A. Coffin Butte Landfill

Part II.

September 30, 1990: Coffin Butte Tour

The following transcript was made from a recorded interview with Jake Rohner that took place during an automobile tour of the Coffin Butte area on September 30, 1990. Stopping points along the tour route are noted on the map at the front of this book with alphabetized letters. The same alphabetic system is used in the following text to coordinate discussions with speqfic locations.

A. Coffin Butte Landfill

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: On top of that little raise right. See that blue roof down in there, or water or whatever it is?

Bob Zybach: Yeah.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: This was just this side. . . this was the boundary through here. Of the Schulmerick place and the Steilmacher place. They were both on both sides of the road. In this case the house was on this side and most of the farm land on that side, and the Steilmachers house was down there. Then it run up to our place, and let me see now

Bob Zybach: Schulmericics were on the left, or the west side of the road, and the Stellmachers were on the east?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: The buildings. But the land was both sides of the road in both cases. We were land locked. We either went to the Tampico Road, because Wiles's was behind us, and the Schulmericks and the Steilmachers was this side. And then the Wiles's were on that side also. Wiles's owned, you can see a little, like a trail up through there? Where most of the trees end? And that was about the boundary between the two Wiles's, see. Walter Wiles was over here to the east and to the north. I think there was 300 or 400 acres or so in that place. And the other one too. See it was divided by the father.

Bob Zybach: So Walter Wiles, he was probably the son of the pioneer, John Wiles? Cause he was the only boy, out of the two families?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: I don't know the name of the pioneer Wiles, but he had two sons: Walter and Ed. Ed had one boy, and Walter had one girl. I don't know her name. Ed Wiles, he had just the son, and that was Clarence, and then John was a grandson.

Bob Zybach: And then Ed Wiles was probably the son of the original pioneer.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah, and Ed Wiles just about had to be because it was divided between the two, I presume. Unless there was just two brothers came out here and took the donation land claim themselves, you see, but that I don't know.

Bob Zybach: Well, originally it was just one donation land claim but they had the Hugharts next door that I think they married into.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh, well, whatever. They always said, well Ed Wiles he lost pert nearly everything he made, inherited, and Walter Wiles made more money. He was a banker, he turned out to be a banker. So their side is wealthy, but the other Wiles used to be. And he lived in town and drove Buicks all the time, and lived in Albany, and was a gentleman farmer you might say, see.

Bob Zybach: And he went broke doing it?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Practically broke. And he kept selling off pieces. Well he sold to Studacks, he sold to the Mackeys, he sold to my father. And see my father bought everything, that line going up the Butte went straight across up over the Beals Hill, you see. And my father bought 112 acres from Joe Smith on this side of that line, and then later he bought 41 acres from Wiles on the other side. And by that person that originally bought, I think Joe Smith repossessed this piece that my dad bought. I presume he did. Because who ever bought that place, they bought Steilmacher's old house and Steilmacher was gonna build a new house. And the old house was in pretty good shape, it was kind of a rectangular house, nothing fancy. So the people who bought before my father decided to buy Steilmacher's house and move it up there. And the story goes they used four wagons to move it up there, one wagon under each corner. And they cut a swath up through the timber up in there to move it, and why in the hell they moved it clear to the far end of the place, which was that line coming down over the hill when they could have. . . see that oak tree right over, looks like there's a power pole in front of it?

Bob Zybach: Yeah.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: This first round oak tree? Well, that was on the Steilmacher's side, and then we had just a few hundred feet on the other side was our north and south line, or our east boundary. Well, and there were some nice trees just the other side of there. And

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: they could have moved the house in there and saved building a road clear to the back end of the farm, you see. But they did. And when Dad bought it was set off of the wagons, it was setting on the ground, but it still was on the two long timbers that went through there when they had bought the place. So he had to put a foundation under it and everything, and they had to build a road up through. Eston Carter owned that place just on the other side, there was about 20 acres in there. He didn't own any of the Butte.

Bob Zybach: So your ownership went back up on the Butte, though?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, just to the foot of the Butte. It included that round clump of trees right there.

Bob Zybach: That oak we're seeing off there just to the northwest there?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah. And our road went in right, can't remember if it was just below those trees or just above those trees. Then Eston Carter's house set up in here. This side a ways from that nice oak tree there, round oak tree. Just this side, it looks like a road in there. Just this side somewhere was his house. So he shared our lane going in there.

Bob Zybach: Now you said you were land locked. But you had that road access?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah, we had that road access. We were landlocked just by the boundaries, but we did have that road access. Then my Dad and Eston Carter we had a rock pit up in there, picked loose with a pick and load it on a wagon and then we would rock the road. And Eston Carter would help us on what he used, and from thereon we had to do it all ourselves.

Bob Zybach: Before we take off here a second, where that trunk is between towards that blue roof there, we're looking due west, towards the landfill, now that used to be a grove of oaks in there, you say?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Uh, further up there used to be a grove of oaks. About where that landfill first goes up?

Bob Zybach: Oh, yeah.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Under that, there was a little. . . we'll go up there pretty quick and see. And that was where our building sat.

Bob Zybach: That's the ones we can see in the photographs, then. We looked at the photographs of your house up against the base of the hill, and there was some oak trees in through there? That photograph your sister had?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh, well, yeah, that'd be it then.

Bob Zybach: Okay, and thai was the Stelimacher's old house, the one that you lived in.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: That we lived in, yeah.

Bob Zybach: And you said the Beals Hill over here?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: We always called it the Beals Hill, I don't know whether everybody else did or not. But at least that side, people referred to it as "Beals Hill" And we could see a little bit of a dividing line up through there when we come over in there. Something else you wanted to ask?

Bob Zybach: Yeah I had a couple of other questions. Now, Carter only owned 20 acres here. How come he only had 20 acres, and how could he make a living off it?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: He was a carpenter. He done carpenter work around the community. And he built houses and things like that on a smaller scale, between farming, see. I never did remember how big his place was, you said it was 20 acres.

Bob Zybach: Well, I thought you said it was about 20 acres.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh, well, yeah, I don't think it was 30, but it was in there somewhere. Yeah.

Bob Zybach: And then you said you had a rock quarry, up about where they quarried some of the rocks since then. Was that an old. . .? -

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Well, see that round oak tree. Okay, then see kind of a clay bank in there? Well, right about there was our rock quarry.

Bob Zybach: Oh. Was that in there when you bought the place or did you make that yourself?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: I think we made it ourselves, but I'm not positive. If it was there was very little rock taken out.

Bob Zybach: So that's the first time anybody started a quarry on Coffin Butte?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Well, it wasn't really a quarry for the public, it was on our own property. And I rather think that my father started that, because as I remember when I first started helping, it was I'd say maybe 50, 100 yards at the most taken out of it. And I know my father took some out before I can remember. And it really wasn't so very big, from where we started the quarry it probably didn't go back over 20 feet or so, maybe 25 at the most, probably not over 50 feet the other way. So you see it wasn't a lot taken out.

Bob Zybach: Was that the first quarry on Coffin Butte, though?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Well, there was another one toward the other end, that the people at the other end took some out of, too.

Bob Zybach: Oh, I see, like the Wiles?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah, the Wiles and the Stambaughs and those used rock out of there. And it wasn't much bigger, it was a little bit bigger than ours.

Bob Zybach: Okay, then I have two more quick questions. On the landfill there, is that anywhere near what it used to look like? Or are they changing the topography there?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh, absolutely. See, how it looks by that clump of oak trees?

Bob Zybach: Yeah.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: And, Coffin Butte looked just. . . well, see that first trail that goes around there and the little bit of shrubbery, trees below, and then nothing up there and another little trail?

Bob Zybach: Yeah.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Well, Coffm Butte looked like that up above all the way down, it came all the way down, and then all at once it started to flatten a little bit. About like where it is just on the other side of those oak trees and to the left. And then it started going up just where that first little tree is on the other side. And this side had a few more trees on the upper level, but not one fourth as many as there are now on the upper level. And there was none on the lower level, where all these quarries are, there was no trees.

Bob Zybach: Okay, so those trees have kind of grown up and disturbed the quarry area?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Disturbed the quarry. And for some reason, well I know one reason, because it wasn't pastured. You see, and those took hold from up above, from seed. Evidently that had blowed over the ridge. There was always a ridge line just like that one on the other side, see.

Bob Zybach: Oh, on the west side there it always looked like that.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah, yeah, always looked like that. All the way through here, excepting for a few more trees here. Possibly there was just a little more top soil on this part, so maybe they took a little better.

Bob Zybach: What do you think about the appearance now. Do you think it's okay because we need landfills or were you kind of sorry that they started changing like that?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh, I am sorry they did. But they needed. . . see they used all that rock, this was

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: fairly wet ground, and they started building in February, at the worst possible time. And of course they had no time after Pearl Harbor, you see. And so they took this rock out and they come down here and this rock was nearly all taken down here, outside of for the one road up through here. And they would just back those trucks up and put about 3, oh 2 to 3 feet of that rock on, and then they put gravel crushed on top and paved it. And they had quite a few different contractors working at it and one contractor would take out here, and another one there and another one there. And they took out quite a lot on the other end that we can't see from here. And it just kind of defaced it instead of. . . that's where this environmental business would have helped a lot and said, well, take it out in one place.

Bob Zybach: So you think some of the environmental things that are. . . that's the reason I'm asking these questions, too. You think those environmental concerns or the aesthetic concerns would have been good to have in place at that time?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: At that time, yes. I really do. Because there is no reason why they couldn't have started down here at a lower level and just went back. Instead of taking out here, there and everywhere, pock marking it you know.

Bob Zybach: How about the way they're filling in with the landfill now. With the environmental concerns now, and they're still changing the contours.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Well, we gotta have a landfill, I guess. I hate to see it, especially since our homesite's right under it. But eventually I think they will come probably clear down they own all this land, they'll probably come clear down to the highway, you see. And so a lot of that will be years and years to come. They may be all covered back up again, you see, a lot of those scars.

Bob Zybach: Do you think jf they tried to go to the original contour of the line and just start filling in the scars that would be a better way to do it? Or are they kind of stuck the way the are?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Well, I think they're stuck for room the way they are. It wouldn't take long to fill that back up to the original contours. But they could bring it out, well, kind of like it is there on that ridge we see, you know. And then blend it in with the top part that hasn't been disturbed all along here down as far as the highway. And I think in time it would look a lot better.

Bob Zybach: Oh, okay.