Mt. St. Helens: It's a Blast

Thirty years have passed since that fateful day in May when the landscape of a chunk of western Washington suddenly and dramatically changed forever. On the morning of May 18, 1980, a 5.1 earthquake centered at Mt. St. Helens triggered the largest landslide in recorded history. This, in turn, set off a massive eruption when trapped gases and super-heated ash spewed 60,000’ into the air. When it was all over, 230 square miles of forest were flattened, 57 people lost their lives, and 1300’ in elevation disappeared from the mountain.

Today, you can view a much quieter volcano and learn more about that eventful day by visiting one of several visitor centers and interpretive sites in Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. The easiest and most popular access route is from the western side along Highway 504 (exit 49 on Interstate 5). Five miles west of the freeway is the Silver Lake Visitors Center operated by Washington State Parks. Admission is $3 and this is the only facility open year-round.
Displays feature information about the geology of volcanoes and the natural history of the region. Of special interest, is a timeline with newspaper front pages detailing the events before, during, and after the eruption; and a collection of mementos from various camps and resorts around Spirit Lake. There is a short video, book/gift store, and nature trail at the site.

From here, it is an additional 47 miles to the Johnston Ridge Observatory. Make sure you have plenty of gas as there are no services on this or any of the other routes in the park. The observatory is at the end of the road and, as the closest point to the volcano, offers a breathtaking, unobstructed view across the pumice plain to the massive crater. Here you will find interpretive displays focused on volcanic geology as well as a video, ranger talks, and a trail to higher viewpoints. Admission charge is $8, but free for holders of a federal Senior Pass.
While most visitors to the park stick to the western side, it is the access from the east that provides the most dramatic view of the power and damage done by the 1980 eruption. There are no videos or museums on this side, but a number of trails and view sites offer explanations and a ranger is on duty at Windy Ridge during summer months. It is a long drive (allow about three hours from Portland) from either Woodland or US Highway 12 at Randle, but well worth it especially if you have only visited the western side. There is a feeling of remoteness and desolation as Forest Service Road 99 winds its way up to Windy Ridge. The drive passes through the blown down forest where blasts of wind more than 300 mph knocked down mature Douglas Fir like matchsticks. On clear days, there are sweeping views to the other dormant volcanoes of the Cascade Range and you can only wonder if they too will someday awaken from years of dormancy like St. Helens.

There are a few short trails along the way offering an opportunity to see close-up how nature is making a comeback in this devastated area. Finally, at the end of the road is Windy Ridge where the panoramic view overlooks the volcano and Spirit Lake. Once a popular resort, the lake is now filled with decomposing logs and surrounded by a landscape more reminiscent of the surface of the moon than wooded, western Washington.

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the eruption, several events have been planned. Mt. St. Helens Institute will offer an education program focused on volcanic science in your backyard on May 15, and on the actual anniversary date, May 18, there will be a free admission day at the Johnston Ridge Observatory when the Forest Service will unveil a new, interactive seismic exhibit and movies.
To relive events, may I suggest a visit to Youtube.com and a search for CBS News Mt. St. Helens for a very young and serious Dan Rather reporting the story accompanied by some amazing footage. It’s a blast from the past!

Maryhill Museum

Take one wealthy road builder, one granddaughter of both Queen Victoria and the Tsar, one fabulously rich sugar baroness, one Folies-Bergeres dancer; shake together and add an impressive chateau, life-size replica of Stonehenge, French fashion mannequins, icons from Tsarist Russia, Rodin sculptures, and an assortment of peacocks. The result: one rather bizarre cultural attraction, right here in our backyard.
Maryhill Museum is located on the Washington side of the Columbia River on an arid bluff overlooking the rolling fields of Oregon. About 100 miles east of Portland, it was once described by Time Magazine as “the world’s most isolated museum.” To prove the point, a road sign a few miles east advises no gas for the next 82 miles.
How a major art facility ended up in such an odd setting is the story of one man’s vision, along with the help of a trio of extraordinary female friends. Sam Hill was a lawyer, entrepreneur, railroad executive, philanthropist, and road builder who had the dream of creating a utopian agricultural community where the “western rains meet the eastern sun of Oregon and Washington.” In 1907, he purchased 6,000 acres along the Columbia, naming the site Maryhill after his wife and daughter. Seven years later, construction began on an imposing 18th century, Flemish chateau similar in style to his Seattle mansion.
Because of the remote location and lack of a dependable irrigation system, the farming community failed and Hill’s interests took him elsewhere. During his world travels, he became friends with several fascinating women. Loie Fuller, a famous modern dancer, had connections with the Paris art scene including Auguste Rodin, and persuaded Hill to turn his unfinished mansion into an art museum.
Another friend, Queen Marie of Romania, showed her gratitude for Hill’s assistance to her country during and after World War I, by dedicating the empty museum in 1926. Her royal visit and entourage, including trunks of artwork for the new museum, created quite a stir in the national press.
After Hill’s death in 1931, it was another friend, Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, who supervised the completion of the museum. The heiress of a San Francisco sugar fortune, she provided many paintings and other works of art from her personal collection. The museum opened to the public in 1940.

Today, it offers visitors an opportunity to enjoy an eclectic assortment of art objects found nowhere else. The first floor is filled with Queen Marie’s gilded furniture, throne, jewelry, family photos, and the gown she wore to the coronation of the last Russian Tsar. Another room features a small yet impressive collection of Orthodox icons, many donated by the queen.

Upstairs is an exhibit, Theatre de la Mode, a collection of 1946 haute couture fashion miniatures. In post-war Paris, supplies were so scarce the major French design houses resorted to using dolls scaled to one-third size to show off their new lines. The show traveled around to all the fashion capitals of the world and somehow ended up here in the middle of nowhere. On the bottom level is the internationally recognized Rodin collection of sculptures and watercolors. A display of more than 200 historic and unusual chess sets; large exhibit of Native American baskets, bead work, and other crafts; and memorabilia of Loie Fuller complete the collection.

Outside, the lushly landscaped grounds feature an outdoor sculpture garden with works by contemporary Northwest artists and a shady picnic area decorated with wandering peacocks. But the most eccentric of Sam Hill’s creations is about four miles east of the museum. Here, at the end of a gravel parking lot, on a bluff 600 feet above the Columbia River, is a full-scale, cement replica of Britain’s Neolithic Stonehenge. Raised as a Quaker and pacifist, Hill was deeply touched by the devastation of World War I and built this monument as a memorial to local Klickitat County soldiers killed in the war.

Portland's Pittock Mansion

He was 75 and she was 65 when they built the ultimate Oregon retirement house. Sitting on 46 acres, 1000’ above sea level, near the center of Portland, this grand manor served as home to one of Portland’s most influential businessmen, Henry Pittock and his wife Georgiana.
Pittock immigrated to Portland in 1853 by way of the Oregon Trail, and worked his way up from lowly printer’s apprentice to owner of the Oregonian, the state’s largest newspaper. Additional investments in pulp and paper mills and real estate provided the Pittocks with the necessary resources to splurge on an opulent, new mansion appropriate to their station in life. Construction began in 1912 and the Pittocks, along with one of their daughter’s family, moved into the $350,000 house in 1914.

Built in the French Renaissance Chateau style, the exterior’s rounded towers, cone-shaped roofs, and massive sandstone walls create the appearance of a sturdy fortress, ready to ward off any unwelcome invasions from Forest Park. The house was situated to take advantage of its sweeping view of the city of Portland, Columbia and Willamette Rivers, the Cascades, and, on a clear day, five volcanoes.
The interior in dominated by a grand marble staircase that winds continuously from the basement to second floor. The 16,000 square feet include 22 rooms filled with furnishings and artworks representing a mish-mash of styles: Victorian, English Jacobean, Turkish, Renaissance Revival, and Arts and Crafts. Of special note, are the plasterwork, light fixtures, painted ceilings, and wooden floors. For its time, the house contained a number of state-of-the-art features still sought after today including a central vacuum system, indirect lighting, intercoms, and a fancy shower with multiple sprayers.

The Pittocks’ offspring occupied the house until 1958, when it was placed on the real estate market. The Columbus Day storm of 1962 inflicted serious damage to the property, blowing over trees, knocking out windows, and damaging the roof. Subsequent leaks destroyed some of the wooden floors and finishes. When it looked like the property would be sold to a developer with plans to raze the house and subdivide the acreage, the city of Portland with the help of private donors stepped in and saved the house in 1964. After extensive repairs and restoration, the house was opened to the public as a museum operated by Portland Parks and Recreation and the Pittock Mansion Society.
Through mid-July, the museum is hosting a special exhibit "At Home in Portland 1909-1914". These were the city's development boom years and the exhibit features promotional materials designed to sell property in the new neighborhoods of Laurelhurst, Eastmoreland, Kenton, Portland Heights and the Ladd Addition. It also examines different architectural styles in the new Portland including Revival, Arts and Crafts, and Prairie Style.

When Bridges Covered Oregon

Bridges, so the saying goes, are America’s cathedrals. They inspire a range of emotions from awe to pride, but no bridge generates more affection than the humble, country, covered bridge. While most of these bridges are concentrated in the eastern states of New England, Pennsylvania and Ohio, Oregon can claim the number five spot and proudly boast of having the largest collection of covered bridges west of the Mississippi. Oregon’s tradition of bridge building dates back to 1851, when the first one was constructed in Oregon City. With the state’s vast forests of Douglas fir, wood was the obvious and logical building material, but not necessarily the best. A wooden plank bridge deck might last about eight or nine years before succumbing to the damp Northwest climate. On the other hand, one covered in a house frame to protect the deck and large timber trusses from the elements, could survive ten times longer. Soon covered bridges dotted the countryside, particularly in the Willamette Valley and southern timber counties. By the early part of the 1900s, the state was home to over 450 covered bridges.

Over time, however, new construction materials like steel, iron, and concrete made the wood bridges obsolete. The cost of maintaining these structures grew so dramatically that county and state highway departments chose to replace them with concrete spans. Many were dismantled and destroyed. Today, only 50 bridges remain in the state, largely through the efforts of local historical groups and the Oregon state legislature which provided funding for their preservation.

A good place to view a variety of these remaining links to the past is the small town of Scio, about 25 miles southeast of Salem in Linn County. Scio bills itself as “The Covered Bridge Capital of the West” and has five bridges within a ten mile radius, most of them spanning Thomas Creek The most colorful of the lot is the Shimanek Bridge, painted bright red with a white trim on its Gothic-style, louvered windows. Built in 1966, it is the area’s newest bridge replacing four earlier ones destroyed in floods and storms.
Downstream, on the other side of Scio, is the Gilkey Bridge, dating back to 1936. Recently, the bridge experienced a run of bad luck. In 1997, an over-loaded vehicle stressed the bridge creating serious damage and forcing its closure for a year of extensive repairs. In 2008, a large, farm service truck smashed into the bridge causing damage to the roof and side-support timbers. Once again, the bridge had to be closed for repairs but is back in business now.

The bridge offering the most attractive setting is the Larwood Bridge in a county wayside park of the same name. Here the Roaring River flows into Crabtree Creek, creating a geographical phenomenon so unusual, i.e. river flows into creek, it made it into Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. A pleasant, shaded picnic area offers a fine view of the bridge, streams, and the remnants of an old water-powered mill.

The Hannah Bridge, also dating to 1936 and spanning Thomas Creek, has open walls and exposed beams, making it one of the most attractive. Finally, the Hoffman Bridge over Crabtree Creek was built mostly with hand tools and adz marks are still visible in the upper timbers.

To learn more about the area’s covered bridges, a visit to the Depot Museum (open weekends only) in Scio is a must. Located in the old train depot from West Scio, the museum houses a collection of historical items from local pioneer families and has a notebook of clippings and early photos of area bridges that have been destroyed or replaced. A brochure is available detailing a bicycle and driving tour that visits all the local bridges.

Where Rhodies Rule

It’s that time of year when large clumps of pink and purple flowers begin showing off in front yards throughout Pacific Northwest neighborhoods. Our mix of moisture, mild weather, and acidic soil, make this region a Rhododendron paradise.
The plant’s diversity is amazing. With a native habitat ranging from 19,000’ alpine meadows in Nepal to tropical regions in Northern Australia and the wind-swept coast of Scotland, the rhododendron exhibits a wide variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. The blooming season can extend from early January to mid-summer, but April and May are the peak times for most of our local plants. Fortunately, there are a number of outstanding public and private gardens in the Pacific Northwest dedicated to this species.

Best known in the Portland area is the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden located in the southeast section of the city, between Reed College and the Eastmoreland Golf Course. Once an overgrown, abandoned patch of brambles and brush, the garden was co-founded in 1950 by the Portland Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society and the city Parks and Recreation department. Today, its seven acres include winding paths, a spring-fed lake, waterfalls, bridges, and a wide variety of birds and waterfowl. With over 2500 rhododendron, azaleas, and companion plants, the garden offers a dazzling display of color this time of year.

 I visited the park today and many of the plants are displaying their full glory while others are still thinking about it. Happening this weekend (Saturday April 6) is the Early Show and Plant Sale. Check it out.

Celebrating Spring Flowers

Every flower has its day in the Pacific Northwest. Throughout the blooming season local festivals celebrate lilacs, peonies, dahlias, roses, and most other posies. The 2010 season kicks off this weekend with the Daffodil Festival in Junction City, Oregon. At the Long Tom Grange on daffodil-lined Ferguson Road, there will be homemade cinnamon buns, wagon rides, arts and crafts booths, and lots and lots of bright yellow flowers.

The next celebrated flower is the tulip with its wide array of intense colors. It is the harbinger of spring; a bright burst of color signifying the end of a long grey winter. With our cool, rainy climate, tulip growing has been an important agricultural commodity in the Pacific Northwest for many years, and the area offers a number of tulip festivals during March and April. Bloom time for tulips in this region can run from late February to late May depending on the variety, but most display their showy petals during April, peaking around the second week of the month.

Oregon’s largest display is east of Woodburn at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm where the 25th Annual Woodburn Tulip Festival will be in full swing from March 25 through April 25. With over 40-acres of brilliant blooming flowers, the farm enjoys a splendid setting with Mt. Hood and the foothills of the Cascade Range in view on clear days. Festival visitors can tip toe through the tulip fields, order from a selection of over 150 bulbs, and buy freshly cut tulips and daffodils. A gift shop features unique Dutch items and gardening books and accessories, and there are many kid-friendly activities for tulip lovers of all ages. Weekends offer additional attractions such as wine tastings, live music, local sausages, and arts and crafts tents.

Not to be outdone, Washington State also has its share of tulip festivals with the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, north of Seattle, drawing over one million visitors from all over the world. This event, running the entire month of April, is spread throughout Skagit County with tulip fields and farms covering a 15-mile radius. Festival events are scattered around several towns and offer something for everybody including bike and running events, street fairs, parades, art displays, quilt walks, salmon barbeques, antique markets, and wine tastings.

On a much smaller scale is the Woodland Tulip Festival, about a half hour drive north of Portland on I-5. The event takes place at the Holland America Bulb Farm owned by the Dobbe family. Benno Dobbe, along with his wife and three young children, immigrated to the United States from the Netherlands in 1980 and bought five acres of land along the Lewis River. Despite their modest beginnings, the farm now distributes millions of bulbs and cut flowers all over the world. This year’s tulip festival runs from April 3 through 30 and is similar to the event in Woodburn with tulip fields to walk through, a charming display garden with tulips and other spring-time blooms, and a gift shop offering fresh cut flowers and bulbs. On weekends, there are additional activities including live entertainment, ethnic food, crafts by local artists, and events for children.

Portland's Japanese American Historical Plaza

With Spring so early this year, it's almost time to check out one of Portland's most spectacular floral displays....the 100 blooming, Akebono cherry trees lining the north end of the Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Their beautiful double pink blossoms form a brilliant floral canopy, and are a welcome harbinger of spring, marking the end of a long, gray winter.

 The trees, planted in two parallel rows, were a gift to the city from the Japanese Grain Importers Association and decorate the waterfront side of the Japanese American Historical Plaza.

Dedicated in August, 1990, to the memory of Japanese Americans deported to internment camps during World War II, the Plaza extends along the Willamette River and Naito Parkway between the Burnside and Steel Bridges. This award-winning park was designed by landscape architect Robert Murase, himself an internee at age four. It was the first memorial to the Japanese interment in the country and was funded and promoted by the efforts of the Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Portland businessman and real estate developer, Bill Naito.

The main entrance from Couch Street is framed by two large copper columns, each depicting carved images of the Japanese American history in the Northwest. The one on the left shows an elderly man holding a child; the right one features children on a train to an internment camp and a mother and child guarded by a camp sentry.

Beyond the columns, a collection of large boulders follows a serpentine line next to the river walkway and cherry trees. The stones are carved with poems written by Lawson Inada, a professor of English at Southern Oregon University, and touchingly tell the story of local Japanese Americans. Some of the stones are broken, some shattered to represent the disrupted lives of internees. One large boulder lists the names of the different internment camps and another one displays a plaque with the Bill of Rights, an ironic reminder of the laws designed to protect the rights of all citizens. Not far away, is a plaque with a copy of the official Congressional apology to each of the 60,000 surviving Japanese American internees signed by President Reagan in 1987. At the far end of the Plaza, near the foot of the Steel Bridge is the Friendship Circle. Two tall stainless steel columns soar from a circular garden, celebrating the Portland and Sapporo, Japan, sister city relationship.

West of the Plaza is the neighborhood known today as Old Town, but it was once the center of a thriving Japanese American community called Nihonmachi, or Japantown. At the end of the 19th century, large numbers of Japanese workers immigrated to the Pacific Northwest to work in farms, orchards, salmon canneries, and railroads. By 1905, more than 25,000 called Portland home. A bustling, business community developed in this area with its own newspaper, grocery stores, theaters, shops and restaurants.

All that came to an end on February 19, 1942 when President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 directing the military to incarcerate all persons of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast. Portland families were sent to what had been the Pacific International Livestock Expo Center and from there to various relocation camps scattered throughout remote, rural areas of Idaho, Wyoming, and California. Japantown never recovered, and as one of the poems engraved on a stone in the Plaza reflects: Just over there was our community. Echoes! Echoes! Echoes!

Today, the history of the local Japanese American community is told at the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center located at 121 NW Second Avenue, between Couch and Davis Streets in the old Merchant Hotel. Its exhibits, artifacts, and photos highlight the experiences of first generation immigrants called Issei, the development of Japantown, and the forced internment during World War II.