By Jayson Jacoby

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A Baker County man has been watching with particular interest, and insight, the prodigious publicity this week regarding the famous case of skyjacker D.B. Cooper.

Jerry Thomas, who has lived on a rural property near Baker City for four years, has been searching for evidence of Cooper’s fate for more than 20 years.

Thomas has devoted considerable time since 1988 — “thousands of hours, at least,” he said — to tramping through hundreds of square miles of the dense forests of Southwestern Washington, the area where Cooper jumped from a 727 airliner on the night of Nov. 24, 1971, with $200,000 in $20 bills.

In the back row, all wearing hats, are Paul Crabill, Justin Crabill, Coleman Lay and Joe Lay. In front are, left to right, Marla Crabill, Josie Lay and Candi Lay.

By ADRIENNE GOODRICH
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The Crabill family has been involved in Baker County 4-H for four generations.

And there’s no reason to believe this legacy will end there.

Both Paul Crabill Jr. and his father, Paul Sr. started participating in 4-H activities at age nine.

Paul Jr.’s  sons, Gary and Dennis, and his daughter Candi (Lay) all were active in 4-H, too.

And so were Candi’s children, daughter Josey Lay and son Coleman Lay.

Kathryn Daugherty, followed by Chevy Doud and others, continues into the North Fork John Day Wilderness, which begins at the Peavy trailhead in the Elkhorn Mountains. She and Doud are members of the Baker crew with the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps.

By ADRIENNE GOODRICH
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The Oregon Youth Conservation Corps, one crew from Baker and one crew from Halfway, worked together Monday on the Peavy Trail in the Elkhorn Mountains, clearing debris and readying the trail for hikers and horseback riders.

The OYCC employs 14 people — five for each crew plus four alternates in case someone can’t come to work.

Each year the federal government gives the state money for the program; this year that includes money from the 2009 stimulus package.

Then the Oregon Consortium, Oregon Workforce Alliance, Training and Employment Consortium, Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, and Baker County all pitch in to complete funding.

“It’s not always an easy chess game to make sure it all comes together,” said Tom Smit, who works for the Wallowa-Whitman and has been involved with the OYCC program for 22 years.

Paree Godsill, owner of the Unity Country Store, wasn’t happy to hear that the post office in the small town in southern Baker County is one of four in the county that might be closed late this year.

The three other rural offices on a U.S. Postal Service closure study list are at Durkee, Hereford and Oxbow.

The USPS released the list this week. More than 3,650 locations nationwide will be looked over.

“That would really put a damper on how we operate,” said Godsill, one of the new owners of the Unity Country Store, which also pumps fuel and offers overnight accommodations with a motel and recreational vehicle parking.

“We go to the post office a lot. There’s no mail delivered."

Paige Marlia, 5, helps her mom, Dana, take care of the family’s flock of six chickens. Dana and her husband, Blake, built a coop for the chickens from scratch. Here Paige holds her “pet” hen named Teka.

By LISA BRITTON
For the Baker City Herald

The chickens wander, scratching here, pecking there.

The noise they make, a soft warbling sound, seems so serene, so peaceful in this backyard setting.

Jenny Mowe grew up on a ranch where she had chickens, and fresh eggs.

After moving to Baker City with her family, she continued the tradition.

“I just like knowing where my eggs are from,” she said.

Which is, in her case, about 30 feet from her back door.

Baker City’s overhauled residential burn ordinance made it through its final reading Tuesday and will take effect in 30 days.

The City Council voted 6-0 to approve the third reading of Ordinance 3302, which updates the city’s original 1950s regulations. (Councilor Roger Coles was absent.)

The new ordinance spells out a variety of rules for residents who want to use burn barrels or conduct open burns.

These includes times of day when burning can go on, what can and can’t be set on fire in a burn barrel, and rules for ceremonial and religious fires.

The congregation from Baker City's First Lutheran Church recently voted to change its affiliation to a different national group.

By TERRI HARBER
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The Lutheran Church was born out of dissension. Its namesake is Martin Luther, a priest and professor of theology in early 16th century Germany.

Luther envisioned a different path to salvation than that offered by the dominant Catholic Church at the time. Luther’s ideas also introduced the Reformation Movement in Europe.

A different type of dissension — this time within its own ranks — is causing Lutheran congregations across the U.S., including the congregation of Baker City’s First Lutheran Church, to search for leadership more in line with their beliefs.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the ELCA for short, is the largest Lutheran group in the United States, almost double the size of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the LCMS.

The three-legged race finds the brother-sister team, John and Megan Hurley, with a slight lead over Jayme Ramos and Katie Huntington, right, during outside activities at Geiser-Pollman Park on Thursday.

Sometimes younger can be better. Or more enthusiastic anyway.

Maggie Lindley is in her second year of leading the Baker Heritage Museum’s summer camp, and she enjoys working with the children, ages 7 to 10.

“I teach high school and it’s a little different,” Lindley said. “Like for instance we did charades and they had to act like animals. It would be hard to get high schoolers to do that.”

Lindley and her co-teacher Matt Banta, are both Baker High graduates who currently work as high school teachers at Sweet Home, Ore.

“I think it’s really fun,” she said. “Especially to see the kids get excited about learning. Their excitement is my favorite part.”

By TERRI HARBER

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Baker City still can say it’s a beautiful small town.

It just can’t say it’s the most beautiful small town in the United States — at least not this year. That title went to Sandpoint, Idaho.

“It was a very close decision,” said Timothy Bishop, Baker County’s tourism director. “The judges and everybody were impressed with what we did in Baker City.”

Bishop was in New Orleans for the Destination Marketing Association International Annual Convention. That is where the winning communities were announced for the Rand McNally and USA Today’s Best of the Road competition.

After hundreds of communities completed an online competition where people voted for their favorites, 30 top towns were named as finalists in five categories: most beautiful, most patriotic, friendliest, most fun, and best for food.

Baker City vied against these cities for inclusion in the 2013 Rand McNally Atlas and in USA Today as most beautiful: Coral Gables, Fla., Marcos Island, Fla., Franklin, Tenn., Pacifica, Calif., and Sandpoint.

The judges visited Baker City July 8-10.

Carnation poppies have taken over Deloris Stiltner's yard, though she's done nothing to encourage the flowers.

By ADRIENNE GOODRICH
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When Deloris Stiltner moved from the country to her home on Colorado Avenue in south Baker City three years ago, there were a few red poppies growing in the yard.

Thinking nothing of the flowers, Deloris and her husband, Jesse, tilled the yard to get rid of weeds.

But the hundreds of little brown seeds from those few poppy plants survived.

The first two years a moderate number of poppies bloomed.

But this spring an entire section of the couple’s front yard is filled with the flowers, all thriving with no help from the Stiltners.