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Stacy D. Stumbo The Roseburg News-Review May 21, 2003
Eleven years ago, the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians took a gamble that a small bingo parlor would be a money maker for tribal programs. Today, the Seven Feathers Hotel & Casino Resort lures more than a million visitors annually.“The Tribe is so fortunate to have a place like Seven Feathers where everyone can go and experience a wide range of entertainment in a nice environment and, at the same time, have the opportunity to win,” Cow Creek Chairwoman Sue Shaffer said.
Gaming time
Seven Feathers Hotel and Casino Resort off Interstate 5 at Exit 99 offers a myriad of games for visitors to play.
STEPHEN BRASHEAR / News-Review file photo
Located 25 miles south of Roseburg in Canyonville, the facility is accessible from Interstate 5.
In front of the ever-growing structure, one of the largest cast bronze sculptures in the world sits proudly as a symbol of the tribe’s courage and pride. The giant eagle called Skookum Hyak, meaning “Power Surge” in Chinook jargon, holds a salmon in his talons daring passers-by to test their luck.
The tribe recently completed a 12,300-square-foot expansion to its 198,000-square-foot structure, including installation of 264 new slot machines. The new gaming area is part of a planned eventual 34,500-square-foot expansion.
When Shaffer recently surveyed the addition, she noted that the flashing lights and endless rows of slot machines made it impossible to see from one end of the structure to the other.
“Who’d of thought it in 1992?” she said. “It’s like Vegas.”
Seven Feathers offers almost 1,000 slot machines, as well as a gambling pit featuring roulette, craps and blackjack, a bingo room, a nonsmoking gaming area with slots and blackjack and a glass-encased poker room with a stone hearth.
Thirty-eight new varieties of slot machines are featured in the casino’s addition, many of which have never been played in Oregon before. Some take 1 cent, 2 cents, nickels, quarters, dollar bills and $5. Old standards including Double Diamond, Red, White & Blue and Wild Cherry slots remain, but don’t expect them to pay out in change. Oregon law mandates winnings be recorded on paper slips that can be turned in for cash.
Getting there
From Interstate 5, take Exit 99 at Canyonville, 25 miles south of Roseburg and 25 miles north of Grants Pass.
Free bus service is available on Tuesday and Friday from Roseburg by calling (800) 548-8461; on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from the Eugene area, (541) 935-3034; and from Medford and Grants Pass, (541) 826-2711.
The casino awarded a nearly $2.7 million jackpot to a 56-year-old Eugene woman in 2002, one of 11 progressive jackpots it’s awarded since 1997, totaling $9.6 million.“Business is business,” Shaffer said of the tribe’s financial achievements. “I have a lot of experience with business. You want to be successful. But, for me, the reward has been fulfilling my mother’s mission, which focused on philanthropy.”
The Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation has awarded 298 grants totaling close to $3.2 million to 37 charitable organizations since it was formed in 1997. The foundation was created as a result of a tribal-state compact that allowed the Seven Feathers Casino to expand gaming operations in exchange for donations totaling 6 percent of net gaming revenues.
The foundation gives grants to programs that will benefit families, strengthen communities and promote the welfare of children in Douglas, Coos, Jackson, Josephine, Klamath, Lane and Deschutes counties — the tribe’s ancestral homeland.
Visitors to Seven Feathers can catch a glimpse of some of that homeland from the resort’s hotel.
The 145-room hotel offers valet parking and shuttle bus service, a 30-by-60-foot pool, sauna and two spas, an expanded 1,200-square-foot arcade, and a gymnasium and exercise center with 14 stations. Some of the luxuries provided include in-room hair dryers, bedside and bathroom phones, a complimentary newspaper, dataport telephone, cable television, shoe shining, movies with parental control and in-room Nintendo games.
Monday through Friday rates are $99 plus 7 percent tax, and on Fridays and Saturdays, rates are $109 plus tax.
Gaming enthusiasts who prefer the comfort of their own recreational vehicles to staying in a hotel can stay in the facility’s 32-space park with full hookups.
The resort features Scoops Ice Cream Parlor, a gift shop, the 24-hour Cow Creek Restaurant, a live entertainment cabaret with a full bar and a sports bar, as well as an elegant gourmet restaurant called the Camas Room that features Pacific Northwest and Mediterranean cuisine.
The tribe’s convention business helps fuel the success of the casino and resort.
Tribe government operations officer Michael Rondeau said use of the convention center grew 30 percent in 2002 and has hosted the Greatest of the Grape event for wine aficionados, gun shows, state and educational conventions and even a mounted posse gathering.
The convention center provides 22,000 square feet of contiguous meeting space and one ballroom that converts into six breakout rooms with 18-foot ceilings.
