News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
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It is hard to imagine what Sisters and Burns, Oregon, Time Magazine, China, a shootout at the Tex Saloon in 1894, a gold rush at Windy Point, and actor William Hurt might have in common. The answer is that they all have ties to Claire McGill Luce, a "child of the west," a woman who worked around the world, but never forgot her roots in the high desert of Harney County. She is responsible for a treasure trove of western history that holds almost forgotten tales and secrets of...
Late summer flowers are still blooming around Sisters in our gardens and out in the wild. If you stop to take a closer look you may see a diverse army of pollinators hard at work, including butterflies, hummingbirds, wasps, flies, beetles, as well as those buzzing bees. Many of us have heard that bees are in trouble and important to protect. But do you know the difference between native bees and European honey bees, and how both are important? Sisters local Michele Sims is a...
The wild expanse of forests we enjoy in the foothills of the Cascade mountains are not there by chance. It took concerted thought for the future when in 1893, Congress established the precursor of National Forests, the Forest Reserves. Forest land was being developed fast as the Government encouraged settlement of the West. The Homestead Act of 1862 gave 160 acres of free land to any citizen over 21, with certain other requirements. The Timber and Stone Act of 1878 further...
There is no better place to beat the summer heat in Sisters than at one of our mountain lakes. Suttle Lake, 13 miles west of Sisters, has been a favorite for many years with a variety of campgrounds, boat docks, picnic shelters, and resorts. The lake's name is a bungled attempt to recognize a man with quite a story. Before European settlement the lake was frequented by Native Americans who camped along its shores as they fished for sockeye salmon and travelled into the high...
Unlike many women of yesteryear, Bertha Ronalds did not walk quietly through the pages of history. Bertha was an influencer before there was a name for it and landed with a big splash in the Metolius Basin in 1935, leaving a legacy that includes Metolius Meadows and Lake Creek Lodge. She even has her own Wikipedia page which mentions New York's Gilded Age, life in Paris, and Napoleon. Her privileged life helped draw the rich and famous to a little place in a pine forest...
When Lake Creek Lodge put a sign out that said "Restaurant Open," they didn't expect a large aquatic rodent to be one of the first to dine. But just days before a major restoration planting to benefit beaver habitat began behind the Lodge, a special guest came by to check out the neighborhood eats for one of the few times in a decade. That lone beaver must have felt the love. In April a partnership between Think Wild/Beaver Works Program and Lodge owner Gordon Jones invited th... Full story
They bloom in shades of blue over the deserts, forests, and meadows of Sisters. In the world of common names, some local wildflowers lean into a little poetry with titles like "Fairy Slipper," "Blazing Star," and "Spring Gold." Common names for plants can be both illustrative or confusing. There are many flowers called "Spring Beauty." Some plants have multiple common names. But how did a group of delicate wild blooms end up with the strange common name of "Beardtongues?" The... Full story
Many of us who live in Sisters have experienced that sinking feeling when we see a dark column of smoke on a hot summer day. Living in fire-prone forests, the loss of our homes to a wildfire is a real threat. If we are lucky, we still have house insurance, but many homeowners have had their policies cancelled after the loss of over 4,000 homes to Oregon wildfires in 2020, the state's most expensive natural disaster. We also live near rivers that have been altered in the past... Full story
The words people use to describe Toni Berke Foster paint a picture of a formidable woman: words like tough, skillful, committed, honest, focused, relentless, taskmaster, and "passionate maniac." Foster was a teacher at tiny Black Butte School in Camp Sherman for 28 years serving as educator, bus driver, custodian, and superintendent. Her other identities included being a deeply committed defender of the Metolius Basin. She drove the Forest Service to unprecedented levels of...
Standing in a quiet grove of old growth pine trees near Glaze Meadow, east of Black Butte Ranch, Tim Lillebo would often start a talk by saying "There we were... it was war." And it was. Between 1991-2005, the Sisters Ranger District was challenged on nearly every forest management project. Trust between the Forest Service, conservation groups, and many in the public was low after broken agreements. This led to a federal lawsuit and a mediated agreement putting the District... Full story
In 1913 a ranger in California reported his top choice for a fire lookout post was "no gentleman." He hoped his supervisor's heart could stand the shock of the novel idea of hiring a woman. Hallie Daggett knew the country, was good with a horse and rifle, and unafraid of anything that walked, crept, or flew. She got the job and served admirably for 15 years as the first woman lookout in the country. For decades working in the forest was seen as a man's world. After the Forest...
She was quick-witted and ethical and it ran in the family. Grace Cyrus Aitken came from a long line of pioneer innovators who believed in new ideas and working well with others. Her grandfather William was a County Commissioner, Oregon State Senator, and early adopter of new farming approaches in Scio. In 1882, her father Enoch migrated east with his wife Mary and five sons to a sparsely settled area near Gray Butte, northeast of Terrebonne. Daughters Grace and Annie were...
In her later years, Maida Bailey liked to cruise in her 1958 green and white Chevy Coupe. She drove around her ranch to check the irrigation, to visit friends in Camp Sherman or Bend, or just around town in Sisters, handing out friendly waves and smiles although she was almost hidden behind the steering wheel. She was famous for easily making friends with every kind of person, from university presidents, to teachers, ranchers, homemakers, store keepers, socialites, mill...
We live in the shadow of mountains named after three women. One of the names for the river that runs through town came about because Native American women often camped along its shores. A legend about the black volcano that guards our skyline says it is a woman resting on a long journey with her pouting husband. Our town is even named after the girls in the family. Sisters is the perfect place to celebrate Women’s History Month and the lives that helped make our community what it is today. Many women walk through the pages o... Full story
Martha Alice Taylor didn't have a long childhood. Born in Oregon in 1857 to parents who came across the Oregon Trail, she married her 24-year-old neighbor Alfred Cobb in California when she was just 13 years old. By the time she was 14 her first baby, Newt Cobb was born. She had two more sons by the time she was 17. When she was 18, her growing family headed north back to her home state of Oregon. Two more children joined the brood as another child died. By 1881, the Cobbs...
It happens to the best of us as we age. Sometimes, after a long walk, you have a little hip or knee pain. Then it starts happening more often. You get together with older pals and the first half hour becomes what one friend calls the “Organ Recital”: “my hip, your eye, her shoulder, his pancreas.” Pain starts waking you up at night like a nagging toothache. You join Team Motrin and start gobbling anti-inflammatory pills that eventually hurt your stomach. You buy the economy-size gel form called diclofenac to smear on the ach... Full story
When Tillman Glaze built his cabin at the base of Black Butte in 1881, he chose a remote and peaceful place. The homestead had 160 acres of meadow on the edge of a forest of huge ponderosa pine, Indian Ford Creek, and mountain views of the snowy Three Sisters. Till, as he was called, was a man whose life seemed to revolve around making music with his beloved violin, racing horses, playing cards, drinking, and violence. He had moved his family from Dallas to Prineville after...
London Lee "L. L." Noonchester was an enigmatic character and the star of the craziest gold rush story in Sisters Country. A dealer in coyote fur, he set up shop in Burns around 1912 and quickly become embroiled in a wave of legal and ethical situations. L. L. was an accomplished promoter and peppered the Burns community with offers to pay more for "coyote and cat hides than any buyer in Eastern Oregon" despite signing a non-compete contract. During World War I he splashed...
If you like local history, sooner or later you may take a deep dive. You might end up wondering about the sandy earth at your feet or the age of the jagged peaks in the evening skyline. Maybe you watched too many dinosaur movies over the holidays and started imagining what Sisters was like millions of years ago. The origin stories of the mountains and landscapes of Sisters fill geology books. They involve plates in the earth and under the sea, subduction zones, millions of... Full story
Every once in a while, you meet someone who draws you in like a moth to a light. The exact chemistry is a mystery but there is something about the spring in their step, engaging smile, and funny patter that brightens the day. When I started teaching chair yoga to seniors at The Lodge in Sisters, I couldn't help but notice Tillie Hollar. She became one of my most faithful students, a friend, and my teacher in the art of joyful living. Born Matilda Pearl Pittullo, Tillie was...
On a clear day the expansive view of rolling forests to the base of the Three Sisters can tap you into a feeling of the wild. And there is an unusual amount of wild land along Whychus Creek, even outside the designated wilderness. Twenty years ago, during studies of the Whychus Creek Wild and Scenic River, the Forest Service did detailed surveys from town to the wilderness boundary. Specialists found large areas without much of a human footprint. There was no string of campgro... Full story
Over 30 years ago, biologists realized the Metolius River had a serious problem. As the Forest Service (USFS) moved toward "Ecosystem Management," they recruited botanists, including me, to look closely at plants in the National Forest. There was a strange striped grass taking over riverbanks and islands in the river. This grass was so aggressive it crowded out native plants that supported insects important to wildlife and fish. It was Ribbongrass (Phalaris arundinacea var.... Full story
The idea took shape during a mountain tragedy. An early snowstorm in the fall of 1927 surprised two young climbers in the Three Sisters Wilderness. When their Model T was found days later, a rescue was organized which drew Oregon's finest skiers and mountaineers to remote Frog Camp, off the summit of McKenzie Pass, near Sisters. Among the best were four recent immigrants, lumber mill workers from Bend: Norwegians Chris Kostol, Nels Skjersaa, and Nils Wulfsberg, and Swede Emil... Full story
The young man had roots in the sunny forests of the Metolius Basin, but he met his fate in a dark forest far away, almost 80 years ago. The story behind the short, charmed life, tragic death, and surprising afterlife of Elliot R. Corbett is part of the history of one of Oregon’s most remote state parks. Elliot Ruggles Corbett II was a member of the influential Corbett family, who were a key part of the development of Portland, Oregon. It started in 1851, when Henry Winslow C... Full story
In Sisters we live with a dramatic backdrop of Cascade mountains, close to the wilderness and its mysteries. But one character in the cast of characters of wild places is missing, and people are still out there looking for it. Is the wolverine, a solitary carnivore, gone from our mountains or could it return someday? A month before he passed away, our beloved friend, naturalist Jim Anderson, suggested a quest was still needed to follow a tale he had been intrigued with for... Full story
