The OPLI Center in Fossil has served as a visitor's and interpretive center for paleontology and geology hobbyists since 2001. Now, the organization is planning to dissolve in May of 2025, and the center's use will be in the hands of Wheeler County.
The Oregon Paleo Lands Institute (OPLI), a public benefit non-profit organization founded in 2001, announced that it is preparing to cease operations after its board voted for dissolution at its last meeting.
The board voted to dissolve the organization by May of 2025.
The OPLI started in 2001 with support from congressional funding and an initiative by Regional Solutions, a program from the State of Oregon that helps with initiatives of strategic importance to the Governor.
OPLI saw the region's untapped potential for tourism and an opportunity to educate the public in paleontology and geology. OPLI served as a guide to the John Day Basin and established a visitors' center in Fossil.
The center helped to put Fossil and the John Day Basin on the map for fossil hunters, rockhounds, and paleontology history buffs.
Approximately 200,000 visitors a year visit the John Day Fossil Bed's three units: Sheep Rock, the Painted Hills, and Clarno.
As the popularity of the John Day Fossil beds grew in the early 2000s, OPLI board members and staff worked to reach these visitors and to provide them with maps of paleo sites and information on local businesses.
Thousands of schoolchildren from around the state visited the OPLI Center in Fossil, learning about the John Day Fossil Beds and the great excavations of 40-million-year-old fossils near Clarno in the 1950s.
"The building became more of a visitor's center than anything," said board President Jeffrey Kee.
Tourists who came to Fossil and dug for fossils behind Wheeler High School were assisted by volunteers at the OPLI Center, located next to the Wheeler County Court. Many of these visitors stayed at the Fossil Motel, or at the Oregon Hotel or Skyhook Hotel in Mitchell.
But over time, the size and scope of the organization's goals became a challenge. Board members who wanted to focus on the natural history of the John Day Basin struggled to engage locals and visitors. Spanning more than 8,100 square miles, the John Day Basin is vast and attracts visitors for various reasons – from hunting and fishing to rockhounding and paleo and geology researchers.
In 2005, the National Park Service opened the Thomas Condon Paleo Center near Kimberly in the Sheep Rock Unit. The Thomas Condon Center was well funded and well staffed and provided natural history exhibits that OPLI could not replicate or compete with.
OPLI Board President Jeffrey Kee says that the OPLI board missed a chance to focus on fossil collections in Fossil at Wheeler High School.
Kee, who has served as board president since 2015, says that with the creation of the Thomas Condon Center, "the focus on natural history became redundant."
Still, OPLI made a number of meaningful contributions in the past decade.
One that will likely remain relevant for many years is a video that OPLI produced about the native people and natural history of the John Day Basin before European Americans arrived in the area.
They also distributed around 50,000 fliers that helped visitors find attractions with maps that promoted area hotels, restaurants, and businesses in Wheeler County.
"It was a gem of an opportunity, but we couldn't get the help we needed," Kee says.
Although OPLI made formal agreements with Wheeler High School, the City of Fossil, and state parks – none of them resulted in financial commitments.
The board also recruited new members, including a staff person from the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) and developed a basin-wide interpretive plan.
However, recruiting local volunteers to join the board became a continual challenge, and the OPLI was unable to hire summer workers to man the OPLI center.
The board also saw challenges related to volunteerism and Wheeler County's aging population. Over the past three summers, only one volunteer was available to staff the OPLI center despite a fairly robust recruitment effort. That volunteer came from outside the area and stayed in the RV park, which the OPLI paid for.
"It doesn't matter if it's the ambulance or a local visitor's center, people run out of energy," Kee said. "Everybody who is able is already volunteering, often for several organizations."
Kee says that the Wheeler County Court is considering an alternate use for the old OPLI building, with the possibility of using it as a medical facility.
"It's too bad," Kee says. "We had a lot of good partners on board, and we got a Governor's Award, but there wasn't any long-term commitment of resources."
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