LANGELL VALLEY- BONA KLAMATH ECHOES Sanctioned by Klamath County Historical Society NUMBER 10 ... Log cabin thought to have been built by a Buckmaster, nearly 100 years ago. Still standing on the old Boggs place in Langell Vall.ey, now owned by Dick Smith. - Helen Helfrich There's an old log cabin standing Once that frame-work in rhe corner Where the scarteringjunipers grow­ Semblance of a beds read bore. There's a spring of crystal water, Bur rhar worn and splintered bedstead Pure and cold as melted snow, Shall their bodies hold no more ­ With a pathway leading ro ir Never to that fragile table, Which the grass almost hides, Standing like a thing in pain, Where the junipers sway and whisper­ Shall the hunter, tired and hungry, Beneath the mountain's rugged side. Bread and venison bring again. Come inside and view the parlor A potaw vine is climbing Wirh irs mouldy puncheon Aoor. From rhe cellar rhough the Aoor, And rhar flimsy clap-board frame-work Pale and slender, yet srill crawling 1hat once answered for a door. O nward toward the open door. Long ir's been since on these hinges To the chimney's broken stone-work Swung rhat flimsy door around, Still another finds its way, Long since through that old sick chimney Clinging ro the rusry por-hook, Smoke a devious outlet found. Struggling upward toward rhe day. From rh~ khland Tiding1, D~r~mb~r 28. 1877 - Author Unknown. Five Pioneers of Bonanza, Fred Bechdoldt, Dan Driscoll, J. 0 . Hamaker, Jack Horton and BW Woods. - Earl Hamaker Henry Vinson, Pioneer of Langell Valley Isaac WUson, pioneer of Langell Valley, - Klamath County Museum and his daughter, Martha (Wllson) Swan, Seeds. - Fred Elvin Enlow Dedication We respectfully dedicate this, the lOth issue of Klamath £chon to rhe pioneer setders of Langell Valley and Bonanza. They, and many whose names and accomplishments have been lost, made it possible for others ro carry on when their labors ceased. II The old Arthur Langell ranch home in Upper Langell Valley. A large spring and old wagon road beyond the house. Front view of the Langell home with Langell Valley in the background. Present West side Road in the middle dlsance. iii Threshing scene 1n Poe Valley with Lost !River in the background. - Sykes Hamaker Feeding cattle on the old Cowley Ranch, now the home of Walter Smith, Jr. About 1910. -Florence Hom iv Klamath Echoes Staff DEVERE HELFRICH .. .. ............................ Managing Editor HELEN HELFRICH ... ............. ................... ...... Assistant Officers KLAMATH COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY LEONA ANGEL ... ..... ................................... President JIM COLEMAN .. ... ... ..... .......................... Vice President NELVENE NITSCHELM ......... ..................... Secretary-Treasurer BOB ELLIOTT, RICHARD TEATER, VERA HUTCHINSON, and HELEN HELFRICH ............................. .......... Directors Address all communicarions to: KLAMATH ECHOES P. 0. BOX 1552 KLAMATH FALLS, OREGON 97601 Second Priming 2006 THE COVER: Our cover is a sketch of an actual photograph ofrhe old Arthur Langell ranch home on the West Side of Upper Langell Valley. lr was drawn by Stephanie Bonorto Hakanson, artist for all previous Klamath Echoes covers. v Editor's Page In continuing our chain of histories counrer-clodwise around Klamath County, it was planned chat Klamath Echots No. 10 would cover the Cloverleaf Country of Lan­ gel!, Alkali (Yonna) and Poe Valleys. Ir was soon evident that roo much material was available, therefore we were forced ro by-pass Yonna and Poe Valleys for rhe present, except for brief mention ar rimes. However, much of their history is closely related ro that of Bonanza. In 1955 rhis writer and his wife, accompanied by Sykes Hamaker and Bill Campbell, both now deceased, spent two full days relocating the early school, ranch and sawmill sires, ere. of the Langell Valley-Bonanza area. A map was drawn ar rhe rime and notes raken which have served as the basis of this year's annual. Between 1955 and the present rime U.S.G.S. and U.S. General Land Office maps have been secured and consulted. Then in rhe fal l of 1971 the real task began. First we re-acquainted ourselves with rhe area by making a rour of rhe vicinity as before, but rhis rime accompanied by Mrs. JohnS. (Florence Boggs) Horn, and Donald Philpom. We also used on this tour the map and notes as rold by Sykes and Bill. To compile rhis hisrory was no easy task. Ir has meant, in rhe case of Langell Val­ ley, starting at the grass roots level and digging our, from forgorcen and buried files, the beginning of a community. Bonanza, however, in 1963 compiled a very workable brochure of its past, with several written reminiscences in addition. These were made available to rhis writer by Mrs. Ester Brown, a real historian of the Bonanza area. lr is our understanding that the Bonanza community plans on celebrating their l OOrh Anniversary nen year, 1973. A suggested date, or one as close ro it as practical would be July llth, the lOOth anniversary of I. P. Chandler's filing on the first homestead in Klamath County, later ro become parr of the city of Bonanza. We owe thanks to many people for information given and pictures furnished for copying: Beverly McFall; Mrs. Ivan (Clara) Bold; Mrs. Ernest E. Puddy; Earl Hamaker; the Noble families ofWillard, Wilfred and Luther; Mrs. Bertha (Krauger) Vinson, Mrs. Louise {Fiackus) Kilgore, Smoe; and Mrs. Velma (Sparks) Nix. We are especially indebted to Fred Elvin Inlow who furnished exhaustive informa­ tion and pictures on the early Wilson and Hall families of Langell Valley. Space has prevented the use of more of his material and picrures. Finally it was through rhe kindness of Francis and Jesse Brotherton of rhe Log Cabin Museum in Bonanza, that we have been able to fill in rhe missing segments of Bonanza's early buildings, photographically. In passing, it must be noted that F. M. Priest was the photographer who originally rook many of the pictures used in rhis issue. We are further indebted ro the History of Klamath County, the Klamath County Clerk's Office records, rhe Jackson County Historical Society Museum officers for the use of their microfilm files on the Ashland Tidings and jacksonville Democratic Times, rhe Herald and N ews for the use of the old Republican, Evming Herald and Klamath News files and lastly rhe Klamath County Museum for the use of picrures. If anyone should wonder why one family's history is used more extensively than another's the answer is simple. Someone cared enough, or took the trouble ro leave a wrirren record. vi Horse Round-Up Camp on Goodlow Mountain. L. to R.: Elmira Vinson, Henry Vinson, unknown, unknown, Reuen Vinson, Phoebe Vinson (?), unknown. -Klamath County Museum LANGELL VALLEY The subject of rhis year's Kin moth Echors some large River which I hope we shaH ere is Langell Valley and the range counrry in long see... " southeastern Klamath Counry extending Berween 1846 when the Applegate Trail eastward ro rhe Lake Counry line. The main was opened. and the fall of 1863 when Fr. community is Bonanza, somerimes called Klamath was established, there must have rhe "Cloverleaf Ciry" because ofirs location been small exploring groups who viewed rhe ar the junction of Langel!, Poe and Yonna Upper Losr River Valley. Ar leasr we know Valleys. Ambitious cirizens of Bonanza have rhar "in rhe early 60's rhe discovery of gold in more reccnr rimes annexed rhe Sprague in rhe John Day country of northern Or­ River Valley ro rhe ~cloverleaf" bur chis egon was the incentive to considerable travel seems not ro have been the original inrem. rhrough rhe furure Klamath counry. During Although rhe rhree valleys and adjoining 1861 and 1862, several differenr parries wenr rerrirory are extremely important farming from California ro rhe mining districts in or srock raising disrricrs, much of rheir col­ rhe nonh, driving ~rock and raking in provi­ orful period is in rhe past, and it is some of sions and mining utensils by means of pack rhar pasr rhar chis issue will rry to preserve rr:Uns. Their roure through rhe terrirory was in one place. The days when men engaged by way of Losr River, Sprague River, Sican in carrie feuds, rode down Bonanza's dusry Marsh, Silver Lake and thence norch (His­ main srreer "armed ro the reerh" and made tory ofCentral Oregon, p. 932)." Further, rhe rheir chrears and brags over drinks in rhe 1861 emigrant relief parry of 42 men under pioneer saloons seem far in the past, yer ir Lindsay Applegate splir into rwo groups ar was only sixry years ago, and rhere are still TuleLake. One accompanied rhe emigrants living a few who can remember chose stir­ while Applegate with 20 men explored pans ring times. of the Klamath counrry, discovering the fu­ The beHer ro understand the firsr enrry ture sire of Fr. Klamath. There is fainr evi­ o( seeders inro "Cloverleaf Counrry," a very dence rhar rhis parry possibly crossed parts brief history of rhe emire Klamach Basin of the "Cloverlear' counrry. will be given. The first individual other than a trapper, The firsr whircs ro visir rhis region seem explorer or emigrant ro spend any rime in rhe Klamath Basin was Wallace Baldwin, to have been cwo trappers, names unknown, of Perer Skeene Ogden's 1826-27 Hudson's who in 1852 camped for nine months wesr Bay Company Fur Brigade, who passed of Link River, herding some 50 head of through rhe main Klamath Basin three horses. ln April, 1857 Man Frain arrived ar the mourh of Link River ro trade wirh rhe times rhar wimer. On Wednesday Decem­ Indians.