June 19, 2004

John Terry, a Tulelake World War II Homesteader sits by as his farm implements are being auctioned. Going once, going twice.......

John won a homestead in 1949 from the pickle jar drawing for the veterans.  He raised grain, alfalfa and cattle.

He and his wife Aline began their lives together in Tulelake with a Japanese barracks from the relocation camp, no power, water or roads. He dug his well by hand. Their toughest year together was in 2001 when the federal government withheld irrigation water to 1400 farms. Some of his alfalfa died and his cattle, from a herd he'd nurtured for 50 years, were starving. Just before the slaughter truck came, some people from another community offered him to use their pasture to save his cattle.  Other neighbors weren't so lucky.

photo by Jacqui Krizo.