Oregon's Mount Hood Territory Heritage Trail: Route 224

Actually, you go a little bit on Route 212 also. 

These three stops are within 12 miles of each other, with a pretty easy route.

Despite that, they are all very different, in their history and in their current usage.

The Damascus Fiber Arts School started as an elementary school, built in 1876. 

At almost 150 years old, it is impressive that it is still in service, and still teaching.

The current focus is on tapestry and weaving.

The other building that is still in regular use is Estacada City Hall, built in 1938. 

Like the Municipal Elevator in Oregon City, it was build by the Civilian Conservation Corps. 

It originally served as the library and fire station. It now acts as the center of local government.

While both buildings have certainly had updates over the years, they also show pretty sturdy construction and adaptability. 

Between Damascus and Estacada is the Philip Foster Farm in Eagle Creek.

This is the oldest of the sites, established in 1847. 

While many of the original buildings are intact, the site itself is a historical site, offering tours and field trips.

The farm is especially known for its association with the historic Barlow Road.

Obviously, not all of the buildings are the same age.

One of the houses was built when Barlow lured his daughter and her husband back from Southern Oregon.

The store is a recreation, and the starting place for tours.

While you are supposed to be able to customize your tour, we felt some pressure.

As we were looking at the outbuildings, we were accosted by a woman in historical clothing who told us when the next tour was starting, then insisted we had to pay whether we took the tour or not.

Then, the woman in the store said we did not have to pay to just look around.

We appreciated that, but the rest of our looking went faster because we did not have to deal with the first woman again.

I am sure she puts a lot into the tour-giving experience.

There is still a lot to look at, but you may want to watch out for thespians.

COVID: Mostly outdoors, but of course this depends on your usage.

If you are simply looking at the outside of the city hall and the school, that is one thing. These are working buildings though, with functions and activity inside.

Accessibility: For the two working buildings, getting around outside is easy, and it looks like they might be fine inside too, though we did not test this. (Neither was open when we were there.)

For the farm, things are mostly flat and there is a ramp to get into the store.

However, it is mostly not paved, and there would be activities like sawing and things that may not be accessible for anyone. Since the tours are so customizable, they should be able to answer questions about the options.

 https://www.mthoodterritory.com/heritage-trail-map

https://damascusfiberartsschool.org/ 

https://philipfosterfarm.com/ 

https://www.cityofestacada.org/

 

Estacada Public Art

We recently read about a series of murals in Estacada.

The mural project itself, conceived of by a group of local artists, goes back to 1992. 

As we needed to get to Estacada for the library and for another stop on the Heritage Trail, we made an effort to seek out the art as well.

In some ways it was very easy. Once you show up in approximately the right part of town you will begin spotting murals.

As you walk to explore, more will appear. Spotting most of them becomes very easy.

There are a few exceptions.

First of all, there are two that are not in downtown Estacada: Bird Party (lead artist Kolieha Bush) at Wade Creek Park and An Evening on the Barlow Road (lead artist Am Griswold) at the Philip Foster Farm.

The farm is also a stop on the Heritage Trail, and will be featured next week. Once there, the mural is clearly visible. It is easy to go the wrong way at the park.

Wade Creek Park is kind of divided by the library and water. The mural is on the playground side. If you are facing the front of the library, go right. Going left gives you a picnic shelter and performance area.

If you are in the right place, those are still relatively easy to find. There are some in the main area that become a little more complicated.

One is Celebration '98 (lead artist Kolieha Bush) at the Harmony Baking Company, which was fenced off. It could be seen from the right part of the sidewalk.

Otherwise, I think I had not realized exactly how small the mini-murals would be. That may be why I could not find them. Some of the regular murals are so large -- like The Cycle of Wood (lead artist Joe Cotter) -- that "mini" could still be good-sized.

Farm Scene (lead artist Eileen Belanger) was not designated a mini-mural, but when we found it, it clearly was. Since it was listed as outside the Estacada Food Bank, instead of just a street address, that helped in finding it.

If you are looking at the Artback map, you will see that some of them have been decommissioned, and there are no traces now. I wondered about this, but seeing some of the older ones -- where there is not just fading but pieces missing -- it may be best to think of this as something that is temporary; enjoy it while you can.

There is a lot of variety in the art, with most of it depicting local traditions and history.

Often there is a nice synchronicity between the location and the subject, like Fishing the Clackamas (lead artist Jenny Joyce) at Clackamas River Outfitters, or Tales of the Trails (lead artist Joe Cotter) at The Trails Inn and Timber Room.

While the murals themselves are eye-catching, there is an additional pleasure in taking a closer look at the details.

It's worth wandering around.

COVID: This is completely outside, and distancing is easy.

Accessibility: While there are no stairs or anything in the way like that, some of the art can be harder to get to, as noted throughout. Viewing the whole and the details will often require crossing the street, so use caution.  

https://www.artbackmurals.com/