Award winning buildings house a great interactive museum/learning center explaining the management of Oregon's money maker ... lumber. This image shows one of the first fire trucks used to fight fires ... five barrels of water. Needless to say, it wasn't very efficient.
One of the interactive portions of the center shows you how to check tree rings to determine how old the tree is and whether it was a good or bad water year.
This image shows the old growth trees being logged in the early 1930's. Then disaster struck when one of the logging operations started a huge fire, named the Tillamook Burn. Once every six years, from 1933 to 1951, major fires took place here again and again, leaving 355,000 acres of old growth forest destroyed. Since the land was now worthless, it was eventually given to the State, who wisely decided to replant.
Be sure and watch the movie shown in the theatre. It lets you see and hear how devastatingly loud a fire can be!
Here the group learns about different types of trees and how they were affected by the Tillamook Burn. The docent passed around a baggie of "something" to smell ... I was too far away to see what it really was, but she SAID it was spruce branches.
In the biggest reforestation project in the world, many thousands of acres of land were planted with new trees that you see today. The old growth tree stumps remain intact due to their slow deterioration rate.
This fire lookout building is for demonstration purposes, to show some of the ways fires are detected in order to get fire crews on the job as quick as possible. When I was a kid, we were always climbing to the top of lookouts in the Sierras. I climbed to the top of this one too ... it's 72 steps!!
This is a great example of the new growth now being harvested to keep Oregon's lumber industry in the black. School kids, churches, neighbors and even some inmates, all helped to restore this area to what it is today.
Another source of concern for the Oregon Department of Forestry is the salmon run up Oregon's rivers, which are affected by the trees and surrounding habitat. They appear to be doing just fine!!!
We sat on the end of this bridge and had a great lunch provided by Hosts Dottie, Bob, Betty and Kurt.
While sitting at the table, this beautiful butterfly ... or moth, I'm not sure which, came by and landed on Bobbie's hand. She must have tasted good, because he stayed for quite some time.
Back at our rigs, it was Happy Hour, and a perfect place to celebrate Barbara's birthday ... we won't say how many years!! She was surprised with a huge card we all signed. Happy Birthday Barbara!!!!!
In keeping with our daily search for the perfect meal, dinner was at Pirates Cove, just north on Hwy 101. This was the view Betty and I had out the not-so-clean window. But who cares when you have scenery and food like this!! My cedar plank salmon with garlic mashed potatoes was awesome. A little on the pricey side, but the company and view made it so worth it!!
Just as we ordered, the train came by ... backwards ... going towards Garibaldi. Tomorrow we will be able to see who's watching US on this train!!
Next adventure ... The Tillamook Air Museum and Dinner Train!!
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