Prairie City News

War has changed the Oregon Army National Guard, which has deployed troops on 8,400 tours in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11. It turned the state's emergency volunteers into combat veterans.

The Long Creek-Kimberly Highway, or Oregon 42, stretches long and empty in remote northeast Oregon south of Pendleton.

The coffee shop and deck are crowded with soldiers wearing t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops while Jimmy Buffet music videos play on a projector.

Larry and I leave Clyde Holliday State Park midday on June 17th, ambling along Highway 26 towards Prairie City.

On our last day in Prairie City, we took a drive into the Strawberry Mountains that form the southern border of the valley and are headwaters of the John Day River.

From John Day, Oregon we headed east on highway 19 to Prairie City. Like the other small towns we'd visited, the people in Prairie City were friendly, took time to talk, liked their lifestyle and where they lived.

The Broadway Deli in Burns is owned by Fran Davis, who offers tasty traveling suggestions.

Pastor Dan Benson and his wife, Karen, were busy packing as they prepared to leave their home in John Day and move into the Methodist parsonage in Banks July 2 with their three young children.

Biomass in the form of wood chips is piled high at the D.R. Johnson Company timber operation in Prairie City.