4 miles off Highway 395 in Grant County, John Day, OR 97845 - Grant County

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Long Creek - all about connections

By Flynn Espe

The East Oregonian

For some people, Grant County's Long Creek is a breathtaking but brief stop en route to another destination, perhaps a last-leg stretch on the Highway 395 drive from John Day to Pendleton.

For others, like resident and former Long Creek teacher Alita Henslee, 67, the valley town is a permanent heritage, and the only community they truly call home.

"My great-grandparents moved here in 1875," Henslee said. "Some of the family has lived here ever since."

In the town's heyday, likely during the 1950s or early 60s, the town bustled with the activity of three logging mills, situated as it is near the base of the richly forested Blue Mountains.

Henslee recalled when her father's automotive oil service thrived day and night on the high traffic of the logging industry vehicles.

When the last major operation shut down in the early 1990s, however, while a few found local work, many families were forced to relocate. Even most of the old ranching families sold out to people who no longer used the property for agriculture.

Now, most of the town's newest residents are retirees. At dusk, it may be more common to see wild mule deer roaming the streets than humans.

Especially during winter driving conditions, the town is fairly remote, about 40 miles north of John Day, 90 miles south of Pendleton and 100 miles west of La Grande. It can still be rugged living, where many residents stock up not only on food, but also on firewood for their winter heating.

"To live here comfortably you have to have a nice stockpile on hand," Henslee said. "You really have to think a long ways ahead."

But for Henslee, who grew up traveling all over the state with her family, the isolation isn't much of an issue.

"I never felt like I was confined to Long Creek," she said, recalling the family would drive to Portland every year for the circus and ice capades. Even today, Henslee has no problem doing her banking and grocery shopping in Pendleton. "I put about 30,000 miles a year on my car."

But although Henslee has thrived, she has witnessed the town, as a population, struggle.

"It's very sad to me to see that we have no industry," she said.

The town's largest employer today is the school district, which itself is decreasing in student attendance - once upwards of 100 students, now averaging in the 30s.

It's forced the administration to make some difficult budget cuts in personnel. But the doors remain open, and as residents remain hopeful, the school continues to be a focal point for the community.

"Something we just had was the children's Christmas program at school," town resident and former Long Creek librarian Myla Corley said. "And the high school gives the senior citizens of the community Christmas baskets."

Each year, the school system also brings in a number of foreign exchange students, seven this year. While her own sons now are off studying at Eastern Oregon University, Corley is hosting her 15th and 16th students, a boy from Germany and another from Vietnam.

The connections students make with one another last for years. Henslee hosted a Long Creek reunion of sorts when in 2004 she put together the centennial celebration of the local Seventh-day Adventist Church, which has continuously operated in town since 1904.

"Many of our previous pastors attended the celebration," Henslee said, adding she even received indirect contact from a descendant of the very first pastor - still living but unable to attend.

But for history on the town, look no further than Reiba Smith. She wrote the book on it, titled "In the Land of Bunch Grass, Gold and Trees."

Another lifelong resident of Long Creek, Smith too spent several years teaching for the local school and continues to volunteer part of her time each week to reading to the kids.

"I think it's a town - like small towns - if somebody needs help, there's always someone there to help you and be concerned," Smith said. "People say, 'Well, what do you do here?' I belong to Bunco and ladies home extension and there's two churches in town. There's always just kind of a nice support system."