Rural-Urban Migration Patterns
Observed in Burns-Hines, Oregon
Website created by Alicia Leytem as part of the coursework for
Ethnic Studies and Sociology Spring
Break Course
March 26-31, 2006
Course
Introduction
This course was created as a non-traditional learning tool, for
students to experience issues related to sustainable rural development
first-hand, from the individuals that deal with with these problems on
a daily basis. Feel free to view the course syllabus
for further information. The course goals are as follow:
The purpose of this course is to
bring together diverse
community members together in order to learn about sustainable rural
development in Oregon.
Through listening, analysis and collaboration with different community
stakeholders including: cattle ranchers, youth corrections officers,
school
officials, human health and service providers, chamber of commerce,
high school
students, seniors, extension services personnel, law enforcement
officers, and
tribal leaders, course participants will begin to develop a better
understanding of the complex issues facing rural communities trying to
achieve
sustainable development. The course embodies a non‑traditional approach
to learning that blurs the boundaries between teacher/ student/
community/
researcher. Stakeholders with vested interests in issues of sustainable
development in the Burns and Hines communities will be invited to tell
their
stories to students who will later have the opportunity to reflect upon
this
information in a collective setting. Group processing of the
information
obtained through these intense listening experiences contribute to the
students
understanding of the issues, as presented from diverse social positions
and
perspectives. By the end of the week students will better understand
the
challenges inherent in achieving long term sustainable development in
the Oregon’s rural
communities.
-Tribal Issues
-Youth
-Migration
-Gender
-Health Care
-Education
-Recreation and Tourism
-Elders of the Community
-Crime
-Commerce
-Environmental Issues
-Etc...
Rural-Urban
Migration
When beginning this class, I assumed I would focus in on
education, or another theme that I already had a background in.
However, I found myself becoming more and more interested in migration
while meeting with our various stakeholders. We observed a very
interesting migration pattern that most members of the community would
follow. I decided I would focus in on this topic, and create my website
and essay portraying this pattern we observed.
Coming
from a
small logging town, I am quite familiar with the desire of youth to
move away
from their isolated-feeling small towns. Growing up in Philomath, I
couldn’t
wait until I could get out and explore the world, there seemed to be so
many
places with much more going on, and I was missing out on all of it
simply
because I was secluded by my location. Luckily for us, Corvallis was
just next door – a mere five
miles that seemed nearly impossible to pass until we were old enough to
drive
cars. Although Corvallis
is by no means a metropolis, it did offer a change in scenery, filled
with an
entirely different population of people our age. When starting out this
class
in Burns-Hines, I assumed that many of the youth would be experiencing
the same
drive to leave that I felt growing up in Philomath. Like many of my
pre-conceived notions going into this class, I was proved quite
wrong in my
assumption. Through this paper, I will try to
convey the migratory process we
observed in the Burns-Hines community, and relate it to other national
patterns
that have been observed.
As
soon as we
began interviewing stakeholders in Burns-Hines, we began to hear a lot
about
the general out-migration of youth after graduating high school. It
appears as
though most families in the area highly encourage their children to go
out to
either get a college education, or at least experience something other
than Harney
County
for awhile after high school. Even families that operated family-run
businesses, such as Fred Otley (interviewed on March 30, 2006) and his
cattle
ranch, expressed a strong desire for their children to leave the area
for some
time after graduation. Although not all children that leave end up
returning to
the rural lifestyle of Harney
County, the ones
that do
return appear to do it out of a deep sense of love and connection to
the area.
“If you wear out a pair of shoes in Harney County,
you’ll never leave.” - Pauline Braymen (interviewed
on March
28, 2006), a media
reporter and senior community member
I’m beginning to recognize that there is some truth in
this statement, and many people that spend a significant amount of time
in the
area develop a strong sense of place, and a commitment to the land.
This
doesn’t necessarily stop them from leaving, but it creates a connection
for
them that often brings them back.
Through my research for my
essay, I found a few books, and a few online articles that I found
helpful while learning about urban-rural migration. I've listed these
sources below, to allow for further exploration of this topic if
interest exists.
The Age of
Extremes: Concentrated Affluence and
Poverty in the Twenty-First Century
(in Presidential Address and Symposium) by D. Massey
Oregon
Historical County
Records Guide,
Harney County
Rural
Community Development, Gene F. Summers
Learning
Experience
I've always done better as a
student in environments where I'm allowed to do more activities, and
less book-work. I like getting out in the world, and seeing the
concepts that I'm learning in action - how they function in the world,
who deals with them, and how. This class was a very intensive way to
learn about sustainable development in Eastern Oregon, and a very
effective method of learning all of the various viewpoints of the
stakeholders involved in such a process. We met with a lot of people
from the community, many of them coming to our hotel conference room to
be interviewed by the class. Such as this 
picutre
to the left of some of our students interviewing Troy Greg, the
superintendent of the Eastern Oregon Youth
Correctional Facility.Whereas some people we interviewed we travelled
to their place of business - such as Twyla Teeman (to the right), a
Tribal Health Care Provider that we visited at the Tribal Health Center
(below).
Since we were actually spending numerous days in the community that we
were studying, we were allowed the opportunity to go explore many of
the places that make Burns-Hines such a unique place. We were able to
spend time at the Harney County Museum, and then go on a downtown
exploration and self-tour. Below you can see an image of one of the
original wagons used by pioneers to the area (found outside of the
County Museum), and an original petroglyph by the Burns Paiute
ancestors in the area. This petroglyph was unfortunately moved from
it's original location, and is now used as a parking lot 
decoaration in front of the museum.
The below seal was found in the building that the extension agents
office was in.
In the image to the left you
can see what downtown Burns looks like from one end of town. It is a
fairly empty downtown, with 
little
traffic, and a lot of empty store fronts. However, while walking around
we were met by a large number of extremely friendly locals, who were
more than happy to go out of their way to tell us about anything they
thought was of interest. In
fact,
one shop owner even gave us a personal tour of the building her shop
was in, the Brown Building. This is one of the oldest buildings in
Burns that is
still in use as a shop, it
was erected in 1890. This building has a strong connection to the
history of the area, the second floor of it is where Peter French's
body was autopsied after he was killed by Ed Oliver. (Peter French was
the man who built the famous round barn). In the Heritage Walk pamphlet
we received for our downtown tour, the section on this building
discusses how the original owner, Nathan Brown, was a man of many
enterprises, "at one time he ran a bank where he stored valuables for
ranchers, gold miners, and his customers." The current owner of the
shops in the Brown Building, saw a bunch of us students walking around
town, and pulled us aside to give us a tour of her building. We weren't
allowed to go to the second floor, due to structural instabilities, but
she did bring us to the back to show us the safe that was originally
used by Nathan Brown (pictures to the right), which had a beautiful
painting on the front door. It is rumored that Nathan Brown may have
killed himself inside of the safe, and that the building may have
housed a brothel at one point - but she said she wasn't sure what was
true.
After meeting with stakeholders all day and exploring the town, we
would reconvine at the conference room in our hotel and rehash the days
events. These meetings were often quite long, and involved a lot 
of group
discussion. In the end we took all of this information and formulated
it as a group to create a group presentation. This process involved a
lot of team work, a lot of processing, a bit of stress.
In the end we were able to do a presentation to many of our
stakeholders, relaying back the information we had heard from them
regarding numerous themes in their community. We also were able to
present a similar presentation back in Corvallis for Oregon State University members that
were interested, community members, and family and friends. We even had
an article
about us published in the Gazette Times (including a picture of me
during my presentation).
Although this class was very intensive, we also were able to have a bit
of fun too. We took one good trip out to the Malhuer Wildlife Refuge,
and were able to wander around in fresh air, and enjoy the scenery.
And
last, but not least, I
would like to make mention of our super safe, very entertaining, van
drivers. Thank you Kurt and Dwaine for a great class!