By Kristine Thomas
A visit to Silver Falls State Park is like traveling back in time for Louie Hubbard of Salem. The Douglas fir, hemlock and cedar trees may be taller and rounder, but each season the temperate rainforest redecorates itself with brown, red and gold for the fall and brilliant shades of green for the summer. The waterfalls continue their cycle from a trickle in late summer to an awe-inspiring crashing force in winter.
The park still has the same ambiance and majestic beauty it did when he first visited it in the 1970s, Hubbard said.
“I think what’s wonderful about the park is that every time you come back, it is still the same,” he said. “In this day and age, there aren’t many things like that. The park has been well cared for, for many generations to enjoy.”
Dorothy Brown-Kwaiser, interpretative ranger for Silver Falls State Park, said it is the mission of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department to “protect and preserve the park, which is under the National Historic Register.”
Brown-Kwaiser along with Vicki Sink, visitor services team leader, invites the public to attend the 75th anniversary of Silver Falls State Park. Oregon State Parks’ master planner Mark Davison will give a presentation on the park’s past and future.
Silver Falls City, platted in 1888, once stood where the South Falls parking lot is now located, Brown-Kwaiser said. With a population of 200 residents, Silver Falls City was home for the loggers who worked in the area and their families. The town had a general store, eight-room hotel, blacksmith shop, Congregational church, some houses and several mills.
If visitors to Silver Falls State Park look carefully at the large cedar or Douglas fir stumps, they may find springboard notches once used by loggers. Silver Creek also was a favorite summer recreation area for more than 50 years before the land was deeded to the state of Oregon.
June Drake, a Silverton photographer, was instrumental in lobbying for the land to attain park status in the early 1900s. He took photographs to showcase the 10 waterfalls – four of which visitors can walked behind. Because the area had been heavily logged, in 1926 an inspector for the National Park Service rejected the proposal to give it national park status. The inspector said the “thousands of stumps that from a distance look like so many dark headstones” defaced the area.
D.E. Geiser, who owned the land near the South Falls, once used it for circus-like stunts. He persuaded daredevil Al Faussett to ride a canoe over the 177-foot South Falls in 1926. Geiser charged a 25-cent admission for crowds to see Faussett take the plunge, which demolished the canoe and left Faussett with seriously broken ribs.
Now each year the feat is commemorated at the park. This year Al Faussett Days – Historic Silver Fall Days is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., July 12 and 13, at the South Falls Lodge and surrounding day use area.
The state began acquiring land in 1931 with the first 90 acres purchased on April 3 from George and Anna Parkhurst.
According to a document provided by park officials, Samuel H. Boardman, the state parks superintendent, earned the title of “father of Oregon State Parks” for his far-sighted planning. Boardman arranged the purchase of 100 acres, which included the South Falls, from D.E. Geiser for $10,000. Another 40 acres at North Falls was bought from the Silverton Lumber Co., for $2,000. These and other purchases totaling 700 acres were the nucleus of Silver Falls State Park which now covers 9,000 acres. The park was dedicated on July 23, 1933.
Both Sink and Brown-Kwaiser said the Great Depression provided the means to develop Silver Falls into a recreational park.
In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced Silver Falls would be one of his largest Recreational Demonstration Projects, employing young men in the Civilian Conservation Corps to develop park facilities. Brown-Kwaiser said many people aren’t aware that Silver Falls State Park is linked to Mount Rainier and Camp David. The three share design of the buildings and both Camp David and Silver Falls were part of Roosevelt’s Recreational Demonstration Areas.
The CCC workers arrived at what is now North Falls Group Camp in 1935.
“What many people don’t realize is the trees they see were planted by the CCC workers,” Brown-Kwaiser said. “The trees are all second-growth. The CCC workers planted 1 million trees.” The workers earned $1 a day.
From 1935 to 1942, workers from the CCC and Emergency Conservation Work Organization constructed roads, trails and parking areas, built rock walls, bridges, stairs and fences and installed power and telephone lines. The most notable structures built by the CCC were the picnic shelters and Silver Falls Lodge.
Working under the supervision of the National Parks Service, the South Falls Lodge was constructed in the same style as many famous lodges throughout the United States built during the same time period including Crater Lake, Timberline and Yellowstone.
Workers built the lodge using native stone and logs. If you look carefully at the stones, you’ll see the mark were a wedge was used to cut the stone, Brown-Kwaiser said.
The lodge, which features two large fireplaces, was completed in the spring of 1941 at the cost of $22,459 for materials. It was used as a restaurant until it was closed in the late 1950s. The lodge remained unused until it was restored in 1978 and is now the visitor center.
Sink and Brown-Kwaiser said the furnishings were crafted from myrtlewood. The furniture was designed by Margery Hoffman Smith of the Oregon Arts Project – part of the WPA.
The original furniture – 25 tables, 82 chairs, 11 wall benches and fireplace benches and a large dining room bureau – were from two myrtle wood logs that were 5 feet in diameter and 40 feet long. The furniture is still used today.
Because the park is on the National Historic Register, much thought and care goes into preservation and restoration of buildings. Currently work is being done on the kitchen stone shelter that was previously covered in vegetation.
When a building is restored, Brown-Kwaiser said the workers use the same tools and techniques as in the past.
“When we restore a building, we try to make it so it will last another 75 years so your grandchildren and your grandchildren’s children can appreciate what the park was like when it began,” Brown-Kwaiser said.
She said the park’s centerpiece is the 10 waterfalls ranging from the South Falls at 177 feet to Drake Falls at 27 feet.
While working in the Nature Store in the South Falls Lodge on a Saturday afternoon, volunteers Joan Dell and Patty Logan greeted guests from India, Canada, Hong Kong, Sweden and Wales as well as Texas, Maryland, New Mexico, Louisiana and Virginia – all eager to visit the falls.
What amazes both women is when they hear a guest share that it is his or her first time to the park.
“Silver Falls State Park is Oregon’s best kept secret,” Logan said. “I’ve met people who have never heard of the park. Some are amazed it’s been here for so long and they just now discovered it.”
Hubbard brought his friend Debbie Brown of Salem for her first visit. He was eager to show her the majestic falls and the historic lodge. Both the first-time and long-time visitor were awestruck by the park’s beauty.
“Everything is absolutely beautiful and breathtaking,” Brown said. “I can’t believe I’ve never been here before.”
