Trail Tenders disbanding

Dec. 14—Trail Tenders Inc., the nonprofit volunteer group that has played an integral role at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center since it opened near Baker City in May 1992, and even before, is disbanding.

Mike Popa of Baker City, a Trail Tender board member, said on Tuesday, Dec. 13 that two main factors have led to the pending dissolution of the organization whose mission was to enhance programs at the Interpretive Center, which is owned and operated by the Bureau of Land Management.

The first is a struggle to recruit new members, and the second is the ongoing closure of the Interpretive Center, starting in November 2020 due to the pandemic and continuing during a major renovation.

Current and former BLM officials credit the Trail Tenders with helping to make the Interpretive Center a nationally popular attraction and a focal point for Oregon Trail-related tourism.

"The Trail Tenders were a foundational cornerstone for the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center's inception and success," said Sarah Sherman, NHOTIC project manager. "Their support not only carried NHOTIC, but was a true act of community service."

Dave Hunsaker, who was the Center's first director, hired three years before the building opened, agreed.

"This group was to me absolutely critical for the success of that Interpretive Center in just about every way that you can think of," said Hunsaker, who had several other leadership posts in the BLM and returned to Baker City about a decade ago with his wife, Joyce Badgley Hunsaker. Joyce's portrayal of Fanny, a pioneer woman, was one of the iconic living history performers at the Center.

Membership struggles

Popa, who is 65, said he believes he is the youngest member.

"We don't have the people to carry on the activities," he said. "There doesn't seem to be the interest in younger generations in this type of thing. I really think that has contributed to our inability to attract new members.

"I hate to use a tired cliché, but it became apparent that we've come to the end of the trail," Popa said.

The second factor is the extended closure of the Interpretive Center, which deprived Trail Tenders of its main source of revenue — the Oregon Trail gift shop it operated at the Interpretive Center.

The Center was closed for part of the spring of 2020 due to the pandemic, and it closed again, for the same reason, on Nov. 17, 2020.

The facility hasn't been open since.

Although the COVID-19 crisis has eased, a previously planned renovation of the Center started March 1, 2022, and the Center isn't slated to open until some time in 2023.

With the Oregon Trail shop closed, "there's no funds coming in," Popa said.

Trail Tenders opened a store on Main Street in September 2021, but that proved unsuccessful, Popa said.

"It's a perfect storm, if you will, of circumstances," he said. "It's bittersweet, it really is."

Trail Tenders actually predates the Interpretive Center. The nonprofit was formed in 1989, three years before the Center opened.

Over the decades, Trail Tenders volunteers, in addition to managing the gift shop, have coordinated a variety of events and activities that helped make the Center a major tourist draw for Baker County and Northeastern Oregon.

More than 2.4 million people have visited the Center since May 1992.

Popa, who moved to Baker City about seven years ago with his wife, Anne-Marie, said he joined Trail Tenders in part due to his experience working with a blacksmith shop at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.

Mike Popa helped start a blacksmith shop at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, but he said the shop, which was dedicated in 2019, was open for only a few months before the pandemic.

Popa believes Trail Tenders' legacy will last.

"When it was firing on all cylinders I think we really enhanced the visitor experience at the Interpretive Center," he said. "A lot of really good things were going on up there."

Popa said he hopes that when the Center reopens following the renovation, that some group will manage the gift shop and otherwise fill some of the roles the Trail Tenders have handled since 1992.

"I like the Interpretive Center — it's an important part of western history and a real feather in the cap for Baker County," he said.

Hunsaker said he thinks it's vital that the BLM work with local volunteers to try to create either a new version of Trail Tenders, or another volunteer organization that can carry the Trail Tenders' legacy into future decades.

He said he's optimistic that new generations, including people who grew up in the area and don't remember when there wasn't an Interpretive Center, will be ready to revive the momentum that the Trail Tenders had for so long.

"The agency (BLM) needs to provide the guidance and the support," Hunsaker said. "I think this community can do it."