Oregon's Sagebrush Sea
Drive east across Oregon’s Cascade Mountains in the spring, and the sky opens up big and blue. The sun lights canyon walls, where balsam root blooms among the sage, both plants lush with moisture winter has left behind. This is Oregon’s sagebrush sea.
The mustard-yellow and sea-green slopes teem with wildflowers and aromatic shrubs. Hawks and golden eagles soar above the high desert. Antelope (technically, they are pronghorn, but to this region, they are antelope) race across grassy plains and bighorn sheep balance on steep cliffs. There are lakes, rivers, hot springs and wetlands, and there are mountains, some rising more than 9,000 feet.
An overwhelmingly dry landscape with intensely hot summers and snowy winters, the sagebrush sea supports a great diversity of flora and fauna, all adapted to the dramatic variations in weather and elevation. The traditions of the region’s native people, among them the Walla Walla, Wasco, Umatilla, and Paiute tribes, are rooted in the offerings of this expansive and rigorous landscape.
This ecosystem covers much of Oregon east of the Cascades, except high-range mountains. From the Warm Springs River in north-central Oregon to Lake Abert and the Owyhee River canyons in the southeast (and beyond), almost anywhere you look you’ll find the Western United States’ most widespread native shrub. Sagebrush, which can be found from sea level to 11,000 feet, thrives on only 8 inches of precipitation a year. Known by its spicy aroma (dried sage bundles are often used as incense) and soft, silvery three-lobed leaves, sagebrush is evergreen, providing vital food for the region’s animals year-round.
Native Americans used sagebrush wood and shoots for fuel and building, and its bark for making baskets and bowls. Leaves and seeds were eaten and used medicinally. Soft yellow dye was made by boiling the leaves and flowers. In 1938, Luther Cressman, the father of Oregon archaeology, found a cache of sagebrush sandals more than 9,000 years old — the world’s oldest shoes — in a cave near Fort Rock in Central Oregon.
Among the most amazing attractions of Oregon’s sagebrush sea are its volcanic rock formations: cinder cones, lava tubes, caves, craters and mountains. At Newberry National Volcanic Monument, visitors can climb inside the 17-story, 1.1-square-mile Big Obsidian Flow, made entirely of the shiny black glass often formed as lava cools. About 1,300 years old, the Big Obsidian Flow is Central Oregon’s youngest lava flow.
Native Americans and their ancestors made arrowheads, knives and other blades from the hard, sharp obsidian tools they traded across the Northwest. Obsidian can be seen, often sparkling, scattered all across the sagebrush region. Leave them as you find them; it is illegal to collect artifacts from these lands.
What did Central and Eastern Oregon tribes hunt with their obsidian arrowheads? Among their quarry were two animals that evolved with the sagebrush sea: sage grouse and pronghorn.
Reputedly the Western Hemisphere’s fastest animal, the pronghorn is a strictly North American mammal. About 4 feet high with two curved, pointed horns, this animal
can reach speeds of more than 45 miles an hour.
A wonderful place to see them is at Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge. “A good time to see pronghorn and their babies at the refuge is mid-May through June,” says Mike Nunn, Hart Mountain project leader for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Nunn cautions viewers to remain in their cars so as not to disturb the animals. Watch for the pronghorns’ white chest stripes and rump that seem to glow as they lope across the enormous slopes.
Pronghorn depend on sage for their survival. So do sage grouse, whose spectacular courtship dance takes place in early spring. Between first light and sunrise, sage grouse gather at “leks,” areas where they perform their mating displays year after year. Males fan their tails, puff their chests, and beat their wings, making an extraordinary cooing and popping sound that echoes for yards. They strut and spar with each other, trying to impress one of the far less numerous females hidden in the brush. This memorable event is incorporated into the songs and celebrations of many Native American tribes that live here.
When exploring Central Oregon’s volcanoes or the wilds of Hart Mountain, rub some sagebrush between your fingers and breathe deeply. Listen for short, deep notes of sage grouse and watch for a flash of white as pronghorn bound through the brush. This is the essence of Oregon’s sagebrush sea.