Story Photos
 The water in Opal Pool can appear a bright emerald green or a dark blue. Mike Stahlberg / Eugene Register-Guard
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Miners came looking for gold land silver; the real bonanza was Opal Creek's beauty
Thursday, July 24, 2008 11:48 PM PDT
By Mike Stahlberg
The Eugene Register-Guard
Printable version
E-mail this articleJAWBONE FLATS – The first permanent residents of this one-time mining camp in the Old Cascades 40 miles east of Salem came seeking gold, silver and other valuable metals.
Now thousands of hikers and nature lovers pass through here each year, lured by a priceless gem of the Cascades — the 20,827-acre Opal Creek Wilderness Area and the adjoining 13,538-acre Opal Creek Scenic Recreation Area.
The centerstone of the region is Opal Creek, a frothy stream whose pools can match blue-green luminescence with the finest Australian fire opals.
History tells us, however, that Opal Creek was named after Opal Elliott, the wife of an early-day ranger, not after the gemstone. Nevertheless, it is fitting that this natural sparkler — saved from logging a dozen years ago — shares the name of a gem that is best left uncut.
Congress created the Opal Creek wilderness and scenic areas in 1996. Separate designations were necessary because the road and buildings constructed by miners at Jawbone Flats in the 1930s left the lower portion of the watershed too scarred by the hand of man to be eligible for wilderness status.
Nonetheless, Audubon magazine last year listed Opal Creek as one of “10 paradises preserved.”
And that old mining camp — with its dozen wood-frame buildings and uncounted rusty remnants of ore carts, trucks and machinery — helps make the Opal Creek complex a multi-faceted nature experience.
For Jawbone Flats is now home to the Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center, a non-profit organization whose mission is to “promote ancient forest stewardship through educational experiences inspired by Opal Creek’s natural and cultural history.”
Before it obtained wilderness status, the Opal Creek watershed was popular with hikers, bikers, backpackers, nature lovers and history buffs. And with people who were curious to see a forest of 1,000-year-old Douglas fir, western hemlock and western red cedar trees untouched by clear-cutting.
Now it also draws people interested in immersing themselves in a beautiful natural setting while learning about everything from amphibians and medicinal plants to wilderness survival and yoga. All of those are among the topics covered by the nearly two dozen workshops offered at the Ancient Forest Center this year.
In addition, the center hosts groups of up to 45 school children, who learn about stream and forest ecology during late spring and early fall visits.
“We probably work with 1,500 to 2,000 people a year,” said Katie Ryan, the Ancient Forest Center’s program director and one of four year-round residents of Jawbone Flats, which is often snow-bound in the winter. The on-site staff grows to about a dozen in the summer.
Visitors sleep in one of several cabins or the bunkhouse, eat in a dining hall and study indoors in a former commissary building turned classroom. All are either renovated original buildings or, in the case of three newer structures, rebuilt to replace ones that caught fire and burned down. A $1.5 million gift from a foundation financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen helped finance the improvements.
“We try to do mostly overnight programs just because spending a night in the forest has a pretty good impact on people,” Ryan said.
The Ancient Forest Center began “ramping up” its educational offerings about four years ago, Ryan said, in an attempt to make it more financially self-sufficient.
But people need not sign up for a workshop or class to spend a couple of nights at Jawbone Flats. The cabins are available to rent on a space-available basis.
While the center is “off the grid,” it does have electricity and hot running water, thanks to a small water-wheel-driven hydropower station and an array of solar panels on the commissary roof.
In addition to people staying at the Ancient Forest Center, “I would say another 10,000 or more people a year hike through, checking it out,” Ryan said.
One of the main things people come to check out is Opal Pool, about a 10-minute walk from Jawbone Flats. The creek cuts through a long slot in the bedrock and spills into a pool of unbelievably clear water surrounded by steep rock walls. Depending upon the angle of the sunlight hitting it, the water can appear a bright emerald green or a dark blue.
“The water is the purest, blue, crystal clear water anywhere,” Ryan said.
It’s also icy cold. Some visitors take a quick dip in the pool, but none linger. In fact, participants in a wilderness medicine workshop held at the Ancient Forest Center last week practiced treating the symptoms of hypothermia on a few shivering volunteers who had immersed themselves in the waters of Opal Creek.
Visitors to Jawbone Flats walk or bike the 3.1-mile gravel road from a gated trailhead at the end of Forest Road 2209. The Ancient Forest Center offers twice-a-day van shuttle for luggage and other gear. Forest Road 2209 is an unpaved extension of North Fork Road, which follows the Little North Santiam River up the Elkhorn Valley from State Highway 22, just east of Mehama.
Jawbone Flats is a portal to one of the largest contiguous uncut old-growth forests in Oregon. The Opal Creek Wilderness in the Willamette National Forest abuts the Bull of the Woods Wilderness to the northeast in the Mount Hood National Forest.
Hiking opportunities in the Opal Creek watershed include about a dozen trails. Among them are Opal Creek Trail (a slightly longer alternate route to Opal Pool and beyond to Cedar Flat), Battle Ax Creek and Battle Ax Mountain Trails, French Creek Trail and Whetstone Mountain Trail. The latter can be hiked as a strenuous 14.5-mile loop trail or an 11-mile summit-and-back round-trip hike with a 3,000-foot elevation gain.
There are no improved campsites within the Opal Creek wilderness or scenic areas. However many dispersed campsites exist along the various trails and are used regularly by backpackers.
For more information about Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center programs and accommodations, log on to: www.opalcreek.org
For details about hiking trails in the Opal Creek Wilderness Area and Opal Creek Scenic Recreation Area, see: www.fs.fed.us/r6/willamette/recreation/tripplanning/trails/opalcreekwilderness/index.html
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