Portlanders can thank an unnamed fishing guide for helping to bring an uncommon patch of desert wilderness to their doorstep -- or at least within a two-hour drive. A few years ago the intrepid guide telephoned the Portland-based

to say:

"If I were a rich man, this is the piece of river I'd buy."

The "this" he referred to, recalls conservancy Director Sue Doroff, was some 8,000 acres of canyonesque land along the John Day River, one of Oregon's most celebrated waterways for being undammed over its 284 miles and a stronghold for migratory steelhead. But the rugged, arid land was inaccessible mainly owing to private ownership.

Western Rivers bought it as fast as it could. And starting this past Saturday, Oregonians could camp and hike on the land in a new state park and have what Doroff calls "a wild experience" -- not in the partying sense but in the fact that comforts are few in a challenging landscape. The park is remotely situated along Highway 206 between Condon and Wasco. Camp coolers need to hold their ice.

is a triumph in the increasingly complex world of park creation. In setting aside open land for public access today and going forward, the park will be both a playground for a growing Oregon while exerting strict conservation practices on a fragile but prolific river and desert landscape. In the parks world, serving both purposes is uncommon: It's a twofer.

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Western Rivers discovered the land was for sale but to the highest bidder -- money rules, nothing personal, it could easily go to a lone millionaire seeking solace. Enter

, who lives far from his native Switzerland in Wyoming and whose personal fortune was estimated this year by Forbes magazine to exceed $8 billion. Wyss heads his own conservation-minded foundation that extended an interest-free loan to Western Rivers, enough to cinch the purchase. The Parks Department then took more than one budget cycle to pay Western Rivers for taking on the $7.86 million loan debt. Separately,

, the department sunk $5 million into creating the park's infrastructure.

Cottonwood Canyon is Oregon's second-largest state park but easily its wildest. It should remain so. Generations will be able to see, hike, fish and camp in an otherwise alien environment that helps to make the Northwest as distinctive as it is.

That a European was involved in its creation only helps tell a peculiarly American story: Wyss became enamored of America's national parks while working for the Colorado Highway Department as a student in 1958. He would pick up his MBA at Harvard, establish and sell a very successful medical device company in the United States, and continue to seed work on the frontiers of bioengineering. But the notion that stunning landscapes should be protected for everyone's enjoyment landed upon him long ago and remains a defining purpose of his foundation.

It's nothing the comparatively poor but sharp-eyed fishing guide wouldn't understand. Neither is it a notion all Oregonians shouldn't embrace: Spectacular settings are finite in what seems an infinite Oregon and can serve as more than unseen backcountry. Their protection, as exemplified in the creation of Cottonwood Canyon State Park, turns such places into timeless public treasures.