Shanna Hatfield

Howdy, friends!
It’s my turn to share a little about my hometown. I chose to write about the town that was my hometown all through my growing up years.

Vale, Oregon

Our farm was actually a dozen miles out of town, but  when I was a kid, getting to go to Vale was a much anticipated adventure. My family could be found there most every Sunday morning for church, and once I started piano lessons in first grade, Mom drove me once a week for my lesson. It gave her a chance to load up on groceries, and if time permitted, she’d go visit my aunt.

Vale is a small town (less than 2,000 population, although it was barely over 1,000 when I was in school), and like many old towns the two main streets through town are both one-way.  It’s the county seat, and I once performed with the school choir on the steps of the courthouse when the governor was visiting. It was spring and blustery, and I remember he asked me if I was cold after our performance. (I was playing the keyboard with the chilly breeze blowing up my skirt.)

Back when wagons were rumbling across the Oregon Trail, Vale was the first stop in Oregon for weary travelers. There was a natural hot spring there, and it was right on the banks of the river. It was a place travelers could stop and rest. A notable place then and now is Rinehart’s Stone House. In fact, many referred to the community as Stone House for years, until the town was incorporated as Vale. The house became a wayside stop for travelers until the early 1900s. It was a stage stop where travelers could wait to board. And during the Bannock Paiute uprising of 1878, it served as Field Headquarters to General O.O. Howard as well as a refuge for settlers on outlying ranches and farms. Amanda Rinehart was known as a gracious hostess, welcoming visitors to her home. When I was a child, the building was boarded up, but a group of enterprising individuals worked together to reopen it about thirty years ago. The museum is full of the town’s history, including an antique cook stove that belonged to my sister-in-law’s grandmother.

Just south of town is Keeney Pass, an interpretive site where you can see the deep groves worn into the hills by wagon wheels. It’s an incredible thing to stand there in the ruts and imagine what people must have felt when they passed through the desolate high-desert country before reaching the river and Vale.

Over the years, several murals have been painted around town to tell the story of the pioneers.

Outdoor enthusiasts will find opportunities for boating, fishing, waterskiing, hiking, and hunting in the area.

A few miles out of town is Malheur Butte, an inactive volcano that is a remnant of basalt lava floods that covered thousands of square miles in the Snake River Plain. It is a well-known landmark in the area.

One of my favorite events when I was growing up was the 4th of July rodeo. It was a PRCA-sanctioned event back then, and our little town burst at the seams during the four days of the rodeo as some of the most well-known cowboys rolled into town along with hundreds of spectators, eager to watch them compete. As part of the celebration, each year a parade was held on the 4th of July, and one evening would feature the Suicide Race just before the rodeo began.

The Suicide Race is a horseback event that lasts only a few minutes and has been a tradition in Vale since 1915. Riders travel up Rinehart’s Butte on the far side of the river while spectators, eager to observe the race, gather on the banks of the river and line fenced-off pathway into the rodeo arena. Once the riders are gathered at the top, a charge of dynamite goes off to signal those watching the race is about to begin. A rock outcropping keeps the contestants from view until they come out on the ridge. The race, at the start, is a straight drop from the rocky butte and then a dead run in soft, often-powdery soil, interspersed with sagebrush on a steep sideward angle. The horses hit the paved highway, then it’s another drop into the river, which the horses must cross, scramble up the muddy bank on the other side, and run into the arena. I am familiar with the race from my oldest brother and a few cousins competing when I was little. One year, Mom got so tense watching the race, she broke the heel off her shoe and spent the rest of the evening with an off-gait. Two of my oldest brother’s kids competed in the race and my niece became the very first female to win it. If you’d like to know what’s it like to race down the butte at breakneck speed, watch this video. The race starts at about the 2-minute mark.

The 4th of July parade was something I looked forward to all year (and it wasn’t just the candy  tossed out). It was fun to see the floats, and old cars, and entrants on horseback. One year, my brother’s stepson dressed up in bib overalls with a ratty straw hat and drove my dad’s old Johnny Popper tractor in the parade.

Back in 2014, on July 5, hundreds of people participated in a pickup-only parade in an attempt to break the worlds record for the longest pickup parade. It was part of the rodeo’s 100th celebration.

A few years ago, I wrote Romance at Rinehart’s Crossing. It’s a sweet and wholesome romance inspired by the early days of Vale. It includes three complete and intertwined stories.

Life on the Oregon Trail will never be the same . . .

Tenner King is determined to make his own way in the world far from the overbearing presence of his father and the ranch where he was raised in Rinehart’s Crossing, Oregon. Reluctantly, he returns home after his father’s death to find the ranch on its way to ruin and his siblings antsy to leave. Prepared to do whatever is necessary to save the ranch, Tenner isn’t about to let a little thing like love get in his way.

Austen – After spending her entire life ruled by her father, Austen Rose King certainly isn’t going to allow her bossy older brother to take on the job. Desperate to leave the hard work and solitude of the Diamond K Ranch, she decides a husband would be the fastest means of escape. If only she could find a man she could tolerate for more than five minutes.

Claire – Two thousand miles of travel. Two thousand miles of listening to her parents bicker about the best place in Oregon to settle. Two thousand miles of dusty trails, bumpy wagons, and things that slither and creep into her bedding at night. Claire Clemons would happily set down roots that very minute if someone would let her. What she needs is her own Prince Charming to give her a place to call home. When a broken wagon wheel strands her family miles from civilization, she wonders if handsome Worth King, the freighter who rescues them, might just be the answer to her prayers.

Kendall – Anxious to escape her mother’s meddling interference, Kendall Arrington leaves her society life behind, intent on experiencing a Wild West adventure. Hired as the school teacher in a growing town on the Oregon Trail, Kendall hopes to bring a degree of civility and a joy of learning to the children of Rinehart’s Crossing. However, the last thing she expects to find is a cowboy with shaggy hair, dusty boots, and incredible blue eyes among her eager students.

Will love find the three King siblings as Romance arrives in Rinehart’s Crossing?

What is one of the things you like best about small towns?