Photo Record
Images
Metadata
Object ID |
2016.2.0 |
Title |
Basche, Peter "Pete" (1913 to 2004). A short biography. |
Description |
Peter "Pete" Basche (1913 to 2004). There are 3 images of Pete attached to this record. Archived at the Baker County Library, the Pete Basche Collection consists of almost 1,000 digital photos, thanks to the donation by Pete's daughter, Betty Basche, and to retired lawyer Richard Carrithers, who both grew up on Snake River in Robinette, Oregon. Richard had the photos (negatives and prints) digitally copied, and, with Betty's help, annotated the photos. Richard and wife, Kathy, organized the photos by date and subject matter. In addition, Richard did considerable research to document what the river of his childhood was like before and after reservoirs behind Hell Canyon Dam, Oxbow Dam, and Brownlee Dam flooded and thereby tamed almost 90 miles of the free-flowing Snake River. Pete Basche was the Standard Oil distributor in the Hells Canyon, Halfway, and Richland area in the period before the three high dams (Brownlee, Oxbow, and Hells Canyon) were built on Snake River. He took hundreds of photos of Snake River before the dams, some of which document the construction of Brownlee Dam, and of the people who lived in Robinette, which in 1958 was inundated by the reservoir behind newly-constructed Brownlee Dam. Pete's daughter, Betty Basche, generously donated digital copies of this photo collection to Baker County Library District in 2016. The library is also indebted to Robinette native Richard Carrithers, a childhood and life-long friend of Betty. See more about Richard below. The following short autobiography is a summary of an interview of photographer Pete Basche conducted by Sybyl Smith and printed in "Pine Valley Vignettes," vol. II, p. 7 (1996). At the end of the interview Pete said, "My hobby was photography. I never was much of a fisherman or hunter, but I do like to take pictures." Pete was born in 1913 at Home, Oregon, on Snake River between Huntington and Richland. Home was inundated forever in 1958 by the waters of Brownlee Reservoir. His parents were Fred W. Basche (1880-1949) and Martha E. Rhodes (1871-1957). Pete was their only child. Pete attended several grade schools in the Snake River area, including Mineral grade school in Idaho, reached by rowing across Snake River. He graduated from Huntington High School in 1928. Pete worked on the W. F. Baker peach ranch near Home and on his parents' ranch, also near Home, until the family moved to Pine Valley in 1938. In 1940 Pete married Ernestine Carnahan (1919-2002). For a short time Pete and brother Bert ran the Cash Market (later Halfway Market) in Halfway, OR. From 1942 to 1957 Pete and Ernestine lived in the little hamlet Robinette, Oregon, located on Snake River a mile below the confluence with Powder River, where he was the Standard Oil (now Chevron) distributor, delivering oil up some pretty rough and dangerous roads. Their children, Betty Lou of Richland, OR, and Peter Michael of Kennewick, WA, were born at Robinette (1942 and 1944 respectively). In 1943 Pete entered the Army ending up in the South Pacific. During the allied invasion of the Philippines at Leyte Gulf, grenade fragments wounded Pete in the right forearm and shoulder and grazed a wrist. He spent several months recovering from his wounds at Madigan Hospital, Fort Lewis, Washington. Then he returned to his oil distributor job at Robinette. In 1957 waters backed up by Brownlee Dam forced him to move his house, outbuildings, and oil storage tanks to Richland. Pete and Ernestine divorced in 1958. In 1959 Pete married Helen Leake (1918-2007). Pete retired from Chevron (formerly Standard Oil) in 1966, then worked in the Richland post office, eventually becoming postmaster, until his second retirement in 1978. Pete died in 2004. He is buried in Eagle Valley Cemetery in Richland, OR. |
Photographer |
Basche, Pete |
Photo Topic |
People |