64 ForOregonState.org/Stater OuR COMMuNIty B A C K S T O R Y A FACE IN THE FOREST HOW CREATIVE FORESTERS PLANTED THE SMILE ON OUR COVER. By Siobhan Murray Don’t be spooked if, on the way to the Oregon coast this fall, you look through your windshield and notice that the hills have eyes … and a face, with a massive, gaping grin. Is it aliens at work? Or hooligans with a penchant for arboreal graffiti? No. These are happy trees. This giant smiley face in Polk County was the idea of two foresters with Hampton Lumber, the Beaver-founded company that owns the land on which the hillside stands — timberlands manager Dennis Creel, ’74, and OSU parent, forester and co-owner David Hampton. Larch trees, a type of conifer with needles that turn gold in the fall, form the circular face, while evergreen Douglas fir trees form the wide eyes and grinning mouth. Lucky for Beaver Nation, this variety of hybrid larch trees lights the smile up in an orangey tint from Halloween to Thanksgiving. In 2011, the foresters were contemplating a stand of trees that was ready to be harvested and stood on a hillside highly visible to people driving on Highway 18 between Grande Ronde and Willamina. “We realized nobody’s going to like looking at this clearcut until it grows back,” said Creel. “The original thought was that people would look at the smiley face and forget about the ugliness of the clearcut. But it turns out, it really does bring joy to people.” It was no small feat to create a 300-foot-wide circular design out of trees. Creel and Hampton went into the forest with rope in hand to stake out a giant circle. They began to have second thoughts after lumbering over the steep, uneven ground and sidestepping creeks to plot the shape with ribbon later knocked down by deer. Knowing drivers on the road below would be looking at the face at an angle, they stretched the circle into an oval, then found center points for the eyes and mouth. “I suppose my OSU forest engineering education played a role in knowing how to do something like this,” Creel said, laughing. Soon after, a reforestation team planted the usual Douglas firs — along with baby larch trees that had been raised in a local nursery — on the recently logged hillside. The foresters kept their mouths shut for four years. Then one day, Creel recounted, when Hampton was driving past the hillside, he looked up and saw the hillside smiling down on him.At a nearby café, locals traded rumors that someone had trespassed onto the timber company’s land and painted their trees. Hampton Lumber soon set the story straight with media outlets across the world, from Oregon to Japan. “Smiley Face Forest: Oregon’s HappyHillside”was even featured in a board game (Zillionaires: Road Trip USA) where players collect legendary American roadside attractions. For the next 30 to 50 years, passersby will be able to catch a glimpse of this wholesome “forest art,” as Creel calls it, every fall, until the trees are ready to be harvested again. (Hampton Lumber has hinted that it will be open to design requests for the next generation of trees.) “It’s just a smile back at the world,” said Mark Vroman, ’88, current timber manager, who said the team considered other messages before landing on a simple smile. “A happy face has absolutely no negative connotations. Nobody can disagree with that.” ↓ On a hillside overlooking Highway 18, a giant smiley face brightens travelers’ days every fall. COURTESY OF HAMPTON LUMBER
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