Memorial Day - the Wilkes remembered

Memorial Day 2008

For years Ansel and Martina always made a special Memorial Day trip to the Redmond Cemetery and laid flowers on the graves of her parents and brothers who are buried there. Ansel has continued that tradition since the passing of Martina and subsequently son Terry. Each year we make bouquets of lilacs and decorate their graves. Ansel was very fond of Mother Wilkes, they lived on the ranch at Lawen with Ansel and Martina, and then in later years, Ansel and Martina bought the Gouder Place for them to live in, which was on the corner of West Loop Rd and Radar Rd just north of the Paiute Indian Rez at Burns. The property bordered Ansel and Martina's which was to the NW. It was mostly sagebruch pasture, with about 30-40 ac of irrigated ground too. It is now owned by the Burns Paiute Tribe and the buildings have all been removed.

Granville and Myrtle Wilkes, Martina's parents Ansel teared up with fond memories of them, mostly of Myrtle.

Sonny - Elza G. Wilkes, was Martina's brother, Hank/Wendel and Nita's father.

The short marker with lilacs in front of it just over Ansel's hip is for Birdie, he was also Martina's brother.


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May 21, 2008

Today I took Ansel up to the Tumalo Elementary School to watch Alec Carter give an oral General Robert E. Lee biographical presentation that he had researched and written himself. It was pretty neat, he made a very nice kiosk display with pictures telling Lee’s story as a back drop for his presentation. Then he gave an oral presentation dressed in period clothing depicting Gen. Lee. Good job Alec, it was great ! And you looked great too !!!

Broken water pipes ugh !!!

May 17th, 2008


When we came back from Burns with Bob, I ran out to feed the horses and noticed a wet spot about 3 feet in diameter out in front of the wooden horse barn… I thought to myself, oh darn it's probably a leaking water pipe. After dinner I went out and looked at it again, this time two hours later it was like 12ft in diameter, drats!!! I could see where the water was bubbling up. So I placed a large rock on the bubbling up spot so I’d know where to start digging and shut the water line to the barn off. The next morning I started digging… oh man what a job, there was a foot deep of cinders and rock that had been put on top of where the waterline is. At some point they had buried a drain field pipe and covered it with rock hoping to get the water away from the barn during the spring rains.The digging took a couple of days, but finally got it dug up… the cinders had worked their way down and worn holes in the steel water line. It actually is amazing that the water line hasn’t froze during winter… it’s barely 14” below the surface…

I replaced the steel with PVC where it's exposed and I also put a frost free hydrant in the barn while we were at… my Dad was a plumber, I always picture him brimming from ear to ear when I shoulder into a plumbing project.

Smuggled out of the hospital

Another favorite Terry and Bob Meck story that he loves to tell is the time that they smuggled him out of the hospital.

It looked like Ansel was going to miss Terry and Bob’s graduation festivities from Burns Union High School. Ansel was had been hospitalized in Harney District Hospital for __________ (I can’t remember, I’ll ask in the morning J) When graduation day came he had told every one (Dr.s and nurses) that come hell or high water he was going to go to Terry’s graduation. They told him that was out of the question, that they would not release him. There was one drill sergeant sort of nurse that took it upon herself, to let everyone know that Ansel was not going to leave the hospital, he was far too ill and the Dr was not going to sign the papers for him to go, there fore he couldn’t.

The afternoon of graduation, in paper bags, the boys brought him his dress clothes and Stetson hat to wear, and then they closed his hospital room door. While Ansel got dressed, they stuffed a bunch of pillows and blankets under the bedcovers, and then they walked Ansel right out the front door and drove him straight to the high school for graduation.

When the graduation was over… Ansel returned to the hospital… and boy was he in trouble with that nurse… she didn’t like one bit that they pulled one over on her… Ansel showed her that he didn’t need a piece of paper with a Dr. signature to go to graduation.

Terry's first deer rifle

May 16, 2008
One of the things that we decided to do while in Harney County, was to have Ansel show us where Terry and Martina’s ashes were scattered. Bob was glad for the opportunity to pay his respects to the final resting place of their earthly bodies.

Ansel and Martina used to own some property up the Silvies River NW of Five Mile Dam, above the Baker place. It was purchased from the Ilda May Hayes family and was known during their ownership as the Cottonwood field and it was bordered to the south and west by their BLM permit.

Ansel loves to tell the story of when Terry was 12 years old and he gave him a 257 Roberts deer rifle. It was Terry’s official first year of hunting. There is a certain point of rocks on the south fence of the Cottonwood field about ½ mile from the SW corner of the property. It’s not very far off the Skull Creek road. A draw comes from south and the Silvies drainage runs east to west in front of it. Ansel said that he left Terry there on point with his new rifle and with all the formal instructions a father would give a son. A bit later after hearing several rounds fired from the area he had left Terry… Ansel hurried back to find Terry with his first buck deer and his second buck deer and his first bob cat.

Ansel said that this serene vista was Terry’s favorite spot on the whole ranch and he had come back to it often in his adult-life. Combined with it’s beauty and the special memories of Terry’s first deer hunt, it was a natural choice to scatter Terry and Martina’s ashes.

So we set out to find the spot. The BLM has done a significant juniper cutting project on the south side of the fence and that made it a little difficult to get to the fence line, but we did. Once we made it to the fence line at the top of the saddle, that separates the BLM and private, it was fairly easy to find to find the rocky point. It was just as Ansel described. (Ansel had waited at the PU) We took several photos and Bob’s GPS Navigator with us to record the coordinates. Then we boaged around a bit looking for arrowheads. That was unsuccessful, but the wild flowers that were out were breath taking.

Ansel points the way

The Rocky Point (from below)

Looking north from the point, the Silvies River is in the canyon running east and west.

Bob checking the GPS coordinates

Bob Meck Visits

May 14, 2008 The 2nd week of May we were blessed to have a visit from Bob Meck of Bethesda, MD. Bob went to high school in Burns and was a classmate and friend of Terry’s. They graduated from BUHS in 1959. Bob ended up living with Ansel and Martina at their Lawen house his senior year of high school. Bob has kept in touch with the Marshall's over the years.

It worked out perfect that I had a meeting in Burns the 15th while Bob was here, so it was a good excuse for all of us to load up and head across the desert to spend a couple of days in Harney County. The weather was wonderful. The two hour drive each way gave us plenty of time for visiting.
While at Burns, we camped at Will and Toni's, and are just about to enjoy yummy sour dough pancakes :o)