Wamic Historical Society Debuts its First Documentary on the Barlow Trail
Outside of the local area, little is known about the Barlow Trail. During a monthly meeting of the Wamic Historical Society in the spring of 2019, it was suggested that they could make a drone video of the Barlow Trail, to attract people to explore it and learn a bit of its history. Several members were excited to take part in the project. Meeting with Barlow District Ranger Kameron Sam they learned that permits, insurance and a license was required to fly a drone in the national forest. Learning of the cost implications was a little concerning for the small volunteer organization, however Kameron Sam not only waived the permit fees but also connected the team with U.S. Forest Service Archeologist Trent Skinner. Trent met with the team and downloaded historical documents for reference but his time on the project was cut short when he was transferred to a different district. Bobbie Saunters replaced Trent as the local forest service archeologist.
Eager to work on the project, Bobbie began meeting with the team, providing additional historical documents and personal diaries. He also lent his distinctive southern voice to provide narration for one of the diary entries. Insurance was purchased to cover the project and they learned that local Juniper Flat fire fighter John Black was already a licensed drone operator. John volunteered not only his skill and time but also the drone that was used to film the aerial portion of the documentary. No one on the team had ever filmed a documentary before but they were all figuring it out together and they enjoyed the process from researching, writing, filming and editing. Not knowing exactly how to start, Mike Davis suggested that they write the narration first and then they would know what to film for each section of the video and so they did. Project managers Gail Schiel wrote the first draft of the narration. Filming started in late September 2019, after four days of capturing video footage of the beauty and tranquility of the trail following volunteers, traveling by car, foot, bike and horseback they were ready to edit.
Editor Gail Schiel begun splicing and arranging the hours of video with still photos to match up with the narration. Having over a thousand of photos to choose from, taken by Jennifer Mitchke, John Black and Rusty Whitney, it was at times difficult to decide which photos to use. Gail also said there were, “more than a few times that I kept changing the narration.”
I’m sure Jennifer’s voice got quite the workout. After many hours over several months with the team (Gail Schiel, Jennifer Mitchke, Linda Ritchie and Bobbie Saunters) meeting monthly to review edits, they were happy with it and the documentary film was finished! The original intent was to exhibit the film in the Smock Prairie school house which serves as a local history museum, open to the public on holiday weekends during the summer months. However, current social distancing guidelines have put that on hold so in the meantime the team decided to post it on YouTube so that everyone can see it. They also held a showing at a Barlow Gate Grange meeting where it was well received. The efforts that have gone into this documentary not only show the talents of community members but also their cooperative nature that has resulted in successfully completing this project during these trying times.
Click the button below to learn more about the Wamic Historical Society and participate in their current project, “A Written Snapshot of our Community’s Thinking.”
Video credits: Gail Schiel - Project Manager, Writer, Editor; Jennifer Mitchke - Project Manager, Narrator, Photographer; Rusty Whitney - Photographer, Diary Entry; John Black - Drone Operator/Photographer; Gil Helms - Equestrian; Colette Cox - Equestrian; Calvin Lepinski - Cyclist; Linda Ritchie - Assistant, Walker; Julie Wetzel - Walker; Kathy Peck - Walker; Diary Entries - Jaci Malcolm & Bobby Saunters; Original Music “Barlow Tune” by Steve Ellis; Bobby Saunters - Special Advisor to project, Archeologist, US Forest Service; Trent Skinner - Archeologist, US Forest Service; Arthur Babitz - Curator, History Museum, Hood River County; The Discovery Center - The Dalles, Oregon
