Grant County Centennial Celebration starts Tuesday

EPHRATA — The banners are ready. The displays are going up.

The entire Grant County Courthouse is preparing for the Pioneer Day celebration on Tuesday.

The event is the first this year, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the county.

The main event starts at 11:30 a.m. on the steps in front of the courthouse with the Centennial band. Bill Burke, the event’s organizer, said he collected musicians from around the county to play songs ranging from “Roll on Columbia’ to more modern songs.

After a pastor performs an invocation and some beginning announcements describing the event, the United Methodist Church of Ephrata will ring its bell 100 times.

“We’re giving them about 15 minutes to do that,” Burke said.

A group of local Boy Scouts will carry the U.S. and state flags to the court house steps. After the flag ceremony is finished, the county commissioners and a delegation from Gunpo, Korea, along with other dignitaries will speak.

Jerry Handfield, the state archivist, will be the keynote speaker for the event. He said he will be dressed in an appropriate top hat for the event.

“I’m going to present them with a copy of the law that made Grant County a county,” he said. “I also have a lot of other documents. Different things that show how the county has changed (in the last 100 years.)”

Handfield said the main thrust of his speech is the county is on the edge of becoming a much different place.

“They need to document the 20th century because they are on the forefront (of the change),” he said. “You have to remember there are people still alive in Grant County who remember jackrabbit roundups. To go from jackrabbit roundups to having Internet companies is a major revolution.”

Handfield described Grant County as one of those places people pass through without understanding it’s historical and technological significance. He pointed to Interstate 90, the Columbia River, the railroad and inexpensive electricity as examples of the county’s importance.

“It’s a major intersection of culture, economics and history,” he said. “It’s a major seed producer.”

Two tents will be set up on the courthouse lawn with portable heaters for people to keep warm.

In the parking lot, Hal Gruver, a centennial committee member, and his crew are serving cornbread, beverages and roughly 30 gallons of chili.

“We are prepared to serve 400 people,” he said. “(Each of the bowls) will have a special silver spoon. It’s plastic, but it looks just like silver.”

He said they tried to buy all the ingredients grown within Grant County. The chili mix is being provided by American Potato.

Inside the commissioner’s meeting room, 250 cupcakes and one sheet cake will be available for a cake cutting to celebrate the event.

“We try to keep it local,” he said. “We’re all going to be in uniforms.”

In the assessor’s office, there will be a special post office set up for people who want to receive a Grant County Centennial cancellation stamp. People can bring their mail or use  envelopes provided by the committee. 

Along with shirts with the centennial logo, the store will have three different types coins for sale. The first has the county’s logo on the front and a replica of the first Grant County Sheriff’s badge. They also will have 1,000 wooden “dollars” with a picture of the centennial logo on the front.

“I kept one (of the wooden coins) and I rubbed a little pigment into it,” said Dianne Recknagel, a committee member. “It really stands out.”

People can order the second centennial coin, with the centennial logo, and a different design on the back.

“The medallion die is underway,” Carl Highland said. “We won’t have the coins for Tuesday, but we will have them for Spring Fair.”

Also 500 copies of the centennial poster will be available to purchase. Don Nutt, the Coulee City artist who created the poster, will sign the artwork for people who purchase them.

Along with the post office and the store, there will be a guest registry available for people to sign.

“Everybody should sign it,” said Harlan Beagley, the centennial committee chair. “Sign it for themselves, their families or record their family residency.”

Upstairs in the multi-purpose room, about 28 different groups will be holding historical presentation. Groups range from the Grant County Geological Society to the Grant County PUD.

“One of the gentleman is a coin collector,” said Beverly Mayer, a centennial committee member. “Mick Qualls is going to be having talks about any president who has visited Grant County.”

She said the displays will feature a wide variety of historical material, ranging from the flood which shaped the landscape to the military museum, she said. Some will have interactive displays.

“My goal is to educate and entertain,” she said. “A lot of our people are going to be in period clothes.”

The displays will be available on Tuesday and Wednesday. Mayer said several schools were planning field trips on Wednesday to see them.

County offices will be closed from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday for county employees to participate in the event.

For more information, contact Jill Hammond at 509-754-2011.

First Centennial section today

Will feature 1909 to 1919

MOSES LAKE — The Columbia Basin Herald will feature the first of 10 special sections on the history of Grant County today.

Each monthly issue will cover a decade. The 10-page section today spans the years of 1909 to 1919. Written by Dennis Clay, the stories and pictures are about the history of the county.

“It’s a picture of then and now to start with on the front page,” Clay said. “The top picture is Wilson Creek, July 4, 1910, and the bottom picture is Wilson Creek, Feb. 12, 2009.”

Clay went to the Grant County Historical society, Moses Lake, Warden and Wilson Creek museums to collect information and pictures, he said.

“There’s a story about Mabel Thompson, a story about the Ottmar family,” he said.

There also are three pictures of when Grant County Jail was burned down. The county destroyed the jail after they found out one of the inmates had leprosy.

“I wrote in there saying that’s the perfect deterrent,” Clay said. “To say, ‘Hey if you break the law, you’re going to stay where the leper is.’”

There are also stories about the railroad and the food of the time, he said. Also the middle of the paper features a picture of the Neppel Record.

“I think it’s going to be a great publication,” Clay said. “We ran out of room for pictures,”

Harlan Beagley, Columbia Basin Herald publisher and centennial committee chair, said the paper is working on distributing the sections throughout the county.

“This gives us a great excuse to do something we should be doing anyway,” Beagley said.

Centennial schedule

Grant County Courthouse steps

11:30 a.m. – noon

• Centennial band plays

11:45 a.m.

• Opening announcements

11:55 a.m.

• Community church bells

12:05 p.m.

• Invocation

• Introductions and presentations

• Installation of flag and color guard

• National anthem presentation

• Military memorial

• Dignitary speakers

• Historic presentation

• Committee chairperson’s remarks

12:50 p.m. – 1 p.m.

• Centennial band plays

Assessor’s Office

11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

• Postage seal and cancellation

• Poster artist signing and memorabilia sales

Multi purpose room

10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

• Community Displays

1 p.m.

• Cowboy Poet

Commissioners' meeting room

1:30 p.m.

• Presentation and cake cutting

Parking lot

12:30 p.m. – 2 p.m.

• Centennial chili feed