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100 years and still going Jim Craven pic Applegate Valley residents Mona Huntley, left, and Liz Henderson guide mules Duster and Gypsy along Applegate Road Saturday. They were giving wagon rides to folks attending Ruch's centennial celebration. Ruch celebrates centennial with Buncom neighbors By VICKI GUARINO RUCH -- Neighbors greeted neighbors Saturday to celebrate a centennial. Ruch turns 100 this year, and residents throughout the Applegate ignored low clouds and the chance shower to share a barbecue, ride in a mule-drawn wagon, and check out a few local crafts. In the center of it all strutted a small rooster in a cage, surrounded by visitors wagering in a kind of barnyard bingo. Buy a few squares on the sheet of butcher paper lining the cage and wait to see where the bird ... well, the contest is called the "Chicken Splat," so you figure it out. For a few minutes, Phyllis Runals, Applegate, became something of an unofficial judge of the fowl game, deciding that a suspicious smudge on the cage floor wasn't sufficient to call. "He's got to at least give a good shot at it," Runals insisted. Backing away to wait a while longer, she pointed out, "I have a spot on there, and I think we've got a good chance." Fellow player Sheriff Bob Kennedy patiently watched his spot on the cage floor. Every year, Ruch celebrates the Memorial Day weekend, and the event has become an important fund-raiser for the Jackson County Sheriff's Department's Ruch substation. Kennedy says he relies on the generosity of volunteers to keep the place going, but serving up breakfast and lunch at the Ruch celebration gives the office budget a much-needed boost. For the sake of the Ruch centennial, folks from neighboring Buncom moved their annual Memorial Day celebration -- Buncom Day -- down the road to join Ruch. Liz Henderson hitched up her draft mules and offered wagon rides. The tours were easy duty for the mules, who have trekked the Oregon Trail. Another Buncom Day regular, Vernice Hall, set out her home-baked goodies around a small photograph of the moss-covered Buncom post office, just to let folks know that Buncom Day hadn't been forgotten. "We celebrated our centennial in 1996," Hall said. "But next year we'll be back in our own spot." Next to her sat Ellen Knapp, now living in Medford. "I was raised in Applegate, went to school in Applegate and Ruch," she said. "This is a one-time-a-year visitation that we have." Ruch was named for Caspar Ruch, who settled at what is now the intersection of Highway 238 and Upper Applegate Road. He built a house, store and blacksmith shop. Soon, he was appointed postmaster and given the honor of naming the new post office. For most of its history, the community was little more than that first store. Only in more recent history -- the 1970s and 1980s -- did the community start to develop as a residential and recreational area. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA