I was passing through the area and noticed a large sign in front of a house stating the Pope Ranch was established in 1898. I then verified this ranch is a Century Ranch from the Oregon Century Farm & Ranch
website. The website says the following regarding this ranch:
Original Owner: Pope, Fred L.
Acquisition Year: 1898
Award Date: 1999
Award Type: Century Ranch
Name of Farm or Ranch: Pope Ranches, Inc.
Original Acreage: null
Current Acreage: null
Historic Crops/Livestock: cattle, sheep, hay
Current Crops/Livestock: alfalfa, barley, wheat, potatoes, cattle, and pasture
Donation Land Claim: 0
Legal Description: null
National Register Property: 0
_____________________________________________________
I also located a website that details the history of Fred Pope and the ranch he started and reads (special text in bold):
SOURCE:
Merrill Centennial
1894-1994
Printed by Graphic Press
Klamath Falls, Oregon
Pages 170-172
Frederick Lamonde Pope, Fred L. Pope as he was called when grown, was born in Iowa and moved to California with his parents when 2 1/2 years old. Most of his life, when single, was spent in Canby, California. He carried mail from Alturas to Adin, also from Alturas to Lakeview. He also worked for large cattle outfits; the Corporation Ranch at Likely and the ZX at Paisley. He trailed cattle from Lakeview to Sacramento for Cox and Clark. There were no bridges, so they had to swim the cattle across the Sacramento River. When
Fred was 21 years old he drove a tourist conveyance from Sissen to McCloud for a Mr. Sissen, for who the town Sissen was named, now called Mt. Shasta City.
Fred L. Pope was married March 27, 1892 to Dora Olive Ballard. He rented the Jack Davis place at the time of his marriage. They had a small herd of cattle and milked cows while the grass was green in the spring and summer. The place they were on had a large tract of meadows land. They hayed the meadow for winter feed and pasture in the fall.
They had a cellar in the side of a hill near the house where they set the milk in tin pans for the cream to raise. The cellar was very cool and everything kept very well. The cream was skimmed after it had set for two days. They churned the creams and the butter was worked out to get out as much of the buttermilk as possible, then salted and molded in two pound round molds. The butter was then packed in 25 pound ferkins which were then filled with a salt brine strong enough to "bare up" a fresh hen egg. This task was started in the spring and continued until fall. The calves were given half of the cows milk so the cows all raised good calves. After the green grass was gone the calves were left with the cows until weaning time. The cows were not milked in the winter.
When fall came the butter was taken from the ranch to Redding, California (180 miles) and traded for groceries, enough to last until the next fall. This was done each year from 1891 until 1898. Very little money was brought back. Chickens were kept for meat and eggs. The surplus eggs were sold some of the time; if there was no demand for them, they were buried. They raised potatoes, carrots, beets, and cabbage. At no time was his family without food.
In November 1898 Fred Pope came to Klamath County looking for a ranch. He was offered several places, but the people changed their minds. Then J. Frank Adams sold him the ranch now known as the Pope Ranch, 3 and 3/4 miles due east of Merrill. There were 265 acres in this ranch, but 105 were covered by Tule Lake. He paid $12 per acre. What cash they had was received from the sale of beef; two and three year old steers brought $10 a head most of the time.
On January 7, 1893 a baby boy was born. He was named Leslie Lamonde Pope. Their second son, James Leland Pope was born September 23, 1894. Marjorie Delia was born March 15, 1897.
Fresh beef was had several times each year. They had no refrigeration, so 4 or 5 neighbors killed at different times and exchanged with each other. Hogs were killed each fall and the meat was made into sausage and bacon, smoked to last until the next fall.
There wasn't any house on the Pope place purchased from Mr. Adams, but J. Frank Adams moved a part of his house on the place that Pope bought and built a new front on what he had left.
In June 1899 the Fred L. Pope family moved to Merrill on the place they bough the previous fall from Mr. Adams. Adams had built a canal from White Lake on the California side of the state line into Oregon. It extended north to where the Klamath Irrigation District (KID) Floom stands today, then on a south easterly direction to Adams
Point where it ended. It furnished water for N. S. Merrill, Charles Merrill, Eldon Ball, Conner and Adam ranches. It ran between the Adams house and out buildings and through the land that Pope bought, where the Great Northern track is today. Forty acres, below the ditch on the Pope ranch, was in alfalfa. The rest of the land, to the lake shore, was in meadow grass. There were about 30 acres above the ditch which was sage brush.
About 1904 J. Frank Adam's started the present KID canal which ran from the flume to Adams Point. In 1906 the Reclamation Service bought out Adams and enlarged this present canal and extended it to the state line east of Malin. This new canal furnished water for the 30 acres of sage brush land, which was cleared and put into alfalfa to furnish hay for Pope's enlarging cattle herd. He and Mrs. Pope still milked cows and made butter after coming to Merrill. They sold it to stores and the Riverside Hotel in Merrill.
Klamath Falls was the county seat of Klamath County. Ranchers from Merrill had to stay overnight in Klamath Falls when they went on business.
In 1900 Fred L. Pope bought another place 3/4 miles east of Merrill. This place was in sage brush with no buildings. Pope cleared the place and planted it to wheat, later to alfalfa. In 1907 Pope built the present buildings and moved there to be closer to school for their children.
After coming to Merrill three more children were born, Wanda Marie in 1901, Fred Lemuel in 1904 and Kathryn Elizabeth in 1910.
_____________________________________________________