passed on to us along with her scrapbook with photos of Stella, Fred Crooks (Dear Sir) and Cy Jenson (Up ‘nup.) There are photos of mining activity, the sawmill, building the road to the mine, cabins and gardens, especially flowers which were a passion of Mrs. Patterson! Alice’s cousin living at Seattle Creek, Capt. Ben Joyce, is shown in a photo from 1943 with Fred, and also one of Dora and baby Tina. The three ladies, Joan Richardson, Vivian Witt and Marie Miller who came to live on Dear Mad’m’s claim and the house built there for them, were also pictured, as well as cats. Cats weren’t mentioned in the book, other than the cougar, to my recollection. Since paper-mache didn’t keep the rodents out, perhaps they decided cats were needed. Roberta Everett brought a rocking chair that had belonged to Stella and a display of Christmas greetings Vivian Witt had painted.

May Showers and Sunshine for Dear Mad’m!

Friends of Dear Mad’m had a very busy weekend! A favorite Happy Camp author, Stella Walthall Patterson (who was called Dear Mad’m) wrote the book by the same name. Four years ago, Linda Martin thought we should have a day to commemorate her and life along the Klamath.

Karen Tulledo planned the Friday reception and made a very special chocolate cake. Abigail Eadie made strawberry cupcakes decorated with delicate icing butterflies and pastel flowers. There was also liver pate, served in an antique coffee can, in honor of another character in the book, Frenchy although it wasn’t made of horse liver as his was!!

Saturday was the Dear Mad’m Symposium Luncheon. Jess Haun, who teaches at Happy Camp High School, was the Master (or mistress?) of Ceremonies again and added her cheerful good humor to the program. Christian Robinson was honored for a literary story he wrote about the author, Edgar Allen Poe which won the Dear Mad’m Writing Contest and was presented with his $200 prize. Dennis Day helped at the book table and mentioned how Robert Service had written a poem, The Cremation of Sam McGee, and that launched him to fame and fortune. Perhaps some of our talented students will have the same experience as they continue their writing. The Happy Camp Chamber and Klamath Writer’s Club were happy that students entered the writing contest and look forward to seeing more of their work in future contest. Thank you to all who contributed to the prize for the Writing Contest as well. Bob Seaman sang the song that went along with the privy or outhouse building project in Chapter four of Dear Mad’m and also read another student’s story, about climbing town trail.

Everyone had been looking forward to the continuation of a poem that Judy Hahn had begun about the Dear Mad’m story and that was such fun to hear. Judy has a real talent for writing poetry and her daughter Christine Robinson joined her as well. Megan Hogue was the winner of the basket of homemade crocheted items and jams made by Norma Seaman. She already mentioned the plum jam was delicious!!

Sheri Boren Kennedy and her helpers made the BBQ chicken dinner with chocolate cakes, as “Nora” brought for dessert. By evening time, the wind had picked up, spring weather being rather unpredictable, but a small group still gathered about the fire at the Klamath River Resort Inn at twilight before the clouds increased.

By morning the rain stopped and more came to the Grange for the Pancake Breakfast which was delicious, thanks to Norma Seaman in the kitchen. Don Clark and his son, Matthew, came as they were visiting Jay and Stella in Happy Camp. Before the fieldtrip to the scene of the story, it began to rain again, and so the field trip was postponed to another time. Bob Seaman received a first edition “Dear Mad’m” donated by Klamath River Resort Inn.

The Committee is looking forward to next Dear Mad’m Symposium April `10-12th, 2015 and looking forward to learning more about life on the Klamath River especially from around 1946 to the serialization in McCall’s Magazine and book publication in 1956.

First Reservation Coming from Maine!

14Flier 2

We are so excited to meet new fans of Stella W. Pattersons book, Dear Mad’m!

Last Tuesday, just before the Happy Camp Chamber of Commerce meeting, we had a call from a contact in Maine who had been going to send us a first edition of Dear Mad’m and a scrapbook that she had inherited. We had been looking forward to seeing what was in that scrapbook for sure!! The news was even better, she will be flying here for Dear Mad’m days. So now we have more than just the copy of the book to see and the scrapbook but to really meet a fan of Dear Mad’m from across the country–Couldn’t be better than that!!

Jess Haun will be our MC again this year. Karen Tulledo, who shared her Sourdough Story previously, will be happy to take you on a tour of where the cabins of Dear Mad’m and Dear Sir were located. It’s a beautiful spot to enjoy the wild Klamath River flowing by on its way to the sea. The cabins are gone now. The route the river takes has changed but not the beauty!!

We appreciate the assistance of the members of the Happy Camp Grange helping to make this event a cooperative effort with the Klamath Writer’s and the Happy Camp Chamber of Commerce and others, some from the days Stella lived and wrote her book here in her rustic little mining cabin! Our community will share one of our literary favorites with you!

Looking forward to hearing that you will be coming May!! Make your reservation now!

Happy Camp Chamber of Commerce
www.happycampchamber.org
35 Davis Road, P.O.Box 1188
Happy Camp, CA 96039

Spring Celebration of Dear Mad’m Coming!!

The Fourth Annual Dear Mad’m event is coming May 3-5!

May is Dear Mad"m!!

May is Dear Mad”m!!

The book, Dear Mad;m by Stella W. Patterson was published in 1956 but it told the story of how Stella moved to a cabin along the Klamath River in 1946 when she was eighty years old. This adventure of hers and the friends and neighbors along the Klamath have inspired many since those days.

Inspired by comments by Pete Lismer, Stella;s great grandnephew and author with his wife, Liz, of the autobiography “Dear Mad’m Who Was She?” about involvement of the young people something new has been added. We will have a Dear Mad;m Writing Contest and keep stories they’ve written. We plan to make a book of the stories and the winner’s writings will be presented at the Saturday luncheon.

If you’ve read, Dear Mad’m and enjoyed it, we would love to have you join us. If you haven’t read Dear Mad’m, we’d love to have you join us to celebrate the literary accomplishments of our Klamath neighbors!!

Further information will be added of speakers and Judy Hahns continuing poem, and the campfire musicians and storytellers. But we want you to plan to come and we are looking forward to seeing you there and having a wonderful time together!!

Aaron Martin Captures 2013 Bigfoot Jamboree on Video

A young man from Happy Camp, Aaron Martin, has been creating some great videos. Everyone has been raving about how much they enjoyed them. His Bigfoot Jamboree story is one of the best! Subscribe to his YouTube Videos and you’ll see more of the beauty along the wild Klamath River!!

Enjoy!

Incidentally, it is time to begin the planning and preparation for Bigfoot Jamboree, August 29-31st 2014. Join the Happy Camp Coordinating Council as they get ready for the best Bigfoot Jamboree to come!

1 34 35 36 37 38 69