Sunday Drive: Oregon Wilderness, 1958

While we were staying at Fisherman's Trailer (now RV) Park in Winchester Bay during the summer of 1958, the owner Jack Himbaugh invited Dad to go with him on a visit to the gold mining claim in a remote part of Oregon* that he and a partner were working. The first photo shows the bulldozer the two men were using in their attempt to reach bedrock on the property.

[Northwest United States -- Physical. Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

To reach the claim, Dad said they turned off a county road onto a logging road, then left that to follow a fire trail, and finally several traversed a couple of miles of rough track bulldozed out of the wilderness, ending up at an old cabin built by earlier miners next to the gold-bearing stream. Farther on the canyon opened out into a sunny water meadow filled with carnivorous pitcher plants (Darlingtonia californica).

[Jack Himbaugh, right, and his partner Ferdinand (last name forgotten) on the left]

[Ferdinand standing next to the chain at the entrance to the claim]

[Jack drove an old Dodge Power Wagon--this was probably taken through its windshield]

[All color slides from my personal collection]

There were bears in the woods, one of which was causing problems for Jack's partner who lived on-site. But that's a story for another day.

*Probably in either Coos or Douglas County.



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