The
Holmstrom Monument
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Welch, Conley,
and Dimock at the Holmstrom Monument
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More than sixty years ago, newspapers across the country
proclaimed Buzz Holmstrom a national hero. In 1937, the quiet,
unassuming twenty-eight-year-old gas station attendant from the
small logging town of Coquille, Oregon became the first person
to run the Green and Colorado Rivers alone. The Saturday Evening
Post carried a lengthy article on Holmstrom's eleven-hundred-mile
journey while Ripley's Believe It or Not featured Holmstrom
in its column.
Previously Holmstrom had made
solo runs of the Rogue and Salmon Rivers. In 1938 he journeyed
down the Green and Colorado Rivers again (with fellow Oregonian
Amos Burg) and became the first (and last) person to run every
rapid. Yet today, few in Oregon or anywhere else remember Buzz
Holmstrom. That is changing.
On August 22, 1998, a large
group of family, friends, and fans of Buzz Holmstrom gathered
in Sturdivant Park, on the shore of the Coquille River in Coquille,
Oregon to dedicate a monument to the home-town hero. Anna and
Rolf, Buzz's two younger siblings made short speeches, as did
Welch, Conley, and Dimock, Buzz's biographers. Old friends from
near and far spent the morning in tribute to the humble boatman
who enriched lives across the country with his tale.
If you're passing through
Coquille, stop by the park and spend a few quiet moments with
Buzz.
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The Holmstrom
Family
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There is no way we can thank the Holmstrom family enough
for their warm, enthusiastic, and generous help with the biography.
Each of them contributed tremendously in their own way to our
understanding of who Buzz Holmstrom was.
Although we never met Frances,
her journals and poetry gave us a richer and deeper understanding
of the Holmstrom family than we could even have guessed at otherwise.
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| Carl
Holmstrom was two years older than Buzz. Other than his years
at sea, lived his entire life in the Coquille area. He died a
bachelor in 1997, at the age of 90. |
Anna
Holmstrom Smith , ten years Buzz's junior, lived in and around
Coquille her whole life, and died there in March 2003. Her daughter
June still lives there. |
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| Rolf,
the youngest Holmstrom, was a bus driver for three million miles
and served in the Army. He passed on to join his brothers and
wife Betty in 2001. |
Frances
Holmstrom, mother of the hearty brood, was a poet. Oregon
Mist was a collection of poems, some of them from her earlier
works, Western Window, and Rich Lady. She died
in 1957. |
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