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Singular among the jewels in the crown of Sisters Country are our trails, which lead a hiker into the wonders and glories of the Cascades backcountry.  Those wonders are on the map internationally and in danger of being “loved to death.” So the U.S. Forest Service has implemented a permit system. Central Cascades Wilderness Permits are required for all overnight-use within the Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Washington, and Three Sisters wilderness areas June 15 through October 15. Overnight permits are available through a rolling seven-day window on Recreation.gov . Overnight trips can be up to 13 nights (14 days maximum) with groups no larger than 12 individuals. The processing fee for an overnight permit remains at $6. Permit availability is based on the starting trailhead and start date. All reservations for Central Cascades Wilderness Permits need to be made through Recreation.gov either online, via the Recreation.gov app on Google Android and Apple iOS devices, or by calling their call center at 1-877-444-6777 or TDD 877-833-6777. Search for “Central Cascades Wilderness.” Overnight permits are NOT available at local Forest Service offices or outside of the reservation system. Day-use permits are required on 19 of 79 trails within those same three wilderness areas during the permit season. However, day-use permits do not have advance reservations ahead of the season. Day-use permits will be opened for reservation in a 10-day and two-day rolling window beginning on June 5. The system was implemented in 2021, prompted by increasingly heavy use of certain forest trails. Certain trails had seen 15-20% increases in use each year, and the impacts — from simple wear-and-tear to garbage and waste left behind — have begun to materially affect the health of the forest and the quality of the wilderness experience. The permit system is designed not only to reduce wear-and-tear, but to improve the backcountry experience for users.

Sisters has a brand-new event to mark the nation’s birth: The Sisters July 4th Roundup at Village Green Park, sponsored by Rotary Club of Sisters and Citizens 4 Community. A pancake breakfast, a fun run, and a livestock demonstration are just a sampling of the fun, which will also include live music.  The Sisters Episcopal Church of the Trans-figuration serves up a traditional day of fun with its annual Country Fair on the church grounds at 121 Brooks Camp Rd. The event is set for Saturday, August 17. Car lovers revel in the Glory Daze Car Show staged by Sisters Park and Recreation District and sponsored by Rotary Club on September 21. Classic cars line East Main Avenue and prizes go to vehicles that prove themselves special. The event fills up; register your vehicle early at https://sistersrecreationcom/activityglorydaze .  Keep an eye out for Sisters Fresh Hops Festival , which celebrates the harvest in September. Sisters Harvest Faire  is as venerable and as much of a destination as any of Sisters big events. For decades, people from across the Pacific Northwest have come to Sisters on the second weekend in October to hunt for treasures from more than 150 juried artisan vendors.  These vendors, many of whom have been coming to Sisters for decades, offer quality handcrafted items including pottery, metal art, photography, painting, jewelry, furniture, home décor, specialty foods, and much more. This year’s event, sponsored by theSisters Area Chamber of Commerce, is set for Saturday and Sunday, October 12-13.  Sisters celebrates Christmas with a tree lighting and parade on Saturday, November 30 that have become a family tradition for people across the region. There are events going on almost all the time in Sisters. Check the events calendar in The Nugget Newspaper  ( www.nuggetnews.com ) to keep up.

Sisters and all of Central Oregon are a major destination for vacationers and adventurers seeking to enjoy the region’s natural beauty, recreational opportunities, and cultural events. It’s also a destination for people who want to live among all of those attractions. That means growth and traffic, and Sisters is adapting to meet changes and challenges. As the Sisters Oregon Guide hits the streets, the Oregon Department of Transportation will be opening a roundabout on the east end of town at the intersection of Highway 20 and Locust Street.  ODOT provided $5 million in state transportation improvement funds, combined with $1.425 million from the City of Sisters and $1 million from Deschutes County, to fund the project. The roundabout, which is expected to be fully completed in September 2024, is designed for Highway 20 to make a gentle curve into the roundabout, intended to slow traffic coming into town from the east. Through traffic from the east will have the option of turning north on Locust Street to take an alternative route around downtown through the Sisters Industrial Park. Those who are stopping in Sisters can proceed right up the highway into downtown on Cascade Avenue. The roundabout pairs with another constructed years ago at the west end of town. Over the next year, Sisters will debate whether and how to expand its urban growth boundary to accommodate more housing. Like most mountain towns across the West, Sisters is facing a crisis of affordability. How to manage the pressures of being a desirable place to be while maintaining the small town charm that is a big part of that desirability is a major work in progress for Sisters.

Sisters Country rests on the edge of the largest area of dark sky in the Lower 48, which lies over Southeast Oregon. The Sisters backcountry and the high desert to our east offer some extraordinary opportunities to take in awe-inspiring views of the vault of the heavens. The chance to experience soul-stirring encounters with the cosmos is part of the draw to Central Oregon. Backpackers who venture into the Sisters backcountry can enjoy that experience when it’s at its best, viewing the core of the galaxy during the summer months. You can also touch it with a drive up the McKenzie Highway (Highway 242) to the summit, or venturing up Three Creek Road to the lakes or the snow parks. The Perseid meteor shower will peak August 12-13. Our local snow parks are a good place to view the sky, as is the high desert. “You want to get to a place that has the lowest horizon around you, so you can see more of the sky,” he said. For those enthralled by the night sky, a visit to the University of Oregon’s Pine Mountain Observatory is a worthy excursion during the summer season. Visit https://pmo.uoregon.edu for dates and more information. The Sunriver Nature Center & Observatory is another option. Visit https://snco.org for more information. The City of Sisters has tightened up its code to support dark skies.  City of Sisters planning staff noted that, “Community-led efforts to educate the community of the importance of sensitive lighting on the ability to see the nighttime stars have also inspired this effort — most notably by the Astronomy Club with Sisters High School, who have provided community education about the impacts of lighting on the ability to see the stars at night and on wildlife and the environment.”

Rural chic. Best of the West. Sisters goes by many descriptions. The town has grown from Pop. 679 in 1990 to 959 in 2000 to 2,038 just 10 years later. Now sitting officially at 3,286 as of 2023, Sisters has not lost its small-town charm — but it has endured some growing pains. There are still no electric traffic lights, and you can get from one corner of town to the other in under five minutes, three on a good day. Sisters acts bigger with its outsize festivals, upscale shops and services, eclectic cuisine from Himalayan to Nashville-style fried chicken, and a vibrant arts community not often found in cities four or five times its size. Culturally it runs the gamut. There’s the Sisters Rodeo now in its 83rd year that is the official start to summer. About as Wild West as it gets, with an accompanying parade. Summer ends with the Sisters Folk Festival hosting a dozen-plus acts from the top tier of bluegrass, Americana, Nashville, Tejano, blues and Cajun. The infrastructure of Sisters is rock solid, with abundant artesian water, plenty of electric, and a grid of bike trails and unobstructed walking paths. The lights are low, intentionally. This is a Dark Sky community. And a Tree City USA town. Sisters regularly shows up on Best Places to Live or Visit lists. At only 1.88 square miles, not much big bigger than New York’s Central Park, Sisters will probably top out at 4,000 as few buildable lots remain. There is no appetite among inhabitants to expand the urban growth boundary. Sisters is a model for live-work situations, which have attracted a range of entrepreneurs who live upstairs over their restaurant, studio, gallery, or shop. As the housing frenzy has cooled a bit, Sisters is in the midst of a commercial renaissance, with over 125,000 square feet of rentable space completing or breaking ground in 2023. Our schools are one of the biggest drivers of younger, tech-savvy workers looking to get out of hectic city living. Sisters High School is ranked No. 1 in Deschutes County by US News & World Report. The school district boasts CTE programs in flight science, guitar building, CAD, software coding, and construction. There are roughly 1,600 housing units, with another 350 under construction or planned. Eighty-four percent are single unit; 77 percent are owner occupied. Sisters is home to approximately 520 seasonal residents. The city is served by a seven-member Planning Commission and a full-time Community Development Department.

There is a magical day each summer when Sisters blossoms in color, as the whole town is wrapped in over 900 quilts. That day is Saturday, July 13, the celebration of the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (SOQS). SOQS has become a week-long celebration of the arts and the creative spirit. That’s reflected in this year’s Thursday evening fundraiser. It will be a colorful celebration, inspired by Freddy Moran and her love and influence of bright, joyful colors. The event will include conversations about Freddy’s influence, a special video tour of Freddy’s house, and a display and auction of Freddy-inspired Faces quilts created by some very special folks.  On show day, visitors to the free, unticketed show stroll through Sisters’ quilt-festooned streets and partake of the hospitality offered by Sisters’ shops and restaurants. Hood Avenue will be closed, making it a pedestrian park where quilt enthusiasts can explore special exhibits that enhance the experience. Some of the special exhibits are returning favorites, and there are new ones that keep the show fresh and exciting.  Featured quilter June Jaeger incorporates her love of the natural beauty and outdoor way of life that surrounds us here in her quilt design. Inspirational instructor Sujata Shah is an award-winning quilter, designer, and author of “Cultural Fusion Quilts.” She finds inspiration in the rich handmade tradition of her home country, India; Indian and American utilitarian quilts and African textiles.  It’s not over when the quilts come down on Saturday. SOQS will host a beautiful day at the FivePine Lodge and Conference Center on Sunday, July 14, with Giuseppe Ribaudo, better known as Giucy Giuce.    His fabric designs are an homage to the influence of his Sicilian family.   The quilt show is always free, but special event tickets sell out, so get them now at https://www.soqs.org/2024events . The week running up to the big day is filled with Quilter’s Affair, hosted by Stitchin’ Post. For a run-down of classes visit https://stitchinpost.com/pages/qa-home .

Sisters is the perfect place to celebrate the role of women in history. We live in the shadow of mountains named after three women, and Native American women were known to camp along our creek, calling it “Whychus.” It’s a challenge to find the stories of women who played a part in building our community. Most walk silently through the pages of history. If they are mentioned, it’s often under their husbands’ names, and although they worked together as a team, they were unrecognized. But some women stand out and we still speak their names long after they took their last breath.  The pioneers were the first European women to settle here, providing homes and comfort to their families and early travelers. Martha Cobb Hindman helped her husband open the Cobb Roadhouse in 1883, providing a welcome stop for people on the long journey from the Willamette Valley to Prineville. Married at the age of 13, she took care of a family of five while welcoming visitors to their station, built from the profits and trade of smoked deer meat and cured hides. Her light sourdough biscuits were famous. She was a tough survivor who outlived three husbands, becoming the mistress of the large ranch and dairy at historic Camp Polk. If you visit the Deschutes Land Trust Preserve there today you can see photos along the interpretive path and visit the spring-fed, stone-lined hole where she kept her milk and butter cool.  The Graham sisters, Leda and Lora, helped their pioneer parents tend another stop along the Santiam Wagon Road in the late 1800s, now called Graham Corral. Sheepherders from Shaniko came by with large bands of sheep on their way to high mountain pastures and traded for meals with mutton, huckleberries, and staples. In 1906, Leda married early Forest Service Ranger Perry South. In those days wives were considered convenient free labor and no doubt Leda supported her husband as he began to manage public lands, but we know nothing of her life except a few photos. Her first child Jesse was born and died along the Metolius and is poignantly buried with an elaborate tombstone at Camp Polk Cemetery. Lora married a Fire Guard and her life at Allingham Station from 1918-1924 is recorded in the classic history “That was Yesterday.” When her husband was away, she answered calls on the primitive phone, issued permits, and was required to feed any Forest Service staff that stopped by for 45 cents. She could barely keep up with the vegetable garden, baking bread and pies, butter churning, and other duties while raising three children. If you are lucky, you may see the narcissus bloom where her house stood at Allingham Meadow.  Librarians were a quiet but powerful force. Grace Cyrus Aitken began her career as a clever business woman around 1912. A young single woman she became postmistress and owned her own store, Sisters’ first gift shop with ladies’ clothing. She later married, helping her husband manage his drug store and ran a small library there. In 1923, she famously saved the mail, paychecks, and the store’s goods, when half of town burned in a terrible fire, by recruiting men to empty shelves into baskets and onto a lawn across the street. Her original store became the bottom floor of The Palace, which still stands in Sisters today. She later served as librarian for 16 years, quietly doing what needed to be done. Maida Bailey was an expert on libraries, serving Stanford, Reed College, and the State of Oregon. A University Dean, she became a sheep rancher in Sisters while lending her brains and books across the state, helping expand our first tiny library for more access to books for everyone. Maida became an integral part of Sisters’ ranching, logging, and library culture and in later years cruised town in her green and white Chevy coupe, waving to her many friends.  Teachers worked hard to educate children of the early settlers and Native Americans. The first school was built in 1885, serving 30 children. Elva Smith homesteaded in a remote cabin on the lower Metolius River and was reported to cross the swift icy water on her horse to teach children on the Warm Springs Reservation. She disappeared in the pages of history, her cabin burned in a wildfire, and the site is now only marked by old apple trees.  The lady lookouts broke the glass ceiling of employment in the man’s world of the Forest Service in 1921 when Gertrude Merrill accepted a primitive posting on top of Black Butte. Men were scarce during World War I and II and women proved adept at fire detection. In 1923 Hazel McKinney, her two daughters, and their collie Snip, served from the new cupola with a living quarters inside the lookout. She delighted visitors with stories of mountain-top life. Hazel was an ace at reporting fire locations and had a mirror flash system to guide her firefighter husband on the ground far below. If you are feeling frisky you can climb to visit the restored cupola and imagine her lookout life. To learn more about the history of Sisters visit the Three Sisters Historical Society in the historic Maida Bailey Library building.

For more than a quarter-century, the Sisters Folk Festival has been introducing audiences to some of the most compelling artists in the world of roots music — from R&B to Bluegrass, merging sounds from around the globe, from the Celtic Fringe to New Orleans. SFF Presents aptly describes the festival as a “discovery” festival, where audiences find artists that become lifelong favorites. The setting, with venues scattered throughout town is unique, and artists find the community so welcoming that they have spread the word and made this festival one of the most desirable places to play on the circuit. The 27th annual discovery music festival — set for September 27-29 — will feature more than 30 artists from all over the world representing multiple genres of roots music performing on seven stages throughout downtown Sisters. The preliminary lineup includes Aoife O’Donovan, Hawktail, The Mammals, Fantastic Cat, Balla Kouyaté & Mike Block Band, Peter Mulvey, SistaStrings, Cris Jacobs, Kittel & Co, Jourdan Thibodeaux et Les Rôdailleurs, and more. Read more about all the performing artists at https://www.sistersfolkfest.org/lineup. Three-day festival passes are available at the advanced pricing of $225/ticket for adults and $85/ticket for youth ages 17 and under. Children under 5 attend for free. Single-day tickets will be available in July alongside the full performance schedule. Get tickets at https://aftontickets.com/SFF2024. Tickets are expected to sell out in advance once again.

Rodeo is a treasured American tradition — and Sisters keeps that tradition alive and vibrant in the 21st Century like few others. Not for nothing do they call this “The Biggest Little Show in the World.” Staged completely by community volunteers for more than 80 years, the Sisters Rodeo traditionally offers the biggest purse available on the second weekend in June. That means the rodeo draws the best cowboys and cowgirls — and the finest rodeo stock — the country has to offer. The action at the rodeo grounds east of town kicks off on Wednesday, June 5, with Xtreme Bulls, and continues through Sunday, June 9, with all the pageantry and rousing action the sport of rodeo has to offer. Get tickets now — all shows are expected to sell out — and book early for next year. Not all the action is in the arena. Enjoy the Sisters Kiwanis Buckaroo Breakfast on Sunday, June 9 starting at 7 a.m., with proceeds supporting local programs. A cowboy church service is held on Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. Throughout rodeo weekend, folks kick up their heels at local watering holes, which feature live country music. The 2024 Sisters Rodeo is represented by Queen Destiny Wecks. She was born and raised in the Western way of life on a horse ranch. She is a graduate from Enterprise High School and is currently furthering her education, pursuing an Associate Degree in Agriculture Business, at Treasure Valley Community College. Ernest and Alinda Dunn are this year’s Grand Marshals, who have volunteered with the Sisters Rodeo Association for 30 years and represent the grassroots community values that make the Sisters Rodeo something special.

The Big Ponderoo music festival returns to Sisters on June 29-30, 2024 with bluegrass, alt-country, and Americana music on two stages at Village Green Park, right in the heart of town. SFF Presents, who stages this festival as well as the Sisters Folk Festival later in the year, is out to create an experience that is more intimate than the huge corporate festivals of summer. “At Big Ponderoo, we’re on a mission to bring our audience a festival reminiscent of the days before the corporate music monopoly took over – where small-town charm meets world-class live music for an unforgettable, warm, and personal festival experience.” The Saturday lineup includes artists Shinyribs, The Brothers Comatose, AJ Lee & Blue Summit, Hogslop String Band, Shadowgrass, The Sam Chase and the Untraditional, Skillethead, Skybound Blue, The Parnells, Fog Holler, Rock Ridge, and Joanna Lee, with music from noon to 11 p.m. On Sunday, festival artists Silverada (formerly Mike and the Moonpies), Oliver Wood Trio, Bella White, The East Pointers, AJ Lee & Blue Summit, Shadowgrass, The Parnells, Fog Holler, Rock Ridge, Joanna Lee, and the SMS Outlaw Strings Club will take to the Ponderoo and Pinecone stages with music from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Weekend passes are available at advanced pricing of $185/ticket for adults and $80/ticket for youth ages 17 and under (children 5 and under attend for free). Saturday-only tickets are $115/adult and $45/ticket for youth ages 17 and under and Sunday-only tickets are $95/adult and $45/ticket for youth ages 17 and under. Tickets are available at http://www.aftontickets.com/BigPonderoo.