This week, Scenic Tokatee golf club in McKenzie Bridge is being used for a completely different purpose.
The Willamette National Forest, about 50 miles east from Eugene, has been transformed into a staging area for hotshot crews fighting the Lookout Fire.
Smoke from both the Lookout Fire and the Bedrock Fire fills the sky. According to the Eugene Register Guard , the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality issued an air-quality advisory. DEQ issued an advisory on Tuesday for elevated levels ozone at Salem, Eugene/Springfield, Portland-Vancouver and the Medford region.
Tokatee Golf Club announced on Monday that it would be closed for the time being. The website states that construction began in 1964, and nine holes opened in 1966. The second nine holes opened in 1969. The course was constructed on an old-growth forest site.
Land clearing was the biggest challenge, as much of the area was an old-growth wooded forest that had been logged in 1940s. The roots had to be dug up and piled before being burned. Some stumps were left behind to demonstrate the size of trees and the way they were cut down with cross-cutsaws.
Willamette Valley is experiencing a heatwave, with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees. The National Weather Service issued a red-flag warning on Monday for a large area of the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region, reported the register-guard.
