Enid Parrow

This week's fickle finger of shame points us to the bucolic burg of Vernonia, where a little old lady's selective history lesson has earned her spot in our Rogues' gallery.

Enid Parrow undoubtedly loves her Columbia County river town, as demonstrated by her countless volunteer hours with the local nonprofit booster club. In fact, it was while working on a Vernonia Pride project that the wife of the former mayor wandered outside the boundaries of common sense and good taste.

About six months ago, Parrow came up with a list of key historical moments in the town's history to be displayed in a public kiosk near the banks of Lake Vernonia. The spunky septuagenarian gleaned two dozen dates from a local history book. The entries, focused on the town's early days, are pretty predictable, ranging from the debut of the first local newspaper to the first meeting of the Chamber of Commerce. But near the bottom is this selection:

The inclusion of this dubious achievement went largely unnoticed, or at least unpublicized, until earlier this month, when a local paper, the Independent, published a letter from a recent arrival wondering whether this date was a point of pride. Since then, residents say, the same question has been asked repeatedly, usually in hushed tones.

Parrow says her list is simply a selective roster of "first happenings," not a ranking of crowning glories. "I was looking through the book and when I came to the KKK I thought, 'Well, it happened,' so I automatically put it in. I'm not glad that it happened, but the KKK was quite active here."

That explanation, while comforting, only goes so far. When it was pointed out that all the other entries seemed to be positive developments, Parrow was unmoved. In fact, she let the Rogue desk in on a little secret: "The people who have complained are not natives of this town," says Parrow. "I've talked to some other people, and we've decided to keep it up."

The kiosk, however, belongs to the city, and officials have heard the rumblings of discontent. "My understanding was that the KKK reference was more a point of reference than anything else," says Vernonia City Manager Mike Sykes. "It doesn't mean we promote it, for God's sake."

Sykes, however, agreed that the KKK entry could bring some negative attention to a town trying to promote tourism. "Given the potential negative interpretation," he said, "it's probably a good idea to take it out of there."

WWeek 2015