The Birth of a Town Site - Oregon Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

The Birth of a Town Site sign is located west of the footbridge in Farewell Bend Park.

  
Marker Name: The Birth of a Town Site - Bend was named after the meandering Deschutes River
Marker Text: In 1878, John Y. Todd purchased 160 acres of land known as the “Farewell Bend Ranch” for $60 and two saddle horses.
In the early days of the Euro-American settlement, stockmen chose travel routes close to the river where lush meadows provided nutritious feed for their cattle and horses. As they headed down the Deschutes from the upper river grazing areas and headed northeast toward the county seat of Prineville, they bid “farewell” to the bend in the river at what is now Farewell Bend Park.
“He (John Y. Todd) made quite a place out of the Old Farewell Bend Ranch. He raised feed for the horses and milk tows, furnished hay for the teams and saddle horses, and kept a man on the ranch at all times. Smeltzer, the ranch’s caretaker, used to get up in the morning, light his fire, go the short distance to the Deschutes (river), catch enough trout for breakfast, and be back by the time the frying pan was hot.” John C. Todd, John Y. Tods’s son
John Sisemore purchased the ranch from Todd in 1881. Deciding there were enough people in the community to warrant a post office, he applied to Washington, D.C. Postal officials ruled the name the name “Farewell Bend” too long, so the official name became Bend. The post office was in Sisemore’s cabin in the vicinity of the present dam Old Mill Regal Cinemas.

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