Dan Ogden will be remembered for his community efforts, but he also influenced the path of some of America’s most spectacular recreational resources.
Actually, Ogden played a dam big role. He was able to turn on a river.
Ogden — who died Wednesday at age 95 — was a federal administrator in the 1960s, long before he and wife Val settled in Vancouver in 1985.
He worked in the Interior Department under secretary Stuart Udall, who was hoping to formalize a national trail system and protect the nation’s wild rivers.
A pivotal part of the effort was a 1964 raft trip with the first lady. Udall wanted to pitch his proposal by taking Lady Bird Johnson down the Snake River, and Ogden was tapped as advance man for the trip.
According to an article published by the Pacific Coast Trail Association, the focal point of the float trip was a lunch spot that had the Grand Tetons in the background.
It could only be reached by water. But there wasn’t enough water: The river was too low.
Let it flow
As Ogden told writer Mark Larabee in 2017, “We called the Bureau of Reclamation and told them to open up the dam.”
Upstream valves were opened, the water flowed and the first lady had a heck of a time.
The Pacific Crest Trail publication included an archive photo of Lady Bird beaming as Udall, sitting next her in the raft, pointed out wildland features.
In 1968, then-president Lyndon Johnson signed the National Wild Scenic Rivers Act and the National Trails System Act, creating the Pacific Crest Trail as it now exists.
During that same ceremony, LBJ signed legislation creating the Redwood National Park in California and North Cascades National Park in Washington.
Ogden was instrumental in all that work, a trail advocate said Friday.
His office produced a report, “Trails for America,” that “was the foundation of the National Trails System Act,” said Dana Hendricks, representative for the Columbia Cascades region of the Pacific Crest Trail.
“It has a lot of inspiring language and talks about how Americans are full of the spirit of adventure,” she said. “We don’t often see legislation any more that does good for people’s souls.”
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from newspaper beats to write the story behind the story.
