Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, OR Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Page 5
Ex-smokejumper base seen as draw
(Continued from page 1)
“We think we can lev-
erage donations, grant
money, and other assistance
to do the repair work on the
buildings. All of this will
reduce or eliminate the ex-
penses that taxpayers of Jo-
sephine County will need to
pay to get this work done,”
said Buck, who served as a
smokejumper at the base.
One of the main objec-
tives of the group is to in-
crease the use of the airport
by the owners of private
airplanes who take weekend
trips with their families to
see places with interesting
stories and activities.
“We think that by offer-
ing consistent services and
interesting things to see and
do, we will earn a reputation
that will attract families who
travel by airplane,” said
Sharon Westcott, owner of
Fly Wild Air at Illinois Val-
ley Airport. “We want to get
these people to visit the his-
toric base, but we are also
going to be proactive at get-
ting them to visit other at-
tractions in the area.
“It’s a win-win situation
for everyone,” said the long-
time pilot and aviation en-
thusiast.
Group members hope
that by developing a self-
guided tour and a small mu-
seum, they will be able to
slow some of the tourist
traffic and increase the
amount of tourism dollars
that are spent locally.
“With the loss of O&C
funds, we need to get started
on alternative ways to gen-
erate revenues that can help
keep patrol cars rolling, li-
braries open, and roads re-
paired,” said Roger Brandt,
a valley resident who has
been working on tourism
development on the Hwy.
199 corridor for 14 years.
“We want to do what
we can to help extend the
amount of time travelers
stay in Josephine County so
they spend more money at
our restaurants, gift stores,
and other businesses that
depend upon tourism to gen-
erate their income,” said
Brandt. “It makes good
business sense to turn this
one-of-a-kind heritage story
into an attraction that gives
our community an advan-
tage in the competitive tour-
ism market.”
The group also plans to
aggressively promote other
attractions in the area, which
they hope will help increase
visitor spending locally.
The business plan in-
cludes a timeline to prepare
the site for attracting visitors
to the area to include bus
tour groups, and SSBMP
plans to schedule tour
guides to meet with groups
and take them around the
base on a tour.
“We already have an
offer from the National
Smokejumper Association
to help us organize a sched-
ule of visiting smokejum-
pers who might stay in the
valley for one or two weeks
and provide personalized
tours,” noted Buck.
“We hope to use volun-
teers to help visitors enjoy
their experience, spend
more time at the base, and
encourage visitors to see
other attractions in the area,”
he added. We can help to
increase the economic bene-
fit of heritage tourism at a
very low cost.”
The historic base has a
park-like setting and the
group hopes that regular
maintenance of the grounds
will make it a place that lo-
cal residents will enjoy us-
ing for picnics, family reun-
ions, and other family ori-
ented activities.
The Siskiyou Smoke-
jumper Base was the first to
be established in Oregon
and now has the oldest para-
chute loft in the United
States. It is one of the origi-
nal four smokejumper bases
established when smoke-
jumping began in the early
1940s. The other bases have
since been destroyed.
The Siskiyou Smoke-
jumper Base is perhaps the
most complete representa-
tion of early smokejumping
history remaining in the na-
tion, said SSBMP.
Smokejumping is a fire-
fighting strategy that quickly
delivers firefighters to
blazes in remote regions
where they extinguish them
while they are small and
easily controlled. Using this
technique, they were able to
prevent small fires from
becoming uncontrollable
and catastrophic infernos.
Smokejumpers para-
chute from airplanes to fires
and fight them on the
ground .
HALLOWEEN DAY was
observed by (from top)
Home Valley Bank, with
its six of Snow White’s
dwarves, plus her magic
mirror; Sterling Savings
Bank with its scary crew
of vampires; and the
staff at SOFCU Commu-
nity Credit Union, who
donned attire from the
1950s. The banks also
offered goodies for trick-
or-treaters, or any cus-
tomer with a sweet tooth.
(Photos by Dale
Sandberg for ‘Illinois Val-
ley New’)
If you think that changing clocks for daylight savings time is a nuisance, consider
the shadow clock, which told ancient Egyptians the number of hours before or after
noon. That clock had to be turned around each day at noon, which meant that if
someone forgot to move the rock they wouldn’t know what time it was.
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