By ALEX PAJUNAS

Did you hear the story about 85-year-old Bill Fisher riding a horse seven miles home with his eyes swollen shut after being stung by a hornet?

Or the one about the tornado that hit the second Muddy Creek School, and due to a lack of data at the time, was considered one of the first twisters in Eastern Oregon?

andquot;They had a twister come through here and it picked the school up, turned it around and set it back down on the same frame,andquot; said Bill Fisher, from Echo, recalling a story he heard from his dad. andquot;It fit both ways.andquot;

A bell is all that remains of Muddy Creek School near Haines.

And the swimming pool at Fisher Hot Springs is filled with dirt instead of pure, spring water.

But the Fisher family, who settled much of the land west of Haines, return to the area as if nothing has changed.

From July 2 through Independence Day, 150 Fishers have congregated at the Sunridge Inn to celebrate their third family reunion since a little luck brought the family together in 1991.

To understand the importance of that 1991 reunion you have to go back to the late 1870s, when Henry Fisher, in search of adventure, became the first to travel westward from the family stronghold in Indiana to the Baker Valley.

andquot;Henry liked the area so well that he wrote to (younger brother John in San Francisco) amd said come up herethere’s good land,andquot; said Sallie Fisher, 65, who married into the Fisher family but gained an interest in geneology through her husband, Bob.

As the family settled in, they turned open country into productive farming land, helping to add irrigation through the valley. They were also involved in the school board and local churches in Haines.

andquot;The family was really involved in the entire community. I think that their major contributions, with the exceptions of Henry Fisher’s political work (for Baker City), was probably just in the everyday life that they lived building their own community,andquot; said Sallie Fisher.

Wanting to see their children as well as the life they had made for themselves in Oregon, Handtje and Klaas Fisher caught a train to reunite in 1891.

The parents, who had immigrated to the United States from the Netherlands in an effort to keep their children from conscription in the army, had yet to leave their home in Indiana to make a visit out west.

After that reunion, the siblings remained in contact, but their children had trouble keeping track of a large family they didn’t see on a regular basis.

andquot;What happened was parents kept in contact through letters but the younger generation didn’t take the time to write letters to people they didn’t know,andquot; said Sallie Fisher, from Pasco, Wash.

The family continued to stay out of touch until Val Hickerson and his sister, Jean Buerk, both descendents of Will Fisher, began talking about geneology and found their grandmothers diary dated from the 1880s to the 1940s.

After seeing information about a reunion in 1891, Hickerson traveled to Haines. Knowing that Fishers had settled in the area, they stopped for lunch.

andquot;During the process I asked the waitress ‘Are there any Fishers that live around here?’ and she pointed to the booth behind us,andquot; said Hickerson, 80, from Bandon.

Cecil Fisher occupied that seat.

The two went back to Helen and Orville’s farm house and decided to attempt to bring the Fisher family back to Baker City for a 100-year anniversary of the last reunion.

Hickerson sent Christmas letters to every relative he knew, asking them to pass on the idea of a reunion to other family members. In addition, he sent letters to newspapers in Indiana hoping to notify other missing relatives.

andquot;I finally heard from all kinds of people so I organized this thing and we had the banquet right here at the Sunridge Inn,andquot; said Hickerson.

More than 300 Fishers gathered for that 1991 reunion, catching up on the past and vowing to plan a reunion every five years to avoid losing contact again.

With lights flickering and bolts of lightning and rain filling the sky, the Fishers made their way back to the Sunridge Inn for the 2006 edition of the reunion late Sunday afternoon.

Marilyn Delfatti, a Baker City resident, knows the importance of the reunion.

andquot;We are just a big happy family. We love visiting, talking, and seeing each other. Many of the people we don’t see except at a reunion,andquot; said Delfatti.

Sallie Fisher looked forward to meeting the family under happy conditions.

andquot;As time goes on, it seems like we get together for an awful lot of funerals, and its really nice to get together with the whole purpose being to talk and catch up on what’s going on in peoples lives,andquot; said Fisher.

To help improve the effectiveness of the reunions, a committee of family members has formed to create a family website (www.1891fisherfamilyreunion.com), to keep people up to date on births, deaths, marriages, and address changes. The committee also plans out activities for the reunions.

andquot;The first (reunions) we didn’t know what we were doing but this one, Terry (Fisher) is having games for the kids to play and having it (at the Sunridge Inn) where the pool is,andquot; said Hickerson. andquot;So that will encourage the kids to remember that ‘oh yeah, that (reunion) was fun, let’s have another one.andquot;

With many family members growing older, Hickerson hopes that the kids will start talking to their parents and grandparents and taking an interest in who they are related to.

In between lounging around the pool and group photos on Monday, the family grouped together and finalized plans to continue meeting in Baker City every five years, although if family in Indiana stepped forward a reunion could be held there.

The family will focus on the smiles on the children’s faces, upon receiving two dollar bills to buy ice cream, and the promis of future family reunions to come.