The supposed childhood diary of Cottage Grove’s Opal Whiteley drew fascination and scorn shortly after its publication in 1920. If last week’s gathering at the Community Center was any indication, Whiteley’s allure hasn’t faded much.

A capacity crowd filled the Shepherd Room Wednesday, Feb. 24 for an advanced screening of Oregon Public Broadcasting’s popular “Oregon Experience” program, which featured Whiteley as its subject. The show’s producers and many of its speakers were on hand to speak to the crowd and take questions.

Producer Kami Horton called the locally born child naturalist “easily the most complex person I’ve ever encountered.” Horton added that she appreciated the interest shown in Whiteley, who repatriated to England after news that her diary, allegedly penned when she was a child of six, may have been written much later, in Whiteley’s early twenties.

Horton said she wanted to present the beauty and nature present in Whiteley’s world, as well as the fantasy and mystique surrounding her interactions with the natural world. The show utilized special effects it had never featured before to make that mysticism possible, Horton said.

Also joining Horton were Bruce Barrow, senior editor of OPB’s popular “History Detectives” series. OPB Executive Producer Nadine Gelsing also attended, as did University of Oregon’s Opal Whiteley specialist, Steve Williamson, and the Cottage Grove Historical Society’s Marcia Allen, each of whom shared their insights on Opal for the documentary. Williamson called Whiteley “the last literary mystery of the twentieth century.”

The documentary outlines points of view regarding Whiteley and attempts to present her story from all angles. Of note are the observations of Elbert Bede, former owner and editor of the Sentinel, the first to write about Whiteley nationally. Bede eventually joined the chorus of those who labeled Whiteley a fraud.

Horton said she purposely avoided answering the many questions that still surround her life.

“I wanted it to remain a mystery,” she said. “I decided to let the audience come to their own conclusions, to present the facts as we know them.”

“Oregon Experience: Opal Whiteley” first aired on OPB Monday, March 1.

For the complete article see the 03-03-2010 issue.