Sutherlin, Oregon: Giant Magic Mushrooms and Serpent

Huge mushrooms and a green serpent sprout from a squat white building.

Giant Magic Mushrooms

Oregon Gifts (formerly and more appropriately named Magic Mushroom Lamps and Waterfall Co) is a trip. For years we'd driven past these huge mushrooms and green serpent growing out of a squat white building without stopping, wondering what the h*ll this place was.

Up close, the mushrooms are immense, multi-colored and fantastic -- two on the roof and one on the ground. Inside are bead curtains, tie dye shirts, Indian print throws, dragons, mushroom lamps and incense -- Oregon Gifts is a trip into the past. Hippies young and old stopped in while we browsed the shop. Don't miss peeking behind the curtains into Tobacco Road (must be over 21 to enter), where we were amazed at the pipes, hookahs, bongs -- all exquisite works of art in glass, metal and stone.

Owners Harry and Linda Pinsent have been in this location since 1998, when he retired from making mushroom lamps. The Roseburg News Review June 6, 2006 has an article on the place, on the occasion of Charles Chariton's mural painting that covers half of the building's front. Chariton and Pinsent were childhood friends in South Hampton, England.

[Maureen Flanagan, 12/06/2009]