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The Silver Lake Cemetery is located just east of the quaint sleepy Silver Lake, Oregon along Highway 31. Here this memorial remembers the deadliest fire in Oregon history. Nearly every family at the event lost at least one family member. It happened during a Christmas Eve choir celebration in the community hall as the outside temperature was -20*F. Towards the end of the celebration, 18 year old George Payne bumped a kerosene lamp full of oil causing it to spill across the floor w/ flames. The owner of the hall, Francis Chrisman, had hurried across the floor w/ the burning lamp but couldn't make it as panic broke out. As people rushed towards the limited exits of the building, it was only a matter of two minutes before the entire building was engulfed in flames.
Perhaps the greatest achievement occurred when Ed O'Farrell, a young cowboy who lived nearby, went on horseback in the cold weather 100 miles to get Dr. Bernard Daly in the town of Lakeview, who arrived December 26th & managed to cure all but a few of the living burn victims. Today, nearly 125 years later, the event is fading into the history books with hardly a mention of it in the town itself. Here a modest memorial & flagpole is dedicated to the 43 lives lost during the fire. It appears one of the trees has lost its top half since my last visit in August 2013.
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The United States is one of the most diverse countries on earth, jam packed full of amazing sights from St. Patrick's cathedral in New York to Mount Hollywood California.The Northeast region is where it all started. Thirteen British colonies fought the American Revolution from here and won their independence in the first successful colonial rebellion in history. Take a look at these rolling hills carpeted with foliage along the Hudson river here, north of New York City.The American south is known for its polite people and slow pace of life. Probably they move slowly because it's so hot. Southerners tend not to trust people from "up north" because they talk too fast. Here's a cemetery in Georgia where you can find graves of soldiers from the Civil War.The West Coast is sort of like another country that exists to make the east coast jealous. California is full of nothing but grizzly old miners digging for gold, a few gangster rappers, and then actors. That is to say, the West Coast functions as the imagination of the US, like a weird little brother who teases everybody then gets famous for making freaky art.The central part of the country is flat farmland all the way over to the Rocky Mountains. Up in the northwest corner you can find creative people in places like Portland and Seattle, along with awesome snowboarding and good beer. Text by Steve Smith.
