Local sites of the all American town of...

Indian Hills park.

Crystal park.

A satellite campus of the University of Oregon (U of O, often UFO by detractors...  The school offers a full curriculum, but any student needing special classes can make the hour or so journey to the Eugene main campus and of course most students will fill the buses on weekends to see the Fighting Ducks.

For more info, see campus...

Every May, the town celebrates Berry Days, in honor of the blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and other assorted fruits that grow well in the region. Local cooks put their berry recipes on the line in a cook off and a jam and jelly contest. Members of the local coven have swept the competition the last three times. Could it be witchcraft? Craftspeople sell their wares (priority given to berry or fruit related arts and crafts). Food booths, games and face painting for the kiddies, and live bands fill the park by the lake. The fun lasts for three days, but the good memories last for the rest of the year.

Devil's Mouth lies on the outskirts of Shady Hills cemetery. It's a forbidding place, made only more forbidding by local legend. According to the tale told since the Pioneer days, early settlers to the Whispering Pines area found a Kalapuya tribesman living on the riverbank. His people had been forcibly relocated by the US government in 1855, but he'd hidden in the cave during the evacuation and managed to stay behind. Since that time, he'd eked out a living eating vegetable roots, small game, and grasshoppers when he could get them, continuing to live the semi-nomadic way his people had known for generations.

The settlers were alarmed to find a native. The Indian wars were underway and many of the settlers had been through raids on the Great Plains. Acting out of fear, they captured the Kalapuya and tried to force him to tell them where the rest of his tribe was hidden and when they planned to attack. Few, if any, of the settlers knew the Kalapuya were a peaceful, hunter-gatherer tribe. For hours the interrogation continued, hampered by the language barrier as well as mistaken cultural assumptions.

At last, fearing for his life, the Kalapuya lashed out at his captors and escaped back to the Devil's Mouth. The settlers followed, thirsty for blood. Cornered in the cave, the tribesman called up a prayer to the wolf, a sacred spirit among his people. According to the legend, wolf answered and killed five men before someone managed to shoot the creature. As wolf lay dying, so the stories say, he turned into the Kalapuya and called down a curse upon those who persecuted him. He called for the white man's devil to take the soul of anyone who entered the cave.

These days the story is mainly told around campfires along with the more common ghost and ghoul stories. Few, however, really like to go too near Devil's Mouth. It's a popular location for fraternity hazing rituals - so much so that the various frats coordinate who gets to use it what night during Pledge Week. Still, there are those who wonder how many young men take their souls back to their dorm rooms afterwards.

Scobie Hospital was endowed by Hiram Scobie in 1877. The original Victorian building may have been replaced with a newer, more modern one in recent years, but the commitment to the best, most advanced care remains the same. The ER is noted as one of the best in the area, which is lucky for the Scoobies since they'll probably spend a lot of time here. Also, they have the best head trauma team in the state. That alone was almost enough to choose a new home so far as Buffy was concerned. After all, Giles never seems to go long between head injuries.

Northern Senior High School

Home of the Wolfskins....go 'Skins!

Pine Cone Plaza, the new mall which opened several months ago after 2 years of controversy. Here Buffy and her friends can find those cultural wonders lost in the destruction of Sunnydale: The Gap, Starbucks, The Limited, and all the others. Surely there couldn't be another place like it anywhere on the globe.

For those interested in more local businesses and the basics of life, there's plenty more utilitarian shopping at Sawmill Shopping Center, the local strip mall. Here you'll find a laundromat, drugstore, hardware store, grocery store, gas station, the waffle house, and a few quirky, local shops.

Of course there are local fire and police stations to service the town...

No town would be complete without a spooky Warehouse and Industrial District on the "Wrong Side of the Tracks."

For those who are beyond medical help, however, there is Peterson's Funeral Home. A family business for four generations and counting, Peterson's handles virtually all funeral arrangements in Whispering Pines.

Once the Peterson family is done with a person, their next - and permanent, we hope - place of residence is Shady Hills cemetery. There have been rumors that strange people hang out here after dark, but they might just be high school students making out where they think nobody will see them. Then again....