Camp Sherman man revisits hometown

Doug Gyllenskog. photo by Conrad Weiler

Doug Gyllenskog, who works at Camp Sherman's garbage transfer station, was missing for a few weeks late last month while on vacation from his volunteer job.

"I went back to Nyssa where I grew up as a young boy," said the former ODOT manager who has retired in Camp Sherman. "This was their 100-year birthday celebration and I got to see my mother who still lives there.

Nyssa is on the Oregon-Idaho border just below Ontario.

At age three, Doug and his family moved there from Utah when his father transferred to work for the Amalgamated Sugar Company (White Satin brand) plant in Nyssa in the early 1940s.

These were the years when Japanese-Americans were placed in internment camps in Nyssa, having been moved from the Willamette Valley.

After the war, land that they had lost was compensated for with land in the Nyssa area.

"What had been scrub sagebrush land has been turned into very productive farm land by these folks," said Gyllenskog.

During the birthday celebration, history was relived as the Taiko Japanese drummers entertained the crowds.

Some German prisoners of war were also interned at Nyssa during World War II.

"It was not unusual to go into one of the cafes and see German prisoners having coffee. There wasn't much chance of their going anyplace," said Gyllenskog.

But time marches on and today there is a large Hispanic population in Nyssa, many of them farm workers.

To honor this group, the Treasure Valley Folk Lore Group of Mexican dancers, in their bright costumes, delighted the audience during the birthday celebration, according to Gyllenskog.

Also remembered during the celebration were the past century of sugar beet operations in Nyssa and the building of the nearby Owyhee Dam, still the largest dam in Oregon. Raft trips down the Owyhee River start at Rome, Oregon and travel 53 miles down to Owyhee Lake and the dam.

Today, Nyssa has a population of about 3,000 people.

"It could have become bigger if road projects had been built through the Nyssa area rather than around Ontario to the north," said Gyllenskog.

Instead it remains a small town -- with a lot of quiet history.