December 2023

Ray Arnold was inducted into the Idaho Aviation Hall of Fame earlier this month to honor his storied career of backcountry flying, which included 44 years of delivering mail to far-flung ranches in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.Arnold, 84, hauled not just mail but groceries, appliances, machinery, chickens, goats, dogs and cats, a newborn foal, and even a pair of llamas.He retired from the route in 2019, but not before dozens of national publications from the New York Times to National Geographic and the CBS evening news picked up on his unusual delivery route.Arnold, and his ex-wife and business partner Carol Arnold, have been inundated by requests to interview the operators of the last backcountry delivery route outside of Alaska.“It’s unique in that it’s the only route left like this in the lower 48 states…But there’s only so much you can write about,” Arnold told The Star-News in 2019 during yet another interview about his work.Arnold was inducted into the hall of fame alongside Harold Dougal, 97, of Boise.Dougal helped establish the Graham and Landmark backcountry airports and authored the book “Adventures of an Idaho Mountain Pilot.”Inclusion in the hall of fame is reserved for people who have contributed significant and lasting advancements to aviation, according to the Idaho Aviation Association.“The award is not for longevity, popularity, or other non-aviation status, or for merely being a “good pilot,” said the association’s nominee eligibility rules.Arnold was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1937 and learned to fly in McCall under the tutelage of Bob Fogg and Bill Dorris.

Since installing a medication vending machine in April, the Cascade Medical Center has dispensed over 1,000 prescriptions, saving patients time and money in filling prescriptions.The InstyMeds machine located at the CMC on Lake Cascade Parkway in Cascade contains 70 common prescription medications.

Zoey Mello showed off the prized lion’s mane mushroom that she grew from spores as part of her senior project on cultivating nutritious mushrooms.“Lion’s Mane is primarily used for medication, but it can also help with improved memory by making the less active parts of the brain communicate,” Mello said.Health benefits vary between species, but the lion’s mane has also been shown to regulate blood sugar, reduce high blood pressure, combat fatigue, help heart health, slow aging and protect the kidneys and liver, she said.To grow the white furry looking mushroom, Mello had to recreate the conditions of a forest floor in a controlled environment by using a mix of birdseed to foster the mushroom and later transfer it into soil.Creating the lion’s mane was easier than others she grew, including the cordyceps mushroom, which only grows from the bodies of dead insects.“When the cordyceps is growing naturally, it will take over a bug and kill it, then use its decomposing body to grow from,” Mello said.