Save the Steak Feed

We doubt we were alone in our disappointment at the news that the Durkee Steak Feed will not happen this year.

No steaks?

No cowboy pan bread?

But unfortunately, realistic, as Chuck Buchanan, a longtime contributor to the Steak Feed, said last week.

The numbers tell the sorry tale.

As recently as a decade ago the Steak Feed brought from 700 to 1,000 people to Durkee, an unincorporated town along Interstate 84 about 20 miles southeast of Baker City.

Last year’s turnout: fewer than 400.

“It came down to the amount of work versus the amount of return,” Buchanan said. “It was kind of sad because it has been going on for a long time.”

More than 60 years, in fact, which makes it one of the longer-running annual events in Baker County.

And one which, perhaps better than any other, exemplifies a county renowned for its friendliness, sense of community and, of course, its beef.

The Steak Feed, besides bringing people together for an evening of hearty food and camaraderie, also is a major fundraiser for the Durkee Grange Hall.

But our sadness about the Steak Feed’s present is balanced by optimism about its future.

The event should be revived in 2010, and we’re confident it can be.

Here’s what the Durkee Community Corp., the group that puts on the Steak Feed, needs: Advance ticket sales for the 2010 event.

Selling, say, 500 tickets before the end of 2009 ought to give organizers confidence that the Steak Feed’s hiatus will be the shortest possible one.

That’s an ambitious goal, but based on a couple of recent examples of the generosity and spirit of Baker County residents, it’s achievable.

Those examples are the Elkhorn Grange in Haines, and Floyd Morgan’s burned barn.

The Elkhorn Grange, which started in 1945, closed this spring, plagued by the same problem that canceled the Steak Feed: dwindling interest.

Anna Dean refused to accept that excuse.

She recruited 16 people — three more than she needed — and the Elkhorn Grange received its new charter on May 21.

Then they went out and served the cowboy breakfast on Independence Day.

Floyd Morgan, who ranches at Salisbury Junction south of Baker City, lost his barn, and an estimated $60,000 in equipment, in a September 2008 fire.

So last month a group of volunteers, led by Don Glerup, helped Morgan build a new barn.

Baker County has proved it can resurrect a Grange and a barn.

Neither of those campaigns, so far as we know, included cowboy pan bread.

Saving the Durkee Steak Feed, then, ought to be a cinch.