MARCUS AND MARCUS ISLAND
April 28-29
Traveling west on Hwy 20, two of the National Guard Survival School helicopters (UH-1 aka hueys) go over, and further along find them landed in a meadow along the highway. They rotor up and lift before camera can be acquired. This is the same type of helicopter used by the Wisconsin National Guard in 1981, the same that landed atop Sacred Heart following the Ruby Ridge Incident in 1992, and the same helicopters and group that flew out of Bonners Ferry 1996 in extraction of injured firefighter.
In Colville, where RV battery testing finds that, as suspect, it is finished as a battery. At Walmart, new RV battery acquired only to find upon installation that there is still no power. All the fuses are good. This matter requires further investigation but it is getting late. Stopping for gas enables a chance meeting with “Matt” who is fueling a truck that has a large boat in tow. The side of the boat has the word “RESEARCH”. Matt has an accent that sounds Aussie. He is part of a team who are working with the Lake Roosevelt White Sturgeon Recovery Program. Currently they are checking numbers on the Lake. On to Marcus Island Campground.
The river is drawn down considerably as there is still snow sitting on the mountains north in BC. Turkeys call back and forth in the campground and can be heard across the river as well. I seem also to hear peacocks which may be coming from the farms on China Bend side of the river.
Very cold and uncomfortable night which I think is below freezing. In the morning I sit in the sun caffeinating when a local walks past. He turns out to be the only person I speak with during the next two days. On the river two boats are visible. He points to them and with emphasis and profanity observes that it is “our government wasting our tax money”. I realize that one of the boats is “RESEARCH”. I observe that these folks are involved with the sturgeon recovery. This certainly does not change his opinion.
Marcus Island as a settlement was originally founded by Marcus Oppenheimer, who started a trading station in the late 1900s to provide services for miners heading to Alaska in the Yukon Gold Rush. With the addition of the railway as a stop, Marcus (1909) grew to include a hospital. In 1940, the entire town was relocated off the Island and unto the east shore as part of the Grand Coulee Dam construction. With the water drawn so low, some of the original structures are exposed. Later this month this will all be underwater again.
April 30th: A short visit to the new Marcus on the hillside overlooking the island. The train does not stop in this Marcus.
