Heritage Court 2016
Joan Davies
Joan Davies couldn’t keep her nose out of Hailey’s history if she wanted.
Her husband John is a walking repository of the Wood River Valley’s history. He’s got a story about darn near everything in the valley, many of them with his relatives at the center.
John Davies’ great uncle Joe Rupert, for instance, was the guy who sued the county when Bellevue citizens thought they had won the vote to be county seat by one vote in 1881. It turned out a ballot box hadn’t been counted and Hailey got the nod to be the seat for the expansive Alturas County 1,110 to 1,090—an outcome that still sticks in the craw of some Bellevue residents.
And it was John’s great grandfather–attorney Francis Ensign—who settled a dispute with Mr. Quigley and…
Karen Young
She spent her honeymoon at “the happiest place on Earth.”
And during 50 years in Carey she has helped make quilts for every Carey youngster who has gotten married.
“We have a group of women who get together to do that—and it’s something we still do,” said Young.
Young will receive her just reward for that and other contributions she’s made to the way of life in Carey when she is crowned as a member of the Blaine County Historical Museum’s heritage court. The 2016 ceremony—free and open to the public–will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 12, at The Liberty Theatre in Hailey.
Also crowned will be Teresa Bergin, Joan Davies and Lois Glenn.
Lois Glenn
Lois Glenn got more than she bargained for when she decided that Stanley and Smiley Creek needed a paramedic at age 60.
She found herself on the streets of Kansas City, waking up homeless people lying in the streets in the middle of the night to see if they were okay.
It was a far cry from walking meadow full of wildflowers in the Wood River Valley and Stanley Basin.
“Kansas City, where I received my training, was a whole other world full of shootings and suicides, multiple families living in one house. It was kind of scary, definitely an experience,” she recounted. “In Smiley Creek, by contrast, I checked lost hikers and attended to people who fell off snowmobiles, waterskiers who had an accident
Teresa Bergin
You can trace a lot of the history of the Wood River Valley by spending an afternoon with Teresa Bergin.
bergin’s roots stretch deep. Her great-grandparents came to the valley in 1884 from the tiny town of Vinegar Hill in Illinois, where they had worked a small lead mine.
Her great-grandfather scarcely had a chance to unpack his bags when he and another man accidentally struck a live dynamite charge with their pickaxe at the Idahoan Mine. The men’s bodies lay in state at the Alturas Hotel in Hailey before being escorted by the Hailey Brass Band to church and then to the Bellevue cemetery in a mile-long procession.