Way out in the back country. Eastern Oregon if I recall correctly. I was on a less than optimal dirt road myself when I saw this place. Cattle country.
A long way from nowhere.

What toil to build such a home? What hopes and dreams? What tales? Did they raise a family? Did they have ranch hands? Did they grow crops? Hay at least seems likely. Vegetable garden?
No signs of any of that but plenty of time for such to have disappeared "back to nature"

One didn't settle this land for the sake of just finding a place. There must have been water, grass ... a place within reasonable distance for supplies. A typical homestead was 160 acres - ½ x ½ mile. Several plots could be obtained or free-range* for cattle.

The building is old; made of logs ... perhaps from the hills in the background. I would suspect late 1800s to 19-teens. A well with hand-pump sits by the right front of the main building. The roof shows signs of red tarpaper covering what appear to be the original shingles. The extension at the rear looks to have had corrugated tin roofing - again, over what appears to be the original shingles. One of the windows appears to have glass remaining. It looks like a large groundhog hole - or some other critter - in a corner of what I'll call the mudroom.

There is slight evidence of what must have been a road coming from the left to the house. there appears to be a foundation to the left of what is presumably a barn or simply a large shed . A single post of some sort - bigger than a fence post - appears to the left and some distance away from that. Barely visible some distance to the right and rear of the house is what appears to be a barbed wire gate - fenced off now with another fence running along. Far to the left is another cluster of fence posts enclosing an area perhaps 10x10 or 15x15.

There doesn't appear to be any electrical connections; there is nothing to indicate any vehicle having visited the site for many years. No tire tracks, no bare dirt. No old tires or rusting car bodies as is not unusual for homesteads dating into the 40s. The construction appears older than that.

I find these places occasionally. A place to stop and wonder about lives and times past. What a different world these people of not really all that long ago must have lived.

*Side note: I've not seen them back east but out here in open country, one may see signs stating "Open Range". The practical meaning is that if you hit livestock in open range territory (no fencing required), you are responsible for damages. I happen to live in open range territory even though I live in a "subdivision (of sorts).

Continue reading →