Column from May 27, 2010

Centennial a hit

What an amazing weekend it was! The Othello Centennial was definitely a hit. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and I heard lots of great comments.

I spent most of Saturday at the museum, meeting and greeting people. In fact, we had more than 300 folks visit that day and another 100 on Sunday.

Some interesting people stopped by, including some of whose grandparents and parents were original settlers to Othello. I had a great time talking to them as they shared their stories. We encouraged them to write their own histories to be included in our memories binder.

I’ve been the secretary of the museum board for several years and I’m always surprised when people say they’ve never been there before or that it’s been many years since they stopped to see all the great items the museum has to offer.

The community museum is geared toward showing Othello’s history and that makes it quite unique. Some of the displays include the railroad, homesteading, the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project, the effect on the city when Mount St. Helens erupted, an antique kitchen and schoolroom and more.

The newest display features nine pioneer women who helped homestead the area and worked to develop Othello at the turn of the 20^th century. These were women who worked alongside their families and neighbors to establish schools, churches and businesses.

Another exciting new feature at the museum is our historical archives. Gladys Para spent 30 years putting together hundreds of photos, newspaper articles and other information that dates back more than 100 years.

These archives are available for those who want to do research for whatever reason – school reports, family genealogy or just curiosity. 

I took full advantage of these archives when I wrote the series of history articles prior to the centennial. I also used them to research our nine pioneer women.

There is so much wonderful information and I know I will find more reasons to use the archives in the future.

Although the birthday celebration is over, the centennial continues all year long. Many of the other annual events will have a centennial flair, including the Fourth of July and Fiesta Amistad.

So, if you weren’t able to attend all the activities this past weekend, you’ll have other opportunities to catch up. And don’t forget to stop by the museum if you get the chance. Starting in June, it will be open each Saturday through the summer from 1 to 5 p.m.

Crumb cake

Cake:

1-1/2 sticks margarine

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

Pinch of salt

Cream margarine and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and keep beating.

Combine milk and vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

Add some milk mixture, some flour mixture, some milk, some flour, etc. until it is all blended.

Pour into greased 13-by-9 inch pan.

Crumb Topping:

1-1/2 cup flour

3/4 cups sugar

1 stick margarine

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Combine crumb topping ingredients and mix with hands or with pastry blender until mixture forms pea-size lumps. Clump it in your fist and crumble on top of cake batter that is already in baking pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. If making 8-by-8 inch cakes, bake for 45 minutes.

When cool, top with powdered sugar.