Ask many people what they think about Burns, and you’ll get a comment from the TV show The Simpsons. (In case you don’t watch, Mr. Burns (left) is a character in the show who satirizes corruption in the incredibly wealthy.)

 Instead, our class went to Burns, the little known town in southeastern Oregon. It is nearly 2 hours away from Bend, 6 hours from Portland, and 3 hours from Boise, Idaho.

Naturally, our class had a lot of preconceived notions about what we would find there.
**************************************************************************

I was interested in the youth and economics of Burns before I came on the trip, which is the topic I will discuss in the rest of my web page. However, I think there are some other important things which I should bring up.

       First for a little background about the course. You may have seen it on the course web page, but I will discuss it briefly here. 17 students total went on a five day trip to Burns, Oregon to study rural sustainability, especially in Native American populations, in small communities. Little did we know what we were getting into. We would work from 6 or 7 AM to midnight on some nights to make sure that we were getting as much out of the course as possible. We would write questions, talk about what answers we had already gotten from stakeholders, and make our presentation which we would end up giving twice at the end of the week.

       It is also important that I mention how important teamwork in a group setting is. Before the week, most of us had never seen each other before. At the end of the week, most of us had strong friendships forged with a great deal of the group. It makes things far easier when 17 heads work together than when they work individually. For some of us, this was a life-changing experience, and I am glad to be a part of this. It really was a good time.

        Now that you have a little background about what our objectives there were, I will go on to talking about the youth of the community of Burns. As we expected, there were not a lot of activities in Burns/Hines. The townspeople were ready and willing to admit that. However, they didn't think it was that big of a deal. So we thought maybe we were trying to think of Burns in an urban sense.Look at this population map of Oregon, I believe that it shows how rural Burns really is. Most of us that took the course are from the Corvallis area. I will define the Corvallis area as Corvallis (52,950), Philomath (4,310), Tangent (920), and Albany (43,600), the total of this area being 101,780 people. These are all places that are less than 10 miles from the city center of Corvallis. In comparison, the Burns/Hines area is much smaller (3,050 and 1,740; respectively, or a total of 4,790 people). All of the towns in the Corvallis area are officially listed as "urban," while both Burns and Hines are listed as "rural." Using these numbers, the Corvallis area is roughly 22 times the size of the Burns area. This forced us to have an open mind and change our perspective. As one townsperson said "It's not about where you are going or what you do, it's who you do it with that's important."

Right: There is no shortage of beauty in Harney County; however both sagebrush and cattle outnumber people.  Shown at right is a female pronghorn. Jackrabbits, deer and elk are a common sight.

       The question still remained: What do the Burns area youth do in their spare time? The answers were many, ranging from the amazingly simple to strikingly complex.
       Sports was overwhelmingly the single biggest activity that the youth and the community partake in. First, they have unbelievable community support, as all the community leaders tell us that everyone comes to the games. If there is not a way to get someone there, such as an elder, another person will drive them to the event. This does not apply only to home games, either. They travel hours upon hours to watch the youth of their community play. Secondly, they are REALLY, REALLY GOOD when it comes to playing those sports. They have had 8 team champions in the past five years (5 time defending wrestling champions; Girls Basketball in '04 and '06; Volleyball '04) in addition to 15 individual state champions (13 wrestling, 2 track). That does not count the multiple 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place finishes. They are also in the running for the 3A Oregonian Cup, an award that is based equally on academics, athletics, activities, and sportsmanship. The Burns Hilanders finished fourth in the state last year, and are currently fifth so far this year.
       Another question we had was: What do the kids that don't play sports do? The answers: a lot. Activities ranged from 4H to ranching to involvement in academic activities. 4H alone has 40% of Burns high schoolers enrolled, exponentially more than the 1 or 2 percent that is usually the average across the state. They are currently building a community center, but its emphasis is more on the senior population and meeting rooms. There is a Boys and Girls Club there, but with more than a few people I talked to, they expressed concern about how it was geared primarily for elementary and middle school students. The town also has a skateboard park, which every time we drove past was always being used. In closing, rural towns operate a lot different than urban cities. However, I think they could use a recreation center somewhere in the area primarily geared to high school students.

       The other subject I was interested in was the economics of the area. Put simply, the economy in Harney County is very fragile. There is no general consensus among the townspeople what to do in this area, either. Some would like the economy to stay the way it is, some would a little growth to the point where they were when the mill was still operating, and a very small percentage were comfortable with an explosion of growth. Many of the buildings were boarded up on their main street and a larger percentage looked like they could use a renovation. Tourism was low, migration away from the town was high. Bottom line, it's going to be tough to build an economically sound town without incredible planning and vision. Industry will be hard to bring to Burns as there is no transportation for products out of the region unless you transport by truck. The region desperately needs a working railroad or a less-restricted airport for industry to be viable.