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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 2022
From surfi ng icon to Oregon rancher
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
MADRAS — Gordon Clark likes to
say he’s had two lives.
In the fi rst life, Clark was a Califor-
nia surfi ng icon and owner of the world’s
leading surfboard blank manufacturing
company. Surfer magazine once placed
him at No. 2 on its list of “25 Most Pow-
erful People in Surfi ng.”
In his second life, Clark, 89, is a
farmer who has raised thousands of cat-
tle and sheep at Hay Creek Ranch in cen-
tral Oregon, one of the state’s oldest and
largest ranch holdings, spanning 52,500
contiguous acres.
Clark says the common thread
between his two lives is that both surf-
board manufacturing and farming
require strategy, curiosity and hard work.
“I’m a nuts-and-bolts guy,” said
Clark. “I love solving problems and
working with my hands.”
Because Clark wasn’t raised on a
ranch, locals say he learned how to farm
“by asking a lot of questions and reading
a lot.” Often, Clark has copied ranchers
around him, trying to emulate their suc-
cess. At times, however, he has pushed
the boundaries: using drones to man-
age his cattle, applying variable-rate fer-
tilizer to his crops, installing inventive
systems to stretch water during drought
and using DNA profi les to improve his
herd’s genetics.
Reed Anderson, a fourth-generation
farmer and owner of Anderson Ranches
who met Clark through the Oregon
Sheep Growers Association, said Clark
isn’t afraid to try new things.
“There’s a lot of people that have
success in other businesses and they
have a kind of romanticism about own-
ing a ranch — you know, ‘Gunsmoke,’
‘Bonanza,’ ‘The High Chaparral,’ those
old Western shows,” said Anderson.
“They end up with extra cash to invest
and think, ‘Farming, that’d be fun.’ But
99% of them, when they fi gure out how
much work there is, it isn’t long before
they’re out of there. Gordon’s not that
way. He took the challenge head-on.”
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
In his farm offi ce, Gordon Clark looks at a map representing diff erent soil types and qualities.
The man of Hay Creek Ranch
It would be hard to overstate how
rugged Hay Creek Ranch is.
About 12 miles east of Madras, a
gravel road cut into the sides of hills
climbs up then dips into a valley where
the ranch headquarters lies.
In the highlands, hemmed in by
snowcapped blue mountains, cattle for-
age among rabbit brush, junipers, sage-
brush and craggy rocks resembling cas-
tle ruins.
Below, in the valleys, cattle graze and
sunbathe in meadows scumbled with
purple lupine.
Though Clark ambles slowly at 89, he
drives fast. His employees often see him
zipping up and down hills in his ATV
across terrain so inhospitable it deters
poachers and trespassers.
This land has played a prominent role
in central Oregon’s history.
In 1873, according to the Oregon
Encyclopedia, David Baldwin estab-
lished the ranch as Baldwin Sheep and
Land Co.
Oregon Historical Society lists the
ranch as one of the earliest locations
where alfalfa was grown in the state.
After Baldwin, the property passed
through many hands.
In the early 1900s, scores of home-
steaders lived on the property on 320-
acre parcels, and until 1912, the Dalles-
Prineville freight and stagecoach lines
ran through the ranch. The property had
a post offi ce, general store and school.
Today, skeletal wooden frames of home-
steaders’ cabins are scattered on the
landscape.
Sheepherders once raised 50,000
sheep here each year in an era with unre-
stricted use of nearby forest lands in the
Blue Mountains and Ochocos for sum-
mer grazing.
For decades, Clark raised sheep here,
too, managing about 4,100 head of fi ne-
wooled Rambouillets annually until, in
2011, wild horses overtook his U.S. For-
est Service allotments, leaving him scant
summer forage.
For two years, Clark said he went to
public meetings, asking the Forest Ser-
vice to control the wild horse population.
Finally, he gave up, selling his fl ock to
focus on cattle.
“I’m sad the sheep didn’t work
out,” said Clark. “It was a fascinating
experience.”
Bits of the sheep operation remain:
Clark keeps several Great White Pyre-
nees and border collies, which once fol-
lowed the fl ock. And by his fi replace
stand two stuff ed cougars that once
threatened Clark’s sheep.
On the fi replace’s mantlepiece stand
several trophies. The one Clark says he’s
most proud of is a plaque from Jeff er-
son County Livestock Association nam-
ing him 2010 Livestockman of the Year.
Beside that are surfi ng awards, glimpses
of a former life.
So, in 1994, he tried his hand at ranch-
ing with Rambouillet sheep he bought
from Cunningham Sheep Co. Around
1998, he added cattle.
Then Clark’s life took a U-turn.
In 2005, the surf industry was
shocked when Clark announced the
immediate closure of Clark Foam, which
surf experts estimate had been worth $40
million.
Clark’s main reason for ending the
business was that California’s environ-
mental and workplace regulations had
changed through the decades, in step
with changing scientifi c knowledge.
A major chemical in Clark Foam’s
blanks was toluene diisocyanate, or TDI.
When modern research brought to light
that TDI was toxic, public records show
that Clark began to face litigation, regu-
lations and citations from Occupational
Safety and Health Administration , the
California Environmental Protection
Agency and individuals.
In response, Clark closed his factory.
He started farming full-time in 2008.
The fi rst life
Clark had a lot to learn about farming.
“I was considered innovative in the
surfi ng industry, but in farming, I just
copied people,” said Clark. “I ask a lot
of questions, and every year, my ques-
tions get better.”
Recently, Clark has improved his cat-
tle herd’s genetics.
Clark’s program involves collecting
tissue samples from tiny punch-holes
Born near Los Angeles in 1933, Gor-
don “Grubby” Clark grew up by the
ocean, where he fell in love with surfi ng.
“When I was young, all I wanted to
do was surf,” he said.
In the 1940s and 1950s, he surfed on
heavy redwood boards.
As a young man, Clark worked for
legendary surfboard designer Tom
Blake, who invented the surfboard fi n,
and Hobie Alter, often called “the Henry
Ford of the surfboard industry.”
After studying engineering at
Pomona College, Clark returned to work
with Alter, this time on a special project:
experimenting with foam blanks, blocks
of foam from which surfboards could be
made. The fi rst lightweight foam-core
surfboard hit the market in 1958.
One year later, the surfi ng-themed
movie “Gidget” popularized surfi ng.
Demand spiked.
Clark opened his own surfboard
blank factory, Clark Foam, in 1961.
According to Surfer magazine archives,
the company at one time supplied 90%
of the blanks that went into Ameri-
can-made surfboards and 60% of blanks
worldwide.
At the crest of his success, Clark
looked for investment opportunities. He
recalls thinking that farmland, decreas-
ing in supply, would one day prove
valuable.
His chance came in 1993, when Hay
Creek Ranch went up for sale. A victim
of the savings and loan crisis, the prop-
erty came at a bargain.
Clark hadn’t intended to be a farmer,
but he recalls that when he started build-
ing fences, drilling wells and fi xing
things, he quickly realized he enjoyed
the work and treasured the land.
“It was fun,” he said. “I love build-
ing things.”
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Breeding better cattle
in cows’ ears. He sends the samples to
a lab called Neogen, where the DNA is
analyzed. Clark then logs into his online
Neogen portal to view data, including
EPDs — expected progeny diff erences
— which evaluate an animal’s genetic
worth as a parent and predict how future
progeny will perform.
Clark uses the data to decide which
heifers to breed and which to cull.
He also uses data on expected prog-
eny diff erences to decide which bulls
to buy. Every two years, Clark buys a
young, top-quality Black Angus bull and
uses its semen to artifi cially inseminate
600 cows per year, or 1,200 cows over
the two-year period.
“I’m very careful about the bull I
pick,” said Clark.
All of Clark’s artifi cial inseminations
are Black Angus bull to Black Angus
heifers. When a heifer fails to conceive
following artifi cial insemination , how-
ever, Clark breeds a Charolais “cleanup
bull” to that heifer.
Clark created a database to track
genetic improvements over time.
“His cattle are real good quality,”
said Mehrten Homer, founder of Painted
Hills Natural Beef, the brand Clark sells
to.
Clint Sexson, marketing and beef cat-
tle improvement committee chair at Ore-
gon Cattlemen’s Association, said that
while DNA collection to enhance EPD
accuracy is common in purebred oper-
ations, it’s rare among commercial pro-
ducers like Clark.
“On the commercial side, I’d say he’s
probably on the forefront,” said Sexson.
Clark breeds for three main traits: easy
birthing, small body size and grading
(mostly marbling). It might seem coun-
terintuitive to breed for small animals;
but Clark said he aims for able-bodied
cows that can handle steep terrain and
give birth easily on the range.
Karen Launchbaugh, professor of
rangeland ecology and director of the
University of Idaho Rangeland Cen-
ter, said this kind of landscape-oriented
thinking is innovative.
“I think it’s becoming more common
for people to get access to genetics,” said
Launchbaugh. “But what’s not as com-
mon is thinking about genetics in this
landscape sense. (Clark) is ahead of his
time on that one — thinking about how
the cattle fi t the landscape.”
Clark often uses drones to fi nd cows
on his vast property and uses walk-
ie-talkies to alert his seven employees of
the cows’ whereabouts.
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