A hazy sunset on Mill Hill

The following letter was published in The News-Review on August 24, 2001

Thank you! to Pete Hunt for writing about the proposed relocation of the Tiller Ranger Station. The letter is well written and focused on facts with solutions. Disclaimer — facts as close as we can tell. A request has been made for information on facts & figures through the FOIA process. Eight weeks and still no information.

Emotion is what I bring to the discussion. Tiller Ranger Station has been the heart and soul of the Tiller community for more years than I can count. It is the gateway to magical forest experiences. The Umpqua National Forest outside Tiller is not well known. Perhaps that is what adds to the magic and mystery.

Since many of the employees working for the Umpqua National Forest don’t actually go out into the forest and live far away the mystery deepens. It is a complex puzzle of roads, spur roads, creeks & hiking trails. It has come to my attention that many of the road signs have been vandalized so it is now difficult to find one’s way.

Once upon a time there was a vibrant crew of employees maintaining signs, roads, campgrounds and trails with equipment and boots on the ground. That was approximately 20 years ago.

Relocating the office father away will only exacerbate the problem of poor trail & road maintenance. Having to drive more than an hour from the office to the job site would leave even less time for getting the job done.

There are slides (you know — photos) of the many magical places that were taken before the digital era. The two people I knew who could find their way to those places and shared the treat of visiting some of them with special fire crew members are now gone. The history house and slides remain.

Joanne Gordon
Days Creek, Oregon