Apparently this is the 36th year of the - ScholarsArchive at Oregon ...

TWO LAUNCHINGS OF ED CLIFF
By M. M. "Eed" Nelson
In 1962 Ed Cliff became Chief of the Forest Service. It was only
a few weeks after John Glenn had made his famous trip into space, A
Family Meeting was held in the USDA auditorium which I & E promoted
as a "Launching of the New Chief". They even had a dummy rocketship
on the stage. Some of us were called, upon to say a few wordi. I thought
it might be a good time to say that this was not the first time Ed Cliff
had been launcheds and tell the story of the first launching. Perhaps
readers of Timberlines will be interested?
In the late 1930's one of our horses at the Redwood Remount Station
was a beautiful pinto. His name was Agate. He was not a stallion, arid.
really not a gelding either. That was because he had been "cut proud".
We called him an "original". As such, he was a kind of a nuisance. If
in a corral with geldings he was always fighting with them. If in a
corral with mares his stallion instinct became pronouneed. But, he was
a good strong horse so my packers and I decided he would be better useful
as a saddle horse rather than being used in a pack string. They broke
him to ride.
When Ed Cliff came to the Siskiyou as Forest Supervisor he needed
a saddle horse to get around in that unroaded forest. He chose the
beautiful Agate even though he had not been fully broken and tended to
buck now and then. It became common knowledge that Agate would unload
his boss, the Supervisor, now and then on a cold morning or early in the
spring.
On a back country inspection trip Ed was making with Ranger Boyd
Rasmussen they had been gone a week and Agate had behaved fine. On their
last day as they headed toward the Powers Ranger Station, Boyd commented
to Ed something like, "I am not going to be satisfied until I see Agate
buck you off". WeU, they had not gone far and were riding a steep trail
around a mountainside with a cover of thornbush, when sure enough Agate
launched Supervisor Ed Cliff high into the air and down the hill into
the thornbush. As you can expect there was one mad Supervisor climbing
out of the trush patch and accusing his ranger of having jogged Agate
with a stick to cause the bucking. Boyd steadfastly denied it for many
years. Good thing he did. for he was perhaps closest he had ever come to
being demoted or fired.
When Chief Cliff took the podium he told the story in greater detail.
Also, how he enjoyed that horse, Agate, and had him transferred. to the
Fremont Forest when he moved to Lakeview to be Forest Supervisor. Agate
still bad his game at bucking but Ed did. not mind because Agate was still
a fine beautiful strong horse, and also made a good show in local parades.
(Probably the local Lakeview people were like Boyd, and looked forward
to seeing a contest between Ed. and Agate?) The Regional Safety Officer,
however, considered Agate as a safety hazard arid recommended disposal.
Ed refused, but it is said that when Ed left for Region 1', the new
Supervisor, Larry Mays, could. not stand. the pressure from the Safety
Officer. That was the end of Agate's Forest Service Career.
It is also understood in later years Boyd did admit that all he had
done was toss a small pebble that happened to land under Agate's tail.
And that ends this tale!
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