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Smith Homestead Day Use Area and Forest Learning Shelter
A new education and recreation facility in the Tillamook State Forest now provides forest visitors, highway travelers and school children with a special place to explore the past, present and future of Oregon’s Tillamook State Forest.
The 38-acre Smith Homestead Day Use Area, operated by the Oregon Department of Forestry, opened in August 2003 marking the first phase of construction for the broader Tillamook Forest Center project. Located on the Wilson River Highway (Oregon 6) in the Jones Creek area of the Tillamook State Forest, the Smith Homestead Day Use Area features river access, picnic tables interspersed in the surrounding forest, drinking fountains, interpretive trails, restrooms and the 2,000-square-foot Forest Learning Shelter.
The Forest Learning Shelter is available for rent to the public for meetings and events. Smith Homestead Reservation Request Form
Designed by Walker Macy Landscape Architects in collaboration with the architecture firm of the Miller Hull Partnership, the Smith Homestead property was selected for a day use area due to its diverse environmental conditions, scenic beauty, rich history, and existing examples of pre-burn conditions in the Tillamook State Forest.
Envisioned as part of the broader Tillamook Forest Center project, the Smith site provides a new and important venue for conducting forest education programs. A major focus of the site is the Forest Learning Shelter, which overlooks the Wilson River and Kings Mountain, and provides an attractive and protected setting for programs and meetings of all kinds. The shelter, which easily accommodates 75 people, is available for rent by the public for a $100/day fee.
A Place for Forest Education
The shelter is designed to provide transparency through a series of overhead roll-up and sliding doors that open to the forest and meadow on three sides, creating a natural and airy setting. During the rainy months, the doors can be closed and the fireplace stoked, creating a sheltered forest education outpost.
"The shelter is going to transform our ability to offer programs," said Doug Decker, Project Leader for the Tillamook Forest Center. "We see about 120 inches of rain per year up here, mostly between October and April. The shelter gives us the ability to be out in the forest year-round, and to make education programs in the rain fun."
The Oregon Department of Forestry offers forest-based education and interpretation programs year-round that typically reach about 8,000 people each year, many of those being school children who travel from throughout northwest Oregon to participate.
Homestead with a History
The Smith Homestead site, rich with the cultural history of the Tillamook State Forest, takes its name from the first homestead on the upper Wilson River. The homestead was staked in 1886 by Walter and Alice Smith, where they reared their family and also operated a road house for travelers on the Wilson River Stage. In the 1933 and 1939 fires, the site was the base of fire camp operations.
"Protection and interpretation of the site’s sensitive natural and historic resources were major factors in guiding layout of the day use area," according to Bennett Burns, Landscape Architect with the Portland-based firm of Walker Macy. The interpretive trails and open air shelter were located around existing meadows to minimize impact on the land and create a park-like setting for casual picnics, educational programs and special events. Roads and parking were tucked into existing trees and laid out to minimize disturbance to the site. Areas impacted by development were restored with native plant materials and all storm water runoff was treated on site. Native plantings were based on the plant communities found at the site ranging from floodplain grasslands and riparian vegetation to mixed hardwood and coniferous forest.
Sustainable Design and Construction
Sustainable practices guided the design of the large shelter on the site as well.
"The shelter was designed to sit quietly on the edge of a meadow without drawing attention away from the surrounding Tillamook Forest," explained Architect Bill Franklin with the Miller Hull Partnership. Sustainable building materials include the countertop made from a natural fiber composite derived from a renewable, managed forest, the glue-laminated timbers used for the structural system, and interior tables and benches fabricated from wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
The site amenities and shelter were designed with an eye toward construction of the Tillamook Forest Center, which will be located about a quarter-mile downstream. A network of interpretive trails and architectural elements including the roofline, prominent gables, robust roof trusses and surrounding basalt rockwork will link the character and identity of the two sites.
JP Contractors, Inc constructed the shelter and surrounding Smith Homestead Day Use Area. The Oregon Department of Forestry has overseen the design and construction process and will operate the site, with maintenance assistance from the South Fork Forest Inmate Correctional Camp.
Partners in the Smith Homestead project include the Oregon Forest Resources Institute, which sponsored the Forest Learning Shelter; Tillamook Rotary, which donated the restroom facilities; the Northwest Oregon Economic Alliance, which furnished funds for the interpretive trails and signs; and the Hayes Family Fund at the Oregon Department of Transportation.
For more information about the Smith Homestead Day Use Area and the Forest Learning Shelter (including reservations), contact the Oregon Department of Forestry at 503-359-7494.
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