BEATTY, Ore. — This year marks the centennial hundredth anniversary of the founding of a small Klamath County town that may be a wide spot in the road today, but has a colorful history.

“I think it was a bustling little town. What you had was three grocery stores. You had a lot of loggers, and a lot of farmers, cowboys and stuff, and so on. One of the fanciest rodeos in the country,” recalled former Beatty resident Donald Ling.

Donald Ling grew up in the eastern Klamath County town of Beatty, in the ’30′s and ’40′s. Back then, it was a Klamath Indian Reservation town straddling highway 140, never incorporated, about halfway between Klamath Falls and Lakeview. Today it’s not much more than a wide spot in the road with only a small mini-market and deli, and a few houses.

Beatty is named for reverend J.L. Beatty, who was able to get the first post office here in 1913. The first store was in the woodshed of the parsonage, and by 1915 the first real store was built, over the years several other stores have come and gone along the highway. Don Ling says it was a simple life, with few modern conveniences and a real sense of community.

“What I tell people is all we had was rocks, blocks and beer bottles to play with,” said Don. “We had lots of them. We got pretty good at throwing rocks and playing, make a block of wood anything you wanted. It. It could be a bull dozer. It could be a, some kind of truck, whatever you wanted to play with it, you know.”

“Beatty has always been a rodeo community, and lots of cowboys back in the day came through. Old time cowboys was here. I can remember waking up and Slim Pickens would be at our house and Larry Mahan actually lived in this house here,” said Beatty resident Herman Anderson.

“Mostly they were horsebackers. They rode their horse, and then we’d have a lot of rodeos, and I remember going to quite a few rodeos. They had dances down in the big gym and there was quite a few people that were living in Beatty at that time,” recalled Madeline Hutchinson, a longtime Beatty resident.

“They used to have rodeos Sunday here and I’d bring my horses from out where that Klamoya Casino is down there, lived down there, and I’d come on horseback and be here before noon when the rodeo started,” said Beatty cowboy Tinker Kirk.

“It was a nice place, because my husband was a cop. He policed dances about every Saturday night at the old high school gym or grade school gym, that’s now gone. He liked to sit there and watch all the people come and go and drink and dance, and they had a really nice time. Hardly ever had to arrest anybody, and just sit and watch the dances,” recalled Former Beatty resident Velda Smith.

If they did have to arrest somebody, there was a little blockhouse jail in town where rowdies could cool off. That was also torn down several years ago. In 1929, there were three or four stores at one time or another in Beatty, but those are all gone, mostly burned down.

“There’s no more rodeos here. Many of the Indians have died or moved away. My dad built the Palamino Deli. He was a mechanic and that’s evolved from the mech, being a mechanic’s shop to a post office to a store to a deli and mini mart. The others are all closed, or burnt up,” said Shirley Pedersen, a Beatty historian.

“Cookie Walker, she was one of the last owners of the back in the hey-day, her bar burned down, and the restaurant. Just like the other ones. They all burned down. Not sure how. But they’re gone,” Herman said.

Today the gas station is closed. The church is boarded up. A small community center run by the Klamath Tribe is next to the old church with a small playground out back. There’s no school. There is a cluster of tribal houses in the back of the church and a scattering of old vacant buildings who have weathered a lot of cold Beatty winters.

On the hill east of town, a picturesque cemetery overlooking the Sprague River is the final resting place of many local residents. Some of the biggest changes came in the early 60′s with the dissolution of the Klamath Reservation.

“Everybody started moving away,” Madeline recalled. “And then everybody started dying. Dyin’ out! Moving. And moving Beatty especially.”

“It was a different era when they started selling out and people started moving in, wanting big ranches,” Velda said.

“They all had cattle and everybody would big dinner and everything, we’d meet everybody here,” Tinker said. “That’s all and then they ran horses out here, but now there ain’t nobody lives around here!”

But there is a new sidewalk lining the southside of Highway 140.

“When I go through now, I can’t imagine sidewalks being in Beatty,” Don said. “You know, when they told us that, we had to make a special trip out to look and see!”

There are not a lot of the old timers still left around Beatty. The little town has changed and shrunk down quite a bit since the reservation was terminated almost 50 years ago.

“Back in those day you could hitch a ride with anybody,” Don added. “Everybody knew who you were, where you were going and was usually going halfway between. Bly and Beatty to go swimming. Didn’t matter who you were or what you were, or you know it was a family. It was a whole family of people.”

These weeks furry feline is Lucille! Lucille is one of three kittens. She has a soft white coat and for this reason should be primarily an indoor cat. She is young and playful! Lucille is looking for a loving owner to care for her and show her affection.

If you’re interested in adopting Lucille or any other cats, contact C.A.T.S. The Committed Alliance to Strays can be contacted at 541-779-2916 or you can stop by the shelter at 104 N. Ross Lane in Medford. They are open between Tuesdays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

MEDFORD, Ore. — This weekend, you can lace up your tennis shoes to bring attention to a disorder only 1 in 10,000 people have.

The “Walk for Williams Awareness Walk and 5k Run” is happening Saturday. The goal is to put “Williams Syndrome” in the spotlight.

The genetic disorder comes with serious heart problems, developmental delays and overly social behavior. A local mom of a child with “Williams Syndrome” says awareness is needed.

“I’ve been to multiple doctors and they’ll say can you explain to me what Williams Syndrome is…you hope when you go to the doctor they can tell you more about it than you can tell them,” said mother Christy Johnson.

Registration is at 10 a.m. at Hoover Elementary. The run is at 10:30 a.m. the walk at noon. There will be a bounce house, face painting and games.

Organizers are asking for a donation of $20 per individual or $50 for a family.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Heroin is attracting a wave of new, younger users.

According to the National Institute on Drug Addiction, nearly half of young people who reported using heroin also said they tried prescription drugs. They started using heroin because it was cheaper and easier to get.

One man who spoke with NewsWatch12’s Sharon Ko wished to remain anonymous. We’ll call him John Doe.

“When I was in high school, we never heard of heroin,” Doe said. “It wasn’t around. Now, all of these high school kids know everything about it. They’re addicted to it or they’re selling it. Pretty much, you can get heroin anywhere. I can walk to three different houses in a two mile radius from here and get it,” he explained.

Officers with the Grants Pass Department of Public Safety end up searching a home. They find an admitted heroin user named Raymond who says he’s been trying to stop using methamphetamine.

“I’ve been coming off of heroin, I’ve been trying to stay off of that too. So, having the difference between a little bit of meth, heroin, trying to stay away from liquor let alone the rest of it, it’s not an easy thing,” said Raymond.

“Sober people don’t really realize how bad the physical withdrawal is from it, It’s crippling. It’ll keep you in bed throwing up, can’t move, shivering,” said Doe.

A recovering addict, Whitney Raum, said she started using heroin after she got into a car accident.

“Three of my ribs came out and my pelvis got shifted sideways. I started taking a couple of Norco to help with my pain. I went from 2 to 3 pills a day. The next thing I know, I’m eating 40 plus pills a day,” said Raum.

Raum ended up homeless and lived in a tent.

“So, when you’re that low, you have like no soul left,” she explains. “It’s all you turn to. That’s all that’s there is the drugs. Sometimes not even that, ‘cause you don’t have nothing. You don’t have any money to get any.”

Whitney was able to check into a methadone clinic. During that time she got pregnant. Doctors told her she needed to stay on methadone, otherwise her baby would go into withdrawal and could possibly die. Her baby girl was placed at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit because of a blood infection. Doctors say most likely her baby’s blood infection was not because she was using methadone.

Whitney is off of methadone now. She says her withdrawal was worse than when she was coming off of heroin. She says quitting drugs came down to a choice.

“Not saying that the thoughts aren’t there, because since I came off of methadone, I’ve probably had more using thoughts than I’ve had in the last two years being on methadone. But I’m not acting on it, I think about everything I lost. I don’t want to go through it again. I don’t want to put my kids through it,” said Raum.

For users who are choosing not to quit, there’s a deadly risk. In 2011, one person overdosed from heroin in Jackson County. In 2012, seven people overdosed. There were about 15 people who overdosed from other opiates like methadone or morphine in 2012.

Officers with the Grants Pass Department of Public Safety and the Medford Area Drug and Gang Enforcement task force say their job is never done.

“You cannot turn your back on drug enforcement because if you turn your back on drug enforcement, you’re going to open the flood gates for all of these other crimes to continue and flourish because that is the business that they’re in. Addiction may have been prevented here, some lives may have been prevented here, and tragedy may have been prevented here because this did not get distributed. They will replace the dope, they can’t replace the money. That’s really what we’re after, disrupt them,” said Medford police chief, Tim George.

But Doe says as long as heroin is around, a recovery for one means another will take their place.

“About everybody is addicted to it, and everywhere you go, it’s always there,” said Doe.

For more information on a drug recovery center in Medford click here.

For more information on a drug recovery center in Grants Pass click here.

NEAR JACKSONVILLE, Ore. — If you have a patio and no yard, but you still want to garden, the OSU Master Gardeners have some advice for container gardening. OSU Master Gardener Cicely Fleury explains which vegetables do best in planters.

For more information, consult the OSU Master Gardeners Hotlines: Jackson County: 541-776-7371 Josephine County: 541-476-6613 Klamath County: 541-883-7131 Curry County: 541-247-6672.

MEDFORD, Ore. — This month’s third Friday event in downtown Medford is tuning up for a celebration of music, dance and shopping.

The Diamonds and Denim Band will be in Vogel Plaza from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. sending up the sounds of blues, classic rock, country and more. You can also get into the swing as dancers from the Southern Oregon Swing Convention Show what gets their feet moving.

Get ready for some bargains with the first annual Southern Oregon Shop Hop. It’s one stop shopping with local re-sale stores. And be sure to bring some canned food for access for special discounts. You can have fun getting around in the “all aboard trolley” throughout the evening.

On Sunday, you can get up close and personal with the vehicles used by police officers past and present and see other classic cars as well.

It’s the first ever “Cops and Rodders” event at Heritage Motors in Medford. Take a look at police cars that are currently in-service with Southern Oregon police agencies from Medford to Brookings. Privately restored vintage police cars will also be on hand along with other classic cars.

Funds raised will benefit the Down Syndrome Association of Southern Oregon. Cops and Rodders is Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

In Josephine County is an event made especially for pet lovers. The Pet Fair features demonstrations and products for pets of all shapes and sizes.

Bring your pet on a leash or in a carrier to enjoy the fun together. Donations of pet food are also being collected to benefit Josephine County animal shelters.

There’s pony rides for the kids and food and a variety of raffle prizes. The Pet Fair is at the Josephine County Fairgrounds on Saturday and Sunday.

“Down here at the Butcher Shop, we use the barbecue quite a bit,” Justin Small says. “So, what we generally want to start by doing is heating it up to basically the highest point we get the grill that way it will singe off and burn off anything on there that we have.”

“After that, we follow it with either a wire brush or some tin foil. Basically you just wad it up and rub it on the grill and it does the exact same thing only no wire bristles to fall out of any plastic parts and it knocks it right off just like it does with a wire brush and then after that you basically want to cool your grill down a little bit. Take your pork fat or your beef fat and you can run it over it for your different meats and stuff.”

“For your vegetables and your seafood, I’d generally go with an olive oil, and just a brush, apply it liberally that way nothing will stick. As soon as you get it seasoned up your ready to go barbecuing and please come visit us at the Butcher Shop.”

WIMER, Ore. — There are dozens of local farms and companies contributing to the supply of food grown and made in the Rogue Valley. While many of those producers have mastered their craft getting a product to the consumer can take a very different set of skills.

The tiny basil plants at The Farming Fish outside of Wimer are going to spend three weeks on the shelves before they spend 4 to 5 weeks in the aquaponic system. Then they are branded and sent to market.

“This is the first official co-branding partnership with a local farm,” Tom Marks says.

At the beginning of the year, The Farming Fish started looking for a distribution partner.

“It just so happened it turned out to be the local guy who happened to have the same morals and ethics as we do and it worked out beautifully,” Olivia Hittner, one of the partners in the company explains.

Hittner and her partner Michael Hasey partnered with Tom Marks who launched the Rogue Nation foods brand.

“It allows a consumer to immediately see, ‘Oh, this is a product that represents the Rogue Valley,’ that represents this high level of integrity and quality,” Tom says.

Produce from the aquaponic farm is not new to the Medford Food Co-Op, but the living basil and its packaging is new.

“You might just see this little local symbol but with a larger brand and notoriety. It brings a real pop to the product line, and we do see that things that are marketed well sell better.”

Both sides expect to benefit from the partnership.

“It really allows them to focus on their skill set and allows us to focus on our skill set,” Tom explains.

The farming fish can now reach a larger customer base.

“The way to do that was to work with someone who could give us the support in marketing and branding and who knew the distribution system and had the experience with that level of distribution,” Olivia comments.

It pumps dollars into the local economy.

“The more we can export, the more money we’ll be importing. So, the idea is that we want to retain dollars in the community and export anything that we can,” Tom adds.

The branding also promotes what’s going on in the Southern Oregon food scene.

“So, the more we can gain notoriety for Rogue Valley brands, sell those to other distributors and other areas, they learn about what we are doing in the Rogue Valley and how we are working toward sustainability,” he says.

Olivia says that’s already happened at The Farming Fish and that recently some visitors stopped by the organic farm, “who were very interested in aquaponics and wanted to learn more about it.”

“I think that is going to happen more and more. That’s one of the reasons why we wanted do the packaging and the branding to help educate as well.”

Yet this week, the biggest and best of these basil plants will be sent to market. The little ones will be turned into pesto and they will be co-branded under Rogue Nation Foods as well and they’ll end up on store shelves.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — “H”, “gun powder”, and “brown”: they’re all names for an illegal and powerful drug that’s moving through Southern Oregon in the hundreds of thousands of pounds.

One man who spoke with NewsWatch12’s Sharon Ko wished to remain anonymous; we’ll call him John Doe. He’s not proud of his past.

“I’ve been an opiate addict for 6 years,” John Doe said. “Been peeling people left and right, ripping people off, running people’s houses, it’s not a glamorous lifestyle.”

As a recovering heroin addict, he still remembers the feeling – “Euporic” – and has the cravings that won’t let go.

“You’re always chasing the high,” he said.

The exact number of heroin addicts in the United States is unknown. It’s roughly estimated to be between 750,000 and a million people. Officers with the Grants Pass Department of Public Safety come across addicts every night.

Venice is an admitted heroin user. Police run into Venice often. They say she sells her body to pay for her fix.

“I have no desire to do it,” Venice says. “I hate it. I want to be clean. I’m down to freaking 2 points a day. From a gram and a half to two grams a day. I f—–g quit doing meth. I broke up with my boyfriend, and I’ve detached from all of my friends, and I go to court and I keep going to jail.”

The heroin addiction started out with pain-killers for Venice.

“I just hurt really bad,” Venice recalled. “I’ve got rumatory arthritis, spinal fusion, several bad injuries from the epilepsy…I hurt. A lot.”

A few rooms down from her hotel room, police also find meth users.

“We’ll see a lot of meth and heroin is just catching up with it. We typically don’t see heroin users use meth also, but you’ll still see it in the same circle of people,” explained Officer John Nicklason.

Despite methaminphine’s addictive qualities, heroin is still considered one of the most addictive drugs in the world. Heroin affects specialized receptors in the brain. The drug mimics endorphins, a chemical produced in your body that signals reward and pleasure. The continued use of heroin is essentially training the body to need the drug.

“It’s a physical fight. It’s a mental fight,” said the

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 23 percent of people who try heroin are hooked.

Law enforcement calls Southern Oregon a regional hub for heroin. That’s because this drug enters our area, right below us. Interstate 5 is the main thruway to transport and distribute heroin. Hundreds and thousands of pounds come through Interstate 5.

“So, generally the drugs are coming from the south and going north, and the proceeds are going back south,” explained Medford Police Chief Tim George.

But methampthine still has a strong presence in Southern Oregon.

“I wouldn’t say methamphetamine has gone down by any means. I think the shift right now is as you’ve seen, the type of cases that we’re working, there’s just as many heroin cases that we’re involved in,” explained Chief George. “In fact, one of the largest heroin seizures in the state occurred in the Southern Oregon region. I want to say last year. The dope cops can tell you, all of the people involved can tell you, that it used to be a couple of ounces of heroin was a big case and now, if it’s not a couple of pounds, it’s not that big of a case. Unfortunately the numbers have ratcheted up as far as what’s normal, and I hate to use the word “normal” when I’m talking about illicit drugs, because I don’t like to say that – that this is “normal,” but unfortunately, we’re getting to a point where it’s not a surprise to us, to get this type of weight,” said George.

The heroin that the Medford Area Drug and Gang Enforcement Task Force seizes is never a pure cut. Dealers mix to cash in.

“That’s delivery controlled substance 101 make your pot bigger so when you divide it up, you have more to distribute to make more money. So, they’ll mix in instant coffee, brown sugar, all sorts of impurities into that to cut that,” Chief George said. “One, because maybe the potency level is so high you don’t want to distribute that to your customers because your customers are going to be dying on you.”

“You never know what you’re getting. So, you could shoot half grams, or shoot a point. Some people fall out on that point, some people fall out on half gram,” John Doe remarks.

It’s not just users, dealers, and police officers who are impacted by heroin. There are many other victims who don’t have a say in the situation. In the segment, learn how it’s impacting our community, from users to children and how law enforcement is responding in part two Heroin: Heating Up.

MEDFORD, Ore. — Buying meat in bulk can be less expensive, but it’s important to make sure it’s properly stored. In this segment, Cameron Callahan, co-owner of The Butcher Shop, explains why the USDA suggests storing meat for a maximum of 6 months and how to make sure it’s done properly.

“For long term storage, we double wrap,” says Callahan. “Let’s say you wanted to buy a quarter beef or a half beef so you can have it for six months, we’re standing in the freezer right now which is ten below zero and it’s a blast freezer, so the meat gets wrapped in a 50 pound paper with plastic and four hours its froze solid completely through ready to go into your freezer at home.

“The nice thing about that is this can keep for up to a year. The USDA recommends that you eat most meats within six months. It doesn’t mean that the meat is bad but after six months your nutritional value starts getting lost in the freezer. So for long term storage just make sure it’s wrapped in a nice heavy paper.

“But you do need to put it in something if you’re just buying with just a film wrap over it and not paper because 30 days you’ll have freezer burn. If you’re going to invest in that piece of meat then get yourself some Ziploc bags are great. Get all the air out of the bag that you can before you seal it. So after you take the meat out of the freezer, and you leave it out in your refrigerator to thaw, then unwrap it and it’s ready to go on the grill.”

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