This last year was a mixed one for us in many ways. We started off hoping for a full re-opening of the Center and a resumption of music and other events by mid-summer. However, a combination of acute fire danger and the resurgent Covid-19 situation, which was especially bad in Siskiyou County where we are located, made us reconsider. The “Lava Fire” in July burned up on the side of Mount Shasta right above us, including into nearby Diller Canyon. Despite these challenges, including many weeks of intense heat and smoke, we have been able to move forward with a number of projects and initiatives. We started welcoming limited numbers of visitors back to our site and had a number of small scale work parties and volunteer events. In April we conducted a 15-acre prescribed burn on the property, with assistance from the Siskiyou Prescribed Burn Association, the Karuk Tribe, Quartz Valley Indian Reservation, Weed Fire Department and other organizations.
In July a group of artists, including Shawnee, Fiona, and Heidi, came to Black Butte to paint a new mural on our compound. The mural will be described in a forthcoming artist statement. We were also able to proceed with further work on several of our railcars: a project to re-side the 1923 PFE Reefer, housing the BBCRC library and art space, was completed and then repainted and lettered in its historic Pacific Fruit Express/Western Pacific scheme. Work on our SP #109 “Shasta” car has moved to the car’s windows and interior. Note: We will be looking for carpentry assistance to further this restoration in 2022, let us know if you are interested in helping out. Further work also took place on our GN/OC&E caboose, “Dorris”. The caboose is now outfitted with all new upholstery and further window restoration and window reconstruction took place. In order to recreate the atmosphere of a caboose in the 1930s/40s, we are looking for donations of caboose furnishings from that era, including interior lamps, caboose marker lights and other “bells and whistles”. We will soon be posting photos of our progress and events over 2021 on the “Images” section of our site.