Members of the community of Boardman gathered together in March of 1999 recalling their community heritage. Carol Michael of the Boardman Chamber explained that river communities with “lost histories” need such events to reclaim their self-esteem. Reprinted by permission of the East Oregonian
Before the dam:
Boardman revisits former town site
By CRAIG SCOTT
of the East Oregonian
March 30, 1999
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BOARDMAN
Looking over the new town site, Dewey West remarked on the predominance of sagebrush � and little else.
“As you can see, there’s nothing else there just yet. Just a lot of people’s dreams,” West said.
Those dreams have been reality for 30 years now. The former town mayor spoke Sunday afternoon to a crowd of about 70 people in the Riverside High School library as part of “Honoring Our Past,” an effort by residents to create a collective history of’ the town.
In Boardman’s case, such a history doesn’t exist; there are no old buildings on Main Street. In fact, there’s little old in this town except the memories; the original town site now sits below the blue depths of the Columbia River.
What does remain is a video cassette that contains old eight-millimeter home movies made by West. His movies show the old town, the current town site before any homes existed, and the entertaining process of moving homes via tractor.
West brought that point home while the camera focused on the green grass in the yard of his old home. ‘We sure hated to leave that old pretty yard. . .but there’s about 20 feet of water over where that picture was taken.”
In a slightly jerky fashion, viewers watched an orange tractor pull West’s home down a street. West humorously noted a man sitting on the roof whose job was to trim any locust tree branches that got in the way, and that his house was left overnight atop the not-then-usable railroad tracks.
“I needed something, so I got up early and went down to the house and went inside,” West said. “It semed kind of weird looking out the window and seeing the railroad tracks there.”
When the John Day Dam was nearing completion in the late 1960s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers bought homes from locals to encourage them to move. Many people, like West, paid to salvage their homes.
But not all buildings were salvaged. Some, like the old Boardman Public School, were razed. Viewers watched, some mournfully, some in awe, as flames billowed out of the building that housed all ages of schoolchildren.
“They ought to do that to all schools,” a young child from the front of the room exclaimed.
While the library was mostly a sea of gray and white hair, a smattering of youngsters were mixed into the crowd. And, perhaps surprisingly, the youth were very interested in the goings-on.
“This is cool,” said young Nick Dyer, 7, from his chair as he sat on his knees to get a better look at the film. “This is awesome.”
The film wasn’t the only way people remembered Boardman’s past. People brought old yearbooks, newspaper clippings and lots of conversation.
After West’s movie, audience members were encouraged � and quite willing – to share memories of the town. Yellow questionnaires were put on the tables to prompt their recollections. Questions focused on the school, asking for favorite teachers, humorous memories and school food.
Mildred Baker laughed while — talking about Armashaws, tan footwear made in Portland similar to a saddleshoe. “If you didn’t have -Armashaws, you just didn’t have it,” Baker said.
Some weren’t content to stick to speaking only of the school.
“I think we’re leaving out what we used to do for Halloween,” said Russ DeMunro, much to the delight of the audience. “We didn’t have or trick or treat; we just had tricks.”
He mentioned a favorite prank: taking apart cars, hauling them piece by piece up a ladder and reassembling them on top of the school.
The stories were recorded by students from Riverside’s leadership and technology classes. No plans yet exist aside from capturing the stories, but they may be later transcribed. West’s soliloquy, recorded by the video camera, might later be dubbed onto his home movies.
Carol Michael, the Chamber of Commerce director who emceed Sunday’s gathering, said the stories are necessary to tie the town together.
“One of the indicators of a strong community is a sense of history and traditions and the past, and when you have a community that has been displaced, you lose that,” Michael said.
