Celeste Hankins, Writer, Nature Guide & Yoga Teacher

Lake Chelan MIrror“WATER WITCHING. Fifty years know how. WILL TRAVEL,” proclaimed the business cards that Homer Elgin carried in his back pocket for decades. During his witching — some call it dousing — career, Chelan’s Homer sleuthed out hundreds of water sites in the area, including the first wells for domestic water at Howard Flats.…

Lake Chelan MirrorMarilee Stolzenburg didn’t believe in ghosts. The realtor hadn’t mentioned hauntings when she bought the old Victorian home on Highland Avenue. It was just an old home in need of repair. A bit creaky, perhaps, but ghosts? Most certainly not. Stolzenburg’s new neighbors, however, insisted it was a haunted house, one of several…

Lake Chelan MirrorWith a blind Great Horned Owl tied to her wrist, Debra Burnett darts about the apple orchard like a hummingbird on espresso. Known as Lake Chelan’s bird lady, Debra rescues sick and injured creatures, then releases them into the wild when possible. Now, she wants to turn her south shore property into a…

Lake Chelan MirrorIt started as an undercover operation. Two apple orchardists, an ex-army electrician, and a horse named Scallywag scoured the mountains around Lake Chelan. The sorrel packhorse was loaded with electronic equipment, including a portable black and white TV. The group’s mission — finding clear pictures of “I Love Lucy” and “The Honeymooners.” At…

Lake Chelan MirrorOther than the occasional crow of a misinformed rooster at midday, quiet rides the breeze. It rests under the cloud-dipped sky and settles at the horizon where blue meets stubby wheat field, high on the Waterville plateau above Chelan. In Withrow, however, a tiny town 15 minutes from the top of McNeil Canyon,…

The InlanderWhen Terry Gieber taught ceramics at Gonzaga University 12 years ago, his classroom was in an abandoned tin laundromat with almost no insulation. Students glazed their pottery in the women’s bathroom. In the winter, it was so cold that the glazes froze on the floor. Gieber, now the art department chairman, wore moon boots…

Lake Chelan MirrorIt was the only time in World War I or II that an enemy aircraft was shot down — air to air — with pistols. The young American pilot named his tiny plane Miss Me!?, with the hope Germans’ bullets would fly far from his unarmed Piper L-4 Cub. Lieutenant Duane Francies wanted…