For those of you who have not heard nor read the story of Tabitha Brown, here is a "fair" summary of the legend and some facts of her life which was published in THE OREGONIAN on March 31, 2002, while I was away from home playing. The column is a weekly series on Oregon history and historical figures and sometimes has accurate info. <<http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/john_terry/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news/10174929938754246.xml>> This particular item is based, as almost all of the retellings of Tabitha's life are, from selective quoting of portions of a letter she wrote in 1854 with modern interpretations and explanations. You can find a fact filled description of her family's emigration to Oregon on the OCTA website at: <<http://calcite.rocky.edu/octa/brown.htm>> Books continue to come out with Tabitha Brown's story featured. I just purchased another which was published in 2001; not because I don't know the story but because the author claims to have had access to documents which I think have been lost for several years. Cecil Houk posted the story to the list as part of his website a few days ago; this "oregonlive" link is to the newspaper archive (and will probably not be a live link after another week or two from today). The OCTA website is "permanent" whatever that means in this electronic land of illusions. Stafford