Dee Wright Observatory. Lee Russell Photographer, July 1942.
-- Image courtesy U.S. Library of Congress Archives, American Memory Website, 2002,
from the Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection
-- Courtesy: USFS Deschutes National Forest Website, November 2000
- Location: Hwy. 242 at McKenzie Pass
- Access: 14.9 miles west of Sisters, Oregon, on Hwy. 242
- Elevation: 5,200 feet
- Facilities: parking, interpretive signs
- Special Activities: views of the Cascades
- Operated by: U. S. Forest Service
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[Map,17K,InlineGIF]
Bend/Sisters/Santiam Pass/McKenzie Pass Area
-- Modified from:
Taylor, Oregon State University, 1981, IN: USGS Circular 838
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The Dee Wright Observatory is a stone memorial to the famed architect Dee Wright. It is located in the
middle of a massive lava flow and offers panoramic views of the Cascade Mountain Range, as far north
as Mt. Hood. A barrier free access trail takes visitors to an interpretive court,
offering information on the history of the structure built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corp.
At the top of the observatory,
a bronze peak finder points to geologic features amidst sweeping lava fields. The half-mile Lava River
Interpretive Trail takes visitors on a 30-minute walk on a paved surface through lava flows with
spectacular vistas of the surrounding landscape.
--
Information courtesy:
National Scenic Byways Online Website, November 2000,
information provided by Stacey Smith of the McKenzie Ranger District
During the 1930's, Franklin D. Roosevelt began a
program called the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC).
The CCC enhanced numerous
recreational opportunities along the McKenzie
Pass-Santiam Pass National Scenic Byway. They
built the lava rock structure at the
top of McKenzie Pass and named it after their foreman,
Dee Wright. Since its completion in 1935, the observatory has been a
favorite attraction for thousands of visitors.
Evidence of the CCC's work remains at Clear Lake,
located on Highway 126, where a
rough-hewn timber shelter is used today for groups
that picnic in the area. This shelter stands as
a reminder that journeys through
these passes have changed through time, but the
elements of past experiences remain.
--
Information courtesy:
National Scenic Byways Online Website, June 2002,
information provided by USDA Forest Service, 1998
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The following landmarks are seen proceeding clockwise
from true north in azimuthal degrees:
-- Excerpt from:
Taylor, Oregon State University, 1981, IN: USGS Circular 838
- 0 --
Mount Jefferson:
-
Andesitic composite volcano
- 7 -- Cache Mountain:
-
Glaciated basaltic andesite volcano, 0.9 million years old,
with late Pleistocene basalt cinder cones and lavas on summit.
- 11 -- Bald Peter (far horizon):
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Basaltic andesite volcano, 2.1 million years old, deeply glaciated,
constructed against the north end of the Green Ridge fault escarpment.
- 20 -- Dugout Butte (forested foreground):
-
Glaciated diktytaxitic basalt flows of the High Cascade platform.
- 30 -- Green Ridge (far horizon):
-
North/South fault block mountain, 20 miles long. Escarpment faces west.
Lavas on crest are 5-6 million years old.
- 40 -- Black Butte (background), Bluegrass Butte (foreground):
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Black Butte:
Basaltic cinder cone located at south end of Green Ridge.
Older than any of the other visible High Cascade volcanoes; well
preserved form is due to lack of glaciation east of the Cascade Range.
Bluegrass Butte:
Glaciated basaltic andesite cinder cone. Ridge east of
cone is a lateral moraine.
- 82 -- Black Crater (fills most of eastern sector):
-
Late Pleistocene basaltic andesite volcano. "Crater" is actually a
glacial cirque open to the northeast.
- 105 - 155 -- Unnamed Cascade summit ridge:
-
Composed of glaciated basaltic andesite
cinders, bombs, and lavas which issued from a 5-mile-long chain of cones.
Probably was the site of spectacular lava fountains and eruptions of unusually
large and abundant volcanic bombs during the late Pleistocene.
- 168 --
North Sister (elevation 10,085 feet):
-
Basaltic andesite composite volcano on a broad shield. Central plug and
dike systems exposed by glacial erosion. At base of North Sister stand
Yapoah Cone (left) and Collier Cone (right).
- 174 --
Middle Sister (elevation 10,045 feet):
-
Composite volcano supporting Collier Glacier. Predominantly olivine
basalt porphyry but also contains flows of basaltic andesite, andesite, dacite,
and rhyodacite. Younger than North Sister.
- 178 -- Summit of Little Brother and ridge west:
-
Basaltic composite volcano with exposed plug and dikes. Older than
North Sister.
- 188 -- Four-in-One cinder cone (below skyline):
-
A ridge-cone breached in four places by andesite lava flows, 2,600 years
ago. Part of a north/south alignment of 19 vents.
- 197 -- The Husband (on skyline, partly obscured):
-
Although of late Pleistocene age, it is one of the oldest and most
extensively dissected volcanoes in this region. The exposed plug of basaltic
andesite is 1/4-mile in diameter.
- 218 -- Condon Butte:
-
Late Pleistocene cinder cone surrounded by glaciated lava field of
basaltic andesite. Nested summit craters. Knob visible at left base is an
unnamed glaciated dome of rhyodacitic obsidian.
- 235 -- Horsepasture Mountain (far horizon):
-
Western Cascade peak.
- 256 -- Scott Mountain:
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Small summit cone on broad glaciated basaltic shield.
- 282 --
South Belknap Cone:
-
Cone was formed and breached 1800 years ago, then surrounded by basaltic
andesite lava from a nearby vent about 1500 years ago.
- 286 and 306 -- Unnamed twin steptoes (in foreground lava field):
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Glaciated basaltic andesite volcanoes surrounded by lava from Little
Belknap.
- 309 --
Belknap Crater (summit cone on skyline):
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Focal point of a long-continued and complex episode of Holocene basalt
and basaltic andesite volcanism. The broad shield which fills the northwest
view is 5 miles in diameter; it is estimated to be 1,700 feet in maximum
thickness and 1.3 cubic miles in volume. The volcano probably contains a core
of cinders which interfingers with peripheral lavas and whose surface expression
is the summit cone. Basaltic andesite issued from vents at the north and south
bases of the cone approximately 1,500 years ago. Lava poured 12 miles to the
west and ash was ejected from the northernmost of two summit craters. The main
bulk of Belknap ash, which has been traced over an area exceeding 100 square
miles, was ejected earlier from a larger south crater. Still earlier lavas were
basaltic and moved eastward 7 miles from their vents.
- 321 --
Little Belknap:
-
A subsidiary shield volcano, built 2,900 years ago on the east flank of
the larger Belknap shield.
- 340 --
Mount Washington (elevation 7,795 feet):
-
Glaciated remnant of a large basaltic andesite composite volcano.
Central plug is flanked by north-south swarm of dikes in summit cone.
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