An amazing collection – Baker City Rocks!: LAPC

When I walked around a corner into a gallery at the Baker Heritage Museum a couple years ago, I didn’t know what to expect. Wow, what a special moment! As you may know, I like rocks and this is an amazing collection of rocks, minerals, and fossils.

One of the first pieces you see is a 950-pound crystal from Arkansas. I would love to have something like that in my rock garden.

Giant crystal from Arkansas

Two sisters in Baker City, Mamie Cavin and Elizabeth Cavin Warfel, collected specimens for 45 years and donated their collections to the museum in 1983. The 18-ton Cavin-Warfel Collection, together with other donations at the museum, is considered to be one of the best collections in the country. In fact, at one time the Smithsonian offered $500,000 to acquire it.

Cabochons and cut pieces of picture jasper cover one wall. Cabochons are gemstones that have been shaped and highly polished, rather than faceted. Billy Wyatt donated this collection.

  • An amazing collection in Baker City

Colorful specimens of green malachite and blue azurite are in this cabinet. Both are secondary minerals found in copper deposits. Malachite is one of my favorites and I have a few in my collection. The Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries donated specimens related to mining to the museum.

Malachite and azurite
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Beautiful Beadwork – OWPC: Museum

Messages communicated without words

I am always amazed by the beautiful beadwork on display at the High Desert Museum where I volunteer. The carefully crafted pieces represent work by tribes of the Columbia Plateau in parts of modern-day Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

Beautiful Beadwork at the High Desert Museum 25February2018Tribes represented include Umatilla, Wasco, Wishram, Paiute, Washo, Chehalis, Quinault, Nez Perce, Skokomish, Chinook, Tillamook, Yakima, Warm Springs, Haida, Salish, Yaqui, and others.

Doris Swayze Bounds Collection of Native American Artifacts

They are artifacts with an emphasis on “art.” However, Native Americans in the 1700’s and 1800’s did not make art for art’s sake. Beads embellished utilitarian pieces.  Beads adorned items ranging from small handbags and knife cases, to deerskin clothing and footwear.

Beautiful Beadwork at the High Desert Museum 9December2015The High Desert Museum houses the Doris Swayze Bounds Collection of Native American Artifacts. Born in 1904 in Oklahoma, Doris Swayze Bounds later lived in Hermiston, Oregon, where she worked as a banker. She always appreciated Native American people and their culture. Many of the pieces in the collection were gifted to her by local Native Americans as a way of showing their respect and affection to her. The artifacts date from the 1870’s to the 1960’s. The collection has many pieces, but I focused on the beadwork in this post.

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Colorful collage of comestibles

 

Lots of colorful fruits and veggies to buy at the Farmer’s Market yesterday in Bend, Oregon.

Weekly Photo Challenge – Collage

Friday Flowers & Flag Bridge

Just couldn’t resist posting one more picture of a bridge.  The color of the flags on the bridge are changed with the various seasons, holidays, and events.  This bridge is not far from the one I posted on Wednesday.  The bridge is in Bend, Oregon and it goes over the Deschutes River.  There are some nice trails to walk on near the river.  It’s also fun to inner tube, kayak, and stand up paddle board here. Colorful flowers around the area are in full bloom.

Bridge at Old Mill, Bend, Oregon 7July2017Flowers and bridge in the Old Mill district, Bend, Oregon 7July2017

Weekly Photo Challenge – Bridge

Dee Wright Observatory: A wonder to behold

Dee Wright Observatory

Dee Wright Observatory in the distance from the trail

Dee Wright Observatory, Oregon

Dee Wright Observatory, McKenzie Pass, Oregon

Looking like some medieval castle about to be attacked by dragons, the Dee Wright Observatory is located near the top of McKenzie Pass at an elevation of 5,187 feet. No, there is not a telescope set up here for star viewing, but you can see several Cascade Mountain peaks nearby standing tall amidst 65 square miles of black lava rock.

The lava is from relatively recent flows from Yapoah, Little Belknap, and Belknap Craters. One of the types of lava you will see here is called Block or A A lava.

Though there is little rainfall in this area, there can be up to 20 feet of snow. The melting snow travels through cracks in the lava to underground reservoirs that feed the McKenzie and Metolius Rivers.

History of Dee Wright Observatory

The McKenzie Pass Highway follows parts of the McKenzie Salt Springs and Deschutes Wagon Road that was built in the period of 1866-1872. It was used to move cattle east. The wagon road was established as a toll road in 1872. It’s hard to imagine how travelers made it over the rough lava rocks at the pass and many had to abandon their wagons. See my previous post on the Santiam Wagon Road for a little bit more history on the wagon road.

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Hot Air Extraordinaire over Bend, Oregon

Harnessing hot air into giant works of art makes for some hot air extraordinaire. We went to Balloons Over Bend last weekend for a couple of their events. There were plenty of opportunities for photographs. In these first photos, I decided to focus in on some of the colorful shapes and interesting lines.

Hot air extraordinaire Multiple balloons in Bend, OR 23 July 2016
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