Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Kirk Hansen stands on the newly re-named Hansen Road on Nov. 20.
OAKESDALE - His grandfather and father had long driven by them. He had too, for 40 years.
In September, Kirk Hansen swung past one again on his combine during wheat harvest and decided it was enough.
The part-time farmer of 400 acres of the original 1,600 of the Hansen land near Oakesdale sent a note to Whitman County commissioners, asking that the signs for “HANSON RD” be changed to “HANSEN RD.”
“It’s been on our family’s mind since the first day the signs went up,” said Kirk, 52, who lived in on the road until sixth grade. “Grandpa went down and talked to them back then and they said, yeah, yeah, we’ll take care of it, but nothing ever came of it.”
What did not get done in 1980, this time it did, after Kirk and his aunt, Barbara Jo Suetter, and her mother (Hanseena) Jeanne (Hansen) Ellis – who turned 102 this week – split the $500 cost to petition and get the name changed to the correct spelling.
Once the request arrived at the county Public Works building, protocols set in.
First, all of the residents on the road needed to be notified.
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” said Kirk. “There’s only one house on the road, that’s my Aunt Sherri (Schell), and she’s a Hansen.”
Kirk’s father, Gary Hansen, who grew up in the original 1900-era farmhouse, died two years ago. Grandfather Don passed away in 2004.
“Where’d all my time go?” said Kirk, who lives with his wife and two children in Spokane. “Hey, it’s a little late, I know. But a hundred years from now, people will see Hansen Road and know a Hansen family lived there.”
The cost to petition and replace the signs is partially because the spelling of the road name was not considered an error.
“We don’t show it was a mistake,” Marc La Vanway, county staff engineer, told Kirk, referring to old, scanned, county commissioner’s journals.
But that it was, and the signs went up.
The next road got signs too: Sienknecht Road.
“They got the spelling of that one right,” said Kirk’s mother, Louise Hansen, of Spokane.
In 1968, after Kirk’s grandparents moved off the un-named road past the former Warner siding (tall rail elevators) into Oakesdale, Gary and Louise were the next generation to live on the road, moving into the farmhouse with baby Kirk. Later, a girl was born, Shannon.
Don, Kirk’s grandfather, was Danish, the origin of the “En”.
“O-n was the Swedish. That’s why it always p—ed him off,” Kirk said. “This has been stuck in our family craw for a long time. But with work to do, life happens and all the sudden one year turns into five, turns to 40. The road sign falls down, they put up a new one, a hunter shoots it out, it goes back up.”
Through the 1970s, outlying Whitman County roads had no signs. Mail was addressed and delivered by Rural Routes, the carrier going by who lived where. In 1979, county commissioners passed a resolution to put signs up.
“Roads were tracked by four-digit numbers,” said Dan Hall, county right-of-way agent. “But a lot of times they just became what people called them.”
In the 1950s, maps first began to show the numbers, alongside road names – which existed, but just were not posted anywhere. In 1996, for the county’s new Enhanced Emergency Response System, commissioners had to re-name some roads to account for duplicates – including a Hanson Road in Tekoa – to avoid any confusion. In addition, a branch of the Hansen’s Hanson Road was renamed too, to Gumm Road.
But the main stretch remained.
“Through time, there’s not a single Hanson Road with the spelling “En,” Hall said.
Today the 1.78-mile gravel road requires four signs, originally white, now green – one at each end and at two intersections.
“I’m so (pleased) to see the name will be changed, and my mother, being a Hansen, she’s happy too, very happy,” said Suetter. “It’s a tribute to her family, the Danish side of her family.”
Suetter also lived on the road as a child, beginning in 1947. Ever since, a Hansen has lived in that house.
“Every year when I send a Christmas card to Sherri, I address it ‘Hansen Road,’” Suetter said.
Does it get there?
“Yes, it does,” she said. “Yes, it does.”
This fall, as the petition to change the road name moved forward, Public Works went ahead and made new signs before commissioners officially approved the petition Nov. 16.
“The county has been great through this process. The only thing I’m sorry about is my grandpa and my dad aren’t around to see it get fixed,” said Kirk. “I can tell you they rest easier.”
The new signs are due to go up any day.
“It could’ve cost me ten grand,” Kirk finished. “I wouldn’t have cared.”
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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