Rattlesnakes cause fright at rock ledge near Ephrata

Rattlesnakes have long been a part of Columbia Basin history. Thelma Billngsley Nicks found a cave full one day. Read on.

The Grant County Historical Society has compiled several volumes of Grant County history. The books are available for purchase at the Historical Society Museum gift shop in Ephrata.

I bought the series in 2009 and secured permission to relay some of the history through this column.

Memories of Grant County, compiled from taped interviews by the Grant County Historical Society.

Today we backtrack a bit and then continue the story of Ephrata by Thelma Billngsley Nicks:

On the hill across from Maringo Street and across a small canyon was the violet patch. It covered a large area. In the spring we all had to go there to pick violets. And most of us would come home with a tick or two.

I wonder if the city fathers, if they had realized they were causing the destruction of our beautiful creek and all that was in it, would have left enough water to keep the creek running. We might still have it. It certainly kept the youngsters happy as well as the older people.

The creek originally ran south. Then a man by the name of Wyman got permission to have the creek dredged out to run north to water an orchard he had. His property was north of the high school. Then when the creek all dried up his orchard was killed too.

Every spring when the snow melted on the hill there was always a big run-off in the creek. Many a time our boys would come home dripping wet from playing along the banks of the muddy stream.

Once I went for a walk up this creek with my aunts and some of their friends. They had a camera and were taking pictures of each other on a rock ledge where they climbed up and sat down on the edge of it. There was a cave in back of it I thought that would be fun to check it out.

So the next time my mother took some of us on a hike up the creek we took the camera and were prepared to do the same as they had. Well I was the first one to climb up this ledge. I just started to get up on it and sit down when I happened to look into this cave and there were many rattlesnakes crawling and twisting in front of me. I let out a terrible cry, loud enough that a car on the road came at a screaming halt. Needless to say, we certainly got out of there in a hurry. It was just a few feet from the second bridge.

Later some men at two different times dynamited this snake den. They killed over three hundred then and the next year many more. That really slowed down our trips up the creek and especially a little later my mother killed a baby rattler down on the creek.

Up near the third bridge there was a large enough hole that filled with water. The boys then dammed it up and made themselves a good swimming hole. They had many hours of fun and I guess most of the boys around learned to swim here. We girls had to wait and go swimming in Soap Lake. Which we did get to do on many summer evenings when we went with older members of the family.

There were several orchards around Ephrata. Lee Toliver had purchased the ground and orchard that was watered from the pond, then there was the Wyman orchard that I mentioned before. Going clock wise around town the next was Calkins apricot, the Reards, Dan Mote, which was where Cenex is now and across the road the June orchard.

There was a large apple warehouse near the depot. This shed later burned down. This pack?ing shed was owned by Harry Drittenbas.

Mr. Grover was Loretta Gibbon's father, and Ed Calkins was Grace Christian's father. Lee Tolliver was a brother-in-law of Ruby Wilson. For a few years the apple business failed and later most all the orchards were gradually pulled out.

In 1917, when the new court house was built, we had to move from that block. The county bought the houses and resold them. Our old one was moved to Basin Street. Elmer Laird lived in it for years. It was next to the Union Oil station.

My father bought the lots where our house stands. There used to be another blacksmith shop there. My father said he would have been better off if he had bought our old home back, for the county sold them so cheap and had it moved. But I am glad they did build a new home.

E-mail from Cheryl

Facts from the past gleaned from the Moses Lake Herald, Columbia Basin Herald and The Neppel Record by Cheryl (Drig vgs) Elkins.

From the CBH on Thursday, July 16, 1953:

New manager at Chuck Wagon

It was announced this week that Rose Thomas has taken over management of the Chuck Wagon Café located at 205 E. Division from the owner and former operator, Jean Minnis, who has moved to the coast following the death of her husband.

Mrs. Thomas and her husband, Jesse, recently returned to Moses Lake after an absence of two years in Arkansas and Dayton. Mrs. Thomas has had several years of experience as a restaurant manager and waitress.

Wilson Creek area history

The Rev. David H. Crawford compiled and published a history of families in and surrounding Wilson Creek titled, "Family Memories of Wilson Creek Area." The book was printed in 1978, which was the 75th anniversary of the town. David's son, John Crawford, has given permission for those memories to be a part of this column.

Today we continue the story of the Cris Larsen:

In 1948 Dad's sister, Marie Iversen, came to visit us from Denmark. She said some of the things she saw here, the people in Denmark would not believe.

In 1949 our parents went, by boat, to Denmark for a visit, Dad was disappointed with seeing some of the girls he had known as a young man; they had put on a lot of weight, just like him. The folks made another trip to Denmark in 1964 by plane.

Mother's brother, Jens Jensen, came to see us in 1950; he spent six months with us. He said that we had too many labor-saving devices; we should do it the hard way.

Our parents celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary in 1962 by taking a trip to Hawaii.

We were the last farm to quit farming with horses, in the fall of 1941. Dad bought a gas wheel tractor and farmed with that for 2 years, then got a Cater?pillar diesel. I guess we are slow to change, we are almost the only ones left farming with a crawler tractor today, all the rest have gone to 4-wheel drive tractors.

The three brothers, Tom, Lloyd and Norman, took over the farming operations in 1949. They were named the Grant County Cattlemen of the year in 1969.

Dad passed away in October, 1965 and mother in February, 1977.

All seven children started and finished 12 years of school at Wilson Creek, plus Evelyn's two boys, Russell and Stanley, and two of Norman's sons, Paul and Keith. Lloyd's. boy, Robert and Norman's son and daughter, Brian and Darla, are still in school.

Also, Russell now has two boys attending school here. When Darla graduates from high school in 1980, that will be 57 continuous years of Larsen children and grandchildren that have attended the Wilson Creek Schools.

Wilson Creek has the most unpredictable weather in the country. It is dry or very dry; the wind only blows five days a week, the other two days we have a storm. It can promise so much in the spring and yield so little at harvest time. But it has the best people in the world. There is no place like it, Wilson Creek is the best place in the world to live.