

“Dad’s eyes danced. His grin held happiness…hope. ‘We’re home!’ he announced. Mom stared out the pickup window. Silent. Lifeless…Tufts of skinny grass and small grayish green bushes surrounded us. The land lay flat in every direction as far as I could see.”
Helen Lingscheit Heavirland spent her early years in western Oregon’s beautiful woods, where her father Wayne Lingscheit’s work as a logger provided a comfortable home. But Wayne dreamed of farming, and Columbia Basin Project irrigation opened a new opportunity. In 1954 he and his wife Gladys moved their family–seven-year-old Helen, baby Hazel, twelve-year-old Frank, and fifteen-year-old Emma–to raw land in Pasco, Washington, that was mostly bunchgrass and sagebrush. The only structures were a roofless outhouse, an eight-foot by sixteen-foot wooden shack, and a pen for sheep and goats.
In Surviving the Sand, Helen shares her family’s hardscrabble yet heartwarming story, chronicling common hardships many faced in the Columbia Basin Project’s early settlement days. She describes breaking sod, plants destroyed by wind-whipped sand, and a harrowing first winter sleeping outside after a storm shredded their tent, but also simple joys like fresh apricots, Crokinole games, and letters from loved ones. Most of all, she relates how–despite the heartache, arduous work, and tough times–her family loves, laughs, and works together as they chase her father’s seemingly impossible dream.
CCW Authors
- .Assorted CCW Authors
- Alisa Hope Wagner
- Alisa Wagner
- Amy Earls
- April McGowan
- Arleen McClean
- Barbara Hettwer
- Belva Wilson
- Beth Vice
- Bev Hislop
- Beverly Hislop
- Beverly White Hislop
- Brenda Buchanan Saltzer
- C. M. Shelton
- Camille Eide
- Charles Earl Harrel
- Cheryl D Delamarter
- Cheryl Delamarter
- Cheryl Secomb
- Cheryle Delamarter
- Christina Suzann Nelson
- Clinton L. Fisk
- Dan Wagner
- Dan Zane Smith
- Danika Cooley
- Dawn Shipman
- Dawn V Cahill
- Debby Lee
- Donna Hues
- Elinor Young
- Geneva Cobb Iijima
- Gwendolyn Harmon
- Heidi Gaul
- Helen Heavirland
- J. D. Rempel
- J. Michael Corley
- J. W. Gilbert
- Jan Pierce
- Jan Rea Johnson
- Jane Daly
- Janet Asbridge
- Janet Chester Bly
- Jennifer Anne F. Messing
- Jeri Stockdale
- Jerry Marshall
- Jesse Vincent Rivas
- John Avery
- Jon Drury
- Julie Bonn Blank
- Julie McDonald Zander
- Karen Barnett
- Kate Breslin
- Katie Powner
- Kristen Gwen
- Kristen Joy Wilks
- Ladonna Shanks
- Lainey La Shay
- Laura Davis
- Laura L. Morgan
- Laura Morgan
- Laya Brandt
- Lee Yates
- Linda Heath
- Linda Jo Reed
- Linda Kruschke
- Linda L Kruschke
- Lisa Baldwin
- Lois Kennis
- Lydia E. Harris
- Mary Ann Hake
- Mary Hake
- Maxine Marsolini
- Melissa Kay Olson
- Merrit H. Hearing
- Michelle Janene
- Midge L. Shaw
- Nancey West
- Nick Harrison
- Pastor Clifford W
- Patricia Lee
- Patricia Tiffany Morris
- Peg Willis
- Rachel Lulich
- Rick Taylor
- Robin Layne
- Rosanne Croft
- Samuel Hall
- Sandra A McCulloch
- Sandy Silverthorne
- Sharon Chase Hoseley
- Shelli Owen
- Shirley Quiring Mozena
- Stacey Womack
- Stanley C. Baldwin
- Susan Thogerson Maas
- Tabitha B. C. Abel
- Tracie Heskett
- Virginia A. Johnson
- William Distad