Carl Griffith's 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter
Who We Are
The 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Preservation Society was created after the owner of the starter, Carl Griffith, died in early 2000. The starter had a reputation of having a good flavor, good raising strength, and stability, which is highly valued in sourdough starts. We were all participants in the old 1990s Usenet group rec.food.sourdough in the days when the internet was mostly dial up modems, slow speed, text based, and popular in higher education and government as an early way to interact with people of like interests but with no commercial aspect.
Carl gave his dried starter to anyone who sent him a self addressed and stamped envelope and the number of requests he got were small and manageable. In those days, such groups could be open and there was no need to moderate it as there is now. Most of us no longer use the group as it was long ago fouled by spammers and trolls which rendered it unusable and unpleasant. None of us knew each other in real life and we know nothing more about Carl than is on our website. That information was furnished by his ex-wife, LeJuene Whitney. We are a creation of the internet.
When Carl died, our founder, Dick Adams, did not want to let such a good starter disappear. He asked for members of the rec.food.sourdough group to form the society in keeping with the old pioneer tradition of giving good sourdough starts to anyone who wanted it. About a dozen of us who had Carl’s starter joined. The original grower was Charles Perry, an accomplished chef and expert sourdough baker. Carl's ex-wife, who lived with him when he died, handled the requests that were still sent to Carl's house for a few months. There are two or three active members: the Grower and the Keeper of the Mailbox. The remaining members are charged with keeping the starter in good health in case something happened and a replacement were ever needed. We have been sending the starter to anyone who asks for it ever since. Donations keep us going but all the labor is by unpaid volunteers.
The following are members of the 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Preservation Society. Names in parentheses are original members who are deceased.
Mary Buckingham: Mailbox Keeper, Treasurer, Webmaster
Stacie Kearney: Chief starter grower
Burney Huff: Backup starter grower
Starter Keepers:
Tara Martin
Skip Runge
Katrine Kirk
Eric Shpunt
Deceased:
(Charles Perry, Chief starter grower for 20 years, emeritus)
(LeJeune Whitney, 1st Mailbox keeper)
(Darrell Greenwood), author of the rec.food.sourdough FAQ, now available on this site.