ENHS Nature Trails November 2003 Article 2

President's Column: "Talking Stones"
by David Wagner

In June of this year, the Kalapuya Talking Stones were dedicated in the Whilamut Natural Area of Alton Baker Park, Springfield-Eugene, Oregon. The natural area takes up most of Alton Baker Park east of Leisure Lane, where the park host is located, continuing under the I-5 freeway to the western edge of Springfield. The name of the natural area, Whilamut, comes from a Kalapuyan word meaning "where the river ripples and runs fast," the origin of the present day river's name, "Willamette." The naming of the natural area and placement of the talking stones are an effort to recognize the pre-European heritage of the area, a time when the resident people were the Kalapuya.

Scattered through the natural area are eleven large rocks deeply etched with words from the Kalapuya language. These are the Kalapuya Talking Stones. The words were chosen to reflect various features of the natural area with the rocks placed appropriately. The rock with "Whilamut" on it is placed alone, next to the river, nearly in the center of the natural area where it fronts the river. There is a bench by the riverbank bike path next to the rock where one can sit and reflect on the history of the area.

The Eugene Natural History Society has been involved with this natural area for a long time, going back to when it was a county park. The ENHS was instrumental in getting the county to designate a portion of Alton Baker Park as a natural area, but this designation was lost when the park was turned over to the city. A citizen planning committee worked with the parks' departments of both Eugene and Springfield to enlarge and reestablish the natural area where I have always led my nature walks. Last year, as the talking stones were being installed, we began a discussion with the planners and designers about the idea of "seeding" the talking stones with moss so their appearance might seem more settled, that they had been there for a long time and really belonged. After getting a nod from all involved, the project began this fall. There were two stages to the project, similar in scope but different in detail. This is an experiment whose success will likely be known by the end of the rainy season, next May.

The first inoculation of the stones took place on the ENHS nature walk on Sunday, October 19. Participants in this event included Dave Sonnichsen of the Citizen Planning Committee and Lisa Ponder, the artist who designed and directed the installation of the stones. On this day we painted five of the eleven stones with a slurry of buttermilk, egg, and moss. The slurry was made by pouring a pint of buttermilk into a blender and dropping in mosses a pinch at a time. The mosses were fragmented on the "puree" speed between additions, which continued until the machine could take no more. In the end, about an equal volume of dry moss and buttermilk were mixed, followed by the addition of one large egg to act as a sticking agent. Then, with the aid of a paint brush, we dabbed on the slurry, tucking it into the corners and crevices of the stones.

The moss species used are typical ones for rocks in both sun and shade. The mix is important because some of the talking stones are in the shade and some in full sun. The most prominent species in the moss inoculum are Racomitrium elongatum, Racomitrium varium, Grimmia trichophylla, Tortula princeps, Ceratodon purpureus, and Homalothecium pinnatifidum.

The mosses for the first batch were collected from roadside rocks near Gillespie Butte. The second batch was made with mosses gathered from an abandoned quarry on Mt. Pisgah, rocks which most closely matched the talking stones. Because the first slurry contained some rather large chunks of moss, the second batch was done differently. The dried moss was fragmented in a coffee grinder until it was about the size of an expresso grind. A cup of the ground moss was added to a pint of buttermilk and TWO large eggs were mixed in. This slurry seemed to behave much better, even sticking to vertical surfaces, as we painted it onto the stones in the eastern part of the natural area on October 31. We'll see in April or May if the fragments regenerate into new plants the way the recipe promises.

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