Silverton, Oregon

[Wyody]

Okey-Doke ... this just in.
We're entertaining an offer and a notion of moving to Silverton, Oregon ... Gateway to the Silver Falls state park, up and coming Yuppie town.
I must say, this looks pretty good. It would have to, to pry us away from the coast.
Here are some positives;
Median age - 33. That's pretty nice after living among the ancients. Oh, we'd still be entwined with the older folks - that's what we do ... and almost what we are (me, anyway) ... but to live in an area controlled by that group is a little stifling so, I'd expect better concerts, better artsy-fartsy crowds and a freer attitude in general.
Sixteen miles out of Salem - that sounds about right. I read that the shopping is a little limited right there in Silverton - but sixteen miles to Salem and about 45 to Portland should make that tolerable.
It's also a cheaper area than the coast - but still, reportedly, a slightly upper-crust sort of crowd.
I would be interested to know if anybody else has information, intuition or first-hand acquaintance with this town. Looks good on paper. What's the scoop?

[PDXnative]

Silverton is a cool town. I worked with the City Manager a few years ago in his previous job. Really nice guy. It is up and coming and has a really nice historic downtown with lots of historic homes. Close to Silver Creek Falls and the Oregon Gardens. Beautiful area.

I would take it. The coast is nice to visit, but would not want to live there....

[Wyody]

Thanx, PDX. I just gave you a rep-point.

That's sort of how we're thinking. Man, this Oregon coast is something else though - we drove down to the Casino at the other end of town for buffet tonight - and there was this big, blue marbly sea just knocking our socks off ... but I hear this from person after person about not living here full time ... and when we first arrived in February, person after person was hating the days 'cause of gloom. Still hasn't worn on us yet, though.
I'm thinking, yeah. We know of a couple in Portland that might have a yacht up'n'running by Spring (nod,nod. wink,wink.)(just kidding - no pressure)
Found out Silverton is also home to "Bobby the Wonder Dog"!!!
On a trip to Indiana, this dog got lost from its owners (don't know the whole story). Six months later, in walks Bobby. Haven't read about his attitude at the time, but Bobby the Wonder Dog made it home!
Well, suppose we better figure out a day to ride up there.
Thanx again!

[Wyoming53]

Your going to Silverton. I'm going to Egypt. Go figure.hahahahaha

[PDXnative]

Originally Posted by Wyody

Thanx, PDX. I just gave you a rep-point.

That's sort of how we're thinking. Man, this Oregon coast is something else though - we drove down to the Casino at the other end of town for buffet tonight - and there was this big, blue marbly sea just knocking our socks off ... but I hear this from person after person about not living here full time ... and when we first arrived in February, person after person was hating the days 'cause of gloom. Still hasn't worn on us yet, though.
I'm thinking, yeah. We know of a couple in Portland that might have a yacht up'n'running by Spring (nod,nod. wink,wink.)(just kidding - no pressure)
Found out Silverton is also home to "Bobby the Wonder Dog"!!!
On a trip to Indiana, this dog got lost from its owners (don't know the whole story). Six months later, in walks Bobby. Haven't read about his attitude at the time, but Bobby the Wonder Dog made it home!
Well, suppose we better figure out a day to ride up there.
Thanx again!

I remember hearing about that story. It was all over the news a fews ago. Amazing. You should take a trip to Silverton and hang out there. And GO SEE SILVER CREEK FALLS!!!! It is impressive!

[isabel]

On the oregon coast there are some seal caves that are just awesome. Can't remember the location...But you take an elevator down to the cave. Up top is a parking area with a beautiful view of the ocean.

Izzy

[Wyody]

Originally Posted by isabel

On the oregon coast there are some seal caves that are just awesome. Can't remember the location...But you take an elevator down to the cave. Up top is a parking area with a beautiful view of the ocean.

Izzy

That is south of Newport ... can't recall which side of Waldport - but it's between Newport and Yachats.
Haven't been there - it's Sea Lions ... at least, to my knowledge, that is what you are referring to.
We have almost made a mental note to stop there sometime - but the list of places to go here is awesome.
One thing they seem to be lacking is a decent barber. Cripes. Took me 15 minutes to fix the latest disaster. I hate getting haircuts - why couldn't the "Indian gene" have built my hair??

[PDXnative]

"Sea Lion Caves". Cool place. Have not been there since I was a kid. Here is the website. They even have a webcam.

http://www.sealioncaves.com/2root/index.html

[Wyody]

Not to detract from the Sea Lions ... but I have a question regarding Silverton, Oregon.
The rap-sheets look good - however, when I GoogleEarth it, the entire area around there looks like farmland.
I haven't exactly figured out how Oregon works but I'm wondering what the "Redneck factor" is around there? There's not really much farmland around here - some orchards of different types (walnut, grapes, etc) but the closest I've really seen to "redneck territory" is a few cattle up near Tillamook - can't tell if they're dairy or beef cattle (kine) but I assume that, no matter where you go, ranch folk are ranch folk ... not far removed from but still slightly different than "rednecks".
Now, PDX - if you're out there - I have a feeling you might have your "redneck math" down (for the curious, "redneck math" is a type of match calculated by others and not by the actual redneck) and so, I wonder if you have any impact information for me regarding that situation?
Not that I don't like rednecks (necessarily) and not that I don't appreciate their value systems (variable) ... but given a choice in the matter, I prefer to keep that influence in the minority ... along with overly-religious ... along with overly-beer-swilling ... along with overly-factory-working, know whut I mean? I prefer my crossword puzzles to have words longer than 3 letters for answers and the stores and churches having at least some rules about tying the horsies up out front.
So, what's the scoop? Thanks in advance.
(ar-ar, get it? horsies? scoop? ar-ar)

[PDXnative]

You are going to laugh, but there are more renecks at the coast then around Silverton. Yes, it is a rural town, but it is a nice community. If you get outside Portland Metro, Salem, or Eugene, you will find LOTS of farmland. There are only 3.7 million people that live in all of Oregon, yet, 1.8 million of them live in the Portland Metro area. That leaves the rest of the state pretty thin for population with lots of open space, forest, and famland. You will like Silverton.

[PDXnative]

Oh yeah. Rednecks mainly live east of the cascades, except Bend, and South of Cottage Grove with a few pockets of them scattered around. They are pretty easy to spot.

[Wyody]

Made the trip to Silverton today. Here are my initial observations and perhaps, questions.
After leaving Salem one begins winding thru the countryside - a view of one peak or another looming in the distance - I don't know my mountains yet so, not sure ... I assumed it was Mt. Angel but on looking at the map, that wasn't one of my choices - but it was nice to look at as we drove past a tree-farm with some wild and crazy looking, crooked trees.
We bypassed city-center and, by our Mapquest Map, ended up directly at the site where we have been asked to live and work. This is on the north end of town. Not exactly the best side of town ... reminded me of Tillamook - no sidewalks, a little on the run-down side but we drove thru both sides of the property before heading over to a nice little restaurant (restaurant by day, pizza-house by night) and got a look at the first decently-priced menu since we've been in Oregon. Breakfast was good and pretty fair price-wise. Made the mistake of totally breaking my diet (again) but didn't have much choice (omelette & toast). Pancakes the size of a taxi-cab ... good, too. Asked a few questions of the waitress, found out about the drug-problem on that end of town (not on our property) and what folks around there thought of living there - and it was all favorable.
We then drove thru the town a little bit - always hard to see everything quickly on a first-time-through but then we went back to the property for a walk-thru ... then, a meeting - which went well ... then back to the Home-Style restaurant for a lunch (by this time, I was ballooning ... without a balloon).
Then, we started driving west, then north, then this way thru town, then that way. The actual city-center reminded me of, I believe, McMinneville. Older, quaint, campus-cool. What we didn't see was someplace right close by to hike ... but it took us a few months to find someplace suitable here, in Lincoln, so that's just a temporary problem. Found the town pool. No WalMart, No big chain store - enough banks ... Safeway and Roth's - but Salem is only 14 miles or so away. Lots and lots of vineyards around - and some sort of vineyard I still can't figure what it was as all the wires were about 15ft off the ground.
No ocean.
Traffic was acceptable though.
And it's more like a family town - more like a real place while Lincoln calls-up thoughts of Malibu and other unliveable beach towns.
We're still digesting the day's experiences ... including a really good Turkey-Melt and should we say "yes", we don't have to move 'til the first of the year.
It's really a matter of view -vs- money. We need the extra cash ... but here, we can walk two blocks and get a "view of a lifetime" while there, in Silverton ... I'm wondering. Very rural. But fewer Rednecks you say?? That's good. This town has some "old" appeal to it - Pan would love the Silver Springs Bank ... so would 53 - looks a little like "old west South Dakota" right there where it sits.
Perhaps I'll have a bit more to add later - but it might be nice to live in a town where a 5th-wheel on a driveway-size lot doesn't cost 250K. By the way, saw some new homes going for around 190 - comparable to suburban Cincinnati area.

[Wyody]

Okay - pretty much a done deal. Come the first of the year, we will become "Valley People" - Willamette Valley, that is. Still having trouble why they mispronounce everything here in Oregon - I mean, half or more of the country uses "Indian" words for names of everything - but when you look at the word and try to speak it, you speak it right.
Here, it's wrong. Take "Willamette", for example. We've seen it all our lives ... looks like William ... and with profound grace and dignity, we say Willa-METTE! Not so in Oregon ... it's pronounced wil-LAM!!-ette. Makes no sense to me except that in most Native languages, accents are on the even-numbered syllables ... which makes me wonder if the rest of the country is saying their words wrong. I also noticed a large resevoir right out of town on Google - looks inviting. I was also reading old "Sasquatch" stories from up the Pudding River right outside of town. I was trying to upload a couple of photos from GoogleEarth of the falls in Silver Falls State Park ... but the site had problems with the size. I suggest you google up some pics of said park - it's just to the south of Silverton. They look awesome!

[PDXnative]

Like, oh my God. Another valley dude. Totally radical!!

Pics of Silver Creek Falls. Awesome park!!

http://www.silverfallspark.org/CP/Current_Pictures.htm

[Wyody]

Hey, cool link PD.
I was looking at some neat pics of Oregon Gardens - which is another multi-faceted landmark near Silverton. Can you also find a good link to those?
Thanks a lot.

[PDXnative]

http://www.oregongarden.org/

http://travel.webshots.com/album/559867163zraQXn

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/...54686844diBWJR

[Curious George]

New homes in Silverton. Wyody hope your not eyeing one of these?


73.jpg

74.jpg

[Wyody]

Gad. Nope. Didn't see much terrain like that right in town either - mostly a flat, double-strip town with a hill (small) as you go south out of town and a hill (small) as you go northeast out of town. I'll have to look around and see if I can spot these - something doesn't look quite right.
Part of the reason I do like that area better is that land might be more affordable - and being as I have about 10 years til I can retire with some sort of income - I need a nearly isolated lot capable of sustaining a drive-in RV ... but the outfit I'll be working with has a history of turning properties of that nature ... and what I really need is about 3 small parcels around the country - one back near the Ohio Valley, one out here and one down east of Pan - maybe in Okrahomer. I get bored easy since my chess partner died and my football knee flipped out.