#20: Bed and Breakfast and History

"So" inquired our Seattle friends, "do you have a place to stop on your way down to San Francisco?

Actually, no.  After about 9 or 10 hours on the road, we are not inclined to be picky.  The Holiday Inn (or comparable) suits us fine.

"Aaaaah!" Dale and Elizabeth were enthusiastic. "Can we make a suggestion?  We always stay at The Wolf Creek Inn when we drive to California. You should make a reservation.  Ask if you can have the Clark Gable Room."

The sign has not changed, although the Inn has changed names and owners. It is now officially a "historic site" owned by the State of Oregon  

The dining room, ready for breakfast.

We would never have thought to turn off the highway to a place called Wolf Creek without our friends' prodding.  But the lure of Clark Gable was too tempting, and in truth, one night was hardly enough. But it is not just the Inn, a fine historic building which began life in 1883 as a stage coach stop, that holds appeal for present day travellers. The Cascade mountains in Southern Oregon along Interstate 5/Pacific Highway are a destination unto themselves as we discovered while at dinner.  Those guests in fleece and gortex?   They were relaxing after a day exploring nearby hiking trails.

We had to be content with the scenic drive on Interstate 5, a former byway for Indian trappers working for the Hudson's Bay Company, and later, during the gold rush, the fastest way to California.

And we did get to explore the Wolf Creek Inn, even if we weren't able to reserve (or even peek into) the Clark Gable suite.  Someone else had booked it. But we did look in the Inn's closet-sized "museum" and discovered that the out-of the-way Wolf Creek establishment was a favourite of Gable who liked to escape to the wilds of Oregon for fun and fishing.  Other Hollywood folk (Carole Lombard, Mary Pickford, Orson Wells) visited too, but alas, no rooms have been named for them.

Not our room -- ours had a double bed. ( I hoped the exposure might be better across the hall, but I was wrong.)  Still, you can see the handmade quilts on the beds.  Every room was appropriately decorated.

Jack London was also a Wolf Creek regular, and he is said to have completed a novel, The Valley of the Moon, in the tiny room he always claimed when he and his wife came for a visit.       

No-one books this room.  It is very, very, very small.