Scott McLean
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February 9, 2024

TA McLean

Today is a continuation of family history.

Thomas Ashton McLean, better known as TA, was our first ancestor to bring his family here. He definitely didn’t take the shortest or easiest route.

He heard that he might have relatives in Texas so headed down there from his home in Minnesota. You have to know the Civil War was still in progress so a questionable move right off the bat.

He found no relatives so turned west. During the war, the army had pulled out for the most part and the Arizona area was pretty much owned by the Apaches. There was no wagon train, just a crazy man of Scottish descent and his family. He actually paused long enough to mine copper in the area.

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February 9, 2024

Vern Weddle

Here’s the next installment in the McLean-Weddle story.

When I was about 14 we had a visit from Vern Weddle. He was an old cowboy who was over six foot tall and straight as a ramrod at the age of 84. He was still herding cattle in the mountains of Idaho!

He went by the name Salmon River Slim and lived in Salmon Arm Idaho. He said that at the time, you could do anything there you were tough enough to do. He claimed a deputy sheriff came to town and was going to lay down the law until someone fired a couple of shots over his head. Talk about old west!

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February 8, 2024

Family History

Today I’m going to jump back in time to some of our ancestors. One of our family branches was the Weddles. TA McLean arrived in the Washington territory in 1865. Francis and Jasper Weddle arrived in 1867. Some of the Weddles settled in the now Tieton area. They donated the land for the first school up here.

Not all of their actions were altruistic and some of them had a reputation for ornery pranks.

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February 7, 2024

The Goat

When we were young,most of our activities centered on the outdoors. Jeeping was a big part of it with family and friends going on trail excursions with their own rig while Dad drove our 57 CJ5.

We went over most of the trails in the mountains and there used to be quite a few lookouts. Ones like Big and Little Bald had actual towers while Jumpoff, Miners Ridge, and Timberwolf just set on the edge of cliffs. It was fun to visit with the forest service people manning the lookouts and hear their stories. Timberwolf actually had mountain goats on the cliff below it.

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February 6, 2024

Pets

Today’s rambling is about various other non rattlesnake pets Steve and I had.

I don’t know how many of you remember Layman’s Market in Union Gap. They had special events like Hawaiian days and there were usually animals involved.

For instance, at Hawaiian days they might have goldfish for the kids. On Easter events they had bunnies to sell. Of course my brother, cousins, and I all got pet rabbits.

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February 5, 2024

Boulder Cave

Here is the next Cub Scout years installment. There were a lot of my classmates in Mom’s den. Sometimes she got a boy that another leader couldn’t handle.

Mom’s theory was that you couldn’t have these country boys cutting out paper dolls. You had to have outdoor outings to let them be boys within reason.

Here is a roster of our classmates she had in her group. I’m probably missing a few and I apologize. Kids wanted in her group because she actually did fun outings with them. Greg Benner, Dave Neubert, Tom Webster, Rick Harris, Rick Estes, and Mark Williams to name some. As I said there were others and many groups came later.

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February 4, 2024

Cub Scouts

My Mom and Dad were Scout leaders and I followed in their footsteps.

Sadly, due to mistakes at the national level and predatory scumbags who slipped into leadership roles, Scouting may not be around when my Grandkids get older.

Mom was a Cub Scout den leader even after my brother and I got past that age.

Besides the usual craft projects, she took her dens on a lot of outings. There were trips to Sunrise and Paradise in Mt. Rainier National Park and a hike into the ice caves (They still existed then.) or the glacier overlook.

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February 4, 2024

Neighbor Kid

My son suggested some quick stories about our relationship with the neighbor boys.

The family from Texas had two boys and a girl. The girl was about our younger sisters age and didn’t factor into our day to day exploits.

The older brother got pushy and demanding at times.

Stupid move since we were bigger and onerier than him. He also had a bad case of gullibility, a bad trait to have around the McLean brothers.

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