21st Century Gold-Mining Community Treasure

21st Century Gold-Mining Community Treasure

In the early 1860s, the glimmer of gold sparkling from gravel bars in Dixie Creek allured settlers to call Prairie City home. Today, Prairie City still harbors gold, but measures its wealth in the people who live there. The community -- 1,100 strong -- is composed of long-standing families with deep roots and newcomers who have chosen Prairie City for its friendly neighbors, natural beauty and slower, quieter pace of life.

The area's rich natural resources -- the fertile John Day River valley, the nearby Strawberry Mountains, lush prairies and thick forests -- have long provided residents with livelihoods in mining, timber, ranching and farming, as the community grew and prospered along the Sumpter Valley Railway line. Since the mid-20th century, the promise of a living from these land-based industries has steadily declined, leaving a trail of out-migration as younger generations leave home to seek work in larger population centers.

To weather this transition, community members banded together in the late 1990s to form the Greater Prairie City Community Association (GPCCA). As one GPCCA member explains, "We are like the hub of a wagon wheel, trying to get things going." Working in tandem with city government, this volunteer-based organization has undertaken numerous projects, "the spokes," to promote a vibrant and healthy environment for all of its residents.

The group has worked to beautify the town, organize annual events and help the city acquire property for future development. The GPCCA recognized in Horizons, a community leadership development program sponsored by the Northwest Area Foundation, an opportunity to expand and strengthen leadership among community members and to bring new faces to its own administration, which, as one member put it, was "the same five retreads shifting positions every year."

Not only did community members discover new leaders and assets in their midst, but they mobilized them in innovative ways to carry out a much-needed project about which all residents could agree: a town cleanup. The steady accumulation of rusted car bodies, abandoned refrigerators and other appliances had been a concern to all citizens. The Prairie City Recycling Center serves all of Grant County, operating completely on a volunteer basis. Yet, the town's remote location makes it challenging and costly to dispose of larger metal items.

A GPCCA and Horizons team member explains, "We knew that the better our community looked, the more likely we would be able to accomplish some of our other goals -- to improve the economy here, to attract families with young children to live in our community, so that our schools can thrive, to make the place attractive for people to come and shop -- so that our businesses would survive, so we wouldn't lose our gas station and our grocery store. Those were fundamental reasons that we decided to do this."

Over three weekends during the summer of 2005, diverse citizens lent a hand to gather scrap-metal from Prairie City and throughout Grant County. The city provided a site for the junk drive. Adjacent to the site, Prairie Wood Products donated equipment to unload and stack vehicles and metal, and the manpower to operate heavy machinery. Young people from the Future Farmers of America, 4-H Club and the Prairie City Assembly of God Church J-Walkers Youth Group went door to door, inquiring whether people had scrap-metal to contribute, and offering to carry it away.

A cadre of volunteers separated rims from the many tires that were collected. The cleanup harnessed the muscle and energy of Prairie City's football team, who filled two livestock trailer loads with 2,000 rimless tires in under two hours, while a local scrap-metal business happily salvaged the metal rims. The tires were hauled to Ash Grove Cement in Durkee, Oregon, where they are used to fuel a kiln in the manufacture of cement.

The disposal of propane tanks posed a special problem because of the danger of combustion. Without knowing for sure whether the tanks had been breached, the cleanup crew could not safely send them to the metal crusher. A local gun safety instructor lent his expertise to the cleanup by shooting holes in the tanks to ensure their safety.

Following the scrap-metal drive, the Wurdinger Recycling Company brought their car crusher from western Oregon to compact the metal onsite. Ultimately, they hauled 465 tons of scrap-metal away from Prairie City. The cleanup transformed people's trash into something useful: $14,000 toward rebuilding the GPCCA treasury and the possibility of carrying out other projects in the community. Some of the earnings went towards cleanup expenses and some were donated back to the civic groups who assisted with the cleanup. Cleanup funds will facilitate the purchase a badly needed glass crusher for the Prairie City Recycling Center, encouraging citizens to continue the cleanup effort year-round.

The GPCCA has applied a portion of the cleanup proceeds to secure an aerial circus to add delight to Prairie City's annual Fourth of July celebration -- which serves all of Grant County. In addition to their performance of high-wire acrobatics, members of the circus will give classes in clowning and other circus skills for the community. Local businesses that help sponsor the circus will be given tickets to share with customers, ensuring that all who wish to enjoy the spectacle can attend. These businesses will in-turn profit from the added attendance the circus will attract.

It all comes full circle. The cleanup's resounding success will put it on the calendar as a regular event, one that pulls all sectors of the community to cooperate in beautifying the town. The project's most important outcome is the community pride that shows on the outside and resounds in the hearts of residents who enjoy the fruits of the their labor every day.

In another alignment of action, Prairie City citizens prevented the closure of the town's Forest Service office, the Prairie City Ranger District, which provides 23 year-round positions and 46 seasonal jobs. A well-targeted letter-writing campaign, a facilitated community meeting that included Forest Service Supervisors, and a report analyzing the impact of the closure on the community gave voice to the office's vital importance. The proposed closure would have reduced employment, school enrollment and support for local businesses. For now, people can breathe a sigh of relief and take pride in their success, but they have also developed a long-term plan for keeping the office open, while empowering themselves with the knowledge that should the occasion arise again in the future, they will be ready and equipped for the challenge.

Seeking ways to share their treasure with others, community members have developed a Prairie City Web site. The site provides information about the town's history, its calendar of annual events, its civic organizations, natural resources, recreational activities, businesses and services. Local businesses report that the new site has boosted sales and has helped to educate customers about the services they offer. Prairie City residents hope that you will visit them in person, but in the meantime, you can drop in at www.prairiecityoregon.com.

Leadership training in Prairie City has brought out the best in the community. Individual participants have discovered inner resources and accomplished personal and community goals. New voices have come to the table, broadening and deepening GPCCA leadership and overall community engagement, tapping new talents and skills. New participants bring fresh vision to community projects, stemming the tide of volunteer burnout. Effective networking and consensus-building have forged bridges of communication and compromise, helping community members span differences to pursue common visions. In Prairie City, mining individual and collective energy has yielded gold, a gift that will continue to give for years to come.