Karen Scarborough
April 11, 1995I was born Karen Morse in Blue Springs, Nebraska on June 25, 1940. My parents and another family migrated to Prineville from Nebraska when I was a year-and-a-half old. They worked their way out, stopping and earning money as they went along until they got to Prineville. They picked beans, fruit, any kind of work they could find. There were three children in our family and three in the other family. I was a little over two years old when we finally made it to Prineville in 1942.
Each family had a car. Ours was a Model-A Ford. I don't know why they picked Prineville. We didn't have any family here at all. Dad didn't find work here right away. He worked for a while in Daytona, Washington and when we came back to Prineville in 1944 he got on at Alexander-Yawkey's.
Dad was a 'grease monkey' for Ochoco Lumber Company for 30 years.We moved to Ochoco's logging camp on Wolf Creek in 1945 when I was five years old. Our house had two bedrooms until they built a room on for my brother. There were 17 houses all in one neat row. Later on, all the houses were placed on trucks for the move to Veazie Creek.
The camp kids went to Howard School until it closed. After that we went by bus to a school in town. Living at camp was a clean and healthy life and a lot of fun. Everybody liked everybody else. Everyone I know loved camp life. There were house parties and card parties and always something to do. It was a wonderful life for kids.
There were no modern conveniences. No electricity, no indoor plumbing, no running water. We bathed in a big round tub in water that was warmed on the stove. Every one got to take a bath once a week on Saturday night. Mom washed clothes in an old wringer washer. We used kerosene lamps for light. The new camp on Veazie Creek had electricity but we still didn't have inside bathrooms. There was only one telephone in the camp for the boss, Pete Bockstruck. His was the only house in the camp that had an inside toilet. Our house was nice, but nothing compared to Bockstruck's. Theirs was one of the fanciest houses in camp.
We even had our own swimming pool. Water came from the creek. But as more people moved in, there was a problem with droppings and stuff getting into the pool, so it was closed. The Baptist Church built a small church for Sunday School. Jim Howard, Jr. and Charlene came every Sunday morning to teach Sunday School.
Dad made trips into town to buy groceries for anyone who wanted them and most everyone did. The refrigerators were wooden iceboxes with a place for ice. The ice came from somewhere in town or from Ontko's store, or maybe from Shirts Quant when he was running the store. Ontkos had a store and cabins for the single loggers. Everyone went there to picnic and party and drink beer.
A couple we called Mom and Pop Young had 17 children. Some of the children, now grown, still live here in town. Mom Young was like an Aunt Jemima to me. They had a very small house but everyone went there because they were such a nice family and everybody liked them.
We left Ochoco's logging camp and moved to town in 1956 when I was 15. Everyone had to move out because the camp was being closed. They didn't need workers up there any more. By now, they were bringing the logs into the mill in town instead of to the reload station.
The log cabin that was at the reload station was brought into town. It is on my kids' property and is used as a children's playhouse. I have such great memories of life in the logging camp. Everyone who lived there does, too. It was a sad, sad day for all of us when we had to leave.