Since 1981, March has been known as Women’s History Month. Businesses, schools, governmental organizations share their appreciation of women, the impact that women have had on their industry or organization, and facts about how women have helped shape the United States into the nation it is today.
Not to be left out, on March 15th the Bureau of Reclamation (why they didn’t wait until Women In Agriculture Day is a head-scratcher) tweeted pictures of a local homesteader as part of their shout-outs to historic women, Eleanor Bolesta.
What makes Eleanor Bolesta an important figure in Klamath Basin agriculture is that she was the only woman to win a homestead in the Tule Lake “pickle jar” drawings. Like many others vying for a Klamath Basin homestead, Eleanor was a World War II veteran, who served proudly in the US Navy. Like the other veterans, she entered her name in the drawing, hoping to claim a future for her and her family in the Tule Lake Basin. In order to qualify for the drawing, not only did she need to be a veteran, entrants had to have a background in farming, which Eleanor had from growing up on a farm on Whidbey Island.
On March 13th, 1947, Eleanor’s name was drawn and she laid claim to a 112-acre homestead. On the Bolesta homestead Eleanor, with husband, former Marine Charles, raised five kids. Over the years, Eleanor earned her bachelors in Pullman, WA, and then a masters degree in education in Davis, CA. For a while Eleanor left the farm and shared her education as a teacher from places as diverse as Compton to Anchorage.
When Eleanor finally retired, she returned to the Tulelake homestead she built. Aside from restoring the family home, she spent her retirement traveling the world and submitting photos and stories of her journeys to the Herald and News. In 2001, when the Bureau of Reclamation moved to shut down Klamath Basin family farmers, she was a steadfast voice of support in the rallies. On October 7th, 2008, Eleanor passed away on her homestead. In 2016, partly due to the ongoing water curtailments in the name of the Endangered Species Act, her family sold the homestead’s ground.
Ironically, for the last two years (and this year would make three) due to Bureau of Reclamation management, Eleanor’s homestead has been without irrigation water. Though Reclamation is proud to share her story, they’re not as proud to tell what their decisions have done to her historic homestead and other family farms on the Klamath Project.
While the Bolesta homestead has gone dry during the recent ongoing droughts, water has been kept in Upper Klamath Lake to evaporate for sucker fish or sent down the Klamath River and out to the Pacific for the sake of salmon “recovery”. 20-plus years of ESA mandated single-species-management executed by the Bureau of Reclamation has continued to siphon away the livelihoods of Klamath Project family farmers and put area wildlife in danger.
All this time, despite the fact that it has yet to show any sign of recovery for sucker fish or salmon, Reclamation on the demand of someone much higher in the administration keeps pushing forward on single-species-management and keeping the Klamath Basin in crisis. And while inflicting this harm on those farming the Bolesta homestead and other Project family farmers, Reclamation shares her photo and story, absolutely oblivious to the harm they’re causing her family and their neighbors.
Eleanor Bolesta stood up for Klamath Basin family farmers in 2001 when the Federal government moved to completely shut down the Klamath Project. Imagine how she would have felt last year, in 2021, when Reclamation actually shut down the Project. We would have loved to have her at our 2020 tractor rally.
Despite this, Reclamation uses that fabulous, iconic photo of her in their Twitter feed, with complete disregard to the damage they’re doing to her homestead and the family farmers that’s doing their damndest to farm it.
As people in communities dependent upon the success of Klamath Basin ag, it’s disheartening to see that in the brief sharing of Eleanor Bolesta’s story the Bureau of Reclamation either doesn’t know or doesn’t care what their actions have done to her homestead. But for Reclamation, it sure as hell makes one helluva tweet during Women’s History Month, regardless of the fact that Secretary of Interior, Deb Haaland, who has shared the stories of many other remarkable women, has chosen not to share this one.
Eleanor Bolesta is upheld as an icon of Klamath ag, and it’s truly unfortunate that she’s not better known beyond the Basin. When she is recognized in the Basin, it’s from an incredibly glamorous photo of her decked to the nines, brightly smiling, behind the wheel of a steel-wheeled tractor.
Whether you live in the Klamath Basin or beyond, Eleanor Bolesta’s story is an incredible one that we’ve only really done a cliff-notes version of. We strongly recommend you learn more about her life by reading:
- Stephan Most’s 2003 piece about Eleanor Bolesta after the Tulelake Homestead Drawing on OregonHistoryProject.org
- The Lava Beds National Monument Facebook post on Eleanor Bolesta getting her homestead and her life
- Eleanor Bolesta’s obituary published in the Herald and News, October 11th, 2008
- Details about Eleanor Botesta’s photo at WesternWaters.org
