Letters and Comments for September 15, 2009

Letters and Comments for September 15, 2009

Lots to see at museum

To the Editor:

Have you visited the Union County Museum on Union’s Victorian Main Street lately?

The museum is open until mid-October, Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call

541-562-6003. There is still time to visit!

They just opened a new building containing a livery station with wagons and a buggy donated by Red and Bobbie James. The new blacksmith shop has tools from the Rasmussen Blacksmith Shop in Elgin and from D.E. Richards, long-time superintendent of the Eastern Oregon Experiment Station. Many other community members contributed to this.

You will find a log cabin interior depicting the old Hall Ranch up Catherine Creek. The ravages of time claimed that cabin just a few years ago.

There are many photographs of other blacksmith shops and livery stations of a bygone era.

Bring your friends and family and “Take a Step Back Into Time.” You will like this amazing museum with its cowboys, period rooms, quilts, American Indian artifacts and much more!

Carolyn Young

La Grande

Film festival deserves support

To the Editor:

The La Grande Summer Film Project and Eastern Oregon Film Festival presented a wonderful opportunity to see both local and rare independent films that typically don’t screen in this neck of the woods. It was particularly inspirational to see our beautiful, photogenic hometown projected on the silver screen.

Hats off to the organizers — Ian Clark, Chris Jennings and Mike Surber — for putting in the long, hard hours to bring these two festivals to fruition. As a result of their tireless efforts, filmmakers are beginning to see the amazing visual palette Eastern Oregon has to offer.

I urge you to support this growing project by getting involved. Now. Volunteer. Donate. Make a movie. These two film projects have made a significant contribution to our downtown revitalization efforts and the community at large. (Take a look at Park City, Utah, to see what a film festival can do for a small town’s economy.) We should all encourage their efforts and help support them in expanding the festival, any way we can.

Check out their website for more info: www.eofilmfest.com.

Thanks again to the organizers (and sponsors and filmmakers) for breathing life into the local film community and helping bring dollars downtown.

I, along with so many in the community, eagerly look forward to next year.

Benjamin Morgan

La Grande