In 1976/77, my husband was geology consulting for a major mining company. They sent him to Oregon north and east of Salem to look at various little mining communities which were started in the 1930's...
He evaluated several, but we actually lived in a place called Jawbone flats, north in the mountains above Mehama off of the Little North fork of the Santiam River. There were little homes built in the 1930's, some updated and some not...we lived in the one that had a hot water heater and bathtub..all were loosely wired for electricity...we had a generator at first and then a pelton wheel to run the electricity...wood heat from a small wood stove, cooking with an old propane stove.....the charm of it all was wonderful...
The whole experience made my husband appreciate looking for minerals in the wide open spaces of Nevada. The Opal creek area is beautifully endowed with vine maple, berries, old growth cedar, moss, fir, alder trees which cover everything ....very few exposed rocks except in the roads and rivers...he did find a mineable mineral deposit, but it was under the old growth timber...which cutting down was unacceptable...
There are old mining shafts, dumps, milling buildings from old mining workings...but have been mostly grown over now...
We drove out of camp every Weekend for church with my husband's parents or to town, as well as to do laundry and grocery shopping...we had friends in Portland as well to see while they were in seminary....we did a lot of Bible reading, studying, as there was no tv or radio. We did have a "tape recorder" which our four year old son would listen to with a multitude of story tapes...we even had some adult Bible studies as well...we really lacked nothing...
All this being said, one of my daughters and I went back this past weekend before the change in the fall weather...when we lived there, you could drive into the camp, through a locked gate.....now, you park three miles away and hike on the gravel road to get there...
Now the whole area is a wilderness area..with permitting, classes, rooms to rent, educational awareness and programs...but it essentially looks the same...beautiful ...serene ....quiet....more trails, which are marked and little bridges to get to them....the old growth cedar still standing, guarding the minerals below....the mosses, covering the rocks with blankets of greenery...leaves drifting down with the gentle breezes, fall colors vivid in the bright sunlight...the creeks and river, crystal clear, revealing the rocks below....
all of God's creation open to enjoy and steward..He is such a magnificent creator...the beauty of it all ......
Thank YOU for your creation....the joy You must have in sharing it with us...
Genesis 1
Numbers 24:5-7a
5 “How beautiful are your tents, Jacob,
your dwelling places, Israel!
6 “Like valleys they spread out,
like gardens beside a river,
like aloes planted by the Lord,
like cedars beside the waters.
7 Water will flow from their buckets;
their seed will have abundant water.
Psalm 96:12 Let the field be joyful, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice before the Lord.
Isaiah 55:11-13New King James Version (NKJV)
11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
12 “For you shall go out with joy,
And be led out with peace;
The mountains and the hills
Shall break forth into singing before you,
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree,
And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree;
And it shall be to the Lord for a name,
For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
http://www.opalcreek.org
No comments:
Post a Comment