In 2010, Pendleton Woolen Mills introduced our Tribute Series, paying homage to the American mills that thrived during the Golden Age of Native American Trade blankets. In the early part of the 20th century, Pendleton Woolen Mills was one of five major mills weaving Trade blankets. The Buell Manufacturing Company of St. Joseph, Missouri, incorporated in 1877. St. Joseph was the gateway to a booming Wild West, thanks to homesteading and the Gold Rush. The Buell mill, operated by Norman Buell, his son George, and another partner named John Lemon, was well-run and successful. According to the county records of 1904, the Buell Manufacturing employed 175 workers and used more than a million pounds of wool a year. Buell products were sold in every state of the Union (45, to be exact).  Buell products included far more than their Trade blankets. Their colorful designs were only a fraction of the products woven by Buell from 1877 to 1912. Since the Pendleton mill opened in 1909, we were only competitors for three seasons.

According to our friend Barry Friedman in his book Chasing Rainbows, “The blankets produced by Buell Manufacturing are without question the truest copies of Navajo and Pueblo Indian designs.” heavyweight leather motorcycle jacketsThe original Buell blanket designs were given tribal names in keeping with America’s romantic view of the west during those years. used motorcycle parts langley bcWe’ve included the original names strictly for your information. husqvarna motorcycle dealers in michiganPlease keep in mind that the Buell designs often bore little-to-no resemblance to the weavings of that particular tribe.  suzuki motorcycle dealership nashville

Our re-weavings of these blankets are simply named for the original manufacturer, with the number of the blanket in the series.motorcycle shops in burnley Buell #6 ( available here ) was originally called the “Choctaw” or the “Spider and Hawk” design.motorcycle clothing preston lancs Buell #5 available here was called the “Winnebago.” enduro motorcycle for sale in floridaThough Buell has a darker palette than many of the other mills producing blankets back in the day, this blanket is an eye-popper. Buell #4 (retired) was called the “Ojibwa.” Dale Chihuly has one of the originals in his incredible collection of Trade blankets. The banded design of diamonds, stripes, stars and that central sawtooth band is just gorgeous.

Buell #3 (retired) features a rare pictorial element–bands of Thunderbirds. Buell blankets were generally without any type of representational figures. This banded pattern was known as the “Comanche.” Buell #2  (retired) is called the “Zuni” pattern in the Buell catalog, but is actually a copy of a Hopi manta according to Barry Friedman (who knows pretty much everything there is to know about Trade blankets). Buell #1 (retired) is named “Aztec” in the original Buell catalog. It was offered in at least four different color combinations. An example in this coloration is also part of the fabled Chihuly collection of Native American Trade blankets. This blanket was a bestseller in our first year of the Tribute series. Buell blankets are among the most rare and most sought after by collectors today. This mill actually accomplished a major commercial weaving innovation–the incorporation of a third color in a weaving line. This was beyond the capabilities of Pendleton Woolen Mills at the time, so we tip our hat to the Buell Manufacturing Company of St. Joseph, Missouri.

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find out about special Sound RIDER! From time to time, we also provide valuable coupons that can save you hundreds of dollars onWhat are you waiting for? Click here to sign up now! on May 24, 2009 at 9:50 PM, updated GILCHRIST -- This was the last company town in Oregon, a place where the mill employed the men and women, helped build a school for their children and decided what color their homes should be: dark brown. Until 1991, it was possible to charge gas, groceries and rent against your paycheck. But those days are gone. The mill was sold to one company and its timber acreage to another. Many of the company houses got new metal roofs, colorful vinyl siding and were sold to out-of-towners who wanted vacation cottages, not a community. The recession has made this a lonely stretch of U.S. 97, 45 miles south of Bend and even farther from central Oregon's affluent glitz. The mill jobs may be gone for good. School enrollment is half what it was. As market owner Michael Manis gazes out on the highway, he indicates the lengthening intervals between passing cars with the spread of his long arms.

"There's a gap, a time gap," he says. But he and others in Gilchrist and neighboring Crescent see a glimmer deep in the pine forests that cradle their communities, a proposal that would restore jobs, attract families, expand the tax base and revive businesses up and down the highway. It's called Crescent Creek Resort, and, as envisioned, it would have 1,965 homes, 785 overnight rentals, a pair of golf courses and multiple other features spread across more than 5,500 acres. Klamath County approved the resort's master plan in November, just as the economy tanked. The land owner, Cascade Timberlands of Bend, now says the resort is on hold, but insists the plan remains sound. The area's residents surely hope they are right. R.D. Buell, thick-chested and country-chatty, has lived here 42 years and is the resort's unofficial tour guide. As district manager of the Walker Range Fire Patrol Association, he has intimate knowledge of the forests surrounding Gilchrist and Crescent and the logging roads that crisscross the area.

Bouncing in an SUV past the mill, now run by Interfor Pacific of British Columbia, Buell sniffs at the quality and quantity of its log piles. Running full bore, the mill would chew up those logs in about three weeks, he says. Seventy workers were laid off in March, and word around town is that only 15 salaried employees, management types, are working at the mill now. In the early 1990s, counting mill crews, loggers and truck drivers, the mill employed about 300. The area desperately needs the resort's jobs and investment, Buell says. "This is pretty well a depressed area," he says. "If north Klamath County is going to survive, we need this." The fire patrol association also favors the plan because it calls for a 3,600-acre wildfire and wildlife management area at the resort's northern edge. The acreage would be commercially thinned of timber and vegetation, reducing the fuel load and the threat of a catastrophic fire, Buell says. Fire Chief Kyle Kirchner says the property value increases caused by resort development would help his district, which protects a 20-square-mile area and provides ambulance service for 140 square miles.

"This would double our tax base," he says. At Gilchrist School, Principal Kevin McDaniel says the long decline of the timber industry and the recent mill layoffs have hit families hard. The school once had 500 students in kindergarten through high school but is down to 238, McDaniel says. "Enrollment's dropped like a rock." The school, built as a Public Works Administration project in 1939, is testimony to the mill's past influence. Wood panels gleam throughout the building. In the gym, thick, polished planks provide bench seating for spectators. The Gilchrist family provided money to build a track. But the economy's drop has left a proud community hanging its hopes on the resort, McDaniel says. "It's been such a free fall," he says. "The result is less kids, less enrollment, less funding." Terri Anderson, who runs a property management business in Gilchrist, says the town's restaurant is closed two days a week, the market is down to one employee in addition to the owners, and the motels rarely have guests.

The resort, she says, "will change the dynamic of the community -- change it for the better." The development delay is disappointing but understandable, Anderson says. Cascade Timberlands is a subsidiary of Fidelity National, a title company. It is committed to building the resort, says Linda Swearingen, a former Deschutes County commissioner and Sisters mayor hired as a consultant on the project. But for now, "the project is on hold until the economy turns around," she says. The company is looking for a resort developer to partner with, she says, and calls the community's reception outstanding. The resort is intended to attract vacationers from the Willamette Valley, Swearingen says, and the project's size allows it to offer more amenities. In addition to golf, the resort would have fly-fishing, snowshoeing, Nordic skiing, tennis, swimming, bike and walking trails, a lodge and a restaurant, according to Cascade Timberlands' application with Klamath County. "They've certainly done a lot of market research and analysis," Swearingen says of the company.

"But when the economy ground to a halt, all that research has just been put on the back burner." Mary Geales Ernst is the keeper of Gilchrist's history. Her parents, Frank and Mary Gilchrist, started the mill and gave the town its name. At 82, Ernst is white-haired, upright and retains a trace of the drawl she brought with her when the Gilchrist family arrived from Mississippi in 1938. Her home, still painted "Gilchrist brown," looks out on the lake formed when they dammed the Little Deschutes River to make a log pond for the mill across the way. She was married on the yard that slopes toward the lake, as was her daughter. Another daughter drowned in the lake when she was 18 months old. Her son, Gil, lives next door. At one time Gilchrist was nicknamed "Brown Town," and the houses were painted on schedule every five years. The mill's powerhouse provided electricity. The town's children made their own fun, and if there were social advantages to being the founders' daughter, young Mary never saw them.