Silver Falls State Park

Thursday – July 19, 2012

This morning we took a drive to Silver Falls State Park. It was 9,000 acres of spectacular scenery. There are 10 waterfalls throughout the park. We were able to see three of them. One of the falls had a walking path underneath. We saw a family with children walking there. I’m sure the children were thrilled to have done that. I believe Jim, Colleen and the children walked under that fall last year. It was too steep a walk for me to have tried. There were some fairly flat paths that did allow us to walk a bit. We saw hikers and bikers and many, like us, eating a packed picnic lunch. It was a delightful outing.

On the way back to the motor home Bill saw a sign that referred to Norman Rockwell’s murals. He quickly turned the car around to investigate. We saw the murals. They were painted on the side of a building in downtown Silverton. During the darkest days of World War Two President Franklin D. Roosevelt coined the term “Four Freedoms” to encourage the men and women of our armed forces. In 1943 Norman Rockwell completed his famed paintings first published in the Saturday Evening Post magazine. A special “freedom” train carried the originals from Coast to Coast, thereby selling millions in war bonds. On the fifth anniversary of their creation a Silverton local artist, David McDonald, reproduced the famed paintings in mural format. Magnificent!