The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - In a pleasant surprise, the weather cooperated beautifully and the sun shone pink on the hills, providing a perfect backdrop for the hundreds of fish lovers lined up at the Don Thomas Com- munity Building Saturday night. Nearly 600 people attended the annual Lion's Club Salmon Barbeque, all patiently awaiting that slice of pink perfection that only comes around once a year.

"I don't know that I've ever had any better salmon," said Lion's Club President Larry Johnson. "They tweak the process a bit every year and they've got it down to a real fine science."

The Lion's Club has been a part of the Salmon Bar- beque as far back as most can recall, but the fundraiser belonged to the Commercial Club until two years ago when the Lions officially took over. Wayne Peterson, who belonged to both clubs, has been responsible for or- ganizing the event until last year when he began passing the reins to current orga- nizer, Dan McKinley.

Preparing to feed a group that's the size of half of Waitsburg's population is no small feat. Estimating and ordering food, procur- ing permits, selling tickets, advertising and anticipating potential problems is just a sampling of what's involved.

"This year there was rain in the forecast so we spent a lot of time making a tin roof to go over the pit. If our fires went out, we'd be in trouble," said McKinley. "We didn't end up needing them, but this was the first time we'd prepared for that."

While the Community Building is packed with partiers, the pit out back is where the real action takes place. In a process that's taken decades to perfect, salmon filets are baked to perfection by the hundreds: 600 pounds all told.

"In the old days we used to order whole fish and prepare and clean them ourselves. It's much nicer now that we order filets," said unofficial Pit Boss Ken Cole, Jr. Cole has been a part of the process since "about 1996," when he began work- ing alongside his dad, Ken Cole, Sr. and Wayne Pe- tersen in the pit. He's been a big part of the "fine science" of salmon baking ever since and shared that process with The Times.

The fish arrive on Friday and a group of Lions gather on Saturday morning to place the filets on cooking racks, season them and store them in a refrigerated van to chill. The wood framed wire racks are custom made by the Waitsburg FFA members as a community project and replenished as needed.

At about 2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., depending on weather conditions, a fire is started in the pit, allowing time for the locust wood to burn down to coals before cooking the fish.

The Lions gather their own wood. They are about due for a "wood detail" where they'll cut and split enough to cover them for another three years of Salmon Barbeques and Rib Feeds.

The 60-foot-long pit was re-engineered this year by Joe McMillan, Guy McCaw and Dick Largent, and has under- gone a major transformation. "Nasty old tin" walls that had to have holes matched before being tie-wired together were replaced with taller, heavier tin panels that attach to newly designed stanchions. The up- dated pit no longer requires wiring and simply hangs together.

At about 5:40, the first racks are pulled and placed, meat side down, along the length of the pit. The fish are cooked until warm to the touch, which is the first indicator that they're ready to turn. The rack is flipped up to make sure they're golden brown on the meat side be- fore they're rolled over to finish cooking out.

Once done, the rack is lifted and carried - often over the heads of ducking Lions - to the front end of the pit where a team removes the rack wiring, using magnets to make sure no wires fall into the meat. From there, the rack is transported to a second station where the filet is fully re- moved from the rack, placed on a tray and carried into the cutters and servers, inside.

Top: Jerry Baker works the pit, carefully tending the 600 lbs. of salmon grilled for Saturday's Salmon Feed guests.

At that point, the fish is finally ready to meet the plate of an eager recipient, many of whom have traveled a good distance to attend. "This year we even had a group from Walla Walla who had called ahead requesting handicap access," said McKinley. "They came in a bus and we set up a special table up front. It worked out really well."

While the party wraps up Saturday night, clean-up of tractors, trailers, tables and such lasts well into the next day .

The Lions note that the event takes "a ton of work" and appreciate all the com- munity support they receive. They offer special thanks to the High School FFA mem- bers and football players that assist with set up and tear down after the Rib Feed and Salmon Bake and to Mc- Gregor Company for provid- ing storage for all the tables, racks and pits.

The annual Salmon Bar- beque is a fundraiser for the Waitsburg Lion's Club, which uses money raised for its various projects. Johnson said that expenses and rev- enues are still being tallied, and the club doesn't yet know how much was raised this year.