Timberline Lodge, masterpiece of the WPA

I originally wanted to go to Timberline Lodge because it was the place they filmed The
Shining, using it for haunted The Overlook Hotel.  It was only the exterior scenes they filmed there, and you can see why:  they get so many feet of snow that the windows are all covered up and it looks creepy, like you would go crazy if you stayed there for the winter.  This was actually the least amount of snow they had ever had.

I had planned to run around the outside holding up my finger and saying "Danny isn't here, Mrs. Torrance" in that creepy voice, or yelling "Redrum!  Redrum!"  or even having Matt chase me through the snow with an axe and then pretending to freeze to death and have that Les Brown big band music playing and that voice of the bartender saying, "You've always been here, Mr. Torrance" and all that.  But instead, I was bowled over by the amazing craftsmanship of the lodge itself, and forgot all about re-enacting The Shining.

The lodge was build as a WPA and CCC project during the Roosevelt Administration, and he and Eleanor came up here to dedicate the lodge in 1937.  It was stunning to see the way the huge beams had been hand-hewn and set perfectly, with no metal whatsoever holding up the massive structure. The ironwork was incredible as well; I could see the care and pride in each individual piece. I thought of all those men and women who worked on the lodge, people who had been out of work probably for years.  It reminded me of that part in The Grapes of Wrath where Tom picks up the shovel again, and Steinbeck defines humans as "muscles aching to work, minds aching to create."  Our tour guide started crying as he recalled meeting the last living man who had worked on the lodge  in 2012, a man who had cut the beams for the main lodge room with his father.

These beams are all perfectly straight.  Each weighs seven tons.  All the rocks in the central column were cut by hand.  It's been 75 years and there are NO CRACKS anywhere.  It is truly one of the seven wonders of Oregon. 

More about Timberline Lodge

Every detail of the lodge was a detailed masterpiece that obviously took time and care.  On the left is a camping scene, carved from linoleum.  On the right, a wrought iron, hand forged picture of Paul Bunyan's blue ox, Babe.  The WPA wasn't just about putting people back to work; it was about restoring their dignity.  This lodge is one of a kind, irreplaceable, impossible to replicate. However, there are reminders of the WPA and CCC all across the United States, from little stone amphitheaters in campgrounds to massive lodges like this.

Click here to learn more about the WPA

Speaking of the wonders of Oregon, we drove down to Bend after lunch, through some really beautiful scenery, and stopped at the Old St. Francis Hotel, whose soaking pool should be on anyone's seven wonders list.  We watched the second "Hunger Games" movie, (really bad except for Donald Sutherland who is so evil and Stanley Tucci who is so hammy).  It was very odd to see Philip Seymour Hoffman on the screen, too; I didn't even know he was in that movie until he showed up. Speaking of Visions of America, the parish priest here who oversaw the building of the St. Francis School had been exiled from Ireland after he was the chaplain to the Sinn Fein mayor of Dublin during the uprising!  He was sent to Bend, Oregon, of all places, and was greatly revered by the Catholics here until the day he died.