6/23: Central Oregon's & Salem's Sights

After leaving the very unusual labor of love that was Petersen's Rock Garden outside of Bend in central Oregon, Steven and I continued driving toward Salem, the state capital. Imagine living in a small town like Sisters in Oregon that proudly honors each of its high school graduates with banners along Main St.!

Rather than take the fastest and most direct route to Salem, we opted for Oregon's Scenic Byway via the Mackenzie Pass as that sounded far more interesting. It was soon apparent that a fire or infestation had laid waste to many of the trees in the Willamette National Forest. I shudder to think what this area looks like now with the recent fires that have raged throughout so much of Oregon.

No vehicles longer than 35 ft. were permitted on the road because it was so narrow and had many, many switchbacks.

I think this was likely Mt. Bachelor, a popular spot for skiers in the Cascade Mountain Range.

We stopped at a viewpoint to read about the 20 square mile area known as the Sea of Lava that changed the landscape 1,500 years ago. A sequence of three lava flows stretched to the west where the distant 6,872-ft-high Belknap Crater was the oldest. 

At this same Windy Peak lookout, we caught this amazing view of Mt. Washington which was almost eight thousand feet high.

It was fun seeing swarms of monarch butterflies 'greet' me at the lookout!

As we continued up the pass, we came upon pockets of snow amid the downed trees. We figured the snow wouldn't last long in the 80 degree weather, though.

The Dee Wright Observatory was located at the 5,325-ft. summit of McKenzie Pass.

Hard to improve on the view at the Three Sisters Lookout!

Also very hard to improve on the great spot we chose for our picnic site at the Marion Forks Campground, a US Forest Service site outside of the town of Willamette! Adding to the ambience was the fact that we could hear, but not see, the gurgling Marion Creek nearby. If we had still been camping, this would have been a glorious site for several days as it was so isolated from other campers.

Detroit Lake stretched for 22 miles along Hwy. 22, about 45 miles east of Salem. Steven and I were surprised that the highway wasn't 'dotted' on the AAA map to show its exceptional beauty.

Since we hadn't left the Petersen Rock Garden until almost 11 and had then taken the very scenic but very slow drive to Salem, we didn't arrive in the state's capital city until almost four hours later. That sure didn't leave us much time to see all the sights in Salem we'd hoped to see, let alone anything in Portland where we were spending the next two nights. We need to rectify that on a future trip if we're ever in the Pacific Northwest again as Salem is Oregon's third largest city. 

According to the AAA tour book, it was founded in 1841 by Methodist missionary Jason Lee whose goal was to gather Native Americans together and "teach them to cultivate the ground and live more comfortably than they could by hunting, and as they do this, teach them religion." Nowadays his noble ideals sound terribly paternalistic. The local Kalapuya tribe recommended the Indian name Chemeteka or 'place of rest.' However, that was discounted in favor of the Biblical word salem which means "peace."

We headed first to the 90-plus-acre Bush Homestead and Pasture Park, the centerpiece of Salem's park system. In 1860, Asahel Bush II and his wife purchased a 100-acre farm south of Salem that contained several large orchards, pastures of native grasses and wildflowers, and oak groves. After Bush's death in 1913, the family donated 57 acres of the property to the city which later bought the remaining acreage. 

The Bush family's Italianate Victorian-style home took 18 years to complete and was lived in by members of the Bush family for 75 years. 

Behind the home was the extensive rose garden that had more than 2,000 varieties! We didn't have time to see them all but it was very enjoyable wandering among the flowers. 

I couldn't help but smile when I read this was the Playboy variety!

Whoever had the responsibility of naming roses must have had a humorous streak as this one was called Voodoo!

Within steps of the house was the Bush Conservatory that was constructed for the family in 1882. As the restored conservatory was one of the oldest surviving glass greenhouses west of the Rockies, I was excited to enter it. The Bushes had visited conservatories at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. As theirs was only the second west of the Mississippi, it became one of the gems in Salem. Its luster was also a significant feature in support of the listing of Bush House on the National Register of Historic Places.  

I didn't know that summer heat can 'cook' even tropical plants. Protective methods used in the Bush's time are the same now being implemented. As the dry season begins, a coat of whitewash is applied to the glass exterior to shade the conservatory. Winter rains naturally dissolve the whitewash. For protection in hot weather, a venting system was installed that was state of the art in the 1930s and is still in use today!

As we had never heard of the Kalapuya tribe, we were curious to learn that they have lived in the fertile heart of the Willamette Valley, traveling throughout the valley in the summer, hunting, fishing, and gathering plants. Each fall they burned invasive young shrubs and trees to provide habitat for game and certain plants such as camas. 

Its onion-like bulb was one of the most important sources of food for generations of Kalapuya. Baked camas bulbs were pressed into ten-pound loaves and stored for winter or traded with other tribes. Bush's Pasture Park was one of the few places left in the Willamette Valley where people can find camas prairies as the early pioneers saw them.

 

According to the Oregon Historical Society, the Kalapuya people were relocated to the Grand Ronde Reservation in 1885. Their children were sent to reservation boarding schools, either the Indian Manual Labor Training School in Forest Grove or the Chemawa Indian School near Salem. 

From the Bush estate we walked to the Historic Deepwood Museum and Gardens, the site of an 1894 Queen Anne Victorian home set on 4.5 acres of English-style gardens and nature trails. This intriguing wrought-iron fence surrounded the property.

The gardens at Deepwood were infinitely more beautiful in my opinion than the rose garden at the Bush Pasture. 

On our very tight schedule, we didn't have time to tour the elegant home. Perhaps another time if we return to this part of the country ...

The gazebo added the perfect touch to the gorgeous estate. What a sublime location for wedding photography the gardens must be! Credit for the stunning gardens went to the first female landscape architecture firm in the Northwest, Lord & Schryver, who had designed sections of the gardens using fences, hedges, and arbors. They designed over 200 landscapes and gardens in the region between 1929 and 1969.

Our self-designed walking tour of Salem took us next to the Willamette Heritage Center, a 5.5 acre historic park that featured three historic homes, a church, and eight buildings from the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill that had been founded in 1889. It was probably just as well the center was closed as we wouldn't have been able to do it justice that late afternoon. Another place to add to our 'to see list' if we were to return! I was only able to take these next photos by sticking my camera through a fence as we walked toward the capitol - I have had to become quite adept over the years taking pictures through fences!

Before reaching the capitol itself, we wandered through the State Capitol State Park which was a delight in and of itself.

The monument commemorated the "labors and achievement of the ministers of the Gospel who, as circuit riders, became the friends, counselors, and evangels to the pioneers on every American frontier."

These Corinthian column segments originally were part of those that graced the west and east entrance portions of Oregon's first state house. The building was partially completed and occupied in 1873 but wasn't totally completed until 1892. The state house was destroyed by fire in 1935.

I found it pretty appalling that the grass hadn't been properly tended to on the grounds of the state house. It needed a good mowing pronto.

We paid our respects first at the Oregon Veterans' Medal of Honor Memorial on the grounds before walking to the state house.

I think both Steven and I were taken aback by the marble Art Deco-style State Capitol that was dedicated in 1938 and expanded in 1977 as it was so unlike any other state capitol we'd seen to date. The building was on the National Historic Register but I didn't know what features qualified for that distinction.

The building was topped with a 23-foot tall statue symbolizing Oregon's pioneers. I particularly would have loved to explore the inside of the state house as I'd read in the AAA tour book the rotunda featured four large Depression-era murals that depicted major events in Oregon's history. Another thing to add to our 'return to Salem if we can' list!

Some statues or monuments on each side of the building were covered. We figured that was done to possibly prevent damage from the wave of protests against police brutality and racial injustice around the country this summer. 

We explored more of the grounds as we were on the lookout for the moon tree, a Douglas fir grown from seed taken to the moon aboard Apollo 14 in 1971! We never did see any plaque indicating which was the moon tree so we were bummed but the park was utterly peaceful so all was not lost.

The Parade of Animals was one of the most unusual sculptures we'd ever seen on the grounds of a state capitol and we should know as we've made it a point to discover as many state capitols as we can!

Another childlike statue seemed similarly out of place on the grounds in my opinion.

In a corner of the State Capitol State Park was the Oregon WW II Memorial with a 33-foot tall obelisk in the center. It was bordered by a black granite memorial wall. Seals set in the pavement honored the branches of the military who served so valiantly.

From the capitol we walked downtown toward Riverfront Park, a 23-acre park that was formerly occupied by warehouses and industrial activities. We found Salem to be a very walkable city and that was probably only increased by the number of streets that were either fully or partially blocked off to allow for increased outdoor dining.

The primary reason we'd come to Riverfront Park was to see its Riverfront Carousel that featured 42 brightly painted hand-carved horses, two wagons, a carousel band and, of course, a brass ring! Thought it was also closed, I could easily imagine its allure for children of all ages when I peered through the windows. That carousel ignited a desire to see more carousels on our pandemic road trips so stay tuned for more carousels to come!

Set into the walk along the Willamette River were art medallions created by local children and funded by the generosity of local residents and businesses. What a brilliant idea that was! They should be the inspiration for other cities to adopt.

We walked along the attractive riverfront to the Union St. Pedestrian Bridge.

We enjoyed the path so much we walked to the park's southern end to the Minto Island Bridge.

Right by the bridge was the asphalt-covered Acid Ball which had been used by Boise Cascade Corporation decades ago in their papermaking process. When the property became Salem's Riverfront Park, the ball stood idle but eventually became the focus of many citizens who suggested its transformation into a work of art. The industrial relic's spherical surface was decorated with almost 86,000 colorful tiles to depict a globe!

At 25 feet in diameter, the Eco Earth Globe was one of Oregon's and possibly the country's largest public works of art. What an ingenious way to turn a piece of industrial waste into something so beautiful!

The Statue of Liberty icon on the globe was dedicated to the men and women in the US military. 

Though we only spent a few hours in Salem, we were totally charmed by the city's sights and would enjoy a repeat visit.

Next post: Portland's very impressive Vietnam Memorial and International Rose Test Garden.

Posted on September 26th, 2020, from Montgomery, Alabama, as we make our way back to the Florida Panhandle for two more weeks after exploring the Tampa area and then the Carolinas these last two plus weeks. As always, Steven and I hope that you will keep safe, stay healthy, and be connected to those you hold dear during these turbulent times.