McKenzie Pass...The Secret Unfolds

It was a long-awaited weekend exploring Oregon’s Three Sisters Wilderness and the McKenzie Pass. My wife and I were walking the shoreline of a pristine cross-country lake late in the afternoon. Slanting rays of golden sunshine softly lit the pine forest, where a warm breeze made a gentle, flute-like sound of tranquility.

As we came around the lake, the snow-mantled brilliance of the Three Sisters came into view above the treetops. We lingered at the picturesque vantage point, an ancient meadow where daydreams of contentment seemed to dwell.

As we looked about the area, we noticed many glistening objects lying on the ground amid the driftwood. We found them to be fragments of obsidian, evoking an image of Indian hunters chipping at arrowheads within the view of the Three Sisters. As each chip hits the ground, the arrowhead slowly takes shape; becoming a fine tool worthy of the game it will bring the hunter.

Every few minutes the Indian looks up at the Three Sisters, as if drawing inspiration from this family of lofty mountain peaks. Perhaps he thinks of his own family camped nearby, dependent on his hunting prowess for their livelihood. He returns to his task, finishing the obsidian to razor sharpness. Considering this for a few minutes, we were as my wife sagely put it, “lost in space and time”.

Native Americans traded obsidian from central Oregon all over the west. It has been found as far away as British Columbia and Mexico.

There are three main areas where obsidian is obtained in Oregon: from Glass Buttes, (south of highway 20 between Bend and Burns), the Newberry Caldera, and around the Obsidian Cliffs of North Sister. The obsidian from Glass Buttes is prized for its many colors and details, including rainbow, gold and silver sheen, green, snowflake, red, mahogany, flame, and midnight lace.

Obsidian is actually a form of volcanic glass that is chemically similar to granite and it is formed when viscous silica-rich lava cools rapidly, preventing a mineral crystal structure from forming. Without the crystal matrix, the resulting obsidian can be chipped off in curving fragments that form an edge only one molecule in thickness, much sharper than a knife blade.

Surgeons today employ obsidian blades for procedures where a regular scalpel would damage delicate tissue. The age-old art of flint knapping is being resurrected by archeologists and hobbyists interested in recreating techniques used by Stone Age hunters to make arrow points and knifes.

The techniques used to chip off a sharp edge on obsidian and flint are similar, but in general flint was more widely used because of its availability and the fact it held an edge better. Here in the Pacific Northwest obsidian was more commonly used, often found in campsites scattered throughout Oregon.

Many of these areas are still conspicuous today for public gathering, although frequent use has eliminated any historic remnants. Native Americans used the areas at Salem’s Marion Square Park and the oak grove at Silverton Rd. and 17th St. for hunting and trading camps.

Also near Detroit, the flat area at the confluence of the Santiam and Breitenbush Rivers was used for such purposes. In these places the daydreams of Stone-Age hunters carry across the millennium like the timeless view of our snow-clad Cascade peaks.

J.D. Adams: j1mcm0s@earthlink.net