CONTENTS IN CENTRAL , 1855 WOLFORD CANYON - GEORGE AGUILAR SR. WESTSIDE JCHS MUSEUM • CASE OF THE MYSTERIOUS PIERS REDMOND AIRPORT DISPLAY • CAMP SHERMAN VIDEO REVIEW Donations - Memorial Gifts • Membership Welcome to the Agate #5

elcome to Issue No. 5 in our new series of THE AGATE, the Wonly local history journal in . We’re proud to bring you in each issue well-researched articles on Jeff erson County and area history; reviews of new publications, Jeff erson County Historical and news of interest to history-lovers hereabouts. In this issue: Society Offi cers, Directors new light on a nearly-forgotten Central Oregon trailblazer, Hen- ry Larcom Abbot; an eloquent memoir by revered Warm Springs historian George Aguilar, Sr. on the long-gone Reservation com- President: Lottie Holcomb • 541-475-7488 munity of Wolford Canyon; news of newly-digitalized turn-of- V. President: Betty Fretheim • 541-475-0583 the-century photographs by pioneer Agency Plains photographer Secretary: Wanda Buslach • 541-475-6210 Cora Luelling; and updates on current Historical Society doings, Treasurer: Elaine Henderson • 541-475-2306 including the 2016 Annual Dinner April 9, and progress on the Charlene McKelvy Lochrie • 541-475-2049 future JCHS Museum at Westside Community Center. Jerry Ramsey • 541-475-5390 We hope you enjoy this issue—and if you do, or have bones Jim Carroll • 541-475-6709 to pick with it, or suggestions for future issues, please let us hear Dr. Tom Manning • 541-475-6241 from you! Becky Roberts • 541-475-4525 And speaking of forgetting and remembering—here’s a short Jennie Smith • 541-475-1159 list of readings on homesteading that was somehow omitted from David Campbell • 541-475-7327 “The Mystery Homesteaders” in our last issue— Dan Chamness • 541-475-7486 Margee O’Brien • 541-475-3533 Barbara Allen, Homesteading the High Desert (Salt Lake City: Uni- versity of Utah Press, 1987) Ethel Klann Cornwell, Rimrocks and Water Barrels (Winona, Wis- Jeff erson County Historical consin: Lakeside Press, 1979) Society Advisory Council H.L.Davis, Honey in the Horn (New York: Morrow, 1935); “Back to Don Reeder Pete McCabe the Land—Oregon 1907,” in H.L. Davis: Collected Essays and Short Sto- ries (Moscow: University of Idaho Press, 1986 Joyce Edgmon Lola Hagman Paul W. Gates, History of Public Land Law Development (U.S. Gov- Bob Rufener Tony Ahern ernment Printing Offi ce, 1968) Darryl Smith Doug Macy Molly Gloss, “Introduction” to Alice Day Pratt, A Homesteader’s Carol Leone Garry Boyd Portfolio (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1993). First pub- lished by Macmillan as The Homesteader’s Portfolio in 1922 Gilma Endicott Greenhoot, Rattlesnake Homestead (privately print- The mission of the Society is to research, gather ed, 1988) and preserve the history of Jeff erson County and C.S. Luelling, Saga of the Sagebrush Country (unpublished MS in Central Oregon for public education through the Jeff erson County Library) display of artifacts and archives. “Many Hands,” Jeff erson County Reminiscences (Portland: Binford and Mort, 1998) Bess Stangland Raber, Some Bright Morning (Bend: Maverick Pub- Editor: Jane Ahern lishing, 1983) Designer: Tom Culbertson Jarold Ramsey, New Era: Refl ections on the Human and Natural Publisher: Jerry Ramsey History of Central Oregon (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2004)

2 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

Henry Larcom Abbot in Central Oregon By Jarold Ramsey

n he the beginning rains of of earlythe end October of this story 1855, came a offbe diresomewhere danger, east their of onlyMadras, route Jefferson to safety. County, As awrestled farming byfamily, men, first Sam in soonMichigan, rendered and afteran ul -the youngin the Army early engineer 1970s, whennamed a Henryyoung manLar- Oregon.Abbot later wrote, “Encumbered with a large movetimatum to Oregon, to Abbot they in wereemphatic homesteaders, Chinook strug Jar- Icomnamed Abbot Rick and Donahoe a party ofwas 17 tearingmen and down 60 numberIt didn’t of seemjaded to animals be a proper and diary—more, considerable he glinggon: to“Mamook prove up memalooseon and gain title tenas to thechik-chik!” 160 acres Tanworn-out old outbuilding pack mules on his were farm struggling north of baggage,thought, awe kind suddenly of “day foundbook” ourselvesor journal they’d(“Kill claimed.the little But cart!” where? Report Was p.97) the writer a man Redmond,westward Oregon. through In heavy one of brush the amongkeeping carefulhostile track and of well-armed work, visits, or a woman? (How the book ended up in a shed walls,and fallen he found timber a tattered in the hillsled- Indians,income and to expenses whom forour a famitrain- many milesut we from must its nowplace brieflyof origin leave was, andLt. reAb- ger-book,south of its Mt. pages Hood. filled They with wouldly, with veryrender little us of aa persontempt- mains, partbot ofin itshis mystery.) mountainside lurch in order dailywere entries guided, in pencil,more dator- ingal nature prey.” registered. (Pacific It wasRail- BRickto Donahoeget a firmer was fascinatedgrip on the by mainthe ledele-- ingless, from by Januarya young 1912 Indi to- roaddefinitely Survey not a Report,self-con- ger-bookments of and his thestory story and it themight historical tell, if he events could Septemberan named 1917, Sam begin An-- Vol.scious VI, “literary” p. 96; hereafrecord.- identifyand forces the writer,that were and locateshaping the ithomestead. out in Ore He- ningax-shat. in central This Michiwas- terBut Report)who kept. Heit? Thereadd- carefullygon Territory transcribed in 1855. it inIt’s typescript, a story that and seems even gannot (Saginawone of the County) loose edwas that no name, they hadbut clear only- drewto connect up an alphabetizedmeaningfully index with of regionalnames of peoand- andgangs abruptly of gold-seek breaking- lyfive the writer rifles was part between of plenational mentioned history in the at entries. almost Eventually, every turn, he and both his ers and soldiers of them. And their during Abbot’s adventures with the Pacif- fortune that were guide was a young ic Railroad Survey expedition, and right on prowling through Indian who spoke through the rest of his long, consequential the interior wilds of no English, and Ab- life—he died in 1927, at 96. It’s surprising, Oregon in the 1850s bot had only begun to given what he accomplished early and late, and 1860s. Abbot and learn Chinook Jargon. and the notable Americans he associated his party were “official”: Not an auspicious with, that he is so little known. their mission was to scout Daguerreotype of Henry arrangement, but Abbot’s In Central Oregon, three minor land- Abbot, West Point, out possible railroad routes 1854 immediate challenge was marks bear his name—Abbot Butte and Ab- north and south both east and to pick and angle his way up bot Creek, west of the Metolius River, and west of the , as part of and down through long stretches of Abbot Road and Pass along his route around an ambitious “Pacific Railroad Survey” au- blow-down and underbrush, while Sam An- Mt. Hood. (During WWII, an Army Corps of thorized by the Secretary of War. ax-shat scouted out the faint They’d been in the field northbound Indian trails that might lead since leaving Benecia, near San Francisco, on them on to the Willamette July 10. The survey, with Lt. Robert S. Wil- Valley and safety. The go- liamson in command, had gone quite well; ing was hard enough on foot but now Williamson and the expedition’s and on mule-back, but they military escort were exploring west of the were trying to proceed with mountains, and Abbot’s appointed task—to a two-wheeled cart, which find a better wagon route around Mt. Hood carried their fragile survey- than the notorious Barlow Road—had been ing instruments, including turned on end in recent days by news from glass barometers and ther- a settler in Tygh Valley that the Indians on mometers, sextants, and the

both sides of the Columbia had risen up in- like—and also an odometer to Example of ‘odometer cart,’ Yellowstone 1872 ter-tribally and were burning missions and measure their daily mileage. killing Indian agents and settlers. So the The odometer’s mechanism made a click- Engineers encampment south of Bend was possible route over the mountains to Oregon ing sound, and Sam An-ax-shat named the known as “,” but the resort com- City that the party was supposed to survey cart the “chik-chik.” Watching their constant plex that was created on the site in the 1970s had become, in the face of what seemed to struggles with it, whether behind a mule or was named “Sunriver.”) That he and his ex-

3 plorations are even this much recognized today is the result of eff orts by the late Robert Sawyer, ear- ly editor-publisher of the Bend Bulletin and one of the pioneers of Central Oregon historical research. After Abbot’s death, Sawyer contacted his family in , and was given his personal jour- nals for the 1855 expedition, which he edited (with extensive notes) and published as “Abbot Railroad Surveys, 1855” in Oregon Historical Quarterly 33:1 (March 1932), 1-24 and 33:2 (June 1932), 15- 135 (hereafter Journal). Part of the appeal of his Oregon story is that it follows the archetype of the tale of the clever young man going forth into the wide risky world and proving himself—“Little Jack,” le petit Jean in French folklore, and so on. But another source of this appeal is that we can read Abbot’s 1855 Oregon narrative in three diff erent versions, each recount- ed by him but under very diff erent circumstances: his carefully edited “offi cial” report, as published by the Government in 1857 in Volume Six of the Pacifi c Railroad Survey Reports; his fi eld journals as found and edited by Robert Sawyer, which in- formally records his adventures day by day in the fi eld, as they came; and a little-known memoir he wrote as an old man in 1909, “Reminiscences of the Oregon War of 1855,” Journal of the Military Service Institute, Vol. 45 , July-Dec. 1909, pp. 436- 442 (hereafter Reminiscences). The offi cial 1857 Report will be our main text, of course, but these other, lesser-known accounts are fascinating on their own terms, and will come in handy to illuminate Abbot’s story as we follow it. In general, he was a very capable writer, and his vivid descriptions in the Report of the natural features of Central Oregon and how he reacted to them deserve to be more widely known.

enry Abbot graduated from West Point in 1854, second in his class. Hoping to receive Han appointment that would send him out on the western frontier, he initially signed up for artillery duty, but one of his West Point advisers told him that his best chance for frontier service was with the Corps of Topographical Engineers, and that it might not be too late to re-apply. He Map from Robert Sawyer, “Abbot Railroad Surveys 1855,” Oregon Historical Quarterly did, and later in 1854, he was invited to serve with 33:1 (March 1932), p. 50 - by permission of Oregon Historical Society. 4 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

an expedition being organized as the final survey of possible routes from central Cal- 1855 and 1861. Beautifully illustrated with component of the Pacific Railroad Surveys, ifornia to the , Abbot’s hur- engravings and lithographs (in lieu of pho- funded by Congress in 1853 for $150,000 ried southbound reconnaissance in late tographs) by skilled artists like John Mix (the 1855 Survey was budgeted at $46,000), 1855 through the and the Stanley, Gustav Sohon, and John Young, and authorized by Secretary of War Jeffer- mountains of southern Oregon mapped the they constitute a neglected national histor- son Davis (soon destined to become Presi- way for the construction of the “Oregon and ical treasure. dent of the Confederacy). ” line in the 1870s and 1880s (later The Railroad Survey expeditions were The official purpose of the Railroad the Southern Pacific). And although Abbot’s of course preceded in the previous decade Surveys was “to ascertain the most practi- unequivocal declaration that “no railroad by the well-known expeditions of Capt. cal and economic route for a railroad from could be built in the valley near the Deschutes John Fremont. The flamboyant and ambi- the to the Pacific Ocean”; River” would be refuted only a half-century tious Fremont was himself a member of the the Corps of Topographical Engineers was later by James J. Hill and Edward Harriman Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, put in charge, under Captain (later Gen- in their famous “railroad race” up the De- which supported the first two of his four eral) George McClellan. There were in fact schutes, it’s only fair to recognize that what explorations, but overall he proceeded with five survey expeditions: the “North Pacific made that extravagant episode possible was neither the sponsorship of Congress and Survey,” from St. Paul to Puget Sound, led abundance of capital and plutocratic ambi- the Secretary of War, nor the specific rail- by Washington Territorial Governor Isaac tion beyond anything imaginable to Abbot or road-route-finding instructions that guided Stevens; the “Central Pacific Survey,” from anybody else in 1855! the Surveys. His second and most success- St. Louis to San Francisco, led by Lt. John When Abbot re-visited Oregon in 1896 ful expedition, in 1843, usefully mapped the Gunnison and Lt. E.C. Beckwith; two “south- as a member of a federal “national forests” main route of the Oregon Trail out to the ern” missions one leading from Oklahoma commission, he duly noted that in southern Columbia River, and then, in the fall of that Territory to San Diego, under Lt. Daniel Oregon he rode in comfort in a railroad “par- year found its way south through Central Or- Whipple, the other from Texas to San Diego, lor car” through the mountains where he and egon east of the Cascades to Klamath Lake, under Lt. John Parke; and finally the 1855 his survey party had struggled to find their where (on his own dubious initiative) Fre- “Pacific Coast Survey,” with Lt. Robert S. way (and avoid hostile Indians) only forty mont and his party headed off into Nevada, Williamson in charge, and Lt. Henry Abbot years before (Reminiscences, p. 442). and eventually survived the first crossing of second-in-command. In addition to providing crucial engi- the Sierras in mid-winter. Coming as they did just before the up- neering information on possible (and im- Like the expeditions to follow, Fre- heavals of the Civil War, the Railroad Sur- possible) railroad routes through the Ameri- mont’s undertook extensive mapping and veys were a remarkably far-sighted, success- can West, the Pacific Railroad Surveys made scientific observations along the way, which ful venture by the government. The Central important pioneering contributions to the were subsequently published, and in partic- Pacific Survey led straight on to the Union mapping of the West, and to knowledge of ular his field notes and the superb maps of Pacific-Central Pacific transcontinental line, the region’s , botany, zoology and his cartographer Charles Preuss were avail- completed in 1869; and by the 1880s all of ethnography (Abbot was keenly attentive able to Williamson and Abbot when they the nation’s transcontinental railroad lines to Native languages and customs as he en- came through Oregon in 1855, roughly fol- were operating in the West on routes first countered them). The twelve volumes of the lowing his route west of the Deschutes in surveyed and recommended in the 1853-5 Survey Reports, hefty and well-edited, were reverse. Like them Fremont saw fit to use a surveys. As for the Williamson-Abbot 1855 published by the U.S. Government between two-wheeled cart to carry his navigational

5 Cascade skyline: Mt. Washington, Three Fingered Jack, Mt. Jeff erson, Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams--PRRS Vol. VI (John Young, artist)

and scientifi c equipment, but before heading experienced Western explorer. He evidently fornia; and then returned to Washington, south from The Dalles, he donated the cart went out to California on Corps of Engineers where he helped prepare Volumes III and to the Methodist Mission there—and almost orders soon after graduating from West V of the Reports, published in 1853-4. By immediately, now carried on mule-back, Point. As an offi cer with Capt. William War- late 1854 he and Abbot were sharing quar- they were broken. As a result, his eff orts to ner’s party exploring the Pit River country in ters and working together in the capital to calculate longitude along the way were very northeast California in September 1849, he prepare for their expedition the following uncertain, and Henry Abbot seems to have and the main detachment had been encamp- year, and on May 5, 1855 they left New York taken special pains both before and during ed at Goose Lake in late September when City by ship. They arrived in San Francisco his expedition to correct Fremont’s inaccu- Warner and a small advance party were via the Isthmus of Panama on May 31. Once rate readings. murdered by Indians near what was later in California, they spent six weeks collect- Abbot’s superior, Lt. Robert S. William- named “Warner Valley.” ing and organizing the men, animals, and son, was six years older than Abbot, and Remaining in California, Williamson gear they needed, and when they fi nally set graduated from West Point in 1848, fi fth in subsequently worked on the western phases forth from their advance camp at Fort Read- his class. By the time the 1855 Survey was of the two “southern” railroad surveys, con- ing, they were without exaggeration a small being organized, Williamson was already an centrating on southern and central Cali- army—upwards of 130 men and an unspeci-

6 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

fied number of horses and mules. The basic his itinerary Williamson must have had viv- and survey (although, regrettably, he never survey party numbered 26, and their mili- idly in mind the killing of his commanding ventured east of the ). From tary escort out of Fort Reading consisted of officer, Capt. William Warner and his party the time the party reached the Deschutes 20 well-armed “dragoons” and 80 regular in Pit River country in 1849. The dragoons headwaters, around modern-day Sunriver, soldiers, plus several civilians as packers and and regular troops were already in place at it began to divide temporarily into smaller hunters. Fort Reading, and it must have made good detachments, to better cover the enormous The core survey team, in addition to sense to take them along, in spite of the lo- and (except for Fremont’s maps) uncharted Williamson and Abbot, was made up of Dr. gistical problems (especially forage for the territory ahead. The comings and goings, J.S. Newberry (for whom Newberry Crater is pack animals) they would cause. departures and reunions of Williamson and named), geologist and botanist; Dr. E. Ster- So they set off on July 28, in an impres- Abbot and their teams are complicated, but ling, physician for the party and naturalist; sive caravan that must have stretched out by pausing to outline them here we can most H.C. Fillebrown, assistant engineer; C.D. over a quarter of a mile, attended in the effectively trace their overall survey of the Anderson, curiously identified as “comput- midsummer heat by dust and flies. The two- interior of Oregon on either side of the Cas- er,” apparently meaning that he kept track wheeled cart soon revealed itself as a nui- cade range, and also gain some insight into of and calculated scientific data; Charles sance—on August 4, near Pit River, Abbot Abbot’s perplexities as he tried to fulfill his Coleman, “Chief of Train” (packmaster); and noted that “when attempting to run over a part of the mission. John Young, draughtsman and cartogra- mesquite bush, it turned completely over, Williamson had already, in fact, begun pher. Regular Army officers from Fort Read- so that the mule lay on its back, struggling to go off the main track for day trips. But ing in charge of the military escort were Lt. violently in the thick underbrush.” (Report, on August 24, he, Fillebrown, Young, Dr. (soon to make his mark in the 62) On the same day, the train was overtak- Newberry, and Sheridan with the dragoons Civil War, and later in Indian campaigns in en by Lt. , who had been sent left the main party near today’s La Pine (the Oregon and elsewhere in the West) as Quar- out from Fort Reading to replace Lt. Hood; camp became known as “Depot Camp”), termaster and Commissary, and Lts. J.B. Hood returned to the Fort for other duties. heading west, and became the first known Hood and H.C. Gibson. (Like Crook, the diminutive and feisty Sher- explorers of the Three Sisters/Broken Top The size of the escort clearly indicates idan would soon go on to national fame as a range, camping at Green Lakes. (Because concern on the part of the expedition’s lead- Union general in the Civil War.) Three weeks Williamson did not write up an account of ers about the likelihood of hostile encounters later, as the expedition reached “Klamath his separate travels for the 1857 Report, with Natives as it traveled north into Oregon. Country,” their anxieties about meeting and seems to have left no private journals of Since Fremont’s un-escorted and relatively hostile Natives appeared to be confirmed, them, what he encountered is unknown, ex- trouble-free journey in 1843, a decade of up- in Abbot’s tense journal notes for August cept for Abbot’s cursory summary in Chap- risings, killings, and reprisals had ensued in 21: “Separated from party. Indians calling. ter IV of the Report.) In his absence, Abbot the Northwest, beginning with the Whitman Many Indians entered camp. Cleaned pis- and the rest of the party moved on to “Camp Massacre in 1847 and its aftermaths, leading tols. Extra guard. Expected attack. Indians 40” (on Why-chus Creek, near modern-day up to the Columbia River treaties earlier in driving off horses.” (Journal, p.16) Sisters), and there the parties reunited on 1855 (to which many Natives reacted with But the crisis passed, and soon over open Sept. 3. resentment). Most recently, there had been country they reached the southern boundar- On Sept. 6, Williamson set off for the intermittent violence along the Umpqua and ies of the Deschutes basin, which for Hen- mountains again, with Sheridan and the Rogue rivers. Undoubtedly, while planning ry Abbot was to be his main area to explore dragoons, Fillebrown, and Young the art-

7 Abbot party in Tygh Valley, looking west to Mt. Hood--PRRS Vol. VI (John Young, artist)

ist, with instructions for Abbot to proceed he did on Sept. 23. home to Massachusetts; and he began to with the main party, exploring the country Abbot’s trip had been uneventful for the learn Chinook Jargon, which offi cers at the between the Cascades and the Deschutes most part. Crossing Tygh Valley northbound, Fort were using, he noted, as a sort of “court River as far as Fort Dalles, where he was to they stopped at the “rancho” of a Mr. Evelyn, language.” Jargon would soon become more obtain provisions enough for the remainder who hospitably served them potatoes from than a linguistic amusement to him. Abbot of the survey and return with them to Camp his own garden, a welcome respite from also shrewdly sought out a Wasco man, Billy 40, where the two groups would rendez- military rations, especially as they had been Chinook, who had traveled with Fremont in vous. This time, Williamson seems to have showing signs of developing scurvy! (Report, 1843. Chinook emphatically refuted rumors explored the country between Mt. Wash- p. 87) At Fort Dalles he and Dr. Newberry going back to Fremont’s trip that there was ington and the Santiam lava fi elds, making traveled down the Columbia Gorge as far as a viable route north/south along the eastern him probably the fi rst Anglo to see what the Cascades (Bridge of the Gods), marvel- base of the Cascades. Headed south again, would become the eastern approaches to the ing at the force of the river, and observing at Tygh Valley he met a half-blood named McKenzie and Santiam passes. He probably Indians fi shing with spears and nets; at the “Domenich” who told him about a good, made other local excursions while waiting Fort, he wrote letters to his parents and his well-traveled Indian route around Mt. Hood for Abbot to return from Fort Dalles, which fi ancée Susie Everett for mailing (somehow) for wagons at least—a possible improvement

8 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

over the notorious Barlow Road, which emi- Dr. Newberry, and eight men with twelve Warm Springs (again Abbot hiked down grants had been using reluctantly since 1846 lightly-loaded mules, into the canyon of the from here to inspect the Deschutes, at the as an alternative to rafting their wagons Metolius, apparently determined to find out site of the Highway 26 bridge); and so on to down the Columbia. if there was possibly a pass over the moun- their rendezvous with Coleman and the oth- By the time of Abbot’s return to Camp 40, tains south of Mt. Jefferson. It proved to be ers at Nena Springs. Williamson had decided to divide the Survey probably the wildest and most challenging On Oct. 3, Abbot stopped once again at party again—this time more drastically. His leg of the trip so far, especially when they Evelyn’s place at Tygh Valley, and learned plan was for Abbot to lead the main party tried to climb up out of the canyon to ap- the very bad news about the rumored gener- back north once again, with instructions to proach the base of the mountain itself. Go- al Indian uprising. Evelyn himself was about explore the rumored route around Mt. Hood ing ahead of his companions in search of a to leave his farm, he said, for the safety of that Abbot had heard about in Tygh Valley, route, Abbot came to an impasse in the form Fort Dalles. Now the possible Indian trail to and so on to Oregon City. Williamson, mean- of a sheer precipice, and in the Report he re- the Valley around the south side of Mt. Hood while, resolved to travel south with Crook, membered his feelings of awe and unease: must have seemed much less important to Sheridan, and the dragoons as far as Dia- “A more desolate spot cannot be con- Abbot as a possible railroad or wagon route mond Peak, where they would strike a new ceived. No sign of life was visible. Rough to survey than as an escape route pure and wagon road (modern “Willamette Pass”) , masses of dark lava piled around like the simple. But who could guide them? then go north across the McKenzie River waves of a stormy sea. Fir-clad mountains The half-blood, “Domenich,” who had and so on along between the Willamette and reared their inaccessible summits on every told Abbot earlier about the way, declined to the western Cascade foothills to Oregon City, side, apparently cutting off retreat; while come along, and the Tygh leader Kuckup (in where the two parties would regroup for the Mt. Jefferson, without one intervening ridge, Abbot’s transcription, “Kok-kup”; later chief long march back to Fort Reading, and a pos- towered high above all, ragged with precipic- of the “Warm Springs” Sahaptin-speaking sible secondary survey in search of a route es and capped with glittering snow. It was a population on the Reservation) said that through the northern Sierras. spot where, in all probability, no human foot he didn’t know about it. Abbot’s prospects So, with Williamson on his way over the had ever before intruded, for even the wild looked grimmer than ever—until Kuckup mountains, we can resume our tracking of children of the forest abandon it to the fiends produced a young Indian, Sam An-ax-shat, Abbot through Central Oregon. In the Re- and demons of their traditions.” (Report, p. who claimed that he knew the way, at least port, he offers this comment on the division 93) most of it, from family trips after huckleber- of their forces on Sept. 24: “Not anticipating Despite his struggles to survey the lower ries. After “a formal and ceremonious coun- any Indian trouble, we considered my par- Metolius Canyon and the formidable south- cil” with Kuckup (who was given a red hand- ty [minus the dragoons and troops] strong eastern approaches to Mt. Jefferson, Abbot kerchief for his help), Sam was signed on as enough for the mission at hand.” As for the was clearly much taken with that stretch of a guide, “with strict orders to be obedient to mission itself, he notes that on his marches country, and fifty-four years later he fondly me.” (Report, p.96) In his 1896 memoir, Ab- to Fort Dalles and back, “I had already seen (and prophetically) celebrated “the Mpto-ly- bot recollected that “he was about eighteen that no railroad could be built in the valley as [Metolius] River, which heads near Mt. years old, very intelligent, and I have little near the Deschutes River.” (Report, p.91) Jefferson, and whose canyon presents scen- doubt that we owe our lives to his fidelity.” Consequently, he decided to send Charles ery so magnificent that it will surely become (Reminiscences, p.438.) Coleman and most of the company (with the some day a point to be visited by lovers of Up front, Sam’s wages were very gener- instrument cart) straight on east of Green nature.” (Reminiscences, p. 437) ous—two dollars a day, plus eight dollars for Ridge and across the Metolius River (near The next day, (Sept. 28) the party was his return to Tygh Valley. But as the party Fly Creek), and so on across the eastern thrashing its way back down the west side left Evelyn’s on Oct. 5, Abbot must have been plains of what is now the Warm Springs Res- of the Metolius, across the river from Cas- vexed by two interrelated issues: (A) Sam ervation as far as “Nee-nee Springs” (now tle Rock (still a little-known wonder on the knew no English, and his new boss knew Nena Springs and Creek), on the east side lower river). Then it took up the well-beaten only as much Jargon as he had idly picked of the Mutton Mountains, where they would “Fremont” trail north to Seekseekwa Can- up at Fort Dalles; (B) Sam was an Indian, wait and try to rehabilitate their worn-out, yon, where he and Anderson made a side- young and untested, however well recom- under-fed animals. trip down to look at the Deschutes River; mended by Kuckup. So be it—the risks ahead Meanwhile, Abbot set off with Anderson, then on to a camp on Shitike Creek at or near of Abbot probably seemed less scary than the

9 Mt. Hood, Mt. Jeff erson, Three Fingered Jack, Mt. Washington--PRRS Vol. VI (John Young. artist)

risks immediately behind. still plentiful and juicy on the bushes. Evangeline] and among the Cascade Moun- At fi rst the going was relatively easy, in The real problem, beyond Sam’s uncer- tains, are two essentially diff erent things.” a southwesterly direction, up through the tain trial-and-error route-fi nding, was the (Journal, p.119 ; Reports, p.98). It was also open country around today’s Wapinitia, and growing impassability of long stretches of now raining, and there was less and less for- so on west in the vicinity of Indian and Bea- blow-down, fallen pines and fi r laid across age for the pack mules; and because the train ver creeks and their stretches of meadows, each other at random like giant jackstraws, was often strung out due to the trouble with reaching modern-day Bear Springs, just east obliterating whatever Indian trail they were route-fi nding, Abbot worried about their of Highway 26, on Oct. 6. From there they trying to follow. In a journal note, Abbot vulnerability to Indian attack from the rear. crossed Camas Prairie and came to Clear growled (on behalf of everyone who’s ever At night he set up regular watch-duty. Creek, fi nding increasingly dense forest cov- struggled through blow-downs): “Poets and Somewhere on Oct. 6, probably around er and brush as they gained altitude. Their our primeval forests”—which in the more their camp on Camas Meadow (Sam called way was becoming maze-like, with trail- genteel language of the Report became “We it “yaugh-pas-ses”), Abbot decided to follow forks that led off promisingly only to end in were all fully convinced that wandering his guide’s advice, “much against my will,” huckleberry fi elds—where, surprisingly (at around ‘forests primeval’ [the reference is and “kill the chik-chik.” His long-suff ering least by today’s reckoning) the berries were probably to the opening lines of Longfellow’s companions must have cheered, at least

10 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

silently; the wooden spokes of the cart’s a water-less, forage-less camp in the timber. delegation soon presented themselves and wheels were duly salvaged as “picket-pins” At length Sam found a small seep-spring— coolly suggested that, in the interest of the for the mules, which were, for lack of feed enough water for the men, “but none for the public, my guide should be then and there and sometimes water, increasingly prone to suffering animals, and their cries from hun- killed to prevent him from bringing over a wander off overnight. ger and thirst were incessant through the war party. It is needless to record my an- Things must have looked bright the next night.” (Report, p. 100) swer; he started on his return that night, ful- day, when they followed Clear Creek to Clear The next day, Oct. 11, they arose before ly warned . . . .” (Reminiscences, p. 439). Lake (“wat-tum-pa”, just west of Highway light, and straggled on, down into ravines Elsewhere in both his journal and in the 26), where they camped and Coleman man- and up onto ridges, reaching a place Sam Report, as we have seen, Abbot says that “we aged to kill some ducks for fresh camp meat. called “the Stone House” (Abbot surmised all owe our lives to the fidelity of this Indi- The following day (Oct. 8) brought them that there was a cave nearby, but the name an.” Historically, it might be argued that the through a prairie-like meadow (“lua-hum remains a mystery), but then pushed on un- threat of Indian attack that Abbot felt he was lua-hum”, Dry Meadow today), and two miles til they stopped for the night at the site of under while crossing the mountains was not further west, to “a beautiful mountain lake— former USFS Plaza Ranger Station near the as grave as it seemed in the woods. But what identified by Sam as “Ty-ty-pa,” but Abbot head of the south fork of the Salmon River. matters most here is that he believed that followed the Anglo impulse to re-name the And after another lay-by day, in incessant Sam had saved their lives—and now, “back Western landscape, and christened it “Oolal- rain, they forged on due west to the summit in civilization” so to speak, in the face of an lee” after the Jargon word for huckleberries, of Squaw Mountain. Their deliverance was armed and threatening gang of settlers, he which were abundant. The same impulse has at last in view: “The blue Willamette Valley, unflinchingly returned the favor. It is also long since given the lake, on USFS maps, a marked by a line of fog rising from the wa- indicative of the very real threat Sam was prosaic Anglo name for its shape: “Frying- ter, lay before us, and the word ‘settlements’ under that he headed back into the timber pan Lake.” Here one can get, as Abbot did, a shouted down the line, inspired every one and over the mountains that same night fine view of Mt. Hood through the trees; and with new life.” (Report, p. 101) (Oct. 15, 1855), taking with him his pay: $38 because it was “raining furiously” the next Two more arduous days, now descend- dollars, provisions, and Abbot’s gift of a mil- day, he decided to rest his men and animals ing, and they reached the “settlements,” itary blanket. with an extra day at “[this] little camping southeast of modern-day Estacada, and As we watch Sam depart from Abbot’s place, which will be long remembered.” (Re- heard hair-raising reports of Indian upris- ongoing story after ten days of intense port, p. 99) ings east of the mountains. They set up one companionship, who can resist speculating Back on the trail on Oct. 10, and re-en- last camp for several days on Clackamas about the rest of his story—another enter- ergized, the company logged probably its Prairie, courtesy of a settler there, Hugh Cur- prising and capable young man at the end most strenuous day—southwest to Black rin. Back in the timber, a mule loaded with of his first big adventure? The cultural and Wolf Meadow (some USFS maps show their “a valuable pack” had strayed, and Abbot historical gulf between the two is wide, and route as “Abbot Road,” No. 58), and around sent Sam back to find and bring back both we’ll probably never know how it went for and up on High Rock, from whose sum- in three days. Sam did, which was another Sam after he returned to Kuckup’s camp mit they were able to survey, more or less, testament to both his skill in the woods and on Tygh Prairie. Presumably, he eventually their way northwest. From High Rock they his reliability. After his return, there was an re-located to the Warm Springs Reserva- descended past Linney Butte and skirted ugly confrontation at Currin’s with a posse of tion, where Kuckup became the first “Warm around the northern rim of Roaring Riv- angry, fearful white settlers that Abbot chose Springs” chief (there is a meadow near Mt. er Canyon, within the southern boundary to omit from both his journal and the official Jefferson named for him). But no records of of today’s Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness. Report, but recounted in his 1909 memoir. Sam under the name of “An-ax-shat” have Taking frequent compass headings, Abbot It reveals much about the widespread an- been found on the tribal rolls. Although he noticed something strange in the vicinity of ti-Indian hysteria in Oregon in those anxious was at the right age to serve with the Warm High Rock: extreme compass deflections, as days—and also much about Abbot’s feelings Springs scouts in the Paiute Wars of the much as 34 degrees, apparently indicating for his young guide: “The neighbors in this 1860s, under Dr. William McKay, his name a mass of iron in or near the Rock, but un- vicinity were panic-stricken by the appear- does not appear in the military records. (See explained to this day. Finally, overtaken by ance of my train, for they had believed the Keith and Donna Clark, “William McKay’s darkness, the exhausted party had to make [mountain] chain to be impassable, and a Journals 1866-7,” Oregon Historical Quar-

11 terly Vol. LXXIX, no. 2 , Summer 1978 and no. 3, Fall 1978) There is one tan- talizing possible hint of Sam on fi le: one of the signers of the 1855 Columbia River Indian Treaty (dated June 25, at The Dalles) was a Dog River (Hood Riv- er) Wasco leader named “Ash-na-chat” (sometimes printed as “Ash-ha-chat”). Given the variations of Indian names as phonetically transcribed, this could very well be a form of “An-ax-shat” (or vice-versa), but the signer would prob- ably be an older relative, maybe father or grandfather, not young Sam himself. So we’re left wondering—how did he fare, and what stories did he tell about guiding Abbot over the mountains, and about killing the chik-chik? On Oct. 19, Abbot and his crew, now traveling over the easy last leg of the Barlow Road, reached Oregon City, where he found a new set of unwelcome surprises. He had been expecting to re- group with Williamson—but William- son had left only a few days before for Vancouver, and by now was ship-bound for San Francisco, leaving instructions for Abbot to fi nish the surveying south- bound along the Willamette Valley’s west side and on through the Umpqua and Rogue river valleys and over the Sis- kiyou Mountains into California and so on to Fort Reading. That the active hos- tility of the Native groups in the Rogue River country was likely to be an issue in their return to California, Williamson and Abbot had known from the start, and they had been counting on the es- cort of dragoons and regular troops that Williamson had taken with him into the Valley on Sept. 24. But now Abbot learned from Williamson’s memo that as of Oct. 10 all of the dragoons and most of the regulars had been comman- deered by Major G.J. Rains of the 4th Infantry stationed in Vancouver, and Black Butte and Mt. Jeff erson, from site of Sisters - PRRS. Vol. VI (John Young, Artist) sent under Phil Sheridan to assist Army

12 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

units already fighting Indians along the Co- passed through Salem (conferring there with mountains without incident, they ferried lumbia! local surveyors), Corvallis (“a long street”), across the Klamath River and headed for Williamson had protested Rains’ action Eugene (“a dirty place”), and eventually, Fort Reading. There, the faithful Crook was in a polite letter, pointing out that the escort near Roseburg, caught up with the Ore- re-deployed to Fort Jones, near Yreka, and had been specifically assigned to the Survey gon volunteers, under a Major Martin, who so Abbot had to take on full command of by the Secretary of War (oddly enough, he promised them an escort to Fort Lane (north the Survey party and Crook’s troops. It was fails to mention that Abbot’s part of the Sur- of Jacksonville). As West Pointers, Abbot hardly the first time he had had to step up vey was still in the field, but expected soon); and Crook must have enjoyed some comic unexpectedly to new responsibilities; and on but Sheridan and his company were already relief with the hastily-mustered, untrained Nov. 15, he led his caravan to Fort Reading. “deployed” by the time Abbot arrived. “Oregon Mounted Volunteers,” despite their On Nov. 21, Williamson came up from He promptly wrote his own, much stron- impatience to catch up with Capt. A.J. Smith San Francisco, having already decided that ger letter of protest, invoking the Secretary and his regular troops. In his Autobiogra- the “second mission” into the Sierras was of War’s original orders, emphasizing the phy, Crook recalled that “a motlier crew has unfeasible because of the season; soon or- extreme jeopardy the Major’s actions had never been seen since Old Falstaff’s time.” ders came from Washington instructing put him and his men under for their march (General George Crook: His Autobiography them to return to the capital without delay, through Rogue country, where the Indians ed. Martin F. Schmidtt, Norman: Universi- to prepare their Survey’s Report. They sailed had only recently resumed their attacks on ty of Oklahoma Press, 1946, 1980, pp. 26-7) from San Francisco on Dec. 20, and when, settlers and troops, and imploring him to Abbot tried to teach them some rudiments en route down the Pacific coast, they met a send the dragoons (and Phil Sheridan) back. of military dressage, but his efforts to get the northbound ship and exchanged mail and Without waiting for a reply, he took himself company off on an early morning start got newspapers, they found an article in the off to Portland, where he met with Territori- nowhere over the question of breakfast. To New York Herald reporting the massacre of al Governor George Curry. Curry was sym- Major Martin’s objections, one of the volun- Abbot’s party on Mt. Hood! (Reminiscences, pathetic, but unable as a civilian to counter- teers replied, “Major, when I’m going into p.442) They reached New York on Jan. 12, mand Rains’s order. Instead, he noted that battle I likes to have my belly full of beans.” 1856, and after a brief furlough with his a volunteer militia had been called up to Abbot adds, “There was nothing more to be family in Massachusetts, Abbot returned to deal with the Indian crisis in the south, and said, and we waited for the beans.” (Remi- Washington and, in the concluding words of issued a general order for all volunteer offi- niscences, p. 440) his Report narrative, “immediately entered cers in the field there to do what they could Abbot and Crook may have had some se- upon office work.” (Report , p. 111) In doing to provide the Survey party with safe passage rious misgivings about how effectively their so, he must have felt both relief, and a bit through the “war zone” along the Umpqua party would be protected by such an escort; let-down after such adventures. But not long and Rogue. but fortunately just as they reached the “front after he and Williamson began what was to With this less-than-ironclad assurance, lines” and began to see for themselves burnt- have been their collaboration on the Report, Abbot and Lt. Crook (the only other officer out farms and dead livestock and wounded Williamson became seriously ill (his disease left with the Survey contingent) organized soldiers in retreat, they caught up with Capt. has not been identified; he eventually recov- the march south. Leaving Oregon City on Smith and his company of regulars at Grave ered, and served in the Civil War), and as a Oct. 23, Abbot and Crook and their compa- Creek, and were promised a proper escort consequence Abbot ended up writing nearly ny traveled south on mostly good roads on of 35 soldiers through to Fort Lane and be- all of the main text of the volume, and edit- the west side of the Willamette River. They yond. On Nov. 6, having passed through the ing all of it.

13 By the spring of 1857, the monumen- very long and historically eventful life. That never re-married; his older son, Frederic, tal “offi ce work” of preparing the 500-page should be, as they say, another story—but it graduated from West Point himself and had Volume VI (its maps would not be published will have to suffi ce here to outline its main a long and illustrious career of his own with until 1861) was mostly done. In his formal headings: the Army Corps of Engineers. prefatory letter to the Secretary of War (now The spacious trajectory of Henry Larcom John B. Floyd), Abbot modestly acknowl- • 1857-61: With Gen. Andrew Humphreys, Abbot’s life might qualify as an illustration edges that “the preparation of this report pioneer hydrological surveys of the lower of H.L. Davis’s wry description of Oregon as has devolved upon me, in consequence of Mississippi River, leading to early fl ood con- “the place where stories begin that end up the severe and protracted illness of Lt. Wil- trol measures. someplace else.” (“Oregon,” Collected Es- liamson; and it is due to myself to state that I says and Short Stories. Moscow: University have performed the duty with extreme reluc- • 1861-5: active service with the of Idaho Press, 1986, p.52) tance, partly because it was not originally de- in the Civil War; wounded in the fi rst battle But, all things considered, what a rich signed for me by the Department [of War], of Bull Run, later in command of “siege artil- Oregon beginning it was, for Abbot, and and partly because it properly belongs to the lery” forces in major Civil War battles; ended what a signifying American life story to fol- offi cer by whose foresight and professional the War as a brigadier general. low. ability the expedition has been brought to a ______successful termination.” (Report, p. 3) • 1866-1895: service in USA and abroad Later in the introductory section of the with the Army Corps of Engineers, contrib- ADDITIONAL READINGS: volume, he highlights what was probably in uting to the design of US coastal defenses; Family Letters of Henry Larcom Abbot, ed. his view his own most important contribu- helped to establish the US Army Engineer- Catherine C. Abbot (Gettysburg: Thomas tion to the Oregon survey: the discovery of ing School of Practice in . Re- Publications, 2001) “a new pass south of Mt. Hood. This pass tired from the Army as a brigadier general. was discovered by the detached party in my Charles Greeley Abbot, Biographical Mem- charge.” (Report, p. 34). Despite his tribula- • 1896-7: member of Presidential US For- oir of Henry Larcom Abbot (Washington: tions while fi nding a way (with Sam An-ax- estry Commission (with Charles Sargent, National Academy of Sciences, 1929) shat’s help) around Mt. Hood, he had con- Giff ord Pinchot, John Muir, and others)— cluded from his observations that if cleared the Commission’s Report led to the estab- George Albright, Offi cial Explorations for of fallen timber the route he had taken would lishment of the national forests system and Pacifi c Railroads (Berkeley: University of be much preferable to the Barlow Road, of- the USFS. California Press, 1921) fering better forage and water, and much more passable terrain. He was probably • 1897-1915: service as a principal engi- John Charles Fremont, Memoirs of My Life right—but because he had no time while still neering consultant fi rst to the French and (New York: Cooper Square Press, 2001), in Oregon to promote his new “road,” and then to the American proj- Chapters VI-XI because he was soon occupied with editing ects; crucial advocate of the “two-lock” Pan- the Report and then with service in the Civil ama canal route over the “no-lock” sea-level War, the idea went nowhere; and for lack of route in Nicaragua. a better alternative, emigrants kept on strug- gling over the Barlow Road, the terrors of • Author of several books and scores of arti- “Laurel Hill” and all! cles on the Panama Canal and a wide range On May 3, Abbot mused in a family let- of engineering and scientifi c topics. ter, “It will be two years day after tomorrow Soon after his return from Oregon, Ab- since I sailed to California. How many scenes bot married his fi ancée, Mary Susan (“Su- I have gone through since. They would make sie”) Everett: they had two sons and two up a life for many persons.” (Journal, p. daughters. Mrs. Abbot died tragically young 130) Perhaps this confi dent young man intu- in 1871, soon after the birth of their second ited that his recent wilderness exploits were son Henry—who died in 1881 in an accident only the prologue to what was going to be a at the family farm in New Hampshire. Abbot

14 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

Memories of Wolford Canyon By George Aguilar Sr.

n a recent visit to Wolford Canyon, where I was brought up, there was only silence. The memories remain, but the eorge Aguilar Sr., Warm Springs elder and histori- Iechoes of the canyon are calm. No children play in the an, won an Oregon Book Award in 2006 for his When springwater pools. No sweathouse fi res heat the rocks. No Gthe River Ran Wild! (University of Washington Press, deer hides are soaking. No buckskins tanning. No gardens. No 2005). THE AGATE is honored to publish here his memoir on wheat growing. The fi elds are now teeming with juniper trees Wolford Canyon, on the Warm Springs Reservation, where he where the golden heads of wheat once swayed to the whispers grew up in the traditional household of his grandparents, James of the wind. The only remains found were Grandmother’s Polk Jr. and Hattie Symentire Polk. hide scraping pole, showing the cracks and rot of surviving In “Memories of Wolford Canyon,” personal recollection and historical awareness combine to create something much more many years. And a rusted-out plow and harrow. A half-bur- than the sum of the parts. The author’s pilgrimage back to his ied, busted canning jar glitters through the underbrush, home place in the canyon (off Shitike Canyon west of the Agen- showing its deterioration cy) brings vividly to mind the sights and sounds and associations from over a half-century of this beloved place, now all gone “historically” except in his of weathering. The only memory. And yet, if the human occupation of Wolford Canyon survivors of this canyon has ended long since, he recognizes that its natural inhabitation where I lived as a child continues, as if nothing had happened. In a few richly detailed are fi ve huge ponderosa paragraphs, the essay becomes both a deeply personal elegy, a pine trees. Their branch- lament over loss, and a historical monument in words for what es move with the motion endures in sacred places like Wolford Canyon. of the wind, their nee- Readers may want to look at the “Wolford Canyon” chapter dles whispering “we’re in When the River Ran Wild! in which Mr. Aguilar describes the still alive.” community in the Canyon and its destruction by the devastating On May 25, 2005 a Reservation Fire of 1938. trip was made to Wol- ford Canyon to pho- tograph a medicinal plant at our former home . . . . While as- cending the steep Wolford Canyon hill where the plant fl ourished, the shadow of a curious turkey buzzard startled me as it gracefully glided by. On this late indolent spring day the chokecherry trees choked the fl ow of the stream and scented the area with their sweet blooming blossoms . . . Stems of fl owers, plants, and trees bowed in reverence to the rays of God’s warm sunshine. The landscapes have been altered by nature’s overwhelming presence where the wagon cross of the small stream changed over the years by deep soil erosion. The spring where we took drinking water and water for domestic use has changed her

15 water-course over the years, and has hid- places where these families once lived is yon of a former home of a few early set- den herself underground. The Mysteryno longer discernible. Homesteaderstlers from the great river . . . . The log The disturbed wild turkeys and oth- The grayBy weather-beaten Jarold Ramsey boards of house where Wasco Semore and his wife er animals scamper for cover. Burrow- the tumbled-down residence where we “Daughter of the Swift Water” had their ing animals,he beginning squirrels, of the endgroundhogs, of this story have came livedJeff erson sixty-eight County, Oregon.years ago are fading into winteringcareful track homeof work, hasvisits, beenincome obliteratedand expenses slothfullyin the crept early out 1970s, of their when winter a young abode man the dustIt didn’t of seemthe earthto be a . proper. . . The diary—more, now-resi- he fromfor a family, my mind’s with very eye little of ofits a formerpersonal location.nature reg- named Rick Donahoe was tearing down thought, a kind of “day book” or journal keeping istered. It was defi nitely not a self-conscious “liter- to enjoy God’s beautiful presence . . . . The dent, distressed lizards dart for cover ...... Pine trees have now re-established Tan old outbuilding on his farm ary” record. But who kept mourning doves give out their presence at the north of Redmond, Oregon. it? Th ere was no name, their usual mourning cry, former home of Mr. In one of the walls, he found a but clearly the writer was seeking lost kidnapped tattered ledger-book, its pages andpart ofMrs. a farming Wasco family, Se- children,fi lled with theirdaily entries expressed in pen- more.fi rst in I’mMichigan, probably and af- griefcil, dating echoes from January through 1912 theter the only move living to Oregon, in- theto September steep 1917,stream-erod- beginning dividualthey were homesteaders, that could edin centralcanyon Michigan . . . . Mr.(Saginaw and projectstruggling toan prove image up on Mrs.County) Quail and abruptlyare seen breaking with intoand gain the title previousto the 160 theiroff somewhere young broodeast of scur-Madras, yearsacres they’d and claimed.hear the But rying for cover. . . . All gossipy murmur of birds of God’s choir sing the women and the their melodious welcome clamor and laughter to the rays of sunshine, of the ghost riders of while woodpeckers chat- this canyon. ter away on the decayed Loose, rust- trees, to make a nest ing barbed wire is for their soon-to-arrive strewn on the earth’s young. Bald eagles perch fl oor where fences themselves on the high- separated property est tips of budding cot- lines of the occu- George Aguilar Sr. tonwood trees, scouting pants of Wolford ever so far in the distant areas of God’s A fi fteen-foot juniper tree now claims res- Canyon. Horses are no longer confi ned expansive creation . . . . The tuxedoed idence where our living room once greet- to the fenced off areas, they are now free magpies leap from tree to tree, sound- ed visitors who came to Wolford Canyon . to roam wherever they please. The wild ing off with their disturbing clamor. The . . .The main road to our former residence horses are the only living creatures that meadowlarks’ song of “Ee-te-a-sa Yel- is no longer identifi able; sagebrush and occupy this once thriving small commu- pum” reverberates between canyon walls. juniper trees now claim occupation where nity. When these wild horses become Wolford Canyon shows signs of a life- wagon wheels once embedded their deep aware of my presence they retreat into the less human activity. The bustle of pre- symbols of human activity in the hand- hills at a full gallop, their thundering hoof vious years lives only in my mind’s eye made road . . . .Rusted out cans, metal beats tumbling throughout the canyon. of several snow melts ago. The narrow stovepipes, old Model T Ford vehicle body As they elegantly glide over the rough ter- steep road up through the small canyon parts and wagon wheel spokes are strewn rain, I wonder if any of the sorrels of this to our neighbors’ residence has deterio- where the hay barn once stood . . . . herd are the progeny of my former herd rated into non-existence . . . . Our neigh- The only people that occupy this re- of many snow melts ago. When they with- bors’ hay-producing fi elds have now been gion are buried in unknown locations draw out of view the dust settles, gloom replenished with the high sage, bitter of the canyon. These are they who once and the spooky stillness then overwhelm brush, and juniper trees. The dwelling resided in this now out-of-the-way can- the canyon.

16 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

Plans for Westside Community Center and New JCHS Museum Move Forward

he grassroots initiative to re-cre- ter use) renovations, came up with an es- will provide about 4400 square feet of ate Westside School (ex-Madras timated total cost of 4.6 million dollars. space overall, a substantial improvement THigh School) as “Westside Com- The OPSIS report also took into account a over the less than 2000 square feet avail- munity Center” has recently taken a ma- community-wide series of meetings with able in the old museum (on the second jor step closer to success, with the an- local groups to find out what the com- floor of the Old Courthouse in downtown nouncement from the Bean Foundation munity wants and needs in a community Madras). In addition to the advantage of and the Friends of Westside that a capital center. this much-needed extra space (for admin- fund-raising campaign will istrative, work, and storage soon be launched. Current purposes, in addition to plans are for the campaign exhibit displays), the West- to start after completion of side location will offer year- a funding feasibility study round heating/cooling, and in late spring. full one-floor handicapped The Jefferson County access—both lacking in the Historical Museum, in stor- Old Courthouse. age since fall 2012, would JCHS President Lottie be located in the Westside Holcomb re-activated the facility, in the South Wing. JCHS “Museum Planning The decision to move Committee” last fall, in an- forward with the project ticipation of the decision to has come as the result of a move forward with West- detailed “Due Diligence Re- side; and the committee has port” prepared by OPSIS begun to work on planning Architects of Portland, in and formulating the design collaboration with a team of Future Community center and JCHS Museum. of the new museum, in- architects, structural engi- cluding visits from muse- neers and construction consultants who Fundraising will involve both a local um experts and consultants. If you have studied the Westside facility (built be- campaign and a concentrated effort to suggestions about the new museum, let’s tween 1938 and 1950), at the expense of obtain funding from major foundations. hear from you! Contact any JCHS Direc- the Bean Foundation. The OPSIS report, The Bean Foundation and the Friends are tor (see p.2), or go to our Website: http:// focusing on “Tier One” (code-related) and currently looking for grant-writers. www.jeffcohistorical.com. “Tier Two” (relating to Community Cen- The new Museum in the South Wing

17 TheThe Case Mystery of the Homesteaders Mysterious By Jarold Ramsey

he beginning of the end of this story came Initialedfor a family, with very little of a Pierspersonal nature identify the writer, and locate the homestead. He in the early 1970s, when a young man registered. It was defi nitely not a self-conscious carefully transcribed it in typescript, and even named Rick Donahoe was tearing down “literary” record. But who kept it? Th ere was no drew up an alphabetized index of names of peo- Tan old outbuilding on his farmHere’s north of Redmond, a challengename, but clearly the writer for was partAGATE of a farming plereaders mentioned in the entries. Eventually, he and his Oregon. In one of the walls, he found a tattered family, fi rst in Michigan, and aft er the move to Or- wife Mary sold their farm and re-settled in Ohio, ledger-book, its pages(especially fi lled with daily entries in Culverites)egon, they were homesteaders, with struggling tosharp prove and ineyes 2010 he contacted and me, wondering if the Jef- pencil, dating from January 1912 to September up on and gain title to the 160 acres they’d claimed. ferson County Historical Society would give the 1917, beginning in central Michigan (Saginawlong But historical where? Was the writer a manmemories. or a woman? “mystery ledger” a home in our archives—and if County) and abruptly breaking off somewhere east (How the book ended up in a shed many miles I personally would like to take a crack at solving of Madras, Jeff erson County, Oregon. from its place of origin was, and remains, part of its puzzles. ast summer, Paul Patton, Cen- It didn’t seem to be a proper diary—more, he its mystery.) thought, a kindtral of “day Oregon book” or Resourcesjournal keeping Specialist Rick Donahoe was fascinated by the led- carefulL track ofwith work, visits, the Oregonincome and State expenses Parks ger-book and and the story it might tell, if he could Recreation Department (and one of the founders of “Eagle Watch”) and his crew were scouting out some possible new trail routes along the east rim of Crooked Riv- er Canyon, just north of where the grade down to Cove Palisades State Park starts its descent. On the edge of the rim, they found four large concrete piers, making a square about ten feet on a side, each with a set of initials carved in the cement: “BS,” “RMc,” “ME,” and “RO.” The surface of the piers is weathered enough to suggest that they’ve been on the site since the fi rst decades of the last century. Can anybody identify who built the piers (and the structures they supported, now gone), and when, and for what pur- pose? A guess would be that they support- ed a large water-tank, fi lled with water pumped up from Crooked River far below. But why? And can anybody decipher the initials? Paul Patton (541-923-7551, Ext. 21) and the Editors (541-475-5390) would like to know! Unidentifi ed piers on east rim above Lake Billy Chinook

18 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

Further Light on 1909 Madras vs. Warm Springs Basketball

n the Sept. 2015 issue of THE AGATE, we ran a feature on a were two girls hoop games this time, involving two sets of teams girls basketball game in June 1909 between Madras and Warm (indicative of strong interest locally in the new game of basketball). ISprings, at Warm Springs, with rare photographs and recollec- The Madras girls won both games, 13-12 and 12-6. Madras players tions of the event by a member of the Madras team, Ethel Klann mentioned were Jennie Harper, Nora Livingston, Ethel Klann, Lo- Cornwell. Since then, more details of that pioneering game have rena Hill, May Campbell, Lena Mayes, Ethel Cowherd, Ella Richard- come to light, in issues of The Pioneer from that year. son, Mabel Braun, and Minnie Haberstich. The Pioneer commented As it happened, Warm Springs Boarding School Superinten- that “among the visitors were many Indians from the Reservation, dent Carey extended an invitation to Madras School Principal Riley who displayed a keen relish for the sport, and a warm partisanship Cook, for a series of games between the two schools’ girls basketball for their players. It was interesting to hear their school ‘yells’ and teams and between their to watch them ‘rooting’ boys baseball teams. On for the Indian teams, May 27 (as covered in THE and their skill in that AGATE), the Madras girls line would make many won their game 16-9. The a college boy green Pioneer noted that “it was with envy.” a spirited contest through- This auspicious out, both teams putting up but long-forgotten ath- a good game. The Indian letic series concluded girls were a little confused with a boys baseball by what had been their er- game June 26 in Warm roneous interpretation of Springs—which the one of the rules regarding Warm Springers won a foul, and this placed them handily, 5-2. at a slight disadvantage, but they played a good clean game of basketball.” As for the boys base- ball game, it was a thriller, with Madras finally win- Warm Springs vs. Madras, May 27, 1909 ning 10-9 in 11 innings. The Pioneer enthused about the large crowd attending from Madras, reporting that Charles Smith, the ferry-man on the Deschutes (there was no bridge across the river in 1909) estimated the crowd crossing over for the games to be at least 150! After the competi- tion, “an entertainment was given at the Indian School, followed by a concert in the dining hall by the Indian band, during which refreshments were served.” The next round of games came on June 5, this time in Madras. The boys from Madras defeated the Warm Springs team in baseball, 9-1 (Madras players named included John Campbell, W. Hender- son, Carl Galloway, Thad Dizney, and Perry Henderson). And there

19 President’s Message

ow, what a fantastic year ORHistory.com. They will be present- the Jeff erson County ing their magic lantern show “A Picto- WHistorical Society has rial History of Oregon.” Be sure not to had, starting with the positive de- miss it! For more information, please velopment of the Bean Foundation give me a call @ 541-475-7488. moving forward with the Westside This year especially, we are need- Community Center planning stage. ing volunteers, new membership and We are very excited about the possi- support for the Historical Society. So bilities of the space for us in the fu- JCHS President Lottie Holcomb fi ll out the membership form on the ture. We off ered tours of the homestead and school house back of this Agate and join today! Your support will go during fair which was hugely popular with fairgoers. Our a long way to helping us achieve our goal of opening the history pubs are going strong and we have some terrifi c museum in the “Westside Community Center” and to pubs planned for this year. The Agate is our shining star continue off ering the special events we provide through- and I believe our new format is getting the community out the year. talking about us. Our Annual Dinner is April 9th at the Senior Center. Thank you, Our guest speakers this year are Matthew Cowen of the LOTTIE HOLCOMB Oregon Historical Society and Doug Kenck-Crispin of President, Jeff erson County Historical Society

20 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

The Society’s Annual Dinner ly Jefferson County-area photos, including the work of Ole Hedlund, Ed Mason, and others. According to JCHS Director Jerry Ramsey, “We’re for 2016—April 9 very grateful to Lynn Schmaltz [Cora Luelling’s great granddaughter] and her family for allowing us to digitalize and thus preserve these in- he Historical Society’s Annual Dinner for 2016 will be held on valuable photos. They give us a privileged close-up view of what home- Saturday, April 9, in the Jefferson County Senior Center (860 steading, family life, and farming were like around here before the First TSW Madison St., Madras). The Social Hour will begin at 5 p.m., World War and they are enhanced by meticulous notes to each photo, followed by dinner at 6. Reservations are $40 per person, with checks prepared by Mrs. Luelling’s son, the late C.S. Luelling.” made out to “Jefferson County Historical Society” to be sent to “2016 The Society plans to offer a public viewing of the Luelling photos Dinner,” JCHS, Box 647, Madras, Oregon 97741. Checks should be re- later this year, probably as a special “History Pub.” ceived by April 4, and tickets will be held for you at the door. The home-style menu will include roast pork “with all the trim- JCHS Redmond Airport mings.” For a vegetarian entrée, please indicate accordingly when you send in your check. Historical Displays Featured at this year’s dinner will be a “magic lantern” program, “A Pictorial History of Oregon,” first put together in the early 1930s and or several using rare hand-colored glass photographic slides. The program will be years, the presented by Matthew Cowan, Photographic Archivist of the Oregon FJefferson Historical Society in Portland and Doug Kenck-Crispin of ORHistory. County Historical com; their presentation will be the first of its kind in Central Oregon. Society has dis- Other Dinner features will include oldtime music by the Steve Fish- played exhibits on er Trio, historical photo displays from the JCHS Collection, a progress county history at report on the Westside Community Center/Historical Museum proj- Redmond Airport, ect—and this year’s version of the ever-popular “Fifty-Fifty” game of on one side of a chance. prominent stone The Dinner as always is open to everybody—join your friends and pillar between the neighbors in celebrating our local history! main lobby and the baggage area. The exhibit area Luelling Glass-Negative Photos also features the Digitalized by JCHS Museum at Warm Springs, the De- n late 2015 the schutes County Historical So- Historical Society, Iciety, in collab- and the Redmond oration with the City Historical Luelling family, dig- Museum. italized the unique New exhibits collection of glass are put up twice a JCHS Display at Redmond Airport: Jefferson County negatives of over 100 year, in May and Weather photographs taken November. JCHS 1908-1916 by Agency displays have recently featured the County Centennial of 2014, the Plains pioneer Cora history of Madras Airport from WWII to the present, sheep-ranching (Mrs. Seth) Luelling. around Ashwood, logging on Grizzly Mountain, and old-time sports The project, carried and athletics. Cora Luelling and Mary, with chickens, Agency Plains, 1909 out by Blue Moon The current display focuses on the weather of Jefferson County— Camera in Portland, and is the creation of Jennie Smith, Becky Roberts, and Betty Fretheim. transferred the images to disks, and archival contact prints were made When you visit Redmond Airport, be sure to check out the JCHS dis- of the photos. play; Jennie, Becky, and Betty will be grateful for your comments and The Luelling collection further enriches the Society’s archive of ear- suggestions for future exhibits.

21 Jeff ersonThe County Mystery Library HomesteadersRecent Gifts and Donations Marks Its Centennial By Jarold Ramseyecause the JCHS is listed with the IRS as a non-profi t, Bdonations of historical materials to the Collection and hehe latest beginning in Jeff of theerson end of County’s this story camerush of centennialfor a family, celebrationswith very little contributionsof a personal nature and giftsidentify to the theHistorical writer, and Society locate themay homestead. be eli- He Tcomesin the in early July 1970s,2016, whenwith thea young 100th man birthday registered.of the founding It was ofdefi nitelygible not aas self-conscious tax-deductible. carefully transcribed it in typescript, and even the Jeffnamed erson Rick County Donahoe Library. was Librarytearing directorsdown and“literary” staff arerecord. planning But who kept it? Th ere was no drew up an alphabetized index of names of peo- Tan old outbuilding on his farm north of Redmond, name, but clearly the writer was part of a farming ple mentioned in the entries. Eventually, he and his several “occasions”: DONATIONS TO THE COLLECTION: Oregon. In one of the walls, he found a tattered family, fi rst in Michigan, and aft er the move to Or- wife Mary sold their farm and re-settled in Ohio, • A Library Float, featuring the Library Band, in the Madras 4th of Early minutes (1912--) of the ODO (“Our Day Out”) ledger-book, its pages fi lled with daily entries in egon, they were homesteaders, struggling to prove and in 2010 he contacted me, wondering if the Jef- July Parade Club of Culver (Bowman Museum) pencil, dating from January 1912 to September up on and gain title to the 160 acres they’d claimed. ferson County Historical Society would give the • A “Business After Hours” reception July 21, in the Library Annex 1917, beginning in central Michigan (Saginaw But where? Was the writer a manRare or 1908a woman? “Baldwin “mystery Sheep andledger” Land a home Co.” in (Hay our archives—andCreek if (for more information see the Chamber of Commerce monthly County) and abruptly breaking off somewhere east (How the book ended up in a shed manyRanch) miles give-away I personally notebook would (Dan like Phillips)to take a crack at solving newsletter) of Madras, Jeff erson County, Oregon. from its place of origin was, and remains, part of its puzzles. • A day of celebration, July 25, featuring displays and programs at Early (1911-1914) Metolius City lot records It didn’t seem to be a proper diary—more, he its mystery.) the Library (Crook County Historical Society) thought, a kind of “day book” or journal keeping Rick Donahoe was fascinated by the led- The Historical Society salutes our county library for serving the coun- careful track of work, visits, income and expenses ger-book and the story it might tell, if Originalhe could 11x14 Ole Hedlund print of the ty well for a century—an indispensable part of our history! Bill Moore homestead on Agency Plains (Patricia Moore Howard) National Historic Registry Listing World War Two military records and photos relating for Three Local Buildings and Sites, to assignment of 332nd Squadron, 94th Bombing Group B-17 aircrews to Madras Army Air Field in with JCHS Help 1943 for training, focusing on 2nd Lt. William E. hree historically important local buildings and sites have been Thomas, and his subsequent thirty missions (based Tsubmitted for inclusion in the National Historic Registry. in England) as a bombardier on B-17F “Myasam The City of Madras, which owns and operates Madras Airport, has Dragon” over (Rich and Susi Thomas, Fran- received National Registry listing for the North Hangar, built and cie Thomas, Diana Quirk) used during WWII for maintenance of B-17 bombers stationed at what was then Madras Army Air Field. Crooked River Grasslands, a division of the U.S. Forest Service, has been awarded National His- GIFTS TO THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY: toric Site Registry listing for the Cyrus and McCoin homestead sites Glenda Holzfuss • William Apgar in the foothills of Gray Butte. Both sites are notable for including Jerold H. Gard • Sharon Landreth Nesbit large orchards of heirloom fruit trees, still alive and bearing fruit after Ron and Kathie Olson • Charles Cunningham more than a century. And the Old Jeff erson County Courthouse, now owned by Steve Jansen of Madras, has received National Registry ap- proval, initiated by Mr. Jansen. WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR YOUR GENEROSITY IN The JCHS served in a consulting role for each of these National SUPPORTING OUR HISTORICAL MISSION! Registry applications.

22 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

Video Review By Jane Ahern

“Finding this Place: resorts and vacation homes. Oth- er topics on the DVD include the An Early History of Civilian Conservation Corps, the Camp Sherman store, the Com- Camp Sherman” munity Hall and the school. Camp Sherman Historical Society DVD The speakers share their first- June 15, 2015, 1:06:06 hand experiences and family sto- ries in a format that feels pleasant- he Camp Sherman Historical Society ly personal. One talks of moving has produced an interesting and in- from the city to live in cabins with Tformative DVD about the early days of no electricity, another of her “Un- helpful hand-drawn, old-looking map with no Camp Sherman, consisting mostly of inter- cle Martin” [Hansen] who established what explanation of its provenance. And while the views of people with Camp Sherman roots. is now Lake Creek Resort and still another of subheadings are useful, they don’t adequately Wilson Wewa appears first, talking about the coming out from Oklahoma to work on the take the place of a central narrator who could Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and the Circle M dude ranch for the summer. There provide a little more framing and context for Native Americans’ past use of the area. Many are stories about attending the one-room the content. of the other interviewees are descendants of schoolhouse, weekly square dances at the However, these criticisms only arise be- the original white occupants. The speakers Community Hall and the windstorm of 1931. cause the DVD effectively piques the viewer’s are shown some of the time; at other times the There is little mention of hardship; the tone of interest in the subject, leading to a desire to DVD shows a variety of historic photographs their recollections is rather idyllic. know a little more about it. Overall, it is a very and maps while the interviewees speak on rel- This wouldn’t be a review without at least impressive production and Camp Sherman evant topics. residents of the The content of present and future the DVD is divid- should be thank- ed into different ful that these subjects by tex- valuable first- tual subheadings hand accounts that appear in be- were recorded for tween. A perusal posterity. of the subheadings At the end reveals a strik- of the DVD, the ing difference be- Jefferson County tween the history Cultural Coalition of Camp Sherman and the history of the rest one or two criticisms. One is that the DVD is given credit as one of three funding sources of Jefferson County. While most of Jefferson would benefit from more extensive identifi- for the production and the Jefferson County County’s early history is about farming, ranch- cation of the people being interviewed. Their Historical Society was listed as having provid- ing, and related infrastructure like irrigation names are shown on the screen the first time ed some of the photographs. and railroads, Camp Sherman received only they appear, but not in subsequent segments, To obtain the DVD, contact Camp Sher- a handful of homesteaders before President and sometimes when two people appear to- man Historical Society members Lorie Han- Grover Cleveland’s administration set aside gether or in the same segment it is not clear cock/541-595-2719 or Tonye Phillips /541- much of the surrounding land for forestry in how they are related or what their connection 595-6458. The cost is a $30 donation to the 1890s. The community largely began as is to the subject. To Camp Sherman residents CSHS. a vacation camping spot for Sherman Coun- who already know these folks it is probably According to Jefferson County Library ty farmers and its subsequent development obvious, but outsiders could use more help. employee Jackie May, the DVD may soon be has mostly consisted of dude ranches, fishing Also, the DVD more than once shows a very available at our local library.

23 THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • MADRAS, OREGON

Box 647, Madras, Oregon 97741

THE AGATE • JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY PLEASE JOIN US! Membership (please check box): New Renewal Individual Jeff erson County Historical Society Box 647, Madras, Oregon 97741 Family Patron Benefactor 541-475-5390 • Website: www.jeff cohistorical.org (Make check out to JCHS; mail to address at left) MEMBERSHIP DUES 2016: Yes, I’m interested in becoming a History (Individual: $25 Family: $50 Patron: $150 Benefactor: $500) Volunteer Name: ______Yes, I would like to make a donation to the Address: ______JCHS (the Society is a registered non-profi t organization; donations and gifts to it are City: ______State:_____ Zip:______tax-deductible) Phone: ______I have artifacts, photos, written material I Email: ______would like to donate to the JCHS Museum