The Gambler 500, and its wide array of wild vehicles, rolled into Madras Friday, June 27 and a  small city looking a bit like a “Mad Max” community unfurled on Norton Cattle Co. property off Grizzly Road.

The Gambler participants’ goal: have a bit of fun while cleaning up the countryside.

The campsite opened at 9 a.m. Friday and by 6 p.m. the site was filled with tents, pickup campers, vans and even luxury motorhomes. A temporary city with a population greater than Culver was expected, between 3,000 and 4,000 people, complete with food carts, port-a-potties, a first aid tent, and entertainment. Some of the off-road rigs are radical, which is a big part of the fun, but the purpose is stewardship of the lands.
By Friday evening, three of the 11 dumpsters were already over half full of discarded tires, rusting appliances, and metal from the Crooked River National Grassland north and east of Gray Butte. An excavator had also reduced two very old travel trailers into disposable pieces and loaded them into another dumpster.

That was only day one. The Gambler 500 town exists for three days and will be vacated Sunday afternoon.

The Gambler 500 leader and organizer is Tate Morgan. The organization and event started in 2014 by Morgan and the OG Gamblers, a small group embracing cheap fun in all forms. The program started as a small group of friends with the simple plan of having a big party. But then the matrix changed into a competition of who could pick up trash. The organization’s first project was south of Bend, then went to the Gilchrist area, then Redmond. The event has moved northward toward the public lands around Madras largely because Morgan said local officials have been very supportive.

Having a higher purpose than just a good time has “helped us qualify the people who attended and reduced the number of people,” said Morgan.

The project involves some high-tech, too, as volunteers use an app created by SOS to determine where garbage is and to note where cleanup has occurred. Year round, people can identify trash in public lands, connect with the app to have the trash identified, then it can be cleaned up during the next Gambler event.

The cleanups happen across America, and the Jefferson County project is one of many bringing bringing outdoor and car enthusiasts together for fun and a good cause: the
largest trail cleanups in the world.

While participants might have a little wild and crazy in them, the project follows rules and regulations. Morgan noted they requirements for fire extinguishers and shovels, and there is a 20-pers search and rescue crew that participates.

“We haven’t had incidents. We have the right volunteers. They are responsible people,” said Morgan. All the positions with the organization are unpaid.

“We (the Gambler 500 team) feels public lands belong to everyone and we want to keep them clean,” said Morgan Friday afternoon at the camp. “I want to thank Norton Cattle Co. for hosting us, and Madras Sanitary and IRA’s Salvage for their assistance in garbage, debris, metal and tire removal,” said Morgan. “Thank you all.”

The Pioneer’s Marilyn Clark and Jenniffer Grant contributed to this story.