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An 'Oregon Experience'
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The OPB piece is expected to air probably in December as a program of “The Oregon Experience.’’ OPB has also done such pieces in Wallowa County as the one about rural physicians and another about timber management. “This is unique. It’s not a story told far and wide,” said OPB producer Eric Cane about Maxville — a logging town north of Wallowa where 49 to 60 African American loggers lived in the 1920s and ’30s. Trice told of finding her roots while digging up this local history. In the process she discovered numerous relatives of whom she’d not known about.Trice is working to form a non-profit organization to fund the project. Trice has invested her own money in the project. She thanked the community and its organizations that have supported the effort with seed money. The seed money has helped her do such things as travel to Lancaster, Texas, to interview Alvy Marsh, the last known African American logger alive from Maxville. Trice is pursuing grants for further funding. Smart Solutions has granted $5,500 to establish a Maxville history website. Trice is a 1976 graduate of La Grande High School. She moved to Seattle and became a videographer. Then a couple years ago she moved to Enterprise after she learned that her grandfather and father were among the first African American loggers to arrive in Maxville in 1924 by boxcar from Pine Bluff, Ark. Thursday night about 100 people filled Stage One to attend the presentation. Some offered Trice additional information about Maxville. Trice encourages others to record and preserve their history in whatever way that they can. “Think about your own story so it doesn’t go away,” she said. Donations can be made to Friends of the Wallowa County Museum, Maxville Project, P.O. Box 430, Joseph 97846. Thursday’s event was sponsored by the Wallowa County Rotary Club.
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