Central Oregon: Adaptation & Compromise in an Arid Landscape Central Oregon is known primarily as an outdoor recreation center but beneath its regional playground surface it possesses a vital history. Its past, while sharing characteristics with the rest of the state and nation, is also unique. Central Oregon's is a history of adaptation and compromise in an area that offered great promise and few resources. Author Paul G. Claeyssens is currently the Heritage and Tribal Relations Program Manager for the Deschutes and Ochoco national forests. Author Ward Tonsfeldt is involved with a resource management consulting business in Bend."> compiled by Ward Tonsfeldt and Paul G. Claeyssens

Finding Central Oregon Central Oregon is defined as that part of the state drained by the Deschutes River and its tributaries, an area characterized by sparse rainfall, a short growing season, and a small population in both prehistoric and historic times. Select Topics Uneasy Settlement Circa 1905 The Lay of the Land Central Oregon Climate Central Oregon Prehistory People have inhabited central Oregon for the past 11,500 years. Since the eruption of Mt. Mazama more than 7,000 years ago, Native American people have regularly visited the southern part of the region and have lived on a more continuous basis in the northern part where the vegetation and the climate were more favorable. For the past 2,000 years, Tenino/Tygh people have lived on the Columbia and in the Tygh Valley while Northern Paiutes and Mollala/Klamath and Modoc groups visited the upper portions of the Deschutes drainage.  Select Topics Holocene Environment Middle Archaic Period Late Archaic Period Contact Period: 1800-1870 Native groups had been in contact with Europeans on the Oregon coast for several generations prior to Euro-American settlement. British fur traders reached central Oregon in the 1820s passing through on their trapping expeditions. In the 1840s, emigrant parties passed through on their way to the Willamette Valley. With the Treaty of 1855 the federal government relocated the  tribes of “middle Oregon” from their traditional home on the Columbia to the Warm Springs Reservation. Soon after, Euro Americans initiated settlement in the Crooked River Valley. Select Topics Explorers & Fur Traders Euro-American Immigrants Treaty with the Tribes of Middle Or... After the Treaty Wars with the Northern Paiute Pre-Industrial Period: 1870-1910 Central Oregon was one of the most isolated of places in the U.S. in the 1870s. The first Euro-American settlers and the re-located tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation tried stock ranching and dry-farming with limited success. Small communities formed Warm Springs, Prineville, Shaniko, Farewell Bend, Harper, and other locations. Select Topics First Impressions Initial Settlement: Raising Stock Large Ranches Sheep Ranching End of the Open Range Dry Farming Survival on the High Desert Irrigation Irrigation Projects Pre-Industrial Communities: Prinevi... Pre-Industrial Communities: Redmond Pre-Industrial Communities: Madras Pre-Industrial Arts and Culture Industrial Period: 1910-1970 The Oregon Trunk Railroad connected central Oregon with the outer world in 1911. Soon after, lumber companies built mills to process the harvesting of the region’s pine forests. By the end of the 1930s, virtually every community in central Oregon participated in the lumber economy. Bend, Prineville, Warm Springs, Redmond, Gilchrist, and Sisters all had mills. Employment in the mills meant steady employment for most families with the added benefit of insurance and pensions from the union or the employer. Select Topics New Times, New People Industrial Communities Railroads into Central Oregon Railroads up the Deschutes Canyon Lumber Follows the Rails Central Oregon Pine Timber The Big Mills Land for Logging The Shevlin-Hixon Lumber Company Logging by Rail Smaller Industrial-Scale Mills Depression and the 1930s Last Years of the Depression Prineville Blooms Hudspeth and Gilchrist World War II and the 1940s Industrial Period Communities Workers' Paradise in the Pines Industrial Arts & Culture, 1915-196... Post-Industrial Years: 1970-Present Select Topics Transition in the 1950s Tourism and Recreation Winter Sports Post-Industrial Enterprises Communities in the Post-Industrial ... Demographics Post-Industrial Arts & Culture Conclusion Biographies & Bibliography A word about the authors and a list of publications and resources that reference the central Oregon region. Select Topics Author Biographies Central Oregon Bibliography: Unpubl... Central Oregon Bibliography: Period... Central Oregon Bibliography: Publis...