Time To Get Your Birding On…

We’ve been excited to note that it is not getting dark until after five o’clock in the evening, this being one of the first (and most welcome) signs that winter is on its way out and spring is coming.   The second sign is the beginning of the incessant chirping and twittering that has been following us through the park as of late.  This can only mean one thing….

It’s TIME to get your BIRDING on!!

Birding is one of the best ways to get those winter-stiffened muscles loosened up for the summer, boost up on some Vitamin D after being crammed inside, and at least for this park ranger perhaps, walk off some of those left over pounds from the holidays.  And there is no better place to come than the Sumpter Valley Dredge State Park and the surrounding Sumpter Valley.

If you’re an avid, experienced birder then you might have had your gear set out by the door, ready to go, since the end of January if you haven’t already been out in our unusually warm weather.  But, if you’ve been interested in birding but don’t know your birds or what to do, getting started might seem like a daunting task.   Many bird lists out there seem to be designed for the more experienced aficionado. (i.e. What exactly do they mean by Turdus Migratorias? See photo below).  This is even more intimidating when to the untrained eye, all of these little bobbing chirpers look alike.   FYI-the official park ranger term for the look-a-like birds is “Little Brown Jobbie”…at least until we figure out what it really is.

Ahh! That is a Turdus Migratorius!

Well, we are with you.  We’re not experts either, we just love discovering which of our feathered friends make the park their home.  But we do have some tips to make it easier to get started:

• Pick a bite-sized area to get started in. A back yard is a good place or maybe you have a daily walk you like to take.  A certain state park is also a great place (hint hint) ehem.
• Start with what you know.  Pulling up a local list with 100 + birds listed can be intimidating.   How can there really be THAT many birds in an area??  You’d be amazed the birds you’ve never noticed.  Instead of trying to look for all the birds at once, start keeping an eye out for what you know.  Most people are familiar with robins, black birds, or other local birds.  As you begin to watch for these birds you will start seeing the other species who show up or cohabitate with the familiar ones.
• Pick up a few good birding guides from your local book store.  There are many great books out there like “The Birds of Oregon: Field Guide” by Stan Tekiela or The National Audubon Society’s “Field Guide to Birds: Western Region”.  Both are smallish, fitting nicely into your backpack or jacket pocket, and easy to search as the birds sorted by reference of color.  Note:  They are FULL of pictures!
• There are many great online sites as well, such as the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at www.allaboutbirds.org .
• Make a birding bag.  Always know you have everything you need before heading out.  Pick up a small back pack or hip pack to stash all of your birding gear like; binoculars, note paper, pencils, a poncho, local bird list, a pocket bird guide, camera,  and anything else you’ve found comes in handy… this park ranger usually likes a snack, for me of course, never for the birds as they have their own food.
• Get involved.  We’re learning too!  As we work to launch a birding program at the park, we’re assembling a “site-specific” bird list for Sumpter Valley Dredge State Park.  We hope to have compiled photos, identification, and habit information for a majority of the birds that call this park their home…or at least their vacation home.  Let us know what you find and if you’ve found one of those Little Brown Jobbies, maybe we can tell you who it really is!

Snow Shoe Update

The winter always feels the longest when we get into February.  Without the activities that usually accompany the holidays, time seems to slow down, the walls close in, and a person begins to understand how “All work and no play can make Jack a dull boy”.  (Btw…don’t read “The Shining” by yourself in the dead of winter. *shivers*)

But there is a ray of light…Grab your snow shoes (or cross country skis) and get out to check out the snow shoe trails in the park and around Sumpter.  Below is the latest area map outlining the current trails through the park.

The blue trail outlines where the current snowshoe trail is. The Red trails are where the actual park trail is, but this area has not been gone through with snowshoes yet. The yellow trail is where the snow mobile trail cuts through.

If you’re interested in joining other avid snowshoers, check out the Sumpter snowshoeing web site at   http://www.sumpter.org/menu/sumpter_snowshoeing.html for information about upcoming guided hikes and trail conditions.

As always, be safe and hope to see you out there.

Holey Granite Rocks, Batman!

Massive granite boulders are one of the beautiful components of the scenery out here in the Elkhorn Mountains.  But, occasionally you might come across some with numerous holes like the one pictured below.  Some of the holes might be an inch or two deep and some could be at least a foot or more!  How did these solid chunks of rock become full of holes?  Aliens?  Some crazy, geological formations?

Granite rocks punched with holes can be found in the park and the City of Sumpter

Nope!  These are called Fourth of July stones.  They are the remnants of Stone Drilling Contests held in Sumpter during the Fourth of July Festivals.   You might think of a drilling contest using a large hole-boring machine with a big drill bit, but this was not the case.  They used HUMAN drilling machines!

As they prepare, note the granit stone in the center with the long spikes resting on it. photo is courtesy of the Baker Co. Library Photo Archives.

The contest begins! Photo Courtesy of Baker Co. Library Photo Archives

As you can see in the photos, a platform is built around the granite boulder.  One man hunkers down to hold a tall metal spike in place while another stands above and pounds the stake into the granite with a large maul.

Action Shot! Photo Courtesy of Baker Co. Photo Archive

The contest was a tribute to the strength, endurance, and hand/eye coordination of the miners.  I, for one, would not want to be the man holding the stake.

What Does a Train Have to Do With a Dredge?

Gold was discovered in Sumpter in 1862.  For most of us the vision that statement might bring to mind is reminiscent “paint your wagons” or a similar old-timey gold rush film; one of mass populations of miners flooding the valley singing and dancing as they came, huge rowdy mining camps springing up overnight and within months a city appears out of thin air riding on the golden wealth flowing out of the hills.  It sounds pretty exciting!

In reality it wasn’t that fast or exciting or musical.  In fact, the actual mining boom wouldn’t take place for another 30 years!  The reason for this was because of Sumpter’s remote location.  It was just close enough to the Oregon Trail and other travel routes for word of the gold to slip out and entice those passing by; but the access to Sumpter, being limited to rough narrow trails and roads over or through the mountains, left something to be desired. This severely limited the ability to establish large mining operations, as well as as merely bringing in the supplies needed to support large groups of miners with food, housing, and the general comforts one would want if one wants to live in comfort out in the middle of nowhere.

The Mining town Of Sumpter, late 1880's

So, that said, the mining operations plodded along at a slow pace until just before the turn of the century.  The catalyst that finally pushed the Sumpter Gold Mining off of its trickle pace and off on a rush actually wasn’t even gold.  It was WOOD!  The vast forests that stretched over this portion of the Blue Mountains was enticing lumber companies, namely the Oregon Lumber Co., to make their way into the mountains and from this ambition the Sumpter Valley Railway Company was born.  The railroad not only provided the Lumber Companies access to the forests, it also opened the Sumpter Valley to the outside world allowing the little mining town of Sumpter to Boom to a large city almost overnight!

Sumpter Valley Railroad Company Making Their Way Through

 

The City of Sumpter After the Mining Boom

Unfortunately for Sumpter, even though the train continued to chug through the valley until 1947, the boom was short-lived.  The gold industry that had built the town depended on began to decline shortly after the turn of the century.  The railroad helped bring in the equipment needed to build two large dredges which could tap into the abundant vein of gold buried deep beneath the valley floor, but even this did not stop the decline.  In 1917, a fire destroyed most of the business district bringing the golden age to a sudden halt.

The Railroad continued back and forth From Baker City to Prairie City seeing the continued dredging of the Sumpter Valley, the burning of Sumpter, the rise and decline of other towns supported by its trek, including; Whitney, Tipton, Austin, and Oregon Lumber Company’s own company town, Bates.

With advancements in transportation, such as cars and trucks, better roads made their way through Sumpter Valley and on up over the mountains to the west.  In time the need for train transportation waned and as previously mentioned, the Sumpter Valley Railway Company made its last trip through the Sumpter Valley in 1947.

 

But wait!  That’s not the end!

 

In 1971, a nonprofit organization named Sumpter Valley Railroad Restoration Inc. was established and through blood, sweat, and hard work they were able to find, rebuild, and restore several original Sumpter Valley Railway Co. cars and engines, as well as about eight miles of narrow gauge track from the old McEwen station back into Sumpter just shy of its original location (The Oregon Deptment of Transportation frowned on the idea of reconstructing the railroad track on the now existing Hwy).

The Depot

At the Sumpter Valley Dredge State Park, just shy of its original location, sits the replica of the Sumpter Depot.  With train rides scheduled each weekend throughout the summer months, it is a great addition to a visit to the City of Sumpter and the State Park.  For more information please visit the Sumpter Valley Railroad Restoration’s web site http://www.svry.com/ and they can also be found on Face Book.

The No.3 Making it's way from Sumpter to McEwen

It’s Here!

It’s only taken all winter, but this last week the snow finally arrived!  A special delivery from the north brought us a storm packed full of the fluffy white goodness we’ve all been waiting for!

A welcome sight!

Although warm weather and rain has tried to move in, it’s still good conditions to grab the snow gear of your choice and come out for some winter fun.  Park staff and others have been trekking through to cut trails through the park, however this takes time so if you come out and are not sure where to begin it’s recommend that you stick to within the general area of the existing park trails…but since you can’t see those trails through a foot of snow, here is an aerial map to give you an idea.  Park trails are marked in Red.

Park maps and brochures can also be downloaded online at The Oregon State Parks web page.  As the snow continues we’ll update this map with alternate snowshoe routes and sledding areas.

Bring your sled, your skis, and your snow shoes and come out to play with us.

Snow?

The Dredge in all of its glory amidst the obvious lack of snow.

Since our first snow in November, when we posted “Walking In A Winter Wonderland”, we’ve been waiting with baited anticipation to announce the schedule for our guided snowshoe hikes.  Sadly, it would seem that “Old Man Winter” is somewhat lacking in enthusiasm this year.  We have yet to see any significant snow accumulation leaving us wondering if winter will actually show up this year.

This year can officially be considered “unusual”, especially when compared past winters.

This is more of what we'd like to see. Winter 2008

 

The way it used to be, Sumpter 1905. ~Photo Curtesy of the Baker County Photo Archives

Looking back on winters gone by and recollecting all the fun had in those piles of winter whiteness, one could easily begin to feel disappointed at this year’s winter outlook.  But take heart, there is always a bright side.  Less snow means the roads are better to come up and play in the mountains…a day trip is always more fun if you’re not concerned about sliding off the road over Phillips Lake.  If you don’t own snow shoes it is a little easier (though uneven) to get around the trails since you don’t have to worry about wading through hip deep snow…just watch out for the icy spots.  Getting around the park to check out animal tracks, take photos of the dredge in winter, maybe do some sledding, or even some winter birding has never been easier.  And of course, the weather has been beautiful.

The cold season isn’t over yet, so you never know if Winter might happen pay a surprise visit to us and when that happens, we’ll be ready.

Glimpse Into The Past….

Larry Craig is a gentleman with fond memories of the dredge.  Larry shared that his father, Jack Craig, came to Baker County just out of the University of Oregon around 1934.   Jobs were scarce at that time, but Jack had something the Powder River Dredging Company needed desperately ; welding certification and license to inspect welding projects.  Larry said the two men his father met with at the Company shop were so excited that they practically leapt over that counter to offer him a job.  The company needed a welding inspector as they built the new dredge, but the closest inspectors had to come over from Portland and were very expensive to hire.  Larry indicated that the company was so afraid of losing Jack and his skills that on the weekends when he went home to be with his family in North Powder, Dredge Master, R.D Shelly, actually drove him, stayed the night in a Hotel, and brought him back at the start of the work week.

The Dredge construction crew, spring of 1935. Jack Craig is the gentleman with the parted hair, in the second row on the left side. R. D. Shelly is in the first row, on the right side, holding the dog.

Jack Craig went from inspecting the welding as the dredge was being built to other jobs on the dredge including being a winchman.  Larry spoke of being twelve and his mother packing extra in his father’s lunch pail so that Larry could stay on for a bit during the night shift.  It was cold in the winter time, but Larry remembers that there was an oil stove in the winchroom and next to that, a small sofa, from which Larry could sit and watch as his father explained how he steered and maneuvered the dredge using the many levers.

Being able to recapture moments like these are few and far between but a privilege and a pleasure when the opportunity arises.  They give us a glimpse into our past and let us better understand where we came from.