Chamber of Commerce News

Laura Wainwright, Lauren Burns, Eddie Davenport, Dr. Burns
Entertainers at the Chamber of Commerce meeting,
April 2, 2002. From left: Laura, Lauren,
Eddie Davenport, and Dr. Burns.

The Happy Camp Chamber of Commerce holds an evening meeting on the first Tuesday of each month at the Family Resource Center. The April 2 meeting was well-attended with lots of news about community projects underway.

Bigfoot Summer Games

There will be a Canoe & Kayak Family Fun Festival here on Memorial Day weekend, May 25 and 26. That’s the weekend of the Bigfoot Summer Games, which take place all along the Bigfoot Scenic Byway, Highway 96, from Happy Camp to Willow Creek.

While Happy Campers will be having fun in and on the Klamath River, with races and activities from Indian Creek to Elk Creek, the Hoopa Tribe downriver will be hosting their annual Coyote Run. The Coyote Run will have 9 mile, 2 mile, and 1/2 mile events for all ages. Orleans and Willow Creek will host festivals and activities as well, so there will be something to do in each town along the byway.

The Hoopa Valley Tribe led the planning for these events with a federal grant proposal submitted to Six Rivers National Forest in Eureka. Event planner Jaclyn Traversie of the Hoopa Tribe met with representatives of Orleans and Happy Camp on December 8, 2001, to discuss plans for each community.

Department of Forestry

A new interim ranger, Jay Perkins, has been appointed to manage our local forestry office. He plans to return to Yreka and the search is on to locate someone who wants to live in Happy Camp and take charge over the office here.

Action Committee

Tom Waddell reported for the Happy Camp Action Committee. It has been meeting once each month to discuss community improvement projects. They are planning to locate and move old mining equipment from forestry land to the park in Happy Camp as an added attraction. They also are working on plans for a new tourist and art information center in Happy Camp on Highway 96.

Waddell also reported that the new economic development plan is still being studied and modified by the Karuk Tribe and will be released to the community soon.

Marcia Armstrong

Our new county supervisor for District 5, Marcia Armstrong of Quartz Valley, was here to let us know about projects she is working on. With her strong positive energy and warm personality she is always a popular guest in this town.

The Arts in Happy Camp

Happy Camp is becoming an artist’s haven with emergence of fine art classes and activities, the formation of the Klamath River Writers Club, and performances by many talented musicians who have chosen to make this area their home.

St. Patrick’s Day Dinner and Dance

A few of the diners on St. Patricks Day 2002
A few of the diners at the St. Patrick’s Day
dinner this year. Photo by Judy Bushy.

Decorating the tables for St. Patricks Day
Local teenagers volunteered to decorate.
Photo by Judy Bushy.

With the luck of the Irish, all Happy Campers were invited to participate in our annual Saint Patrick’s Day Dinner and Dance. This year the festivities were held at the Family Resource Center (once known as the Headway Market) where dinner included traditional corn beef and cabbage, along with a special Irish stew prepared by the Family Resource Center staff.

A beautiful green knitted afghan – made for this event by Jean Dulong, was raffled off and won by Stella Clark. This afghan was special as it will be the last one donated by Dulong, who moved to Madison, Wisconsin last month.

Dinner and a silent auction started at six pm. By eight, the hall was ready for dancing. Vivian Jordan, a DJ from Yreka, provided the music from her vast collection of CD’s. The dance attracted around seventy children, teens, and parents.

Donna McCulley and Rosemary Boren
Event coordinators Donna McCulley and
Rosemary Boren at the dance.
Photo by Judy Bushy.

Rosemary Boren and DJ Vivian Jordan.
Vivian Jordan, our DJ for the night,
wisely wore green. Photo by Judy Bushy.

Naomi Lang, Karuk Figure Skater, To Compete in Olympics

Naomi Lang, 23, a member of the Karuk Tribe of California, and her partner, Peter Tchernyshev, 30, born in St. Petersburg, Russia, have qualified for the 2002 Winter Olympics to be held February 8-24 in Salt Lake City, Utah. From March 18-24 they will compete at the World Figure Skating Championships in Nagano, Japan.
This comes after the 2002 US Figure Skating Championships held January 6-13 in Los Angeles where Lang and Tchernyshev won one dance competition after another defending their National Championship title, and earning the right to compete in the Winter Olympics!

We can see Lang and Tchernyshev on ABC television:
Sunday, January 20, Free Dance, 2pm ET
Saturday, February 2, Exhibition, 4 pm ET
Note that there’s a three hour difference between Eastern Time and our Pacific Time.

Lang, who lists her hometown as Allegan, Michigan, was born in Arcata, California, on the coast west of Happy Camp. She includes the Karuk flag on the bio page of her website. The Karuk tribal headquarters are in Happy Camp as this is part of their ancestral territory.

Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev – Official Website

Henry Doolittle, A Happy Camp Pioneer

By Linda Martin

Richard Ramsey, the great-grandson of Happy Camp pioneer, Henry Doolittle, signed the guestbook of the Happy Camp History website this last week and solved one of our long-standing mysteries for us. He told us where Henry Doolittle went when he left Happy Camp in the early 1870’s!

To this day, Henry Doolittle is one of the best-known gold-rush era Happy Camp settlers. There’s a street named Doolittle in the center of town and there’s Doolittle Creek Road a few miles north, off Indian Creek Road too. At one time he and his brothers, Alfonso and Albert, owned most of Happy Camp.

Henry Doolittle sold the lot the Camp Mercantile Store sits on to James and Heil Camp and John Titus in the late 1850’s. He served as postmaster from 1858 to 1860 and from 1864 to 1870, and as Justice of the Peace from 1866 to 1870. He sold his vast properties and extensive business interests in 1872 and left town. Thanks to Richard Ramsey, we now know he moved north to Washington state with his second wife and two children.

Chamber of Commerce News

At the January 16, 2002 meeting of the Happy Camp Chamber of Commerce, John Gould and Judy Bushy were appointed as new board members. Congratulations, Judy and John!

The St. Patrick’s Day dinner is still in the planning stage, however the beautiful green afghan crafted by Jean Dulong is ready to be raffled! This year’s afghan is knitted in rows of varied shades of green with a dark green fringe. The effect is very attractive, and the colors are brilliant. Plan now to buy your raffle tickets. They are $1 each, or 6 for $5. A disk jockey, Vivian Jordan, has been hired for the St. Patrick’s Day dance, which will follow the dinner. The dinner and dance will be held on Saturday night, March 16 this year.

Jen Dulong with the afghan
Jean Dulong and the beautiful afghan she knitted. The afghan will be raffled off at the 2002 St. Patrick’s Day Dinner.

May 25-27, Memorial Day Weekend, is the time for the Bigfoot Summer Games. They will be held all along the new Bigfoot Scenic Byway from Happy Camp to Hoopa. Activities are being planned in Happy Camp, Orleans, and Hoopa. There’s a good possibility that the activities will include a bike race between Orleans and Happy Camp.

A Canoe &Kayak Family Fun Festival is being planned for the Bigfoot Summer Games/Memorial Day Weekend in Happy Camp, with races and other activites on the Klamath River between Indian Creek and Elk Creek. Planned are a backwards race, shore to shore relays, and duck races. Both inflatable and hard body watercraft are welcome.

Debbie Wilkinson has decided to take a leave of absence from Chamber of Commerce activities. Her participation and presence will be missed. Jean Dulong announced that she will soon be moving out of town – another great loss for Happy Camp. She has lived here since 1988 and has made the afghans for the St. Patrick’s Day raffles for the last three years.

Jim Gould won the logo contest for the 2002 River Run, and earned $100 in prize money. His logo features a motorcycle riding man in front of the US flag. A committee has been formed to finalize plans for the second River Run.

2002 Happy Camp River Run logo
Jim Gould’s logo design for River Run 2002.
The River Run will be held on July 5, 6, and 7 this year.

Mid-Klamath Economic Development Summit

By Linda Martin

Teenagers tell Happy Camp what they want.
Teenagers describe a better vision of the future for Happy Camp youth at the Mid-Klamath Economic Development Summit in June 2001.

January 1, 2002 – Last June we had a wonderful meeting to discuss the future of Happy Camp. About 200 people attended and contributed to discussions of our economic and social needs. It is time for the sequel… another community meeting is planned for Wednesday, January 16, 2002 at 4 pm at the Family Resource Center. Dinner will follow the meeting.

The Karuk Tribe is hosting the Mid-Klamath Economic Development Summit meeting where the tribe’s strategy for economic renewal in this region will be unveiled. In his letter to all Happy Camp citizens, Alvis Johnson, Chairman of the Karuk Tribe, wrote, “Our approach is inclusive of the greater spectrum of diverse constituency groups within our ancestral lands. We envision the January meeting as a first step to greater socio-economic prosperity locally and the development of a new paradigm for post-resource dependent communities across the Pacific Northwest.”

Restrictions on timber harvests from federal lands decimated Happy Camp’s logging industry during the last decade, so economic renewal and change are a vital need for the people of this region.

Follow-up article:

Scott Clements and John Martinez
Consultant Scott Clements discusses the summit results with Karuk spokesman, John Martinez.

January 16, 2002 – Scott Clements of Clements Partners, LLC, a Portland consultant, was in Happy Camp to present the results of the latest study done on economic development for the Mid-Klamath region. This study was commissioned by the Karuk Community Development Corporation with an initial community meeting held last July. He said the other studies, done in 1994 and 1998, were helpful but there were no lasting effects for the benefit of Happy Camp.

This time we have a three part plan to work with – starting with Pre-Development initiatives, followed by Stage One and Stage Two initiatives. The Pre-Development plan calls for the formation of a new umbrella organization tentatively called the Community Achievement Leadership (CAL), which would coordinate community planning, prioritize committment of resources, and monitor implementation of specific resources.

As planned, CAL will be a centralized source comprised of members representing all the present community organizations. CAL’s function will be to coordinate efforts and funding for the development of economic opportunities in this region. An important step will be for all participating organizations to pass resolutions approving the formation of CAL.

Another feature of Pre-Development is to request an incorporation revenue assessment from the Siskiyou County auditor. Also suggested was to combine our current sanitary and water districts into one community service district. According to Clements, “A multi-purpose CSD would provide a focal point to address Happy Camp’s future physical infrastructure needs.”

After Pre-Development is underway, Stage One Economic Initiatives can begin. There are five recommendations: 1) forest salvage and juniper harvest programs; 2) an eco-cultural park that would share elements of Karuk culture and customs and would help preserve and maintain Karuk tribal heritage; 3) development of the computer center with website design training programs leading to a virtual marketplace for local businesses, artists, and crafts-persons; 4) establishment of a small business incubator program to support the community’s needs for future commercial goods and services; 5) development of a housing resource center to coordinate housing policies, land use, financing, development opportunity, and service programs.

An exciting element of the evening’s program was the presentation by four local teenagers on recreational development recommendations for the area. Their suggestions were for winter access to the snow park on Page Mountain, a miniature golf course, a go-kart track, a skateboard park that could also be used by rollerbladers and bmx bikers, an off-highway vehicle park, and a motocross track. Another suggestion from the audience was for a local water park.

After Clements’ presentation, the meeting divided into four special interest groups: natural resources, technology, housing, and recreation. Afterwards there was a lasagna dinner and time for socializing.

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