Erskine’s Delight - Mary Christina Wood, Eugene

Dear Senators:

I give my strongest support to SB30, a measure to protect the Metolius Basin from development. I am one of the Wood family members that owns the historic Wood Camp below the Wizard Falls. I am also part owner, with my cousins, of a historic cabin, the Tooze cabin, on Tract O at Camp Sherman.

I am appalled by the development proposal. The Metolius is unparalleled in its quiet, serene setting. A destination resort would ruin the basin and deprive future generations of this stunning natural area. It represents the worst kind of predatory development.

You are the trustees of the great natural resources we Oregonians enjoy. I have immense gratitude and admiration towards you for stepping forward and proposing a bill that will protect this area.

Our family has camped on the banks of the Metolius at our property for generations. My three sons are the fifth generation on the river. My great-grandfather, C.E.S. Wood wrote the poem below at our Camp. The great General Marshall spent the few days prior to D-Day at our Camp. My father’s ashes are buried along the river, and the most pleasant enriching family times we had together were at the Camp. My grandfather on the other side of my family, General Lamar Tooze, had the cabin at Tract O. That cabin has become the family gathering place for generations of Tooze descendants. The river has also been the sacred place for Indians of the region since time immemorial.

If there is one place to pass along to future generations, it should be this river, in its quiet, peaceful, natural state.

It shocks the conscience to think that an established family like the Lundgrens would be behind this development proposal. The private property rights of a few should never be allowed to ruin a natural treasure belonging to the public. It is disturbing to think that any public officer would approve a proposal as devastating as this. They are allowing generational theft for the profit of a few exploiting individuals.

I’d like to leave you with a few lines from a poem that my great-grandfather, Charles Erskine Scott Wood, wrote in 1921 as he was sitting on the banks of the Metolius River at our family camp in Oregon. He was a lawyer, an author, and a poet, and about 70 years old when he wrote this poem. I have excerpted just the lines where he bequeaths certain things to his grandson, Erskine, who was my father. I hope it conveys to you the sense of obligation towards future generations in connection with the Metolius River.

I Charles Erskine Scott Wood,
Make now my last sure will and testament
For those grandchildren who share with me this solitude
And whom I must too shortly leave.
To Erskine Biddle Wood,. . .,
I give all trout in the Metolius. . .
I give him mornings on the river-bank,
Song of the river when the new sun shines. . .
And the solemn discourse of the pines,
At evening when the melting shadows fall
And Peace sits on the bank with folded wings’
The birds all [offering] a good-night call,
And deep in dusk a yellow warbler sings.
The river is for Erskine’s delight.


Sincerely,

Mary Christina Wood
Eugene, Oregon