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Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Come and get it
Courtesy photo from Prospectors and Gold Diggers Club With only two grills in the cook shack, the waiting line is part of the breakfast experience and its length ebbs and flows with new arrivals.
Miners Breakfast on the Mountain celebrates its Diamond Jubilee
A
CINDY WEELDREYER Cottage Grove Sentinel
ny takers for an all-you-can-eat flapjack breakfast Oregon’s statehood centennial was such an enjoyable in a remote, scenic location at a 5,000-foot community event that a group of history-loving civic elevation? leaders committed to produce a second one and that Members of the Prospectors and Gold Diggers Club required creating a nonprofit organization to manage it. sure hope so. The current attendance record is 1,102 The following year, they incorporated the Prospectors paying customers and members hope that record will be Club with the mission to “prospect better things for broken this year between 6 a.m. and 1 p.m. July 21. Cottage Grove.” Years later Gold Diggers were added Next month, on the third weekend of July, the Cottage to the name. Club members enthusiastically embraced Grove Prospectors and Gold Diggers Club members will that mission. They created the annual three-day Bohemia load up the cook shack, Mining Days (BMD) tables, chairs, canopies and celebration of local mining lots of food and haul it up history and, a few years to Bohemia Mountain to later, saved the historic offer a high mountain-style Dr. Snapp House from 190 dozen eggs miner’s breakfast in the destruction and moved it to 14 hams (12-14 lbs each) Bohemia Mining District. its current location next to 36 cases of pancake mix On the menu is all-youProspector Park on South Six cases of regular syrup can-eat pancakes (served River Road. two at a time), two eggs In 1964, club members Six bottles of sugar free syrup decided they wanted to cooked to order, a slice 140 10-ounce cans simulate the atmosphere of of ham, orange juice and of orange juice concentrate a mining camp breakfast coffee. The meal prices are Three 3-pound cans of as a unique finale to BMD. adults $12, children $9, and coffee (50 gallons of coffee served) For the past 60 years the kids (3 and younger) eat high mountain breakfast has free. been staged at the end of a breathtakingly beautiful scenic The breakfast has always been the cherry on the top on drive to Lane County’s tiny Bohemia Saddle Park, 40 what used to be the final day of Bohemia Mining Days miles southeast of Cottage Grove, in a remote part of the weekend festivities. It was the brainstorm of several original members of the Prospectors and Gold Diggers Bohemia Mining District. (P&G) organization. By the early 1970s, the difficulty of simultaneously planning and staffing both events led the Club to hand-off HISTORY the planning of the in-town activities to a community-
THE SHOPPING LIST
In 1959, Cottage Grove’s elaborate celebration of
See BREAKFAST on Page 4
Number 25 • 135 years
Groundbreaking held for Bohemia Park improvements
Courtesy photo With confetti flying, from left, Tyson Woodard of the Woodard Family Foundation, Joann Gray of the Bohemia Foundation, Cottage Grove Mayor Candace Solesbee, Julie Leland of Branch Engineering, Cottage Grove City Councilor Chalice Savage and Cody Boyd of Pacific Excavation break ground for improvements at Bohemia Park. JON SINNETT Sentinel Guest Article Improvement are in the works for Cottage Grove’s Bohemia Park. Several park supporters gathered at the north end of the park Monday morning, June 16, to break ground for the improvements, which are designed to add to the park’s usability and enjoyability for area residents and visitors. The improvements include a splash pad, a second pavilion, new restrooms, a swing set and other new amenities. The Bohemia Foundation owns and maintains the park in a cooperative agreement with the City of Cottage Grove. Foundation President Faye Stewart presided over the groundbreaking ceremony that launches phase three of the park’s development. Stewart welcomed Cottage Grove Mayor Candace Solesbee, Kris and Tyson Woodard of the Woodard Family Foundation, Joann Gray of the Bohemia
Foundation, former City Manager Richard Meyers and current City Manager Mike Sauerwein, and representatives of Branch Engineering and Pacific Excavation to the northern corner of the 14.8-acre park for the celebration. Stewart also recounted the history of the park, which was envisioned by his great-uncle, Stub Stewart, in 1998. The site had once housed a rail yard. After initial work to secure construction site approval, crews broke ground on the first round of improvements at the park in 2008. Since then a pavilion and new restrooms, a 2,000-seat amphitheater and stage cover, new playground equipment, light poles and benches and other upgrades have been added. Each improvement has been enthusiastically received by the community and increased usage at Bohemia Park. It’s now the home of dozens of birthday and other parties each year. See PARK on Page 4
ODFW issues invasive fish alert for Cottage Grove reservoir JEREMY C. RUARK Cottage Grove Sentinel
TODAY’S EDITION
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) has received several calls regarding the release of koi into the Cottage Grove Reservoir. “The ODFW Springfield office received the first report on May 30, but there are rumors that koi may have been released up to four years ago,” according to a release from the ODFW. “One angler
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estimated seeing 300 koi in a day.” ODFW conducted an extensive boat electrofishing survey in 2018 and no koi were encountered at that time. Koi are colorful variants of carp originally bred in Central Europe and Asia and are sold around the world as ornamental aquatic pets. Koi can live up to 25 years, reproduce rapidly, and can survive very cold winters. An 8-10 inch koi can
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PLEASE CALL
The ODFW urges you to call Oregon State Police at 800-442-0776 if you have information about illegal invasive species releases. produce 5,000 to 10,000 eggs and the largest koi can lay 500,000 eggs. They are omnivores with a voracious appetite, consuming fish and amphibian eggs, aquatic insects, and competing
with native fish for food. Koi also stir up sediment while uprooting and consuming aquatic plants which can reduce forage and cover for waterfowl and other animals. Introduced fish can also
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spread deadly diseases to wild fish populations. There are many examples in other states and countries where koi have damaged or changed aquatic ecosystems so extensively that vast amounts of public resources have been allocated to eradicate them, largely unsuccessfully. Once non-native species are introduced to a waterbody, they are nearly impossible to remove, according to the ODFW.
“Help spread the word to never dump unwanted fish or aquarium contents in or near waterways, streams, ponds, lakes, or stormwater drains,” the release states. “It can have serious ecological consequences and can ruin recreational opportunities for future generations of Oregonians.” If you catch koi in Cottage Grove Reservoir, please do not release them back into the reservoir alive.