Words to the Wise

In the middle of the night with a winter’s full moon bursting through your window like

a spotlight, have you ever awakened with the five Ws of ledes running through your

head like a record with a deep scratch? I have, and the W that sticks to keep the cycle

going usually is the fifth one.

A lede (say “lead”) is a journalistic term for the brief, introductory part of a news

story that tells the reader what is coming. The lede answers the questions “Who? What?

Where? When, and Why?” Sometimes “How?” is added to the mix.

The “Why” often is the most difficult to incorporate into a lede, and usually requires

more effort to answer. Today’s “Why” regards the land seen from the Jonsrud

Viewpoint, and what it means to our history.

The Jonsrud Viewpoint shows some of the 320 acres of the first Donation Land

Claim taken by pioneer settlers here. Most pioneers had a goal of reaching the rumored,

rich farmland of the Willamette Valley, and were just passing through. When Francis

and Lydia Revenue with their young daughter Mary had made it down Laurel Hill’s 60-

degreee drop (by the 50.5 highway milepost marker on Hwy. 26), had pushed past the

steep Devil’s Backbone (on Marmot Road) and forded the Sandy River near what later

became Revenue Bridge, they struggled up yet another steep hillside and came to two

flatter benches of meadow land. The exhausted family stopped to rest and their starving

cattle immediately started grazing. Francis considered the fish he had seen in the river

and the game in the woods, and decided it would be a good place to call home.

While never exactly the same with changing seasons, weather, and lighting, the

view from Jonsrud Viewpoint has some constants. On a clear day you can see Mt.

Hood, but that is not a sure thing in our climate. When you see the meadow land

surrounded by trees marching as far as visibility allows, you can recognize the location.

Black walnut trees and others were planted by settlers, but the grassy area

persists. In other areas of the foothills, residents have painstakingly cleared trees, but

the land just grows more trees when it is left alone. This meadow did not. Why not?

The family’s reaching the meadow in their hour of need was providential for the

Sandy area. Settling here, Revenue established a trading post and a bridge that helped

settlers coming later. He hired a schoolteacher for his and other children, then built a

schoolhouse when more room was needed. When he recognized that Richard Gerdes

had more room for a growing town up out of the valley about two miles to the south, he

bought land there and built businesses that helped the area grow. Another W comes to

mind: What if? What if there had been no meadow on the bench above the Sandy

River?