10/17/2026
A giant smiley face appears on a hillside in Oregon every fall, and it’s made entirely of trees 🤩
The 300-foot-wide face sits on land owned by Hampton Lumber, near Highway 18 between the towns of Willamina and Grand Ronde.
It was the idea of company co-owner David Hampton and former timberland manager Dennis Creel. They knew the hillside was highly visible from the road and decided to have a little fun when replanting it in 2011.
The trick is in the trees. The body of the face is made of larch, a rare conifer whose needles turn golden in autumn before dropping off for winter. The eyes and mouth are evergreen Douglas fir, which stays green all year round. Crews used a rope to mark out the circle and position the eyes and smile.
For most of the year, the face blends into the surrounding forest. But each fall, it lights up the hillside.
According to the company, the smiley face should keep returning every autumn for decades, until the trees are eventually harvested for lumber.
