Celebrating the sleuth in all of us

During “Reichenbach Day” at Multnomah Falls, area Sherlock Holmes fans mourn

By Lance Kramer

The Gresham Outlook, May 10, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (2 Reader comments)

Lance Kramer / The Outlook

The Noble and Most Singular Order of the Blue Carbuncle was started in 1971 and has met regularly ever since. It is a local scion of a national “Sherlockian” society called the Baker Street Irregulars, based out of New York and founded in 1934. The local group has made a yearly tradition out of the “Multnomah/Reichenbach Falls” event since 1976.

Guys like Michael Orelove are proof that you can never really be too old to play dress-up.

On the morning of Saturday, May 3, the Gresham resident showed up at Multnomah Falls with his friend Kathy Forrest to participate in what many people might consider a pretty strange ritual.

At around 11 a.m., he gathered at the Falls parking lot with a group of about two-dozen members of The Noble and Most Singular Order of the Blue Carbuncle, a Portland chapter of an international society of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts that’s met regularly since 1971.

Their mission? To commemorate the death of their hero, the great fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. In the tale “The Adventure of the Final Problem” penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 19th century, the sleuth famously perishes in Switzerland’s Reichenbach Falls, at the hands of the evil Professor Moriarty.

Since 1976, usually on the first Saturday of May, Oregon’s Multnomah Falls are temporarily and metaphorically transformed into Reichenbach Falls — as members of the group gather, dressed in full black Victorian funeral garb, to pay homage to Holmes with a mock funeral. The event includes a procession from the parking lot up to the second bridge, led by bagpipers. There is a short incantation, a performance of “Amazing Grace,” a loyal toast and last of all — a eulogy.

Orelove is not a formal member of the group (yet), but discovered The Most Singular Order last year and has been intrigued ever since. This is the second Reichenbach Day he’s participated in. Orelove, a recent transplant from Juneau, Alaska, (and the state’s current goldpanning champion) said he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to dress up, meet new people and celebrate one of his favorite characters from literature.

“Now I’m retired, so I have time to go through all the newspapers and find interesting events and activities to do like this,” he says. “It’s nice in literature to see things that were popular many years ago that are still popular today. The fact that he is still well known and read today is a real testament to the character.”

Forrest, 64, a longtime Troutdale resident and bookkeeper for Columbia View Family Health Center, says that while this is her first Sherlock Holmes event, she’s certainly no newcomer to the stories. Especially since she was a child, she’s “loved his interaction with his cohort Dr. Watson.”

“The Sherlock Holmes-Watson thing, all the give and take, the way they work together on things — that’s always been a good part of the story for me,” she says. “It makes him more interesting.”

Kent Teynor of Beaverton is a former “Grand Gander,” or leader of the group. He’s been a member since 1992, though he started attending meetings in 1991. He says that the Portland chapter is one of the most active in the country, meeting roughly once a month with about a half-dozen big events, like the Reichenbach Falls Day ceremony, planned throughout the year.

Though he’s been a fan of Doyle and Sherlock Holmes since he was a little tyke, Teynor says that when he first discovered the group he had no idea how popular Sherlock Holmes was internationally.

“I didn’t realize the worldwide extent of Sherlock Holmes groups until I joined this group,” he says. “There are Sherlock Holmes societies around the world. There’s even a lot in Japan. They’re very big into Sherlock Holmes in Japan. Very big.”

Though the event commemorates the death of Sherlock Holmes, just like any good Holmes mystery, there’s always a good twist. In this case, Teynor says that like any great hero, technically, Holmes never really died.

“He only dies once in the books … and he never actually dies. He just hides, and everyone thinks he dies,” Teynor says. “Doyle got tired of the character, and he decided to kill him, so he arranged this death at the Reichenbach Falls. But then due to popular acclaim (and a massive amount of payments), he resurrected the character in the story ‘The Empty House.’ ”

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