Another Murky DLC and Parking Mania: Notes on the Sunday Paper

The front page today has a fascinating piece on the prison property for sale out towards Turner.

More family lore than history?

As with pieces on the Meyer Farm, it involves assertions about an old Donation Land Clam that is under the property.

But also like the pieces on the Meyer Farm, it relies on anecdote and "family lore," perhaps a little credulously.

Mound location in the SJ

The piece assigns the location of Indian mounds in the "family lore" and marked on a contemporary map to the old Baker DLC land.

But the 1861 survey suggests the site may actually be on the John Herren DLC.

1897 copy of 1861 survey map with DLCs

The 1929 Metsker map echoes this, placing the mound location under the number 17 on the Herren side of the DLC boundaries, and a secondary Herren purchase (the little triangle).

1929 Metsker Map (property approx. in yellow)

The appraisal conducted last year also locates Herren corners east of the "mounds."

Herren corners in map from appraisal

There might, then, be a very good reason the State selling materials do not mention the Baker claim. The Baker claim may not be "on the southeast corner of the state property." The Baker claim may abut, but not be part of, the state property. The language in the paper is a little squirrelly on this.

Silent on the Baker claim

The history of John Herren is interesting and worth more attention. He was apparently part of the 1845 group that took the Meek cutoff.

• A family history, "First to Oregon: John and Theodoshia (Robbins) Herren"
• John Daniel Herren at Findagrave
• The Herren Cemetery entry at Findagrave with a photo
• And also on the small cemetery for the State Training School at Findagrave

You may also recall a little bit about Leo Willis and his land speculation for part or all of the Rector claim.

June 24th, 1890

When the State announced the Reform School site, it was "to the south of the old Wm. H. Rector donation land claim," and not on the Herren. Rector was the best-known name.

He'd purchased in 1890, and this is the last ad
January 17th, 1891

No matter how much of the Baker family lore turns out to be accurate, there is an interesting history of this land that can be documented.

As for the Baker assertions, is the real story here about a kind of squatting or claim jumping? About flexible or uncertain land boundaries? Or just the way family lore loses contact with documented history and starts to develop and embellish independently? Maybe there was status and "klout" to be gained by claiming Indian burials. It is possible there is not just misunderstanding here, but outright fiction or myth-making. The social setting and function for the stories might be more revealing than whether they are true.

Hopefully the paper will publish some kind of follow-up!

Weird Survey

Online the paper is also running a "survey" about downtown, and it seemed odd.

And sure enough, not far into it was a leading question seemingly to stoke parking mania, running in opposition to and disconnected from our current parking reform locally and statewide.

A predictable bias, but tonedeaf

Though tagged as SJ staff with an SJ byline, the author's name was not recognizable as an SJ staffer or even from the RG, which raised even more questions.

And they're in Arizona, a "content strategist"!

Written by someone based in Arizona?

This seems like a pretty serious misjudgement for an ostensibly local paper, even one owned by a massive chain and private equity investors. Though corporate HQ might think it is an instance of "efficiency" and way to collect information for advertising, it just seems shabby and clueless.