Sherm Allen offers a friendly smile to visitors at the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, where he has volunteered since the Center opened in 1992. He joined the Trail Tenders with his late wife, Pansey. (Baker City Herald/S. John Collins)

At 98 1/2, he still spends Monday mornings as a volunteer Trail Tender at the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, and every day he heads to the Senior Center for lunch.

Just this summer he decided to hire out his yard work — but he still likes to water his own grass and drag hoses around.

He’s been in the Elks Lodge for 66 years, and he’s a Shriner — he sold advertising for the annual Shrine football game until he was 97.

To celebrate him, Sherm’s family threw him a party on July 10. More than 50 people attended — grandnieces, grandnephews, and their children and grandchildren.

“It was a wonderful recognition of him,” said his stepdaughter, Sandra Allen.

Sherm’s father, Daniel Wright Allen, arrived in Eagle Valley on Jan. 1, 1888. He was 19 years old, and had 20 cents in his pocket.

He came from Missouri.

“And he never wanted to go back,” Sherm says. “He came out here alone. He brought a load of cattle out, and that paid his way.”