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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend January 23, 2006 Phoenix man wants memorial for key workers He says loggers, miners, farmers who die on the job deserve to be honored By ANITA BURKE Mail Tribune When soldiers, firefighters or police officers die in the line of duty, they become heroes, honored with memorials at parks and plazas. Phoenix resident Wayne Cabler figures other people who make the American way of life possible — loggers, farmers and miners — deserve the same kind of respect when they die at work. "It always rankled me that the guys who produce the wealth get little credit," said Cabler, who worked 16 years in the woods before heading indoors in 1976 to run an insurance agency in Medford. He wants to create a memorial to people who have lost their lives working in the agriculture, timber and mining industries, which he considers "the foundation of the wealth-producing process." They grow, harvest, dig and pump the raw materials from the earth that fuel the economy, he explained. And they often don’t get the credit he thinks they deserve. Advertisement "In fact, they’ve been maligned, slurred and slandered," he said. The idea for a memorial to people killed in those lines of work in Jackson County has simmered in the back of Cabler’s mind for decades. "Anybody who has worked in the woods for very long is going to know somebody who was killed," he said. The death that set Cabler thinking about a proper memorial occurred in 1983 when a man he had cut timber with lost his oldest son in a logging accident. Semi-retired now at 65, Cabler, who is Jackson County grange master, got the farming organization to sign on to his idea. He’s also sent out 53 letters to timber associations, farm bureaus and cattlemen’s organizations seeking support. He’s having the first organizational meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Central Point Grange, 436 E. Pine St., Central Point. He hopes to gather a core group of volunteers to design a memorial, find a place for it, raise funds and build it. He hasn’t envisioned what the memorial might look like or where it would be located, but he wants "a substantial memorial, not just a rock on a slab of concrete." He’s contacted state officials to help him come up with a list of logging, mining and farming deaths in Jackson County over the years. Families also can submit information, he said. He wants to include Jackson County residents who died here or elsewhere and workers from outside the county who died here. To submit information for the memorial or find out more about Cabler’s efforts, call him at 535-9128. Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail Phoenix man wants memorial for key workers ">[email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Computer Security Discount Hotel Reservations Casinos Canada dvd-r Generic Viagra Myspace Windermere Van Vleet Deep Muscle Stimulator Sports Equipment Online Casino Reviews Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Online Casino Fundraisers Student Loans Sudoku Online Advertisement s Advertisement