Miners Jubilee brings crowds to park, downtown

Published 11:30 am Monday, July 17, 2023

Miners Jubilee brought throngs of people to multiple venues in Baker City, with a full slate of craft and food vendors in Geiser-Pollman Park, sidewalks lined with spectators for the parade Saturday morning, July 15, and hot, dry weather throughout the weekend.

Baker City’s traditional summer festival was also a debut of sorts for Devon Colton, executive director of the Baker County Chamber of Commerce, which puts on the event.

Colton started in the job Dec. 1, 2022, and much of her work since was devoted to preparing for Miners Jubilee.

“It’s a lot of work, but it’s rewarding work,” Colton said on Monday, June 17. “People don’t realize what goes on behind the scenes for months to put on a three-day weekend event of this caliber. Having only been in this role for seven months there was obviously some learning moments, but with the help and support of the Chamber Board members, community partners, and gracious vendors that have been involved for many years, we were able to take care of these nuances and put on an overwhelmingly successful event. We had great turnout all three days, The vendors did very well on sales and overall it seemed like everyone was happy to be celebrating this hometown favorite event.”

The park spaces were all claimed, and Colton said she appreciated that Baker County and the OSU Extension Service opened their gravel lot for additional vendors who didn’t register prior to the deadline.

“We don’t have many alternatives for expanding given the current footprint of our park, but took in lots of advice from vendors and community members this year on ways we can enhance the experience,” Colton said.

Having grown up attending Miners Jubilee, Colton said it was “truly a full circle” to be in charge of organizing the event this year.

There were about 50 entries for the Jubilee parade, including multiple floats carrying graduates from several Baker High School classes.

“It was a joy to see the parade stretch the entire length of Main Street and Broadway,” she said.

Parade winners:

• First: Baker High School Class of 1963

• Second: Baker 5J School District transportation department covered wagon bus

• Third: Pendleton Round-Up Mounted Band

Park vendors report thefts

The festivities were marred by several instances of theft from park vendors, Colton said.

She said a crew from the sheriff’s office’s search and rescue team helped with security patrols in the park overnight.

“Wewere able to resolve a few of these instances of theft, and will look at ways that we can deter these things,” she said. “We are thankful that the city has security cameras installed, and we will look to add signage and visibility that security is present to deter shoplifting.”

Jessica Dougherty had a booth in the park offering her paintings. Her mother, Jeanie Zebrak, sold jewelry.

Dougherty said her mother had a necklace stolen late on Friday, and a pair of earrings were taken during the day on Saturday.

Dougherty said she suspects that the thief just grabbed the items while walking past the booth.

Despite the thefts, Dougherty, who has had a booth during the past few Miners Jubilees, said she was pleased with this year’s event.

“Overall it was really good,” she said. “There were a lot of vendors, including some new, local vendors, and a lot of people. I’m very thankful the (chamber) puts this on and makes it affordable for local vendors.”

Ty Duby, Baker City Police chief, said there were five thefts reported from vendors. Those included the jewelry thefts from Zebrak’s booth, the theft of a tote bag with tools and parts of a booth from The Express, a food vendor, valued at about $2,700, and the theft of clothes worth about $150.

There are no suspects in those thefts, Duby said.

He said one item from another booth was recovered and returned to the owner.

In a few other cases, juveniles took items and their parents later paid the vendors for the merchandise, Duby said.

Generally the weekend was relatively tranquil for police, he said, with one drunken driving arrest and a couple of disturbances.

One of the people involved in one of the disturbances had a gun, and police are still investigating, Duby said. That incident was reported at 8:35 p.m. on Saturday in the 2800 block of Walnut Street.