First about Bend. It has become one of the most attractive cities for retirees, which is a bit of a surprise since it lies on sparsely-treed volcanic ground and about 175 miles from Portland, the nearest large city. Its major industry is tourism due to its closeness to the High Cascades. Mount Bachelor, a major ski resort, is 25 miles to the West. Its third-largest employer (with 1,400 employees) is Les Schwab Tire Centers, which operates over 400 retail tire stores in eight Western states. Bend has the corporate headquarters. The largest employer in the area is the local medical center.
Bend was a leader in the housing boom of the aughts, and has suffered in the aftermath of the bust. However, by outward appearances it looked pretty prosperous to me. That it, everything looked California-like new. The statistics say housing prices have dropped 40 percent and unemployment is in excess of 12 percent. Due to a lack of major industry, it looks to me like Bend will need to appeal to retirees to save itself.
Heading East I entered Ochoco National Forest. I decided to hit some of the back roads, and I was vain enough to think I had a route scoped out. I've been having great fun wandering the national forest dirt roads in my rental car over the past few days. That was until I hit "Vowell Trail" On the map it looked like a through road connecting to West Branch Road and on back to US Highway 26. For all I know Vowell Trail may go through, but if it does its more trail than road. By the time I turned around it was down to two tracks with a high center ridge heading into a bog. I finally made it out after descending another two-track path for a few miles and then ignoring a no-trespass sign at the edge of the national forest. (I declared a personal "emergency" to avoid a sense of lawless behavior).
While on my dirt-road trek, I came across the remnants of an extensive forest fire, which burned at least 5000 acres. It happened in August, 2008, and even now there is little sign of new vegetation. Here are a couple of pictures of the eerie sight.
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| Ochoco National Forest Fire Aftermath |
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| Ochoco National Forest Fire Aftermath |
The highlight of the day was the John Day Fossil National Monument. It is the most extensive discovery region for mammalian fossils in North America. The period covered by its fossil beds range from 55 million years ago to 7 million years ago. The extensive beds are attributed to the recurring volcanic activity in central and eastern Oregon, which has periodically generated volcanic ash mudflows that instantly buried and preserved plants and animals, both living and dead. The monument visitors center has an excellent representative collection of these fossils, identifying the locations and geologic periods in which they were found. The quality of the exhibits is as good as any in a major natural history museum, and is by far the best display I have seen at a visitors center. Here is an example:
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| John Day Fossil National Monument Museum Exhibit from Mammal Quarry Circa 40 Million Years Ago |
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| John Day Fossil National Monument Horizontal Flood Basalt Cap |
I have been operating on the theory that the flood basalt resulted from an asteroid that impacted in southeastern Oregon 17 million years ago. The signage at this location attributed the flood basalt to eruptions of the Yellowstone hot spot at about the same time. Because the North American Plate has been moving westward, the hot spot was beneath what is now the Washington/Idaho border at that time. According to this theory, the hot spot spread flood basalt into the monument area at least 17 times, at an estimated once every 8000 years. The conical peak on the left side of the above picture shows evidence of the numerous flood basalt flows.
Now, who was John Day? A noted explorer? A renown geologist? A farmer who stumbled on the fossils? None of these. He was a fur trapper who traveled to Oregon country in 1812. The most noteworthy thing that happened to him was that he was robbed and stripped naked by Indians near the point where the river that bears his name enters the Columbia River. He was later in route back to St. Louis in the company of other trappers when he went mad and was left behind in the general area of what is now the John Day River. He trapped in the area for the next eight years and died in 1820. Both the town of John Day and the national monument incorporated his name because that was the name of the river. Very strange.
Mileage: 255. Cumulative mileage: 2,175.
