Oakridge 9/5/25

As we approached Eugene, the smoke and haze off in the distance was making me a little nervous. I had checked the forest fire maps and the air quality readings for Oakridge and everything looked fine, but the sky was telling a different story. We'd made an unsuccessful trip to Oakridge last season, and I was really hoping we wouldn't be making the trip for nothing again. So, for week 1 of the season (last week was week 0. Don't ask me, I don't know why) we were back on the road headed south and up into the mountains:  South through Eugene, east along Highway 58 past Dexter Reservoir, and following the Willamette upstream to the town of Oakridge for the second season in a row.

Fortunately, in some strange optical illusion, that smoke and haze on the horizon vanished whenever we got close to it. It was like a rainbow; it was always just around the next bend, but we never found it. It was a beautiful drive through clear, sunny skies above us all the way. I'm sure there's some meteorological explanation, but I can't explain it.

This would not be my second trip to Oakridge, though.  My mother grew up there, and I’d been there countless times to visit grandparents and other assorted relatives.  In fact, my two uncles had lived right across the street from the football field in houses that faced each other across a side street.  I was too young to remember my dozen cousins growing up there together, six on one side of the street and six on the other, but I’m not too young to imagine the mayhem their neighbors must have endured until the two families eventually moved on.  I love my cousins, but I’ve often wondered whether my mom was ever really related to them at all, and if you knew her you’ve probably wondered the same thing. My dad married an Oakridge girl, and my best friend grew up and married an Oakridge girl. I'll let you decide for yourselves what that means.

Mason Williams’ mother also lived in Oakridge, and he attended Oakridge High, though he graduated from a school in Oklahoma City, where his father lived.  I can’t imagine two less similar places to split your time than Oklahoma and Oregon, but that’s what Mason did before attending and graduating from Oklahoma City University.  By 1968 Williams was the head writer for the Smothers Brothers TV show and had a monster hit with an instrumental composition called Classical Gas.  It’s a heavily orchestrated guitar song that somehow reminds me of spaghetti western movies.  People in 1968 thought it was something special though, and it’s been recorded by dozens of important people in the classical/instrumental world over the years, so what do I know?

Listening to it now, you’d never guess it made it to #2 on the pop charts.  I wouldn’t feel too bad if I had a #2 hit that was kept from the top spot by the Beatles or the Stones, or Otis Redding or Simon and Garfunkel, the Supremes or Tom Jones, who all had big hits that year.  But it was The Doors’ “Hello, I Love You” that kept Williams from reaching #1, which would be hard to live with.   Williams eventually spent a short stint as head writer for Saturday Night Live, but never had another big musical hit.  My dad has a story about actually seeing Mason in Oakridge in the late 60’s during the height of his fame, so evidently he didn’t completely forget the little town after he’d made it big.  He’s still alive and living in Eugene, where he was good friends with that other countercultural icon, Ken Kesey, until Kesey’s death.

As such, there were really only two choices when it came to our traveling music for this game.  I had prepared a 2-hour loop of Classical Gas so that we could listen to that, uninterrupted.  Or, since we were on our way to watch the Oakridge boys play football, we could listen to them.  I really wanted to be alive this morning to write this story, so I opted against making Mrs. Ednold listen to Classical Gas for the entire drive.  I’ve always liked the Oak Ridge Boys in small doses, but I doubt I’ll ever listen to them for over an hour straight again, as I chose to do on our way to Oakridge.  Everything in moderation, as they say.  And that goes double for country gospel vocal quartets from Tennessee.

Oakridge is a town of around 3,000 people completely surrounded by the Willamette National Forest. It was originally called Hazeldell, and its post office was established in 1888. When the Southern Pacific Railroad opened a station there in1912, it was named Oak Ridge by a railroad executive, and soon after that the two words were combined into one. The rails are still there, and Amtrak's Coast Starlight runs through Oakridge, but it doesn't stop there. After WWII, Pope and Talbot opened a sawmill to process timber from the surrounding hills, and the combination of the railroad and lumber created a mini boom for the town. But by the mid-1980's the mill was closed, and now the largest employers are the Forest Service and the school district.

Now, the town has reinvented itself as a mecca for outdoor recreation enthusiasts, artists, and craftspeople, and I can't claim to have seen that coming. There's still a strong conservative, blue-collar, mill-town feel to the place, but if you drive down East 1st Street these days there's also an undeniable artsy vibe going on, and the two seem to be coexisting nicely. On that street, not far from the Oakridge Yoga & Wellness building, Cog Wild Bicycle Tours, and the Keyboard Central music shop, we found the 3 Legged Crane pub and brewhouse for our pregame meal.

I'm no beer snob, and I'm not above a PBR or Rainier on most occasions, but 3 Legged Crane was the first cask-only brewery in Oregon, and the only place I've been that serves authentic English bitter beer. Mine was called Foggy Bog Bitter, and it's the best thing this side of Land's End. (I hear you: "But what about the Isles of Scilly? Everyone's always forgetting the Isles of Scilly". Hush. You know what I mean.) And it's not just about the beer. The service was good and the patrons were nice. It was a mix of old people, some of us younger people(!), and families with kids, and it's partitioned into several rooms that make the whole place really comfortable. As strange as it is to encounter this place in Oakridge, it's hard to imagine it being possible anywhere else. The local atmosphere has to be perfect to make it work, and it wouldn't be the same in Portland or even Eugene. but somehow Oakridge has it. Who would have guessed?

Oakridge has always been a little rough around the edges, but it’s certainly not a place I would describe as a Hell Hole.  But if it’s a Hell Hole you’re looking for, then you’re in the right general area.  Just head up into the mountains to the northeast of town and you’ll come to a place that’s been omitted from government maps for a hundred years since its discovery by loggers.  It’s on public land, and they can’t technically keep people from exploring if they want to, but the sides of the 200-foot-deep rift in the middle of what is now the Willamette National Forest that was formed by lava flows 2 million years ago are notoriously unstable, and for safety reasons its location is top secret.  So, forget I even mentioned the Hell Hole.  I have few enough readers without any of them being squashed by a giant rock landing on their head. 

South side main grandstand

As gametime approached, we headed back west on 1st Street to the high school. It's a non-descript couple of buildings, and they definitely didn't waste any money on any fancy architecture, but it seems to serve its purpose. In the old days the Oakridge Warriors were represented by an Indian, but these days their logo features a two-headed battle axe, so these warriors are a little more medieval. They compete in 2A Special District 3. They actually won a 6-man state championship in 1944, but that was a long time ago. In this century they've won 1 of their 34 games over the past four years. Ouch. Their opponents for this game would be the Vernonia Loggers, who haven't exactly been setting the world on fire either. Over the same four years they've managed to win 8 games. It would be nice to see one of these teams getting their season off to a good start, and of course we were hoping it would be the Warriors.

North side visitors' seating

Parking was not an issue, as we parked in the school lot on the north side of the street and walked across the crosswalk to the field on the south side. We paid our $6 each and made for the south side of the field where the grandstand is located. In keeping with the rest of the school, it's a no-frills covered grandstand with wooden bleachers on a steel frame: Functional and comfortable with plenty of leg room. The field is natural grass with no running track around it, so the spectators are close to the action.

I had skipped the 3 Legged Crane's self-proclaimed "best fish and chips in Oregon" so that I wouldn't spoil my gametime appetite, so as the crowd trickled in, I found the concession stand just off the southwest corner of the field. Fish n' Chips are good, but they're not Frito Pie! I don't even know why they put anything else on the menu. Who would eat anything else when there's Frito Pie?

The crowd was fairly modest by the time things got started, and the weather was a little too warm and muggy for my liking, but it was dry, and I wasn't freezing, so I didn't complain too much. The crowd continued to arrive throughout the first quarter, but the stands were never full, and we had plenty of room to stretch out.

It took a while for either team to hit their stride, but after a scoreless first quarter the Warriors began to assert themselves. Neither team had much of a passing game, but Oakridge has a couple of speedy backs, and one big tough one, and the Loggers had a hard time stopping any of them. 2A schools play a 9-man game, and Vernonia's defense couldn't seem to fill all of the extra space. After the Warriors ran for their first touchdown, the field lights began to blink and flash on and off, and I was concerned that the Oakridge power grid was having a meltdown. I needn't have worried. It was all a choreographed light show celebration. It's cool, and in a year or two everyone will be doing it, but Oakridge will always be the first place we saw it. By halftime the Warriors had opened up a 24-0 lead and were well on their way to their second win in five seasons, and we'd seen that light show three times.

As good as their team looked in that first half, it was strange that the players didn't seem to get much support from their classmates. The parents and younger sibling were there, cheering on their players, and there was a loud group of younger players in their jerseys in attendance. Middle schoolers? Pop Warner players? I can't tell anymore. Anyway, they were the de facto cheering section. But there were no cheerleaders, and no section of high school students needing to be led. There was a pep band, but it consisted of 6 teachers, former teachers, and former administrators. There just doesn't seem to be any interest from the students. The 6-piece ensemble did their best, and it was miles better than nothing, but it wasn't the same as a full band. And for the second time in two weeks the home team was playing my alma mater's fight song. I'm starting to think they're just doing it to make me feel at home, and if that's the case I don't want to sound unappreciative, but I'm seriously considering issuing a citizen's cease and desist order. You can't just steal another school's song and pretend it's your own, right? Am I wrong about this?

There were no dancing girls to give us a halftime show, and it's too early in the season for a homecoming ceremony, so we just sat and enjoyed the slight breeze that had begun blowing in from the west and slight drop in temperature after the sun had gone down behind the hills. It was a small crowd, but a happy one, enjoying a warm Friday night with their (so far) winning team. When the Warriors came back out for the second half they continued their dominance and had run up a 40-0 lead by the end of the third quarter, and along with the light shows we got to feel the rumble of the train that passed through town not far behind us as we sat in the stands. That score meant the clock would run continuously in the fourth. The Loggers did manage a late touchdown at the end of the game, but the night belonged to the Warriors, and things appear to be looking up for them for the first time in a long time. When the cheerleaders and pep band show up, they just might be unstoppable.

Those flashing lights at the football field proved to be merely a warm-up for the real show we were treated to on the way home. No, I'm not talking about the Oak Ridge Boys, or Mason Williams, for that matter. That humidity we'd been feeling most of the night was manifesting in lightning all over the valley that got closer the further north we got, accompanied by some much-needed rain. But thankfully, this time the conditions hadn't kept us from watching the Warriors in Oakridge.