Skating on the lake was once a common pastime

Who else remembers skating parties on Moses Lake? When in high school it was a common practice to head out to Ed Ibe's house where we would scrape the snow from the ice, build a fire in a 55-gallon drum, drink hot chocolate and try to stay upright on the ice. By the way, Ed was a member of the Moses Lake High School Great Class of 1965. Read on.

E-mail from Cheryl

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

From the Columbia Basin Herald on Jan. 21, 1949:

Skating party Sunday on lake

Slightly warmer weather encouraged some local residents to arrange an ice skating party Sunday afternoon. The group skated on the south side of the Peninsula and enjoyed the hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. Bill Pepper and their children during the afternoon.

Skaters included Mr. and Mrs. John Reynolds, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Middleton, Mr. and Mrs. Nate Sherman, Elmer Gjertson, Ned Thomas, Charles Smith, Jim Davis, E.E. Pepper and families.

Sam Gordon giving lectures at Lind

"Horse Sense Bridge" comes up for study this weekend when Sam Gordon delivers a three-night lecture series at the Lind Active Club in Lind. Meeting last night, tonight and tomorrow night, each lecture begins at 8 o'clock. Gordon's appearance is being sponsored by the Lind Girls Club.

Gordon is the Northwest's contract bridge pioneer and his method has been spread by radio, newspaper columns and personal appearances, such as this week's Lind lectures. He is the author of "The Horse Sense Method," which is a simplified approach to contract bridge.

C.W. Hull feted

The Misses Carrie Lee Threlkeld and Linda Lee Hull honored their grandfather, C.W. Hull, at a family birthday dinner recently at the home of Linda's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ed Hull. Carrie and Linda were responsible for the dinner and for the decorated birthday cake served as dessert.

Invited guests were C.W. Hull, Mr. and Mrs. L. R. Threlkeld and son Robbie, Mr. and Mrs. Ed Hull with Dick, Bobby and Nancy, and Mr. Cecil Richards.

Columbia Basin history                                   

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 Ed Harvill, recorded on Oct. 11, 1977:

Something I have left out; my first ride in a car at 60 miles an hour. I attended a birthday party at Nat Washington's house, probably our sixth or seventh. He father had an old Cleveland. So after we had cake he took us out on the highway in that car and we rode 60 miles an hour. That was a real trip with that car with the top down and gravel road and a bunch of screaming kids, but that was really fun.

Now to get back to the orchard; the only crop that I know of that my father harvested he took to a warehouse here along the railroad track. I think Paul Patrick was running it. It was there the usual number of days, but instead of getting any fruit back he got a bill for $25 for packing. That was the end of the apples.

At the time the folks bought the place, there was the dairy of course, but we inherited an ice business. The ice for the town was supplied by the pond which was on this place. There was an icehouse and we would put up ice during the winter, providing we had cold weather. The ice was put into this ice house and covered with sawdust and then in the spring we'd take it out.

But some years we didn't get enough cold weather to freeze the ice so he'd have to haul it from Wenatchee. He'd go up in an old Model T truck and we'd haul it and put it in the ice house. He'd haul a ton and a half at a load and we'd charged l cent a pound, but when he hauled it from Wenatchee it cost 2 and a half cents a pound. And speaking of prices too, all the time we delivered milk the highest price we ever got was 12 and a half cents a quart and most of the time it went for 10 and sometimes less.

So we kept the pond for several years, but a preface I should mention, before we bought the place the previous owners, I believe Jesse Cyrus was one of the original owners of the place, had sold a water right to the Town of Ephrata, so the town had a reservoir three or four blocks up into the canyon. They had rights to all the springs and actually to dig a well if the springs failed.

Over the years, it seemed to dry up completely. So their taking the water out ahead of us there wasn't any water left for the pond. Eventually we had to do away with the pond. Luckily by that time electric refrigerators had come in, so there wasn't too much of a transition.

But all the time we lived there, or at least when we first lived there he was interested in water, getting more water. He had several wells drilled. Many of them were dry holes, at least less than 50 gallons a minute and he was looking for something like 300 or 400 gallons. After paying for several wells to be drilled he decided he couldn't afford that so he bought his own drill and eventually found a spot in the canyon where he could get about 300 gallons a minute. From then on water was not too much a problem.

Speaking of water, too, one time I can't remember the year, but it had to be before this well, there was an old fellow came to him and said he knew where he could get water right up on the side of the hill there, all he needed was a little grubstake until he could get that water out of the hill. So Dad said OK; he was willing to try anything. So this man started to tunnel in just below the existing reservoir on the hill. He dug in a trench about five or six feet high and four feet wide, just large enough for a man to stand in, and that went back into the hill about 75 feet and naturally it was a dry hole. I think the man was interested in eating and getting a place to sleep rather than getting water, but what a hard way to go.

There are some interesting happenings with the reservoir, in connection with one of our old bulls. He was a cantankerous old guy. The reservoir was fenced with a barbed wire fence, wooden shed room on top of it and not too substantial. One time I remember the bull got up there and fell in. It may have been good drinking water for a few days.

Another time, this same old bull was being taken to the stockyards to load up, he was giving us too much trouble, and he got loose on the way down. He got into the cemetery and had tombstones laying all over the place. It was quite a chore to get them stood up again.