PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

Many years ago, I didn’t know what the phrase in the headline meant. “There is a place.”

Say what or perhaps even so what?

But, after many years traveling to Black Butte Ranch in Central Oregon, I now know that “there is a place.” It refers to Black Butte where there is a sense of contentment, peace and relaxation, all amid the wonder of nature.

It’s exactly 100 miles east from Salem, which, for us as Salem residents, made it a relatively easy trip. In the winter, we often had to be a bit careful heading over the Santiam Pass, but snow tires made it possible.

We began heading over to Black Butte when our kids were young and they developed the same love for “the place.” So much so that, when our son and daughter-in-law had their own daughter, they wanted to replicate our family’s early lifestyle.

They arranged for us to buy a cabin at Black Butte and, for the next 10 years or so, it became a place of relaxation and solitude. We hated to have to sell it just earlier this year.

We’ll still make the trek east to visit Black Butte, but, in some ways, it won’t be same without being “homeowners.”

Bend magazine recently wrote about Black Butte in these words:

“Heading northwest, the fringes of Bend in the rearview mirror, the highway straightens, meadows on either side. The sky seems bigger here, and makes you feel as if you could go on forever. That’s when your eye gets hold of it—nature’s perfect isosceles triangle, graphite against the blue.

“Black Butte, its sweeping, elegant lines unmarred by the glacial chiseling that carved neighboring pinnacles, suggests a relatively peaceful backstory, but it’s all a facade, geologically speaking. It erupted about one-and-a-half million years ago, burying the Metolius River, creating swampy meadows to the south, and, at the northern base, springs where the river now emerges.

“Ever since, people have been traveling here. Local indigenous people named the volcano Turututu. Native Americans migrating west from the Great Basin camped here, leaving behind tools found to be about 1,000 years old, confirming the oral history. Settlers began calling it Black Butte around 1855.

“Cattle and horse ranching began in the 1880s, when Till Glaze built the area’s first house—a modest log cabin in a sprawling meadow. In the mid 1930s, wealthy San Franciscan Stewart S. Lowery bought the property and named it Black Butte Ranch. He and his family spent summers there, horseback riding and swimming in their large pool, while the ranching continued.

“Brooks Resources bought the property in 1970 and began developing a residential resort with limited commercial activity. The company had encouraged local business to develop instead in the nearby town of Sisters, a lumber town in decline. The company offered merchants $5,000 and free architectural help to create an 1880s theme, which endures today and has thrived. From quaint spots for ice cream and cowboy boots to a spa, microbrewery, and independent movie theater, the town is all 1880s outside and a mix of modernity and nostalgia inside.

“Meanwhile, Black Butte Ranch has more than 1,250 homes, 18 miles of paved bike paths, 17 tennis courts, five swimming pools, three restaurants, a general store, and two 18-hole championship golf course, Big Meadow and Glaze Meadow.”

Regarding Brooks Resources, the Black Butte Ranch developer, I was fortunate enough to know Mike Hollern, one of the principals in the company. He had a love for “the place,” one that enabled him to lead development of a great “destination resort” in Central Oregon.

He was able to assure that, while there was development, Black Butte would retain its commitment “to living within the land,” not just “on the land.”

A walk or bike ride across a major meadow at the Ranch still provides a sense of awe and appreciation as you see mountains in the distance, cattle on the grass and birds flying everywhere.

When we arrive at Black Butte from our busy lifestyle, my always says she feels a sense of peace as we drive through the front entrance. I feel the same way.

So, we’ll be back time and again.