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Through Oregon's Hood River Valley with the Mount Hood Railroad

When the sky’s impenetrable misty white and gray quilt, draping the silver Columbia River, had torn apart and revealed an illustrious blue, the daily excursion train from Hood River to Odell, operated by the Mount Hood Railroad, began to accept passengers from its historic depot.

Pulled by the dark red, yellow, and turquoise-painted diesel-electric engine #02, today’s train complement had included open-air car 1056 designated “Lookout Mountain,” snack car 1080, passenger coach 1070 “Katharine,” and caboose 1040.

An initial jolt, signaling car coupling tension, preceded the almost imperceptible backward glide of the train from the Hood River station, as it inched up the shallowly-inclining track past the dining car rolling stock and over the black, wrought iron Hood River-spanning bridge. The river, once the location of the Lewis and Clark expedition, appeared a dark green flow of life whose white-exploding rock divisions, characteristic of life’s own necessary path deviations and a person’s protests as a result of them, had been sun-glinted.

Penetrating denser vegetation, the track paralleled the river whose small rapids metamorphosed the water into turbulent white fury. The Mt. Hood National Forest formed the density in the distance.

It is from this forest, in essence, that the Mount Hood Railroad had emanated. The Lost Lake Lumber Company, whose Columbia and Hood River location had initially provided significant economic and employment contribution to the Hood River community, had begun to decline when log transfer from the forest to the actual sawmill had become increasingly difficult, and an ultimate sale of it seemed the only lucrative exit. Utah lumberman David Eccles, who had purchased the failing concern, had remedially advocated the construction of a dam, which would have facilitated lumber transport by means of log flotation, but three local businessmen thwarted the effort by quickly obtaining a 99-year lease on the intended site and announced construction of their own 35-foot, power-generating facility.

Eccles, who had equally used short-line logging railroads to transfer lumber to his other sawmills, circumvented the countermove by relocating the mill 16 miles up river and laying track to connect the two sites by rail.

Construction of an east side route, which would channel the pending railroad through area fruit orchards, would ensure its viability as both a passenger and freight line, and the 150-strong workforce, living in six, strategically-positioned camps, drove the first stake in April of 1905. Seven months later, in November, the first locomotive had traveled as far as the Hood River Bridge, and by February of the following year, the Japanese track-laying crew had extended the line as far as Odell, destination of today’s excursion train, 8.5 miles from its origin. Dee, location of the new sawmill, had been reached one month later, although the eventual 22-mile stretch to Parkdale, gateway to Mt. Hood, had only been opened to the public in 1910.

The present diesel-electric engine had been the ultimate in design technology to have plied these rails, the first two locomotives having been 37-year-old, Union Pacific-acquired Baldwin Consolidation 2-8-0 units which had been retired in 1916 and 1917, respectively, and had been intermittently replaced by two similarly second-hand powerplants until the first newly-acquired Baldwin 2-8-2 had arrived.

Reducing speed and still moving in a backward direction, the Mount Hood train operating the May 2008 run approached the dual-tracked switchback, which would ultimately allow it to pull its meager chain of cars in a forward direction. One of only five remaining US switchbacks, it had originated as a turntable. Because the initial steam engines had to trail their steam emissions behind them over their cab boxes and therefore always had to pull their cars in a forward direction, the turntable had facilitated this earlier technology until the 1950 diesel engine replacements had obviated its need. The original, 13-car switchback had been expanded to encompass 18 cars with the Union Pacific’s 1968 acquisition of the railroad.

Backing on to the single spur, and clearing the switchback “fork,” engine 02, now poised to commence its climb in a forward, car-pulling direction, reinitiated movement, penetrating the dense lodgepole pine of the Hood River Valley.

Approaching Highway 35, the train followed the 14-degree-curved track, the line’s sharpest, traversing the wooden railroad trestle and paralleling Whiskey Creek, once the location of applejack production. Moving in a southerly direction, it ate a considerably steep gradient.

The concession car, featuring an arched ceiling with periodic light fixtures; old fashioned, wallpaper-adorned wooden sidewalls; brass lamps; and two- and four-seat wooden tables, sported a center snack bar and counter. My purchased continental breakfast on the 10:00 a.m. run included hot cinnamon rolls dipped in vanilla frosting and cranberry juice.

During the ten-year period between 1906 and 1916, the current tracks had supported intermodel service when conventional rail cars had been linked to a White-designed rail-bus whose original wheels and tires had been retrofitted with flanged steel units to accept the rails. After the acquisition of a second, newly purchased sightseeing vehicle, the railroad had operated four daily round-trips between Hood River and Parkdale. The succeeding, 30-passenger Mack jitney, with an upholstered, Pullman-resembling interior, had provided 13 years of service until its 1935 fire destruction at Summit Station. Extensive refurbishment ultimately earned it a place on the National Historic Register.

Threading its way through peach and cherry orchards, the present-day, four-car train moved past carpeted hills whose bases had been woven with brown and green tapestries proudly guarded on either of their sides by tall, dark green needle pine sentinels.

Periodically piercing the late-morning with its metallic, hair-raising whistle, the vintage train lumbered through the town of Pine Grove, now 5.6 miles from Hood River at a 608-foot elevation, lurching and clanking on its longitudinal axis. The sky, barely marred by a few cotton puffs, had transformed into an intense blue.

The smooth, inverted, bowl-shaped Van Horn Butte, beyond Pine Grove, had been one of the small volcanic vents from which lava had flowed to form Mt. Hood, forcing the Columbia River to move to its present more northerly location in the Hood River Valley. Mt. Hood itself, wearing its silky, glistening white shawl of snow, loomed in front of the locomotive.

Views from the cupola of the caboose, which trailed the three passenger cars, revealed their locomotive-mimicked, spring-loaded reactions, as if they had comprised a long, iron tail, penetrating the sometimes thick pine and orchard vegetation on the single track toward the snow-draped mountain silhouette. The air, although crystal clear, exuded the aroma of distantly burning firewood.

New Creek, which had been used to power the Hood River Valley’s first sawmill and served in that capacity for a quarter of a century, passed under the track.

Mohr, 6.8 miles from Hood River, had been named after the family which had planted the area’s first orchard.

Pursuing the single track, which presently multiplied into three, the Mount Hood train crept into Lentz Station, which had originally been called “Sherman Spur,” and disconnected its diesel engine. Moving past the now motionless cars on the side line, it reattached itself behind the caboose. So configured, it would push the train the final mile to Odell, its destination.

Gently prodded forward, the dark green coaches almost imperceptibly inched over the silver rails horizontally supported by the dry, wooden crossbeams, passing the track switch and reintegrating themselves on the single spur. Re-establishing speed, the train clanked past the wood-scented lumber yard in the crystal, pine-laced Pacific Northwest air toward the multiply-shaded green tapestry covering the mountains ahead and Odell, the end of today’s run and once almost the end of the line’s track.

When the Diamond Fruit Growers had centralized their operation in Odell, eliminating the Dee-to-Parkdale stretch of track, the Union Pacific Railroad had estimated that it could garner a $150,000 profit in exchange for its smelted steel, a decision consistent with its 1986-1987 strategy of divesting itself of 87 of its feeder line railroads. But Hood River County saw the move as nothing short of a loss due to the railroad’s inability to continue to make its economic contribution.

A newly created rail company, the Mount Hood Railroad, had been touted as the Union Pacific’s successor and shares were purchased by the fruit and lumber companies lining its route, which had significant stakes in its continued operation. Bus transfer from Parkdale, its terminus, had equally facilitated passenger travel to Timberline Lodge, a National Historic Landmark, thus enabling the railroad to link two of Oregon’s most major tourist attractions: Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge.

The Union Pacific acquisition, however, carried one stipulation with it: the local Hood River Group, eager to retain service at the end of the line from Dee to Parkdale, would either have to buy the entire 22-mile track from Hood River or forfeit the opportunity to retain the railroad’s economic contribution to the valley.

After significant effort, agreement, and capital, the purchase transaction had been consummated on November 2, 1947, and the Mount Hood Railroad, the very concern on which I rode today, had been born.

Rotating its wheels with ever-decreasing power, engine 02 nudged its short, historic passenger coach chain into Odell parallel to the concrete strip serving as its platform at 11:15 a.m., now 8.5 miles from its origin at a 712-foot elevation, and screeched its brakes only yards short of the main road-imbedded track.

Named after William S. Odell, who had settled here in 1861 after traveling from California, the current, single-street town, featuring a small supermarket, church, and gas station, had initially served as a gathering place for Native Americans and had later been used as a Hudson’s Bay Company trail between the Dalles and Ft. Vancouver.

Descending the three steps from coach 1070 to the street-level, I looked back at the short train of open and enclosed cars and cabooses which had transported me from the Columbia River today and somehow knew that the journey had represented its more than a century of geographical journeys and rail line evolutions. The tracks, having been operated by the Oregon and Washington Railroad and Navigation Company, the Union Pacific Railroad, and the present Mount Hood Railroad, had transported lumber, freight, passengers, and tourists. The line had been short, but its history had been long. Like life, it would continue, as long as a purpose had been found for it. Unlike life, it had been able to determine what that purpose had been.

Walking from the platform toward the tiny town of Odell, above whose surrounding pine tree tops the majestic, snow-covered peak of Mt. Hood triumphantly rose, I disappeared into the train-deposited crowd.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/destinations-articles/through-oregons-hood-river-valley-with-the-mount-hood-railroad-1717415.html

A graduate of Long Island University-C.W. Post Campus with a summa-cum-laude BA Degree in Comparative Languages and Journalism, I have subsequently earned the Continuing Community Education Teaching Certificate from the Nassau Association for Continuing Community Education (NACCE) at Molloy College, the Travel Career Development Certificate from the Institute of Certified Travel Agents (ICTA) at LIU, and the AAS Degree in Aerospace Technology at the State University of New York – College of Technology at Farmingdale. Having amassed almost three decades in the airline industry, I managed the New York-JFK and Washington-Dulles stations at Austrian Airlines, created the North American Station Training Program, served as an Aviation Advisor to Farmingdale State University of New York, and devised and taught the Airline Management Certificate Program at the Long Island Educational Opportunity Center. A freelance author, I have written some 70 books of the short story, novel, nonfiction, essay, poetry, article, log, curriculum, training manual, and textbook genre in English, German, and Spanish, having principally focused on aviation and travel, and I have been published in book, magazine, newsletter, and electronic Web site form. I am a writer for Cole Palen’s Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York. I have made some 350 lifetime trips by air, sea, rail, and road.

A Tourist's Guide to the Natural Sights of Oregon

Nature, the predominant element around which life in Oregon revolves, results in the state’s topographical diversity and rugged, natural beauty, and dictates the experiences the tourist is likely to have.

The 362 mile long coast, for instance, comprised of rain forests, sand dunes, black sand beaches, and unique rock formations, is splintered by some dozen rivers, which flow into the Pacific. The spine of the Coast Range and the Klamath Mountains provides a westerly skeleton, while the Columbia River defines the border between Washington and Oregon in the north. The Cascade Mountains, black basalt formations densely carpeted with thick, green forests and capped with snow covered volcanoes, cradle alpine lakes and a national park, and extend form Mt. Hood in the north to Hayden Mountain in the south, serving to separate the western half of the state with its central high desert plateau. In the northeast, the 10,000-foot Wallowa Mountains invert themselves into 6,600-foot-deep Hells Canyon, the world’s deepest river carved gorge.

Abundant vineyards produce an array of excellent wines, while locally grown marrionberries figure in Oregon cooking, along with the bounty of the land’s fruits and vegetables and the rivers’ salmon.

Columbia River Gorge

Formed by volcanic activity and both basalt lava and glacial floods, the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, spanning 80 miles from Troutdale in the west to the Dalles in the east, and encompassing 292,000 acres on both the Washington and Oregon sides, had been created by Congress in 1986. The Columbia River itself, at 1,243 miles in length, is the second largest such artery in the continental United States and the only nearly sea level passage through the mountain range stretching between Canada and Mexico. Originating in British Columbia, it flows through the mountains, before turning south and finally west where it releases 250,000 cubic feet of water per second into the Pacific. Topographically featuring Douglas fir, hemlock, and western red cedar in the west, the gorge transforms into drier pine forest and grassland in the east.

Its primary Native American residents, the “Watlala,” who had been more commonly known as the “Cascades,” had lived on both sides of the river between Cascade Locks and Sandy River, using it for sustenance and trade by fishing for salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, and eel. The land provided berries and roots and the nearby mountains facilitated hunting for deer and elk. Living in structures made of cedar planks, the Watlala seasonally traveled down the river to fish and gather plant foods, such as “wapato” and “camas,” in cedar carved canoes, while wood and mountain sheep horns had provided the raw materials for tools, bowls, and pots. Wrap twined baskets sported intricate decorations of nature, people, and animals.

Controlling the portage round Cascade Falls, which had been too treacherous for canoe or boat passage, they collected tolls in the form of traded goods in exchange for access.

The Watlala signed Willamette Valley Treaty ceded their southern bank of the Columbia River to the US in 1855, and they had subsequently been relocated to the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation two years later.

Of the gorge’s numerous waterfalls, Multnomah Falls, plummeting almost 620 feet from its origin on Larch Mountain, constitutes the second-highest year-round waterfall in the US. “Multnomah,” translating as “those closer to the water,” with “water” referring to the Columbia River itself, cascades down a cliff in which five flows of Yakima basalt are visible, and its spray, freezing in early-winter and melting in late-spring, causes the rock over which it travels to crack and break away. The falls are accessed by several hiking trails.

The adjacent, Cascadian style, natural stone Multnomah Falls Lodge, designed by architect Albert E. Doyle in 1925 to serve travelers arriving by car, train, or steamboat, sits on land donated by the Oregon and Washington Railroad and Navigation Company to the city of Portland. The lodge’s east end, which includes the later added Forest Service Visitor’s Center in 1929, had preceded its post war remodeling and 1946 reopening. On April 22, 1981, the lodge, along with the first 1.1 miles of its Larch Mountain trail, had been placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the day facility sports two second floor, fireplace and stone dining rooms overlooking the falls and the Columbia River. An extensive gift shop is located on the main level.

The Columbia River Interpretive Center, located across the Columbia River spanned, erector set appearing Bridge of the Gods in Stevenson, Washington, provides snapshots of life in the area in a modern, two level museum, with exhibits such as a horse drawn buckboard from 1890, a wooden fish wheel, a 1921 log carrying Mack truck, an 1895 Corliss steam engine used to drive saw carriages and conveyors in a Cascade Locks lumber mill, hand crafted canoes, and a 1917 Curtiss JN-4 Jenny biplane, which had facilitated local transportation.

Further east, and back on the Oregon side, the Columbia Gorge Hotel, built on a scenic cliff overlooking the Columbia River, is a stately, neo-Morish structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the US Department of Interior unofficially dubbed the “Waldorff of the West.” Constructed in 1921 by timber tycoon Simon Benson as a tribute to America’s post-war prosperity, it had hosted social and political dignitaries, presidents such as Coolidge and Roosevelt, movie stars like Clara Bow and Rudolph Valentino, and musicians from the Big Bands, having played an integral role during the Roaring Twenties when Model T Fords had traveled the roads and steamers had plied the rivers. Voted one of the world’s top 500 hotels by Conde Nast magazine, the hotel, sitting on meticulously manicured, tiny waterfall dotted grounds, features an elegant, chandelier and fireplace adorned lobby and restaurant.

The Mount Hood Railroad, located a short distance from the hotel, traces its origins to 1905 when Utah lumberman David Eccles laid track in order to transport timber between the forest and his lumber mill by a steam engine powered logging train, and today offers daily excursions along the 8.5 mile stretch between Hood River and Odell through predominantly forested and fruit orchard topography and less frequent runs the full 22 miles to Parkdale, gateway to Mt. Hood.

Mt. Hood

Mt. Hood, named after British admiral Samuel Hood in 1792 and part of the Cascade Mountains, is an inactive volcano whose last, although minor, eruption, occurred between 1845 and 1865. At 11,235 feet, it is Oregon’s tallest peak. Glacier and river sculpted over the years, the snow covered mountain, rising above Trillum Lake, features a 50-degree slope at its last, 2,000 foot rise, and offers year round hiking and skiing.

Its story, however, is every bit that of the lodge designated “Timberline” and nestled on its south slope at the 6,000 foot level. The result of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the federal agency created in 1933 to provide gainful employment to Americans who had been rendered idle by the Great Depression, it had been constructed by a predominantly inexperienced workforce which had used natural, Oregon indigenous material.

Its initial site survey, made in the spring of 1936 under 14 foot snow accumulations and only accessible by a primitive road which terminated a half mile from the actual location, yielded to the first drawings and subsequent groundbreaking on June 11 of a European chateau and alpine style lodge designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood and constructed entirely of gray, almost rock-resembling wood whose roof line echoed that of the steep mountain slope behind it.

Oregon had provided its foundation in the literal sense by supplying the mountain it had been built on and the natural materials which had been severed from their wombs and reduced to the individual buildings blocks which had been intricately reassembled into the lodge itself, inclusive of the forest supplied wood for its exterior structure and interior furniture and carvings, and the mountainside- and quarry yielding andesite stone for its walls and fireplaces.

Featuring a hexagonal core known as the “head house,” which had been inspired by the outline of the mountain peak behind it, and a single, angled wing extending from either of its sides, it had been designed as an extension of, as opposed to obstruction to, its surroundings.

Completed in only a 15 month period, it had been dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on September 28, 1937 and opened to the public the following February.

The hexagonally shaped head house, subdivided into the lower lobby, upper lobby, and mezzanine, features a truncated, 55 foot high “timberline” arch supported by carved sides and a top crossbeam, in the center of which is a six sided stone chimney which sports three, railroad track andiron adorned fireplaces. Hexagonal ponderosa pine columns, each weighing seven tons and milled from a single tree, surround the lodge, while Oregon white oak provides its floor planks. The hexagonal pattern is repeated in the hand forged wrought iron chandeliers and floor lamps, and floor to ceiling windows (attempt to) provide views through the 21 foot high snow banks. Some 820 pieces of wooden, hand crafted furnishings and carvings were made in the WPA woodworking shop in Portland.

The Cascade Dining Room, located off the main lobby and thresholded by wrought iron gates made in the WPA blacksmith shop, exudes rustic, early-1900s elegance with a polished, wooden floor; a wood beamed ceiling; a relief carving adorned stone fireplace entitled “Forest Scene,” and a bar.

Guest rooms, varying in size and appointment from bunk beds to fireplace suites, are rustic with heavy wooden doors; wrought iron latches; leather-and-iron lamps; heavy, wooden beds; and knotty pine panelings.

Timberline Lodge, the only public building of its size constructed entirely by hand with original craft work in wood, wrought iron, mosaic, painting, and carved linoleum, and, since 1978, a National Historic Landmark, is every bit a “sight” as an overnight lodge. It serves some two million annual visitors, only a small percentage of whom are actually skiers.

Returning to a roaring fire which castes warmth and light into the wooden lobby from its central stone fireplace after a day of skiing and enjoying award winning cuisine in the rustically elegant Cascade Dining Room, and then cacooning oneself in quilts in a knotty pine paneled guest room on the other side of whose wall the half, snow-buried pine trees surround the base of Mount Hood whose jagged, black granite, snow blanketed peak is periodically shrouded in cloud and mist throughout the night, is a quintessential Oregon experience.

Central Oregon

Because the Cascade Mountains mostly drain traditional storm fronts of their moisture, and therefore provide distinct climactic zones on either of their sides, Central Oregon, to the east of them, forms a high desert plateau and enjoys 300 days of sunshine, as contrasted with the rain drenched coast. Access is via winding, ascending Route 20 through the dense, needle thin ponderosa and lodgepole pine of Willamette National Forest, over Tombstone and Santiam Passes, and finally through Deschutes National Forest, all of which are often shrouded in low-altitude cloud, and lead to an area of snow capped mountains, 150 mountain lakes, and 500 miles of rivers. They afford a variety of recreational opportunities, including golfing, fishing, biking, horseback riding, hiking, climbing, rafting, and skiing. Bend, an accommodations base and once a booming timber town, capitalizes on the area’s attractions with hotels, resorts, restaurants, and services. The area is alternatively served by nearby Redmond Airport.

Sisters, one of Central Oregon’s attractions, is a quintessential western town of about 1,000 with 1880s style storefronts and wooden boardwalks named after the Three Sisters Mountains in the southwest. Initially accessed by trails forged through the Santiam Pass to the high desert by those hoping to strike it rich in the gold mines of Eastern Oregon and Idaho, it had developed into a small town after the trails had evolved into wagon roads. Wood from the surrounding pine forests had established lumber as its principle economic activity, although tourism plays an increasingly important role. Bronco Billy’s Saloon, built in 1912, is an historically important building in Sisters.

The High Desert Museum, located a few miles south of Bend on Highway 97, is a modern, continually expanding facility which showcases the wildlife and landscapes of eight western states in both indoor and outdoor exhibits, including those of western exploration and settlement, the Columbia River plateau Indians, a “desertarium,” an 1880 homestead ranch, a working sawmill, and a raptor center.

The area’s geology can be studied in nearby Newberry National Volcanic Monument. One of the largest “shield”-shaped volcanoes in the Lower 48 states and located along the Northwest Rift zone of faults, the 500 square mile Newberry Caldera, whose most recent eruption, the Big Obsidian Flow, occurred 1,300 years ago, cradles two trout and salmon abundant lakes: Paulina Lake, at 250 feet one of Oregon’s deepest, and 180-foot-deep East Lake, are both fed by hot springs below them. Once believed to have existed as single entities, Paulina and East Lakes had been divided by pumice and water deposits 6,200 years ago.

Paulina Peak, the crater’s highest at 7,985 feet, provides views of the High Desert plateau and the Cascade Mountains.

The Deschutes River, a federally designated Wild and Scenic River, flows through the monument’s northwest corner, and offers fishing, kayaking, and white water rafting, while more than 100 miles of trails, interspersing the monument, facilitate hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, skiing, and snowmobiling. Area wildlife includes deer, elk, black bear, ducks, osprey, geese, tundra swans, and bald eagles.

Aside from the caldera, three separate areas can be visited.

The Lava Lands Visitor Center, the first of these, depicts Central Oregon’s geology, archaeology, history, and fauna. Ranger-led interpretive hikes take visitors through the volcanic landscape. 500 foot high Lava Butte, whose crater had been formed 7,000 years ago when it had erupted and spewed lava over a nine square mile area, is accessible by a perimeter road and affords views of the Newberry Volcano and Cascade Mountain Range.

The Lava River Cave, a one mile long lava tube, had been created when a river of molten lava had formed a channel whose sides hardened, creating a roof, but the hot lava had continued to flow through the tube, leaving it hollow. Its interior temperature is now a constant 42 degrees Fahrenheit.

Finally, the Lava Cast Forest had been created when Newberry Volcano vent originating lava had flowed through a miniature ponderosa pine forest, enveloping the trees and forming molds round their now burned bases when they had cooled. A one mile trail leads through the forest, which is being progressively reclaimed by young pines.

Aviation-Related Northwest Oregon

Northwest Oregon features two significant sights, which not only center round aviation, but also retain the state’s nature oriented theme.

The Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, the first of these, had been created by Delford M Smith, founder of Evergreen International Aviation, and his son, Captain Michael King Smith, who had served as Second Lieutenant in the US Air Force and had been an F-15 Fighter pilot and the head of the 123rd Fighter Squadron of the Oregon Air National Guard. Centerpiece of the museum’s three modern, A-frame, aviation, space, and IMAX buildings, located in McMinnville, is the Hughes H-4 Hercules, the world’s largest transport flying boat, designed and built by the Hughes Aircraft Company entirely of natural, laminated birch wood due to World War II-imposed metal usage restrictions and hence given the unofficial nickname of “Spruce Goose.”

Designed to fulfill the 1942 US Department of War requirement for a very large aircraft to transport personnel and war material across the Atlantic where aircraft had hitherto been frequent targets of German U-boats, it had originally been intended as one of three stipulated by the contract, which had dictated a two-year development period. Powered by eight, 3,000 hp Pratt and Whitney Wasp Major radial engines, the H-4, with a 218.8 foot overall length and a 319.11 foot wingspan, accommodated 750 fully equipped troops in its cavernous, dual deck fuselage and had a 400,000 pound maximum take off weight. The only airframe ever completed, and thus serving as the prototype, it had first flown on November 2, 1947 when Howard Hughes himself had covered less than a mile at a 70 foot altitude while maintaining a 135 mph air speed. It became its only flight.

The museum retains its natural theme by cultivating its own vineyard in front of it appropriately named “Spruce Goose Vineyards,” and a wine tasting room and gift shop, where one can sample the wines of the area’s abundant other vineyards, is located in the aviation building.

Of the two hangars constructed here, Hangar B had been the first to have been completed in the spring of 1943, followed one month later by Hangar A. Housing Squadron ZP-33’s eight K ships, it features six, 30 ton, railroad track guided door sections covering the 120 foot high, 220 foot wide opening which thresholds the 15 story high, seven acre internal space. The 251 foot blimps, attaining lift with 425,000 cubic foot helium bags, could remain aloft for three days and cover 2,000 miles.

After the air station had been decommissioned in 1948, the two hangars had been used for several purposes, including those of hay bail storage, and the material in Hangar A had unexplainably sparked and ignited in 1992, destroying it. Two years later, Hangar B had been developed into the current, nationally historic aviation museum displaying a vintage collection of restored, exclusively flyable aircraft.

Here, wood, the natural element of Oregon’s forests, had been used to build the hangars in which dirigibles, using the natural gas of helium to attain lift, had been stored, in an ultimate act of history preserving history, and of nature serving man, which is, in essence, the story of Oregon.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/destinations-articles/a-tourists-guide-to-the-natural-sights-of-oregon-1735127.html

A graduate of Long Island University-C.W. Post Campus with a summa-cum-laude BA Degree in Comparative Languages and Journalism, I have subsequently earned the Continuing Community Education Teaching Certificate from the Nassau Association for Continuing Community Education (NACCE) at Molloy College, the Travel Career Development Certificate from the Institute of Certified Travel Agents (ICTA) at LIU, and the AAS Degree in Aerospace Technology at the State University of New York – College of Technology at Farmingdale. Having amassed almost three decades in the airline industry, I managed the New York-JFK and Washington-Dulles stations at Austrian Airlines, created the North American Station Training Program, served as an Aviation Advisor to Farmingdale State University of New York, and devised and taught the Airline Management Certificate Program at the Long Island Educational Opportunity Center. A freelance author, I have written some 70 books of the short story, novel, nonfiction, essay, poetry, article, log, curriculum, training manual, and textbook genre in English, German, and Spanish, having principally focused on aviation and travel, and I have been published in book, magazine, newsletter, and electronic Web site form. I am a writer for Cole Palen’s Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York. I have made some 350 lifetime trips by air, sea, rail, and road.

Bend, Oregon: Great American Vacation Getaway?

When you think about great American vacation towns, Orlando, New York, Las Vegas, or San Diego might come to mind. But what about Bend, Oregon? Unlike the previously mentioned cities, saying, "I'm off to visit Bend," is likely to get you a quizzical look as if to say, "Where the heck is Bend?" lest you mention the state where it resides.

While Bend, Oregon might not be a place you have to worry about booking lodging months in advance for, nor is it the hotspot that Miami and other big towns are, its central location in Oregon, where it transitions from the Ponderosa Pine forest to the Great Basin high desert plateau, is an ideal vacation spot for active folks or families that want to cram as much fun into a getaway as they can.

Though you won't have easy access to some huge theme park, raceway, or gambling mecca, you will be able to enjoy the site of Pilot Butte, a volcano that is located within the city's boundaries. Bend is a youthful town that is growing into its own within the tourism industry. And don't worry about Pilot Butte. It's extinct.

A Short History

Founded just a century ago in 1905 around a community of 300 residents, Bend was originally a crossing point on the Deschutes River where it got its economic start as a logging town. Its name comes from "Farewell Bend," the name used by early pioneers to indicate the spot in the Deschutes River where it was shallow enough to be crossable on horseback. After a development company was founded, a community began to form.

Modern Day Tourism

Today, Bend is considered a gateway for access to many outdoor activities which include mountain biking, hiking and camping, fishing, rafting, and rock climbing just to name a few.

Although Bend still relies partly on its logging roots, producing wood products, tourism is one of its largest sectors. The local ski resort brings in vacationers from all over the west coast. Other tourist attractions include a well-known microbrewery, the Cascade Lakes (providing great viewing of the Three Sisters volcanoes), and the Bend Film Festival.

The local ski resort is one of the most profitable tourist destinations in the city, which helps support businesses providing lodging in Bend, Oregon. Though because of its seasonal nature, the ski resort isn't quite the city's largest employer. That distinction goes to the healthcare industry and the local hospital.

Nevertheless, tourism is a very large part of Bend's economy and in large part responsible for the town's success.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/destinations-articles/bend-oregon-great-american-vacation-getaway-354683.html

Art Gib is a freelance writer. Mt. Bachelor (http://www.mtbachelorlodging.com), in addition to supplying great skiing, also provides lodging in Bend, Oregon via Mt. Bachelor Village. The off season offers spring break specials at additional resorts for fun in the sun.

The Beauty Of Oregon

Have you ever wanted to be in a place where you can be in the ocean and near the woods at the same time? The kind of climate that you can have a rainy day and then a sunny day - a cold day and then a hot day? Have you wanted to visit a state in which you can have all of these things and feel safe, secure, and at home, all in the same moment? You should plan your next trip to Oregon.

The best Oregon vacation spots are mostly found all along the Columbia river and the other areas in that vicinity. They include Crater Lake National Park and Mount hood, two places that you should plan on spending a considerably large amount of time. If you are there in the summer, there are other travel attractions that include driving tours of the Oregon coast which go along Highway 101, or seeing the Oregon Caves National Monument, Hell's Canyon, or the Newberry Volcanic National Monument. Also, all along the coast in Oregon, you can visit small towns and take part in their summer festivals.

The beauty in Oregon is found in the coast lines. Nowhere else are you going to be able to be this close to nature that you can touch it. One of the greatest things about Oregon is that you can travel through any different type of weather in an given day. Because of the ocean you are going to get cold and rainy days but you are also going to get days that are full of sunshine and warmth. And because of the ocean, even the cold and rainy days aren't quite that bad.

If you want fun, you should visit one of the bigger cities in Oregon. Oregon and the entire corner of the United States have long been a cultural hot spot for the best musicians are artists of our time. If you are traveling through Oregon, you are going to be able to find yourself in many different situations in which you are going to be exposed to local music and art, in ways that are going to absolutely astound you. Stopping into cafés in Portland and other cities and listening to the local musicians is a great way to spend an afternoon or an evening.

And the people in Oregon are among some of the most friendly in the world. They love to help out travelers. The best places to stay in Oregon include the many bed and breakfasts that you might be able to find. You are never going to know a more friendly and more beautiful way of lodging than in a bed and breakfast in Oregon.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/the-beauty-of-oregon-130659.html

Vacationing in Oregon

If you're wondering where to go on your next vacation, consider Oregon. My family and I just finished a ten day vacation there and Oregon fulfilled all our expectations and then some.

We started our trip in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest which covers over 2 million acres. Hell's Canyon is a vast area of the forest and the brochure states that it's elevation is 875 feet. There are no roads that go though the area. We traveled by raft, foot and horseback (we liked it that way). We went went down the Snake River by raft and camped out the first night on the river bank.

Most of the rest of the trip we hiked though some great terrain and each night we slept like a baby. The elevations made it a great workout. Hiking with backpacks that weighed an average of 40 pounds helped too.
The horseback riding was fantastic. The horses were very user-friendly and beautiful. The trail that we took was named Hat Point which is 25 miles southeast of Imnaha river. It offers some of the most spectacular scenery available on the Oregon side.

The hardest part of the trip is that we were not able to carry enough that we needed. The days were hot (90 degrees or better) and the nights were down to about 40 degrees. One day the weather was a little too much with it raining most of the day and at one point it was hailing. We were able to find cover in a cave that we came across.

We knew that it would be difficult for us to carry enough that we would need because our daughters are teenagers, but they were great. I guess the beauty and peacefulness of the area helped their karma. This trip was the first time that we went Oregon and we look for more possible trips in the future. If you're a nature lover I suggest that you put any one of the National Forests that are located in Oregon.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-tips-articles/vacationing-in-oregon-1270654.html

For more information on Oregon Real Estate please go to: http://centraloregonrealestatefacts.com/

Oregon Coast Camping

Camping on the picturesque Oregon coast can be an exciting or a relaxing vacation for the entire family. Oregon campgrounds offer a wide range of activities, locations, types of campgrounds available, and price ranges. Finding the perfect vacation to meet the needs of your family can be as simple as doing a little research on the Internet. Once you decide what kind of Oregon coast camping vacation you are looking for, finding an Oregon coast camping site is a piece of cake. More and more types of Oregon coast campsites are placing their camping information on the Internet for vacationers to choose from. Search this online information for many variables, from location of the Oregon camping site, to amenities offered, to family-friendly environments.

CHOOSING THE PERFECT OREGON CAMPGROUND

You’ve decided to spend your vacation on the Oregon Coast camping, but where do you start when it comes time to pick the perfect combination of camping needs for your trip? Take a look at your vacation itinerary. Where do plan to spend your time while you are camping in Oregon? Are you planning on four-wheeling along the Dunes National Park? Are you going on a lighthouse tour of the Oregon Coast? Are you attending any activities while you are there, such as festivals, fairs, or concerts? Do you plan to spend your time relaxing on one of the highly acclaimed Oregon Coast golf courses or resorts? Decide what you plan to do, and where you want to spend your time. Then you’re ready to start looking at Oregon Coast campsites. After you’ve decided where you are going to spend the bulk of your time, decide how you want to spend that time. Are you looking for an outdoor vacation near the beach, or something more in the middle of a lush green forest? Do you want to stay in a rustic and basic environment, or are you one of those campers who can’t leave home without the remote control and the hair dryer? Oregon campgrounds can accommodate the needs of almost any type of camper. If you are looking for a back-to-basics type adventure, look at the Oregon campgrounds that offer limit amounts of amenities or traditional-style camping. If you have to travel with a DVD player, perhaps one of the many RV parks along the Oregon coast would better suit your needs. After you decide the type of camping experience you are looking for, consider the costs of each option. How much are you willing to spend for your Oregon camping trip? Quotes for many different types of camping experiences can easily be found online. Be sure to check the availability of your desired campground. Some Oregon campsites are only offered during specific times of the year, or have limited availability and reservation space during certain peak times. If possible, make reservations before you go. This can save you time and potential headaches and help you achieve the perfect vacation.

OREGON STATE CAMPGROUNDS

When camping in Oregon, keep in mind that you have other camping options besides privately run Oregon campsites. Oregon State campgrounds are available every year for a limited amount of vacationers. Most of the time you can make reservations and check the campground availability online from any of the Oregon State Park websites. Camping in Oregon State campgrounds is often less expensive than patronizing any of the privately run campgrounds in Oregon. Oregon State Campgrounds are taken care of by the state of Oregon and are usually kept in immaculate condition. Campsites are clearly marked, easy to find, and well-taken care of. Oregon State has large portions of its land dedicated exclusively as State or National Park grounds. Over three hundred miles of coastland are included in the State and Nationally protected areas. For a more complete listing of the Oregon State Campgrounds and the National Park grounds located in Oregon, initiate a search on the Internet for State and National Park directories. These directories should also provide simple and easy instructions on making reservations.

OREGON BEACH CAMPGROUNDS

In 1967, the state of Oregon dedicated huge amounts of land to the State and National park systems in order to make sure it was preserved for future generations. Because so much of the Oregon Coast in particular is designated as State or Nationally protected land, camping in Oregon offers the unique experience of camping directly on the beach. Not all beaches allow sand camping, so check the listings online of beaches that do allow coastal camping before you make your reservations. Camping on the beach offers you the relaxing experience of falling asleep to the rhythm of the ocean surf. Different types of beach camping are available, ranging from tent camping to cabin camping to RV camping. The costs of beach camping vary depending on the type of camping and the amenities offered. While most of the Oregon coast beaches offer free access to its waterfront, many privately owned and managed Oregon campsites do not offer free camping. Oregon beach campgrounds have limited amounts of space available, so make your reservations early to ensure you get the perfect Oregon campsite.

OREGON COAST RV CAMPING

The Oregon coast is dotted with RV campgrounds. As more people are traveling across the country in RVs, more RV campgrounds are popping up. RV parks can be a little more expensive than traditional tent or cabin style camping, but can make up for the extra cost by offering a multitude of amenities. Before you choose an RV park, decide on what kind of amenities you need to make your Oregon camping experience the very best that it can be. Different types of RV campgrounds in Oregon offer different types of amenities. Some campgrounds may offer options such as water hookups, laundry facilities, convenient parking, boat storage and parking, showers, and many other types of options. Most of the available options can be easily found by searching on the Internet. RV campgrounds in Oregon often fill up pretty quickly, so making reservations well in advance is advisable.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/camping-articles/oregon-coast-camping-174392.html

David Nool, a proficient writer, writes articles for www.loonlakerv.com Supplementary editorials that were written by David Nool about Oregon Camping, Oregon Campgrounds, Camping Oregon, Oregon Coast Campingare accessible on the internet.

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