Order Of The Antelope No Longer Will Be Herd On Oregon Refuge

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - The men-only Order of the Antelope is being kicked off a southeastern Oregon refuge because of drunken rowdiness and discrimination against women at its annual gathering.

The group can have one last fling this July at the Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge if members agree to behave themselves, the government said Tuesday.

"We cannot allow user groups on the refuges that discriminate against women, minorities, handicapped or anything like that. Nothing will preclude them from going on the refuge for range tours, or to look at wildlife. But the social event just got so large it had a tendency to get out of hand," Marvin Plenert, regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said in Portland.

GROUP WANTED REFUGE

The Order of the Antelope was founded in 1932 to urge the government to create an antelope refuge on Hart Mountain, a goal realized in 1936. Members have included U.S. senators, congressmen, governors and a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Since then, the order has sponsored numerous projects to help the refuge, but in recent years it opposed a Fish and Wildlife decision to stop allowing cattle grazing on the refuge.

Plenert said a permit allowing up to 500 members to gather on the refuge this July was ready but hadn't been signed yet.

Under its conditions, the group can't display a sexually explicit wooden Indian, must get rid of open-air outhouses and must stop members from bringing their own alcohol. The order can operate a bar with controlled hours.

Plenert said Fish and Wildlife would keep an eye on the gathering, but wouldn't be counting heads.

The order has until Sept. 1 to remove the amphitheater, sheds, barbecue and outhouses it keeps on the refuge for the gatherings.

The campouts gained notoriety last year when The Sunday Oregonian described members who were drunk, profane, littering beer cans and driving in range areas closed to motor vehicles.

"Last year, a number of visitors driving down the road claimed some drunken folks said derogatory remarks to them," Plenert said. "We checked it out and found out, yeah, this did take place."

Don Hotchkiss, spokesman for the Order of the Antelope, defended the group's conduct.

"The only thing I can say is that I, or the organization, are not at all ashamed of what we have done," Hotchkiss said by telephone Tuesday night. "As a matter of fact, we're rather proud of what we've done in southeastern Oregon."

"We've had such a great rapport," said Don Hotchkiss, spokesman for the Order of the Antelope, "but whether we still have the same rapport with Fish and Wildlife and the federal government, in my opinion, depends on them."

Hotchkiss said the order will hold its 1993 gathering on private land. Members plan to negotiate with the state to purchase 80 acres adjacent to another 80 acres the group owns to build a permanent site that will be open to anybody who wants to use it.

"I don't care whether it's the Girl Scouts or the Boy Scouts, if they want to come to southern Oregon, we'd love to welcome them," Hotchkiss said.

Plenert said the order's board of directors had agreed it was best to find somewhere else for their annual gatherings. There are private lands within the refuge.

ONE LAST GATHERING

The order was allowed one last gathering because of its long record of helping the refuge and an agreement that there would be a one-year grace period if its privileges were ever ended, Fish and Wildlife spokesman Dave Klinger said.

Plenert said he had received no pressure from elected officials or environmentalists on his decision.

Regional refuge supervisor Sandy Wilbur said the order wouldn't agree to leave alcohol at home or stop barring women, two conditions for the gathering to continue.