DETROIT LAKE, Ore. – Oregonians are grieving the loss of some of their most treasured natural places after wildfires wiped out campgrounds, hot springs and wooded retreats that have been touchstones for generations in a state known for its unspoiled beauty.The flames that destroyed hundreds of homes and killed at least nine people also encroached on beloved state parks, scorched some of Oregon's best-known hiking trails and raged through a whitewater rafting mecca.“Nature IS the icon in Oregon.
We have this collective grief and some of that is (from) growing up here," said Eden Dawn, an editor at Portland Monthly magazine who wrote an essay about the wildfires. “We just didn’t have New York City.