Editor:
I feel our government has been negligent in letting one of its rivers destroy a beautiful century old park.
Brownsville Pioneer Park is more than a park. It is a centuries-old Calapooia Indian Camp Ground. As the swift waters of the Calapooia River wash the bank away, it uncovers many old Calapooia Indian artifacts. As the founder of the Willamette Archaeology Society, I feel it is a very serious crime to let the river destroy this sacred Indian campground.
Each summer when the water of the river is low, you once would find many people bent over and searching the gravel bar for Indian artifacts, mainly stone tools, such as pestles and mauls.
Why do I care? My home was in Brownsville for many years and I graduated from the old high school in 1952.
There are many activities offered at this fine park. There are baseball diamonds, the horse show arena, professional horseshoe pitching grounds, the Linn County Loggers Jamboree grounds, and a wonderful children’s playground equipment in an area very near the disaster area.
I feel it is the responsibility of our government to keep this river under control and children safe from drowning.
Citizens are not allowed to work on the river problem. The park restrooms are being torn down because of the river. The river was not always running astray.
Years ago, the Brownsville people took action and dug out parts of the river to keep it on course and they also dug huge holes in the river bank and placed old car bodies to keep the soil in place. Probably not a good idea today!
Later one of the local sawmills donated their D-8 cat to open up the original channel. Workers then shoved gravel against the cut bank sloping it with river rock. Now what was wrong with that second idea?
But today the citizens have not been allowed to take any action to stop the flow of this out of control river.
The original channel is a 3-foot-plus-high gravel bar. The only way I can see to stop the river from taking away the banks is to dig the old channel much deeper.
Bit by bit the park is being destroyed.
Before long the park will be lost and all the wonderful Indian artifacts that have been found lying on the grounds will be swept away, and then the playground equipment, and the logging contest grounds.
Call me if you have a better idea!
Bob Waibel
Sweet Home
(541) 367-3803
Editor’s note: Normally we don’t run writers’ contact information but we’re making an exception in this case because Mr. Waibel requested it.