THE BULLETIN • SUNDAY, AUGUST 21, 2022 A9
OREGON
How state parks evolved from roadside
picnic areas into iconic natural landmarks
BY JAMIE HALE • The Oregonian
O
regon’s first state park isn’t much. There are no waterfalls, no sweeping views, no interpretive center or historic buildings. Unless you happen live in the area, or are
driving past and need to rest, or are collecting state park experiences like rare coins, there’s not much reason to stop by.
One thing Sarah Helmick State Recreation Site does offer is a sense of contrast. It makes you wonder: How did Oregon state parks go from practical roadside pic-
nic areas like this, to the iconic natural landmarks that we now adore?
This year, the Oregon Parks
and Recreation Department
celebrates the 100-year anni-
versary of that first state park,
taking the opportunity to re-
flect on the past and consider
what parks might look like in
the future.
During the last century, one
thing has become clear: Parks
are an integral part of the Or-
egon experience, woven into
the fabric of our state identity
like nothing else.
Auto parks
When 98-year-old Sarah
Helmick donated her fami-
ly’s land to the state of Oregon
for a new recreation area, she
didn’t contact the state parks
department to do it — no such
department existed.
In 1922, parks were the
purview of the State Highway
Commission, which had re-
cently been empowered to ac-
quire land alongside highways
for conversion into recreation
areas known as “auto parks.”
The advent of the automobile
meant more highways across
the Pacific Northwest, and sub-
sequently a need for places to
stop and rest during road trips.
Christy Sweet, historian
and preservation specialist for
the Oregon Parks and Recre-
ation Department, said parks
were initially envisioned as just
places to stop for a picnic, a re-
stroom or maybe a good view.
“The whole camping idea
wasn’t in the state parks at all,”
Sweet said.
Neither were the concepts
of hiking, mountain biking,
kayaking or rock climbing. In
fact, one of the parks’ earliest
champions, Samuel H. Board-
man, stood staunchly against
using parks for recreation at
all, Sweet said.
In 1929, Boardman was
tapped to helm the new State
Parks Commission, which
quickly grew the state park
footprint from 4,000 acres to
66,000. Under his leadership,
the state purchased land that
would later become Silver
Falls, Oswald West and Ecola
state parks, among others. He
bought defunct lighthouses
that are now iconic landmarks
and snatched up surplus mili-
tary land. His impact was enor-
mous, but Oregon’s state parks
remained places to stop and
look, not to stay and explore.
In Boardman’s opinion,
state parks were meant to be
preserved from human im-
pact, and camping was there-
fore heretical, Sweet said. That
changed almost immediately
following his retirement in
1950; two years later, Oregon’s
first state park campgrounds
opened at Silver Falls and
Wallowa Lake. People flocked
to the new campsites, and
within 10 years, some 44 ad-
ditional campgrounds were
developed and constructed
around the state.
“It seems to me that peoples’
views of how they want to ex-
perience nature and history
changes over the years, and
state parks change as it goes
along,” Sweet said.
The years following World
War II saw an increased interest
in outdoor recreation, buoyed
by the recent standardization
of the five-day workweek and
the growing middle class. Ore-
gonians suddenly had time and
money to explore the state’s nat-
ural beauty, and state parks of-
fered easy access and amenities
to do just that.
Oregon state parks also ben-
efitted from the environmental
movement of the 1960s and
‘70s, which saw a surge in sup-
port of ecological causes, espe-
cially among the burgeoning
counterculture rooted locally
in Portland and Eugene. From
hippies to hunters, everyone
seemed to love their local parks.
The only issue was how to fund
the upkeep of these beloved
places.
As part of the State Highway
Commission (which was later
folded into the Oregon De-
partment of Transportation),
the state parks program was
funded primarily through Ore-
gon’s gas tax. In 1980, voters ap-
proved a constitutional amend-
ment that limited the revenues
of gasoline and highway user
tax money, shifting park fund-
ing to the state’s General Fund
and leaving it more susceptible
to economic fluctuations, like
the early ‘80s recession.
In 1989, the state legisla-
ture created the Oregon Parks
and Recreation Department,
officially cleaving parks from
ODOT, but chose not to desig-
nate a source of funding, leav-
ing the new department hang-
ing in the wind. No new parks
were created, the maintenance
backlog grew and some parks
contemplated shutting down .
Anecdotes from those years
come in various shades of des-
peration. In one, park rangers
planed down old highway signs
to make picnic tables. One state
park sold Beanie Babies in its
Jamie Hale | The Oregonian
A visitor takes a selfie in front of Lower South Falls in Silver Falls State Park.
gift shop, purportedly raising
$100,000 in a year. Managers at
a coastal park allegedly consid-
ered selling lots for condos, but
never got around to it.
“They were looking at any
source of funding,” Sweet said.
“During the ’90s it was a terri-
ble time.”
In 1998, the parks depart-
ment finally found relief after
voters overwhelmingly ap-
proved a ballot initiative that
sent a portion of state lottery
funds to parks and beaches.
The Oregon Lottery remains
the primary source of fund-
ing for the Oregon Parks and
Recreation Department today,
along with recreation fees and
RV registration fees.
With funding in hand, the
department began to address
long-neglected maintenance
issues and once again began
to build new parks. Between
2005 and 2018, the depart-
ment created eight new parks
around the state, including
L.L. Stub Stewart in the foot-
hills of the Coast Range, Cot-
tonwood Canyon in the high
desert of north-central Ore-
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OBITUARY
Paul E. Sobel
April 25, 1923 - July 29, 2022
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Principal Broker, Licensed in Oregon
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OBITUARY
Paul E. Sobel, a resident of Bend, passed away
on July 29, 2022 at the age of 99. He was born to
Eva and Charles Sobel in Chicago, Illinois on April
25, 1923.
Paul served as a Lieutenant with the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II as
a Navigator in a B17 Flying Fortress with the Eighth Air Force. He completed
35 active missions over Germany and France and was awarded many medals,
including the Air Medal with five Oak Leaf Clusters. In 2016 Paul was bestowed
the French Legion of Honor for his service to France during the WWII Battle of
the Bulge, by the Honorary Consul of France in the Northwest, on behalf of the
French President. Before serving, he attended The University of Illinois, and
upon his return attended the University of Michigan and Millikin University in
Decatur, IL where he received a B.S. in Industrial Engineering.
Paul and his wife, Edee, celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary in June
of 2022. Paul owned several Manpower Inc. franchises and later served as a
consultant to Manpower International. He was active in many environmental
and humanitarian causes, and taught solar and alternative energy at the
University of Wisconsin Parkside and at various community colleges in Oregon,
Wisconsin, and Arizona. Paul was a 32nd degree member of The Scottish Rite
Masons, and as a 13 year old was the youngest Eagle Scout in the city of Chicago.
In 1997 Paul and Edee moved to Arizona from Wisconsin, where they wintered
while spending summers in Sunriver in their passive solar home that Paul
proudly designed. They moved to Touchmark in Bend full time in 2014.
Carolyn Louise
(Blakely) Nelson
OBITUARY DEADLINE
Instagram famous
Peter Marbach stood in the
halls of the Oregon Historical
Society museum, reminiscing
about his photos that hung
in an exhibit on the walls. To
celebrate the state park cen-
tennial, the historical society
commissioned Marbach to
drive around and document as
many parks as he could, dis-
playing his photos as part of
an exhibit called “A Century of
Wonder: 100 Years of Oregon
State Parks.”
“How lucky are we to live
in a place like this?” Marbach
said, eyeing his photos of
beaches, waterfalls, mountain
snow and desert wildflowers.
“It’s pretty miraculous, just
that foresight that (Oregon)
leaders had to do this, to make
it possible for us.”
One thing that makes Mar-
bach’s exhibit so striking is
how familiar the pictures have
become. Social media feeds
are now flooded with photos
of Smith Rock, Silver Falls and
the many scenic parks on the
“Catch My Drift”
D N
of Bend, OR
June, 3, 1930 -
August 16, 2022
Arrangements: Niswonger-
Reynolds Funeral Home
Bend, Oregon 541-382-2471
Services: Memorial service at
2PM on Friday, September 16,
2022 at Niswonger-Reynolds
Funeral Chapel (105 NW Irving
Ave., Bend, OR)
gon, and Iwetemlaykin in the
Wallowa Mountains.
Oregon coast, as more and
more people drive out to visit
them.
In 2010, state parks drew
a total of 41,498,739 day-use
visitors statewide. In 2016,
those numbers surpassed 51
million, and by 2022 they
eclipsed 53 million people.
Park officials have attributed
the recent popularity to a vari-
ety of factors, like the increase
in population and difficult eco-
nomic times. One factor that
can’t be ignored is the power of
social media, particularly the
photo-sharing app Instagram,
which debuted in 2010.
Pull up Instagram and you’ll
find hundreds of accounts
sharing beautiful pictures of
Oregon’s natural places, send-
ing them to the feeds of mil-
lions of people. State tourism
agency Travel Oregon has
some 367,000 followers on the
app, more than eight times the
following of Gov. Kate Brown.
The Oregon Parks and Recre-
ation Department has a nice
audience as well, with more
than 71,000 followers.
In 2021, a total 1,124,340
day-use visitors and 76,079
campers stopped by Silver
Falls, making it one of the bus-
iest outdoor recreation areas
in the state.
“I think we’re just on peo-
ples’ list of places to see when
you come to Oregon,” Gilliand
said. “We’ve probably had
somebody here from every-
where in the world.”
Upon retirement, Paul gave many speeches about the Eighth Air Force and
other passionate causes. He was an avid tennis player, runner, and biker who
attributed his health and longevity to staying active mentally and physically.
Michael J Gwinup
May 18, 1954 - March 31, 2022
Celebration of Life
September 10th at 2:00 pm
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
601980 Skyline Ranch Rd.
Bend, Oregon 97703
Join us to celebrate the life of Michael Gwinup.
Beloved husband, Dad, Papa, and Friend.
He was a devoted and caring family man who was loved deeply by his family
and will be missed by all who knew him. Paul is survived by his loving wife
of 73 years, Edith M. Sobel (Meyer), three daughters: Linda Roberts (Ron)
Highlands Ranch, Colorado, Laurie Lubliner (Rob) Portland, Oregon, Jan Ellen
Long (Ken) Vancouver, Washington, six grandchildren and their spouses, eight
great grandchildren and a niece and nephew.
Contributions can be made to: Partners In Care Hospice, 2075 NE Wyatt Ct.,
Bend,OR 97701; Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, Attn: Development,
3727 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Portland, OR 97212; or the Environmental
Defense Fund, PO Box 98051, Washington DC 20077-7004.