Page 61 - SOM Summer 2017

What survives of the Sawdust Circuit’s barn-
storming legacy is an oral tradition. A few
sepia toned post cards, faded black and white
photographs, and some newspaper advertise-
ments survive, but those are all that vouch
for the league’s existence. There are journal
entries and telegrams sent between friends,
anxious to meet up on a sunny Sunday after-
noon. For the everyday fan, the sport expe-
rience of today is largely a mixture of high
definition highlights and sound bites. The turn
of the 19th Century in Southern Oregon was
a distant time from the one we live in now.
Fans who boarded the horse-drawn buggies
and trains and steamer ships to watch the
games might have described recreation more
like a circus. The names of those playing was
likely immaterial, unless it was someone they
knew. What was sure to matter, though, was
the team on the field and the game, which was
watched almost identical to how we do today,
give or take a few modernizations.

The region’s history is one of alternating eras,
long periods of isolation followed by expan-
sion and integration. Prior to 1915, the coast
was largely cut off from the rest of the state,
a difficult to navigate network of mountains
and rivers; but the introduction of a railway
line changed all of that. A sudden free flow of
traffic expanded the league’s footprint, allow-
ing teams from far-flung regions to play one
another.

People were far more stationary then. They
were tied to the land, either theirs or the
company’s, for work. No one commuted to an
office. The Sawdust Circuit tied teams to the
place where players worked the other six days
out of the week. One of the salmon hatcher-
ies had a team. According to record, the Coos
relationship with a sport whose history mir- Bay teams were mostly dairy workers who
rors that of the state that it calls home. spent the mornings milking cows before tak-
ing the field. A surviving picture from 1913 of
There aren’t many written records of the a game between Wolf Creek and Cow Creek
Sawdust Circuit. It reads like more like a reveals a mixture of uniformed farm hands
fable than a history lesson. Newspapers of the and suited men, cheering them on from the
region didn’t carry standings or box scores. makeshift stands.
The name itself is borrowed from another
part of society. In the parlance of the time, a Where people did saddle up and travel was
Sawdust Circuit was a term used to describe in the pursuit of their recreation. This was an
the route of barns and schoolhouses taken by era of no television and no radio. Many of the
a traveling preacher and his followers, spread- sawmill company towns were hardly large
ing the gospel from town to town. During the enough to pull together a band of their own.
early years of the baseball craze, word of the If two towns or three could pull together,
sport spread just like religion. perhaps they could put on a show. Fans would

summer 2017 | www.southernoregonmagazine.com 59