Articles written by Maret Pajutee
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High Desert Heroines: Grace Cyrus Aitken
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... — Updated 4/2/2024
High Desert Heroines: Maida Bailey
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... — Updated 3/26/2024
Introducing our High Desert Heroines
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... — Updated 3/12/2024 Full story
High Desert Heroine: Martha Cobb Hindman
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... — Updated 3/12/2024
Three tips for successful surgery
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... — Updated 3/5/2024 Full story
An affray to remember
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... — Updated 2/20/2024
Gold, conmen, and coyotes
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... — Updated 1/30/2024
Volcanoes in the neighborhood
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.... — Updated 1/23/2024 Full story
Born under a lucky star
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... — Updated 11/30/2023
Keeping the wild in Whychus Creek
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,... — Updated 11/20/2023 Full story
Working to save the Metolius River
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... — Updated 10/24/2023 Full story
The lost winter playground of the Skyliners
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... — Updated 4/18/2023 Full story
Forest of war, forest of peace
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... — Updated 3/7/2023 Full story
The Sheriff and the last wolverine
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... — Updated 1/17/2023 Full story
The secrets of Allingham Meadow
Meadows are rare in the deep forests of Sisters Country. Found near rivers and springs, their deeper loamy soils grow grasses and summer wildflowers and, when wet enough, discourage trees. Pe... — Updated 8/23/2022 Full story
A wild year for wildflowers
Maybe you were out for a walk recently on a cool morning and then had to stop and stare at a familiar landscape, now painted with color. Tiny hot-pink monkeyflowers across a sandy flat, a... — Updated 7/19/2022 Full story
Perry South first ranger of the Metolius
When people hear the name Perry South they often think of a remote and scenic campground on the shores of Lake Billy Chinook with boating, eagles, and a few rattlesnakes. Some even ask,... — Updated 5/31/2022 Full story
Challenging the Old Man Test
They say getting older is not for sissies. If we are lucky, things go along pretty smoothly for a long time. But suddenly, we notice we are on a bit of a downhill slide. Then, one thing... — Updated 3/22/2022 Full story
Prince Glaze and the lost mountaineers
Guy Ferry was a 26-year-old University of Oregon graduate who loved to climb and explore the Cascades with his good friend, 23-year-old Henry Cramer. They grew up in The Dalles and had been... — Updated 2/22/2022 Full story
Prince Glaze and the Lone Rangers
He was an Oregon boy, born in the Willamette Valley in 1877, raised in Prineville, spending summer months in a cabin near Black Butte. His proud father, Tillman Glaze, saloon keeper, horse... — Updated 2/1/2022 Full story
Return to Camp Polk
As we walked the old road, we could see glimpses of Whychus Creek, though most was hidden by a living screen of old cottonwoods, pines, and willow. It had been at least 23 years since Martin... — Updated 12/21/2021 Full story
The ghosts of Glaze Meadow
Imagine walking in a grove of pine trees on a summer evening. There’s a large meadow nearby and you are drawn toward it and the sunset colors. As you walk, you hear the soft crunch of f... — Updated 10/12/2021 Full story
On the lookout
Living among the pine forests of Sisters, many of us enjoy a feeling of solitude with only trees, birds, and wind for company. But sometimes there’s been someone watching over us. For over 1... — Updated 7/21/2021 Full story
Whychus Creek still needs us
The story goes that Sisters had a river once, then we lost it, but then we found it again. This is a tale distilled from science but fueled by community passion. It reminds us that we can... — Updated 2/16/2021 Full story
Memories of Indian Ford Meadow
My memories of Indian Ford Meadow live in many snapshots. In the early 1960s my father Harry Pajutee was awarded a contract to put in a water system at a new development in Indian Ford called... — Updated 11/11/2020 Full story
