| By Alvin Engelke
 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
Cousin Connie Smith (on the Cottrill side) noted that Officer Groves provided her with a "fancy" bouquet which he said he purchased to "impress her". It was noted that Eddie Harris wanted to throw the bouquet away.
Sam Gaston who formerly did lease work for Columbia Natural Resources (now Chesapeake) was attending to business in the area. He was inquiring about drilling and various individuals that he knew when he worked in the area including Lizzie Carper and Garrison Tawney.
The gentleman who ended up with a compound fracture of the leg who drove down the West Fork on a four wheeler crying for help and his "fambly" left Creston & moved over to Spencer. Well it seems that our man was on the mend so he went to a big party up Steele Hollow. Apparently he got into a little tiff with another partygoer who threw him off the porch or whatever doing serious damage to the fractured leg. Our feller started crying for the police and the ambulance but he was told, "You know darn well we can't have the cops and the ambulance at this party. You'll have to make do the best you can on your own."
It was learned that the bankruptcy auction of the Buffalo Properties wells fetched $7 million with $600,000 being placed up front in earnest money. Most of the wells have now been out of production at least since oil fell to $9/bbl. One fellow said the famous statement by that great humanist & philanthropist Phinneas T. Barnum would apply.
Chesapeake Appalachia announced that they would be drilling 500 new wells each year for the foreseeable future. Recently they purchased a well known and highly regarded independent drilling company for $85 million. The company president is a multibillionaire and one of the richest men in America. It is said he intends to make old John D. Rockefeller Sr. look like a piker.
The Roane Sheriff's patrol came by Jack Burdette's place at the head of Beaver Dam the other evening and found Jack's tractor out in the middle of the road. The lawman thought that perhaps Jack was sick or hurt but Jack was fine although he didn't know that the tractor was out in the road "ready to run away from home".
Bill McFee, Preston Andrick, Mr. & Mrs. Gary Jones & Mr. & Mrs. Alvin Engelke attended the state Farm Bureau convention at Flatwoods. The Marshall & Woods families from over the hill on the Roane side were among the attendees too. One of the topics was an excellent discussion over the use of ethanol as a motor fuel and the impact this would have on the corn, beef, hog and chicken farmers. To meet the demand as required by regulations millions of additional acres of corn need to be planted and the price of corn has already gone up which puts an immediate pinch on beef and poultry producers.
It was recently reported that some "who had environmental concerns" over drilling off the Pacific coast were blocking drilling so that the communist Chinese could drill for the oil in international waters and take the American oil away to raise money for the Peoples Liberation Army just to use on "you know who".
The Creston area had more than the usual amount of excitement over the weekend. First a big tree took out the power line on Big Root near Purdy leaving Creston without electric.
Then some fellow wrecked a red Pontiac Grand Am down at the end of the dePue straight. The chariot ended up against the rocky bank with the nose in the ditch. 911 was called on that one.
Later there was a mudslide at Red Cut just before the Munday road although the road was not blocked off.
Some young fellers took a jeep and decided to see just what it could do. They did a fair amount of property damage on land owned by C. Glen Arthur near the mouth of Little Creek. Then they went up the Richardsonville road and went off the road just above the Engelke residence and rolled down in the bottom. After driving around and around they finally discovered that they could drive back out on the road and the damaged chariot was taken and parked at C. Glen's place. A blond damsel and a fellow walked back up the road and she carried the Bud Light case (empty) back down the road so it would not be at the wreck scene.
The owner of the jeep finally found it and had it towed away and it was understood that the owner was not happy and one fellow "was not to be found" (at least not yet). No doubt there will be additional chapters in this saga.
Not so long back money was given to a wood products place to help with unemployment in Pocahontas County. Now it seems that Tijuana, Moctezuma and Ocozocoautla are all in Pocahontas County as all the employees are Mexicans. Similar situations exist in Logan County and some W. Va. coal mines. Some might say that it is time to review big burley SSI payees and, of course, some are still claiming, "that there ain't no jobs". Larn Headley said, "Some fellers wouldn't work in a pie factory."
The price of local Penn grade crude fell $1.50 on Armistice Day to $55.50/bbl.
Nora V. McVey, age 85 passed away in a rest home in Parkersburg. She was born in Burning Springs the daughter of Ernest & Ruth Tanner.
Jacob and Brittani Donley and Jocie Lucas were over night
guest with Mamaw and Granddad McFarland. Jacob helped his granddad in the garden picking out weeds and old leaves, but it wasn't certain if he was throwing them out or throwing them back in. He sure was trying to help his granddad.
The Wirt County Farm Bureau will meet at 7 P. M. on Tuesday, November 21 at the Fire Station in Elizabeth. A contingent from Wood County including some of their young farmer group will be present. Also there will be a report from the annual meeting at Flatwoods. Wirt County was honored as a gold star county at the meeting. | 
