The Mail-Journal, Volume 23, Number 1, Milford, Kosciusko County, 1 January 1986 — Page 7

Community Corner

Ken Harkless: Past and present shown through aril

By MARK HUFFMAN Staff Writer Shades of Ken Harkless can be seen throughout the town of Syracuse and the surrounding area, not in body but through the strokes he’s applied to canvas to capture the beauty of the town ana its people. The lifetime resident of 300 E. Main St. didn’t pick up the paint brush until he was nearly 70 years old, but since that time he has painted so many murals he hesitates to estimate the exact number. Profile Evidence of Harkless’ labor can be seen throughout his Main Street home, as paintings of people and places help tell stories of his past and present, while oil paintings at the State Bank of Syracuse on Main Street give visitors a glimpse the town’s past. “I did a lot of the paintings from old photographs my father had taken,” Harkless, who donated the artwork to the town of Syracuse, remarks. However, Harkless main love was that of painting portraits, several of which hang in his lakeside home. ‘‘My wife used to model for me, which helped • develop my skills,” he comments, glancing at a por» trait of his wife, who passed away one day shy of their 61st wedding anniversary in 1981. Harkless was the second of three sons born to Sheldon and Amy Harkless in 1897. With a father who operated a machine shop and started painting landscapes in oils and watercolors after retiring, it seemed inevitable that Harkless follow in his footsteps. Founding the Harkless Wawasee Boat Co., with Lou Seider, in 1929, the younger Harkless inherited his father’s mechanical abilities — helping area and < vacationing bqaters with mechanical difficulties and storing boats during the winter months. A member of the United State’s Army Transportation Corps during World War I, Harkless honed his mechanical skills, helping farm boys

Din of angry voices sounds above clatter of hoof beats

By MERCER CROSS National Geographic News Service A few miles up the dusty, rutted ravine lies the rotting corpse of a sorrel mustang, its teeth grimacing grotesquely in its hollow-eyed skull. “They have to save the range and they’re gettin’ rid of the wild horses, that’s all,” growls Lloyd Tillett as he examines the carcass. “No other reason, just get rid of ’em!” Tillett is a tough, grizzled cattle rancher who has spent all of his 65 years riding the plateaus and gullies of southern Montana, not far from Lovell. He saw the territory of the mustangs become the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range, the first of its kind in the nation, by edict of the US Secretary of the Interior in 1968. ' Wide Range Os Wildlife To this day, Tillett detests the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management, which manages the 46,800-acre range and its varied wildlife — deer, elk, bear, and bighorn sheep, as well as horses. “When they made a wild-horse refuge out of it, they had the BLM take care of the horses,” he says. “They’ve just been trying to kill ’em.” Tillett’s denunciations do not go unchallenged at the BLM. Jerome W. Jack of Billings, Mont., the bureau’s area manager and the man responsible for administering policies for the Pryor Range, responds with equal determination but far less vitriol. He dismisses Tillett’s charges of horse-killing and defends the bureau’s management plan for the Pryor horses. “I don’t think we would ... commit to their management if we had the intentions of trying to totally remove them, because we have no intentions of doing that,” he insists. Os the carcass in the gully, Jack explains that it was one of about 30 horses, none of them from the Pryor Range; that had died after being rounded up and processed for adoption in a corral. Out of the 1,800 head processed over a 20-month period, he says A “that’s less than a twopercent loss.” Moreover, Jack adds, he expects the BLM management plan for the Pryor Range, a beautiful, remote area of high grasslands and deep limestone canyons, to succeed. “In my own mind,” he says, “I feel very proud to be affiliated with the horse range there.” In Washington, John Boyles, chief of the BLM’s Division of Wild Horses and Burros, says: "The bureau has never advocated getting rid of them. In fact, all of the planning that we’ve been doing and are going to be doing between now and 1988 takes into account wild horses and burros as a resource. ” Montana-Wyoming Border Tillett’s antipathy probably doesn’t typify the attitude of the average resident of Lovell, about

13 miles south of the borderstraddling wild-horse range, a tourist attraction in the sparsely populated area. But the same kind of criticism that Tillett directs at the BLM in Billings is heard at a national level, much of it from animalprotection groups and, for altogether different reasons, from livestock growers. $ The principal target of the protectionists’ ire is the bureau’s goal of reducing the number of America’s wild horses and burros, now estimated at about 56,000 to between 25,000 and

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WILD STALLIONS — Ears laid back, a mustang mare, right, fights off a stallion. Wild stallions often nip and chase mares to keep their bands moving and grazing together. America’s wild horses, protected by federal law since 1971, have been a source of controversy for y ears _ and there’s little chance the dispute will end soon. Government agencies argue that the horses must be reduced to protect the environment. Animal-protection groups dispute that. (Photo by Jonathan T. Wright/Bruce Coleman Inc.)

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learn to change spark plugs. However, it wasn’t until he “saw pictures in magazines saying ‘draw me’,” that he developed an interest in sketching, which eventually led to the trading of a pencil for a brush. “I used to draw some as a child, but didn’t really get interested in serious painting untiF after I retired from the Marina,” Harkless, who still has an art book his mother had bought for him several Christmases ago, comments, leaning back into a chair — the lake visible through a large paned glass window. ✓ — J Taking several art classes in.area towns, Harkless began what turned out to be a successful “career” as a local artist. However, many of the skills vital to the artist couldn’t be taught. “You can’t teach patience, and that is one of the main things an artist must possess,” according to Harkless, who adds, “It’s all a matter of seeing, some things people see as different then others and this is all brought out in a painting.” Harkless has helped area people “see” a piece of the past, as his historical landmark portraits add a flair to the town, with long-gone Indians dotting the landscapes. “I’ve drawn a lot of Indians,” Harkless says, glancing up from a scrapbook full of photos of his popular historical paintings. Having sold many of the paintings to area merchants and citizens, Harkless’ basement, once full of portraits, has begun to look less cluttered. But the walls are still far from being bare, as one is able to take a trip to Syracuse’ past and present by walking down the Main Street stairway. “I painted mainly as a hobby, not a business,” Harkless said, discrediting the few paintings he has sold. But that hobby was disrupted 15 years ago when Harkless contracted Parkinson’s disease, a nerve disease, disrupting movement and speech. The once steady hands are unable to grasp a brush, but Harkless, who lives at his lakeside home with his housekeeper and several paintings has enveloped other hobbies, as he enjoys reading and keeping up with current topics. A self portrait, painted from looking into a mirror, is mounted behind Harkless, who struggles to get up from his chair. It’s undoubtedly a comfort to him to know that the painting will remain long after the chair is emptied, as will all of this artists’ past and present.

30,000. The animals graze on 47.5 million acres of public land in 10 western states. An estimated 155 mustangs roam the range in three separate bands. According to the BLM plan, that number should be cut to 121. Those figures, says the bureau, represent the optimum number of the animals that can be allowed to roam freely on federal lands without disrupting the overall environmental picture. Nonsense, say the opponents, who dispute not only the bureau’s population estimates and the use

AM H | IHBi 1 ' ISBSI j-' ■Mm DOUBLE TAKE — Ken Harkless sits below ;i selfportrait of himself, done while looking into a mirror several years ago. Several historical paintings done by the well known Syracuse artist can be seen displayed at the State Bank of Syracuse, 100 E. Main St. (Photo by Mark Huffman)

of its lands, but its methods of disposing of what it calls “excess” horses and burros. ii “They take it from the point of view, in our opinion, that that land out there belongs to the ranchers,” says Joan Blue, president of the American Horse Protection Association. “We don’t believe it does. It belongs to all Americans. It’s public land. We start from the premise that the BLM is in the pocket of the ranchers and the cattle barons.” To which Boyles responds: “We obviously have got a job to do, and part of it does involve

livestock. Part of it’s wild horses, and part of it’s habitat for wildlife. So in away you could say the BLM is in the pocket of all those people.” Cattleman Denies Clout Ronald A. Michieli, director of natural resources for the National Cattlemen's! Association, scoffs at Blue’s allegation. “If we had that kind of political power,” he says, “obviously there wouldn’t be a need for a a Forest Service. We’d take care of the lands ourselves. It’s pretty obvious that we don’t have that sort of control over ’em. I think what we do have is some rights out there that we exercise.” Wild horses’ chief natural enemy is man. Threatened by few predators, the hardy animals increase rapidly. The BLM estimate is 15 to 20 percent a year. A 1982 study by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that the rate is 10 percent or less. How is the rapidly expanding horse and burro population to be held down? Since 1973, under the BLM’s adoption program, more than 61,000 animals have been sold to individual Americans. As a result of early abuses of the animals, the program has been modified in several ways, including a limit of four animals to a single adopter. Only old, sick, and lame animals may legally be put to death. The bureau has had a moratorium since 1982 on the destruction of healthy horses. In the fisca’i year 1985, which ended September 30, the BLM spent $16.7 million on the horse and burro program. Congress has not yet set a figure for the current fiscal year.

SUPPORT THE MILFORD VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPT. The Fire Department of Milford is sponsoring a fund raising program to raise money for needed equipment. A person, representing the Milford Vol. Fire Department will be contacting all homes in the area serviced by this department. In appreciation for your tax deductible donation you will receive a complimentary certificate for an Bxlo Family Portrait. This will be taken at the Milford Fire Department. This fund raising program is legitimate and the Fire Department asks for your support. Money will be used for equipment on new truck. Any questions, call Max Duncan 658-4774.

Here's what's cooking

SPINACH SALAD 3 T bacon fat % cup white sugar to cup oil % tsp. salt 1 egg, beaten Bring the above to a boil and cook for 2 minutes. Cool to just warm. \ Break up fresh spinach, toss with 4 strips of bacon which have been fried crisp and broken up, add one can of drained mushrooms and one onion cut thin and torn apart. Pour sauce over and mix well. VEGETABLESALAD 3 diced hard cooked eggs cup mayonnaise 1 grated onion 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce 1 tsp. mustard 1T lemon juice « Dash of Tabasco sauce 1 can drained and sliced water chestnuts, , 1 pkg. frozen lima beans 1 pkg. frozen green beans * 1 pkg. frozen pets Prepare the pkgs, of frozen lima beans, green beans and peas as directed on package. They can be cooked together. Drain. While still hot add the remaining ingredients. CALICO SALAD 1 can cut green beans 1 can cut wax beans 1 large red onion 1 tsp. salt Vinegar to taste Drain green beans and wax beans, then mix. Peel and slice red onion in thin ringlets. Add salt and vinega r. Chill. MIXED GREEN SALAD 3 cups chopped lettuce 1 cup shredded red cabbage

Meanwhile, about 10,000 captured animals are awaiting adoption. Legislation has been drafted, but not introduced, that would permit the BLM to auction off, over a three-year period, a maximum of 1.5,000 excess wild horses and burros. Such a bill v/ould touch off an immediate outcry from animalprotection groups, because it inevitably woulc. consign some of the animals to pet food plants and glue factories. It would be construed as a huge backward step from the law passed in 1971 to protect the horses and burros. Group Ch arges Cruelty Joan Blue’s organization disapproves even of the existing adoption program, “because in so many cases it’s just a disaster waiting to happen,” she says. “There’s a tremendous amount of cruelty and negligence on their (the BLM’s) part.” On the other side of the argument is Michieli of the Cattlemen’s Association. Some action must be taken to lower the numbers, he says, “and if -it requires destruction, that’s what it ought to be.” Boyles is caught in the middle. “I’m satisfied with the program,” he says. “I guess the only portion that I m dissatisfied with is the disposition of healthy excess animals once you have to take ’em off the range. How do you dispose of ’em? “I don’t think we’ve got an adequate answer .. . I’m not saying it ought to ba sale, and I’m the last guy who wants to be branded a horse-killer. But pure and simple, the program we’ve got now just can’t hardie it.”

Wed., January I,I9B<—THE MAIL-JOURNAL

5 radishes, sliced thin ¥4 cup celery, chopped fine to tsp. salt 1 /8 tsp. pepper Oil-Less French dressing (recipe will follow) Combine all ingredients and mix with Oil-Less French dressing.

SALT DELIVERY . SERVICE NORTHEAST LINDSAY P < WATER SERVICE W 834-7611 11 11 I Elaine Slrichlpr — Group Sales WALK ON I HE QUIET SIDE , The Dominican Republic conjures up visions of merengue festivals, great food, the excitement of Santo Domingo and fabulous “country” resorts. There is also another side to this country that is quieter. It is more luxurious with great expanses of landscaped space, golf courses by the sea and miles of near-deserted beaches. This other side is the northern coast called Puerta Plata. It has been the site of much attention in recent years as a prime vacation resort area. Here, there are condominiums of all descriptions, as well as hotel properties dedicated to providing every conceivable service and facility. All this is within a short distance of an airport that has direct flights from North America. Santo Domingo is definitely worth a visit. It is the cultural and entertainment center of the country. Whether looking for fun in the sun or the excitement of a ski trip the WARSAW TRAVEL SPECIALISTS (269-6771 or 1-800-342-5221) can service your every travel need. From mode of transportation to hotel accommodations and car rentals, we offer you the finest travel service available. We are located at 1301 N. Detroit Street. Monday thru Friday 9-5:30 and Saturday 9-1. Most majot credit cards are accepted. Have a Happy and Healthy New Year!

K/ ■H mu? "StßVia COMB FIRST WITH US” Km Deb Patterson, working at the Syracuse office of The MailJournal. When you need to change your address or miss a copy of your paper, call me. 457-3666 REMEMBER, SERVICE COMES FIRST WITH US. The Mail-Journal MILFORD SYRACUSE 206 S. Main 103 E. Main Phone 658-4111 Phone 457-3666

OIL-LESS FRENCH DRESSING to cup tomato juice to tsp. salt ¥4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce 1 tsp. onion juice Beat or shake well. Store in the refrigerator. It is tangy and flavorful.

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