|
 Frenchglen, Oregon Posted by:  ddtfamily
N 42° 49.583 W 118° 54.875
11T E 343503 N 4743312
Remote, historic southeast Oregon community at the foot of Steens Mountain
Waymark Code: WMFFVF
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 10/13/2012
Views: 3
"FRENCHGLEN, 63.7 m. (4,195 alt., 34 pop.), was the old headquarters of the P Ranch, one of the most colorful centers of Oregon's old riata kingdom. It was named for Peter French, a prominent and picturesque cattle baron, and his wife's family. The townsite is now included in the Malheur Bird Refuge.
In the early 1870'$ the youthful Peter French found the Blitzen Valley an amazing expanse of wild meadow. Stretching for 70 miles along the Blitzen River, from the foothills of Steens Mountain, 250 miles in any direction from a railroad, it was a cattlemen's paradise. The Blitzen tumbled down the rocky slopes of Steens Mountain to spread out lazily for many miles, between rimrock barriers, through the green marshlands, and into Malheur Lake. Peter French, who came from California to establish a cattle domain similar to that of the Spanish grandees, and who was the most loved and the most hated cattle king in southeastern Oregon, lived and died a glamorous figure in the days of the bitter cattle wars. For years, undisputed baron of a vast area, until the coming of the settlers, Peter French fought to retain his empire by the high-handed methods of the epoch. His daring and dominant personality made him an unforgettable figure. Stories of the
P Ranch in the gun-fighting days of the Old West have become romantic lore of the rimrock. His vaqueros went armed and sometimes they were killed by concealed marksmen. On one occasion Peter French made a spectacular one-man stand against the Indians and put them to rout; on another, not so fortunate, he raced his mustang to the very door of his ranch house, with savages whooping at his heels. The noted trial and the acquittal of the settler who shot him down, in 1897, marked the twilight of the old cattle regime.
At his death, a portion of the ranch of 150,000 acres passed into the
hands of a livestock company, and later was acquired by the Federal Government. In 1935, the remaining 65,000 acres were bought to add to the Malheur Bird Refuge, and the marshes have gone back to a state as primitive as in the days when their solitudes were disturbed only by wandering animals and wandering Indians." -Oregon: End of the Trail, 1940
Frenchglen a remote unincorporated community in southeast Oregon, now has a population of approximately 12. It is within Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and includes a Kindergarten through 8th grade school, divided into two classes to serve children in the region.
A notable landmark is the historic Frenchglen Hotel, an Oregon State Heritage Site administered by the state Parks Department. The Hotel was built in the 1920s and remodeled by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1938. The Hotel still hosts visitors for overnight stays and and includes a small restaurant that serves breakfast or lunch and dinner with a reservation.
Book: Oregon: End of the Trail
Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 433-434
Year Originally Published: 1940
|
Visit Instructions:
To log a Visit, please supply an original image of the Waymark.
Recent Visits/Logs:
| There are no logs for this waymark yet. |
|
|
|
|