If there is a single focal point in Camp
Sherman
for residents and visitors, it is the store. The store and attached
post
office are hard to miss. The large elon gated building confronts
motorists,
pedestrians and cyclists as they cross the bridge over the Metolius.
Even
taking a back road to Camp Sherman, a red-cindered road past the Tract
C homes, one arrives at the store. When traveling south from the
campgrounds
that border the Metolius. one cannot miss the store and adjacent
parking
lot. How did the store get started?
The story has it that the first store at
Camp
Sherman, located in the same location as the present-day one, was a
tent
built over a platform. From the tent, Dick Fuller sold merchandise.
Frank
Leithauser in 1917 built a more permanent structure. Harry Heising, an
early-day resident of the Metolius Country, stated that in 1922 Ross
Ornduff
of Moro, Sherman County, removed the previous building and constructed
the present store. Ornduff made frequent trips to Sisters and
Bend
for perishable goods and brought back mail to Camp Sherman from
Sisters.
Later Ornduff was appointed postmaster, but the post office was in
operation
only from April to September and was then part of the store. In 1928
the
post office became a year-round operation. From 1925 to 1940 Rod and
Evelyn
Foster operated the store. Jean Powell Reckman in her recollections
of
Camp Sherman wrote:
In 1936-37, I boarded with
Morn (Evelyn)
and Rod Foster at the store . . . Other boarders were there once in a
while
and many a good meal was served in the dining room. The store had 32
volt
electricity from a turbine across the river in front of the Meloy
place.
This ran the refrigerator in the store, our iron and a small heater in
the house. Ice was sawed out of the pond into blocks. This was put into
a building with sawdust between the walls and on top of all there was a
canvas. The double doors were closed and we had ice all summer.
The separate post office was added to the
store building
in 1976. Residents and non-residents no longer had to walk through the
store to use the postal facilities. |
