The Goldendale Sentinel, Goldendale, WA., February 25, 1971, page 2

LAUREL READER COMMENTS ON 'TRUE WEST' STORY

     The following communication from Ollie Kreps of Laurel gives some very interesting comments on pioneer life in the Glenwood valley, as well as his opinion of an old myth repeated in a recent Sentinel column:
     In your Feb. 4 issue in the column written by "Sentinel Sal" she quotes from the 1955 issue of "True West" (Untrue West would be a more appropriate name) about the lost gold mine on the Klickitat river. I read the article in 1955. I'd say it is fiction instead of true, for the following reasons.
     My grandparents on Mother's side (the Conboys) moved in here by pack horses from Warner's Landing (Bingen) in 1872. My mother, her sister and two brothers grew up here. Nearly all the playmates they had were Indian children, in the summer time. Grandfather Conboy died in 1875. Grandmother stayed on the homestead and raised her family; how, I do not know (we do know no public assistance in those days) but she kept "open-house" for all who came, white or Indian, always were welcome to share what she had. The Indian people all had a great regard for her; eyes today, when I have a chance to meet older Indians and tell them who my grandmother was they will talk to me.
     My father and his family came in 1886. Mother and Dad knew all the Klickitat, Celilo, Rattlesnake and most of the Columbia River Indians. They not only knew these Indians but they were "tillicums" (friends). How come with all this talk about gold that my folks knew nothing of it? The whites as well as the Indians were all poor in those days -- "wake chicamun" (no money). Uncle Pete Conhoy and Mother spoke Chinook nearly as well as English. In later years after the "party telephone" line arrived they talked Chinook on the phone when they did not want everyone to know what they were talking about.
     Another thing Uncle Pete learned from the Indian lads was to throw rocks. I remember he provided many a dinner, with blue goose, native pheasant or gray squirrel, and he never carried a gun.
     I remember my mother sitting and visiting with many an elderly Indian lady and they spoke in Chinook -- "Skookum wa-wa, hy-as he-he" (big talk, lots of laughs).
     I've heard of lost mines all my life; many men have looked for them, "wake nanich" (no see).
     I do not care to be caught in a "gold rush" on the river this spring…Lord knows we have trouble enough without that. This is one of the reasons for my letter. O.P. Kreps

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©  Jeffrey L. Elmer