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The Yakima Herald, Yakima, WA., September 30, 1956, page 3A

NO PAYMENT FOR SENTIMENTAL VALUES AS MARYHILL WAITS THE COLUMBIA FLOOD
Includes photograph
By Fulton H. Travis

MARYHILL - Sheltered by cliffs, nurtured by the desert sun, fed by the mighty Columbia, Maryhill, a drowsy community of 86 persons is feeling the impact of America's relentless search for more and more hydroelectric power.
The Dalles Dam is nearing completion. A huge lake will spread up the river. When the water comes, all buildings must have been removed from a beautiful strip of land between railroad and river.
Maryhill people aren't unanimously happy about it.
None seemed to feel he had been fully reimbursed, whether it was for a homesite or farm land upon which the government negotiated flowage easements. Such easements permit flooding to a given elevation, allow a freeboard, do not take title and permit farming at the owners risk within the easement area.
Those who disagree with government payment figures said they considered going to court but feared jury decisions might run either way from the appraisals - that they were afraid to gamble.
Mr. and Mrs. William Wright are uncomfortably at home. Their transplanted home stands in the middle of "The Little Sahara," a yard of blow sand, partially protected by a rough board fence.
Wright, a retired government trapper, slept quietly on the daveno. Mrs. Wright, a tall, robust woman with a shock of iron gray hair, laid it on the line:
"We're not a bit happy. I don't think any of them (the displaced persons) are. Bill and I are too old to pick up roots and start over. Our home place (1.68 acres intensively cultivated acres) had lovely fruit trees, alfalfa, pasture, a well tended lawn around the house, shade trees and two evergreens it will take a quarter-century to replace.
Wright spoke up and joined the discussion.
The house perched on a glaringly new foundation once cuddled comfortably in a fine yard across the highway.
"It was Bill's first home," Mrs. Wright said.
"Hardly seems like a home anymore," Wright interposed.
He worked 20 years as a government trapper, living the itinerant life. At retirement, he and his energetic wife selected the Maryhill community and devoted their energies to developing the place. Their alfalfa patches are small, but yield five cuttings. They harvest with scythe and pitch fork. The place is too small for machinery, but it's amazing what they accomplished with "two-man power."
Their primary complaint was that the needn't have moved at all. A little riprapping along the front of their place would hold any thing but a flood like that of 1948. There home was only slightly lower than the ferry house which will not be moved, they said.
The secondary complaint was that the government should have put them into a place of comparable development and value.
Down the road a bit is a little rotund cheerful man, who always pops up at the moment of a neighbor's need. He travels on a tractor and usually has a cigarette poking straight ahead, superimposed in the middle of a broad grin.
He is Tsugio (Doc) Takahashi, primarily a fruit grower.
It's hard to find his vineyards and peach orchard because they are hidden inside wooden fences which serve as windbreaks.
Maryhill community, in addition to having powerful growing soil, an early climate, is subjected to the Columbia Gorge winds, so protection is essential.
A flowwage easement was taken across 25 acres of his land. He said they appeared to have no special pattern to the way the government appraisers worked.
He received considerably less for his 25 acres then some got for two or three acres, he said. It is difficult to assess the possible damage until the pool is actually formed.
Last spring he lost four to six feet of ground during high water. The soil is extremely light and unstable. "I won't know for several years until the water finds its level and the new banks become firm," he said, "but I expect to lose some land each year for a time."
For a time he considered going to court, but decided he might lose even more through the condemnation action, by the time he paid his costs.
He made a counter-proposal: Would the government by him out at $1,000 an acre? The government, he said, would not.
"Anyhow," he chuckled, "if I can get two good crops off that acreage in the next couple of years, I'll have my price anyway."
Takahashi is more worried about the health of the secluded community than anything else. He anticipates that when the water level comes up, there is a possibility that shallow wells may become contaminated and that disposal of sewage may become a serious problem.
Ralph Conboy, who lived alone, accepted payment for his home and plans to leave. His home was purchased by the Indian Service for an elderly Indian woman, Timenowa Moses. The building has been moved to a foundation in area above the deadline and is being occupied by the Indian woman.
The ferry motel will have to be moved. It is a series of cabins overlooking the river, just east of the ferry landing.
Some of the other people of Maryhill who are being displaced are Mr. and Mrs. Burt Geers, Mr. and Mrs. George Gunkle, and Mr. and Mrs. S.C. Hamelin.
While all those who have been uprooted have received reimbursement, Mrs. Wright expressed the community sentiment pretty well: "We realize the government doesn't pay for sentimental value - but it's something that's there and when you move away from the home you have loved and worked to improve for many years, you leave something here in the soil that nobody can give back."