How
we came to the Indian Trail site for The Oregon Star Party
Carolyn and I never liked the distance and weather variability at the Steens. Also the steadiness of the sky was often turbulent, in fact boiling on several solo excursions. (I have been going to the Steens since I was 12 in 1957, the same year I got my 4" Criterion, which did not make the first trip.)
We also loved the Ochocos and had been actively looking for a nice site for ourselves for years in those mountains. The OSP organizers were also dreaming of other sites; we started thinking for a group of 100 or 200 observers.
On May 20th, 1990 we investigated the lower gravel pit and open country on road 4240, just south of Big Summit Prairie road 42. It looked promising, but did not have the south horizon I really wanted. There was a wooded ridge in the way. We were back next summer camping at this gravel pit and thinking of showing it to Chuck Dethloff, the main person behind the movement to create the Oregon Star Party.
On Sunday morning, June 16, 1991, I was lawn chair hiking with my 10x50 binoculars and spotted a rocky bluff on the ridge about 1 mile away. I wanted to travel through the woods and climb up to it. I love cross country hiking in the Ochocos! The Shoshoni ancestors would surely have had my scalp.
So Carolyn, Tycho and I took off into the tall pines. Of course trees obscured our goal, but I believed I had a good sense of cross country navigating (getting older is screwing it up). But I had no brains to carry a map! We passed a shallow artificial pond created on a spring (Bruner Spring Reservoir). We came upon an overgrown logging road and walked on it for 1/4 mile and then could see the target rocky area. Up we went and found flowers were everywhere, but the best was yet to come.
Far above us and standing above all on the horizon was a tall massive ponderosa. Beyond it was open sky! We starting hiking up a barely visible 4WD trail, probably hunter's tracks. Everything was red soil, rocky, short sage, and grass with sparse flowers. We went through a set of pines, junipers, and mountain mahoganies and could see the big tree was right ahead. Tycho found some elk poop and was rolling in it before we even knew what was happening. Tough shit! Really! And it was foul smelling!
We hiked up to the big Ponderosa thinking it was on the top of the ridge. What!? From the tree, it was still over a quarter mile to the next higher horizon!! We continued up across the large treeless area. It was becoming apparent this might be a great area for observing. I was already thinking of night and the wonderful skies. We made it to the highest point. We were rewarded with a wonderful view to the south and a 360 degree panorama. There was a great road going to the east!! We were tired from the heat and wind and headed back down. A stop was made at the pond to try and wash the tar-like elk poop off Tycho. Then I got out the Ochoco forest map, an older one, printed before the Greenies had the area roads closed or obliterated.
It looked like an easy route to the area. We drove right up 800 road to the site. The road had been prepared for what was going to be a lot of logging up there. We were on top without a tough drive! We looked around and noted the great places to camp, the horizons; the pile of razor wire in the junipers, the neat picturesque dead ponderosa (the future Rob's Tree), the ancient junipers and old mountain mahoganies. The short sage was not a problem...to our simple thinking. I was just imagining the quiet voices of hundreds of astronomers in the future twilights.
I took pictures. I could not wait to tell Chuck; but there were several star parties to go before he could make it.
July passed with a dramatic ridge-edge star party at Larry Mahon's, then
for August Carolyn and I visited the Indian Trail site alone, then came
September and the OSP at
Finally there was time for OSP committee members to visit. It was
October 11, 1991. The Columbia Gorge was burning like never before. The heavy
smoke traveled south and was joined by red dust and swirling wind. What a great
place! It all went away and calm came over the evening. We had 12 observers
enjoying the cool fall evening...and by morning Chuck Dethloff was turning the
wheels of his Oregon Star Party mind. On December 15th we all met at Chuck's
house to decide the next future of The Oregon Star Party and the rest is
history.
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The big Ponderosa was struck by lightning during the 1993
OSP and is now dead. We found Rob's tree cut down by vandals in 1996.
Rob's site is: http://home.comcast.net/~mcculloch-brown/astro/RobsTree.html
The site name came from the Indian Trail Spring located just to the southeast
of the site. The spring was named for the trail used for countless years by
Indians to travel between the Columbia River and the east coast of
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High contrast picture of the Discovery Ponderosa taken at the time and spot Tycho rolled in elk poop.
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-- Gary Strong
