SISTERS, Ore. — As Oregon’s fall season ramps up, a stunning sunny workday is rare and welcome for the volunteer work crews at the Santiam Pass Ski Area Lodge.
Dwight Sheets is the chief project foreman at a site where the volunteers have little time to waste during the dry season that links 80 years of prized recreation history.
“Santiam Pass Ski Lodge was built to support Hoodoo Ski Area, which opened in the 30s. The lodge was built in this location to be closer and convenient to Hoodoo," he explained. "During the lodge’s first years, they had so many guests, and it was commonly full of people enjoying this new sport of skiing.”
Santiam Pass Ski Lodge is one of a handful of rustic projects built in the 1930s that are still operating. The projects put thousands of young people to work during the America’s worst depression.
Places like Honeyman State Park at the Oregon Dunes or South Falls Lodge at Silver Falls State Park continue to draw visitors. Plus, scores of other large and small structures were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps that put thousands of young men to work across Oregon.
“Santiam is one of the later lodges built in 1940, so you’re getting pretty late in the Civilian Conservation Corps period that ended in 1942. It didn’t have a lot of the detailed craftsmanship of metal work and woodwork and things like that, but it was constantly full of people,” Dwight said.
“It was the last of six major lodges built in the northwest in the 30s,” Susan Sheets explained. "Santiam Pass Ski Lodge was the second largest Oregon lodge after Timberline Lodge, and it remains the only one not in current operation — so we’re changing that.”
Dwight and Susan Sheets are passionate protectors of Oregon’s past who fell in love with the Santiam Lodge story. The two even visited it decades ago as kids.
Susan recalls the heartbreak they felt seeing it in 2016: It was a rundown wreck that had been closed by decay for thirty years. Yet, she also remembers that she and Dwight felt inspired to make a difference.
“We said to each other that we’ve got to do this! We have to bring it back!” Susan recalled.
So, the duo embarked on nothing short of a crusade to save Santiam Ski Lodge.
They sought and received a special use permit from the owner of the property, the U.S. Forest Service, and formed a non-profit “Friends of Santiam Pass Ski Lodge” group and then sought out restoration dollars wherever they could.
So far, they have raised over a million dollars for the project — not bad for retired teachers who say restoration class is in session every day at Santiam Pass Ski Lodge.
“We just thought this is a wonderful building that needs to be restored and come back and be functional for the community again,” Dwight said.
The exterior is nearly done — and it is impressive—– especially the towering entrance of cedar steps and rails. The builder, Miguel Medina of Beaver Creek Log Homes, felt privileged to design the new structure.
“This is the first time I’ve worked exclusively with full cedar logs," Medina said. "It’s so nice, soft and beautiful when it’s finished. It’s been a pleasure to help with the lodge restoration.”
Indoors is a different story and will take more time. Inches of rodent droppings have been cleaned out and so have the rotting ruins from so many harsh winters with cold, wicked weather.
“In 2020, we took off all the interior wall paneling and the boards could literally be pulled out with your hands," Dwight recalled. "You didn’t need any tools because the boards were so rotten.”
Still, the Sheets insist that the bones of the building are strong and provide solid testimony to the Oregon timber harvested right out the front door that was milled by the Civilian Conservation Corps boys in 1939.
It’s a building meant to last.
“This lodge is going to be around long after we’re gone, and we want people to enjoy it,” Dwight said. “We also want it to live as the legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps and what those young men put into it. We like to say the Santiam Pass Ski Lodge is coming back and coming back with the forest surrounding it.”
Be sure to watch the weekly half hour program of Grant’s Getaways. The show airs each Saturday and Sunday at 4pm on KGW.
For something different, you can follow my Oregon adventures via the Grant’s Getaways Podcast: Each segment is a story-telling session where I relate behind the scenes stories from four decades of travel and television reporting.
You can also learn more about many of my favorite Oregon travels and adventures in the Grant’s Getaways book series, including:
- "Grants Getaways I," Photography by Steve Terrill
- "Grant's Getaways II," Photography by Steve Terrill
- “Grant’s Getaways: 101 Oregon Adventures,” Photography by Jeff Kastner
- “Grant’s Getaways: Guide to Wildlife Watching in Oregon,” Photography by Jeff Kastner
- “Grant’s Getaways: Oregon Adventures with the Kids,” Photography by Jeff Kastner
The book collection offers hundreds of outdoor activities across Oregon and promises to engage a kid of any age.
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