Macy Carter (left) and Billy Radinovich flank the Grayback sign at the lodge in Seneca during their school's history visit.

SENECA – History is alive and well in Seneca, where students this fall enjoyed a History Blitz day with retired teachers Adele Cerny and Judith Beaudet Reed.

The day began with interactive studies of the two historical murals of Bear Valley and Hines Lumber Co. The teachers said many of the students were excited to recognize the artists’ names as relatives.

They also played a hands-on guessing game with selected artifacts from the school’s museum. The items had been discovered by former students on their walks around Seneca and the historic site known as Camp 1.

The students also viewed “Seneca, Oregon: A Tour of an Old Company Town,” a DVD created in 2011 by students in grades 5-8. Students delighted in recognizing their brothers, sisters, cousins, and friends, as well as familiar sights around town. Afterward, they took a walk to see some of the historical sites featured in the DVD.

A special guest, Al Olson, talked about his 25 years of teaching music and band at Seneca School – beginning his talk with this: “The word history; that’s what we’re all about here.” He finished by saying, “I enjoyed teaching music so much … It’s a crime I was paid for it.”

In the afternoon, the first- through sixth-graders partnered up in the computer lab to write up their notes and recollections.

Many accounts noted that there were 108 students enrolled when Olson began teaching there in 1963.

Some excerpts: Billy Radinovich wrote about the story of her mother when Tonna Holliday pushed a boy out of his chair. According to Bridger Walker and Madison Metcalf, “Mr. Olson said that he had done something to Tonna and she gave the boy a mighty shove.” Audrey Walker and Raney Anderson recalled his story of the Seneca Rope Jumpers: “Sherry Walker…could do a double crossover with a blindfold on!” Layla Wenick and Sage Browning liked the story about Mr. Hardwick, the custodian: “The playground was very muddy. He stood at the door and told the kids loudly, ‘Clean off your shoes!’”

The final treat of the blitz was a tour of the old Bear Valley Lodge, built by Hines Lumber Co. to house single men, and now owned by Grayback Forestry and used for worker housing. Our tour guides, Tonya Wood and Chris Kennedy, said there were 36 men living there at the time. Inside restoration has retained many of the original features, and outside improvements have made it, along with the school, the best of Seneca’s history preserved.

A compilation of the students’ work from the blitz will be added soon to Seneca School’s history website, found at www.senecakids.org and www.grantesd.k12.or.us. There are still a few DVDs left of the tour of Seneca, available for $10 at the Bear Valley Minimart and the Book Parlor in Burns. All copies of Seneca’s oral history books, Volumes I and II, are sold out, but more will be printed if there are enough names on the waiting list.  If interested, call Judith at 541-575-4267.

– Contributed by Judith Beaudet Reed and Adele Cerny