MOC 11 The cabin survived!

one little bird at week's end, Paislee Press weekender, sahlin studios chesterfield

journaling 626 words
The cabin at Detroit Lake has been a part of my life as long as I can remember. We spent summers going there on weekends, learning to water ski, lazing on the “float” that my grandparents owned and maintained, and going for boat rides. We were able to go there twice this summer. Once with our boat and once for a night prior to a backpacking trip. During that trip to Carl Lake there was smoke from fires that had started recently. The Lion’s Head fire and Beachie Creek Fires were small and not a threat enough to put out in the minds of the forest service. Then, on Labor day, an unprecedented wind event, the likes of which had nvever been seen before, kicked those fires up to a point they were too dangerous to fight and they burned out of control. Most of the city of Detroit was engulfed in flames and burned to the ground. I can’t even imagine the heat of those fires and how fast houses went up in flames. On the days leading up to September 9th we were all fixed to the updates on the fire sites and news and were pretty resigned to the fact the cabin was probably gone but I said I would not believe it until I saw it. Our surrounding areas all throughout the Willamette Valley were on evacuation notice and the air quality was hazardous all around. We couldn’t go outside and it was so toxic smelling. Next thing we knew we heard from a neighbor and old friend who walked around the house and took a video, that the cabin had been spared and had survived! We received the photo dated 9/9/20 and it’s hidden in the smoky brush back there! The town will take decades to recover and most of the businesses and marinas were destroyed but the silver lining is that our cabin and several others still stand!

In my grandma Dotsi’s words this month, “Lonny took 6 weeks off of his job (I was the breadwinner, yay, at Meier & Frank); on weekends our family would help. I think it was mostly good weather! We were always amazed how he figured out how to erect the gluelam beams by himself. It was the spring/summer of 1964. Your mom was just finishing her 2nd year at OCE and Beth was a senior at South; Wayne was 11. The loft was for him! We had a little RV in our adjoining lot where Lonny would stay and the rest of us on the weekends. During the first years we docked our boat at Kane’s. Such improvements they have made! We had our float there and first, when Von was a baby and tot, we had his own little space there. Then, when you were tiny, same for you.It was all such fun! Besides Swanee (their Beagle). Such a pet! I do hope the property can remain in the family!

I haven’t been up to see the destruction in Detroit but went through Gates, another town in the Santiam Canyon, to deliver gifts to a family we adopted for Christmas. So many houses gone, only chimneys and car frames still stand. My brother, mom, aunt, uncle, and grandma have all been up there to clean up the lot and said the whole town is just sad. So many gtrees will have to come down and it will take a long time to rebuild. Without the charm of houses 50 or more years old, some of which survived the move from what is now the bottom of the lake when the dam was built, the town will never be quite the same, but the heart of Detroit is strong and will eventually recover!