Rest and Recovery Story and Photos by Jen Barger “Land restoration does not happen overnight,” Sammi Fontenot tells me as we walk near the Highland cattle she and her family raise. “Slowly but surely, we’re working in the
Ode to the Trusty Toolbox By Clark Ballard Swathers hadn’t yet been developed for haying season when I was a teenaged tractor operator on farms near Fairfield during summers in the mid-1950s. We operated the now-defunct Farmall tractors
Small-Town Beauty By McKenzie Schilz In the pink and blue early morning light, a faded wooden barn stands tall against the rolling foothills of golden prairie grass. Snowcapped gray and green mountains loom in the background, the whole
Snowed-In With a Vengeance Story and Photos by Clell G. Ballard My late father, Claude Ballard, became postmaster in Fairfield, the seat of Camas County, in 1934. In our extremely small community, he knew everyone who received mail
To Harvest the Camas By Gary Oberbillig Fairfield people have considerable respect in their voices when they say, “That’s one of the original families around here.” The pioneer families of Camas Prairie have more than 125 years of
Did It Have to Be That Song? By Clell G. Ballard Back in 1966, my then-fiancee Marilyn made plans for our wedding in our home church, one of Fairfield’s most important buildings, right on Main Street. That was
There never was a question where our family’s Christmas tree would come from. Continue reading
They say you never forget your first love. Well, I guess that’s true, because even though my first love wasn’t very pretty, I’ll never forget her.
The affair started in 1952 when my older brother Claude, then a sophomore at Camas County High School in Fairfield, paid fifty dollars for a 1929 Model A Ford Coupe that had definitely seen better days. Continue reading
