Though there were no Basques in Weiser, we knew that many had settled near Jordan Valley in farthest southeast Oregon and that if you happened to be traveling down Highway 97 to Winnemucca, Nevada you should stop at the Basque Inn for some great food. A two-story section was added in 1865 with the help of cavalry troops that had been moved into the area to provide security. Without a lecture there had resulted a moment of understanding. The name of the river is from the older spelling of "Hawaii. We settled for viewing the ranch house from the rim through a spotting scope before heading back to see rancher-historian Mike Hanley. When Silas Skinner, builder of the Skinner Toll Road between Silver City and the Owyhee River at Rome, and David Shirk were inspecting the road and stayed at the vacant house, and the two of them were able to fend off a party of Indians who attacked them in the night. Still I was able to make the trek in about an hour and a half and little shade. George Palmer mentions a Nanny Franks (aka Nanny Maupin) who lived near Dry Creek Butte, which, according to George,  “some old plug” renamed Nanny’s Nipple.”  The butte retained that name and is visible from the Twin Springs campground. The goal of a “landscape history” is what brought me to the Owyhee. Though Owyhee Canyon was in the background throughout my youth, curiously I did not visit it until I retired in 2003. Some months ago while wandering through the basement stacks of the Portland State University library, I came upon a journal that was unknown to me–Plains Anthropologist. The Bureau of Reclamation bought out those who had deeded land. Posted on 01/24/2017 at 05:07 PM in Current Affairs, Life in the Owyhee, Owyhee history, Protection for the Owyhee: pro & con, Ranching | Permalink I momentarily considered turning around again, but I was in need of a beer, so I continued on back. The following couple of years were spent in fitful ruminating over possible ways of getting to Watson short of walking or borrowing an ATV. In his final weeks in office, he designated several outstanding landscapes and historical sites as national monuments. A few years ago at the UO Environmental Law Conference, I was chatting with someone from Western Watersheds Project and happened to mention the name of Mike Hanley, a Jordan Valley rancher-historian and leader of the 1970’s Sagebrush Rebellion. NB:  Because the Sheep Ranch Fort is on private property, permission is required to visit it. The past week we have been in Bayonne, capital of Pays Basque, the French share of the Basque country. The visit with Karen was short–less that 24 hours. As I made my way through the brush along the downstream end of the island, I spied the top of a wooden waterwheel. He was noted for his singing voice and his version of “A Little White Duck” that he was called upon to perform. Agenboard believes the walls were originally about four feet high. There are persons who though resolutely supporting one side, do try to see the other position and do evince respect for those holding it. I don't know." The ranch site was visible from a distance, though without a decent map, GPS or binoculars I found it difficult to be certain. Agenboard described a number of cultural (i.e., man made) features that he interpreted as part of a buffalo jump complex, including stone piles, fences, breastworks, stone circles, and drive lanes. We decided to take both our rigs lest one had a breakdown. We headed out one overcast Sunday. No doubt those who are bent on proving that the Chinese first discovered North America would be delighted with such “evidence.”, Although Dr. Agenbroad recognized that the jumps may have been used for hunting other animals as well, namely pronghorn, he declared it “a monument to the initiative, ingenuity, foresight, and success of prehistoric settlers….”  He also deemed the hunting complex “an extension of the known range of the bison in western America.”  That assertion was made forty years ago, and I confess I don’t know what has since been found to prove or disprove it. Finding Wickahoney wasn’t particularly challenging. I backed up into my grandmother, alarmed. It is quite probable that the name which this county bears was given to the river of the same name by a party of French trappers attached to this old trading post [i.e., Fort Boise]. The trip offered a striking lesson in cartographical stubbornness. Due to this the river and its region were named "Owyhee. The drive to Jordan Valley was smooth and the passing landscape was still surprisingly green. Miller and Janet lived at Red Butte, just downstream from the cemetery, and judging from census records, had five children–three boys and two girls. Shipping rates were fifteen cents per hundred pounds. It had been a year and a half since since I had taken my kayak out, and I was waiting for muscular reaction to force me to break out the ibuprofen. I spent the first three years of my life in Ontario, and my brother was born there. Koldo knew his story well. But the Owyhee Canyonlands didn’t make the cut. This surely was a disappointment to those hoping the impasse over protection for the Owyhee would be broken with an executive order under the authority of the Antiquities Act. As we were chatting, he surprised me with the revelation that one of the people he most enjoyed chatting with is Western Watersheds Project founder Jon Marvel, someone who is anathema to most ranchers. On the fourth morning, we drove from Hart into Burns for a motel stay and to do some grocery shopping for our stay in the Owyhee. There is an additional dichotomy between the river and the reservoir beginning at about Leslie Gulch , which is embodied in float craft (rafts and kayaks) on the river and power boats on the … I find it interesting and sometimes puzzling that people who led such a hard life were not anxious to give it up and look for something “better.”  To the contrary, they and their descendants have found it a source of pride and are rightly offended by those who view them with disdain. It then enters southwestern Idaho, flowing northwest for approximately 50 miles (80 km) across the southwest corner of the state through Owyhee County. Appropriately it was dated on my daughter’s birthday, just a little over a year before mom’s passing. A couple of weeks ago, Oregon Public Broadcasting. I drove to the Birch Creek ranch and parked at the north end of the alfalfa field. Hazel R. Fretwell-Johnson, In Times Past. At that time, she was one of only two local students who went all the way through. In 1984, Congress designated 120 miles (193 km) of the Owyhee, beginning at the Idaho-O… Off the highway, we followed an improved gravel road until Glenn told me to stop. But at the same time one has to be careful about lumping them together with the Catalonian independenistas. The Owyhee River Journals. "[6], About one-third of the men with Donald MacKenzie's Snake Country Expeditions of 1819–20 were Hawaiians, commonly called "Kanakas" or "Sandwich Islanders" in those days, with "Owyhee" being a standard period spelling of the proper Hawaiian language name for the islands, hawai'i, which then was otherwise unused in English. But the east channel was now barely visible. It had been a stage stop between Mountain Home, Idaho and Mountain City, Nevada; it still warranted inclusion on road signs. There was some regret on my part, since I slept best when I slept on my ground pad. They usually can also be found on historical maps and sometimes are even designated with the names of the towns or forts they once connected. This, perhaps, is because the notion is too vague or–like “ranching culture”–too easily dismissed. More than the writer realized. There were students at school with Basque surnames whose jet black hair and onyx eyes made them stand out. Lake Owyhee is actually a 53-mile long reservoir resulting from the Owyhee River dam. Mattingly Waterwheel Downstream from Island Ranch. It seems funny to me how so many people that my grandfather knew, such as his grandma, seemed so ancient and long dead to me. Hugh had milk cows and shipped the cream out by stage, and he played fiddle for the local dances. But this is not the failing of one side. Especially fascinating was the tour she and son Glenn took me on of the Jordan Creek irrigation district with its diversion dam and the remnants of a bridge that had been built to move sheep across the creek. Stacy Peterson, “Silas Skinner’s Owyhee Toll road,”, Sources for the economic ramifications of Wilderness designation, LTE's, Articles and Links (updated 2/21/18). The main tributary of the South Fork is the Little Owyhee River.[9]. On the right are links to chapters of a work in progress, "Life in the Early Owyhee," as well as other notes and jottings on places, people, sources and miscellany. My family's connection with the Malheur country extends back many years. The mixture of peoples who settled here adds significance to that knowledge. A few sent their kids to Ontario, where there was a high school. Sofie’s reaction to Jordan Valley was gratifying; helping the girls understand and appreciate the life and people of rural Oregon had been my motive in putting the trip together. | MacArthur’s suggestion that “mal heur is ‘bad hour,’ an idiom for misfortune used by the French-Canadian hunters after they discovered their cache had been rifled, is simply incorrect. Although the bill made it through the house, it died in the senate. At ninety-eight, she is still sharp and engaging. A few years later, Pascual bought his cousin out, and his family occupied the old building until 1959, when they moved into new houses across the road. The girls were ecstatic. Near the north rim, stone rings were easily found and may have been tipi rings. I didn’t know why it meant so much to my grandfather. I was particularly interested in the Griffith because when they were first married, Conley and Stacia leased it from Jesse Griffith, who had moved to Hermiston, and lived there for three years. Besides being a way station, the building was also intended as protection from hostile Indians. It was a fifteen-minute tramp to the top. Sofie and Theresa grabbed the bed, and Lara slept in an arm chair. Sofie continues: “The next day we (unfortunately) had to wake up just as early. She began working on it that night. The day we visited, Silver City was the destination of hordes of ATVs and Mormon crickets. The grove of locust trees was a sure indication of a homestead, but I could see no buildings. That in turn gives rise to guilt feelings, since studies have suggested that social interaction can improve cognitive function and increase brain volume, which has been correlated with a reduced risk of dementia. We arrived on Saturday. Hawaii was later adopted. But, they saw this open meadow and they landed in the meadow. In the fourth grade Danny Aligazabo (not sure about the spelling) joined our school a grade ahead of me. Hazel’s parents weren’t aware they’d seen anything untoward. (Courtesy Tim Davis). As the owner of the RV park where we stayed those first few nights, his house was right across from where we parked our trailer. Nothing remains of the original Fort Warner, though treasure hunters with metal detectors have occasionally (and illegally) recovered cartridges and brass uniform decorations there. There were only four. Nothing. There was (and still is) a Basque Cultural Center in Boise, and once a year or so young Basques would dress in white with red scarves and berets and dance at a Basque festival. My grandfather became an owner of the Moore Hotel in the 1920s. By sunset we found a flat area not far from our destination where we decided to camp and grill up some of the ground beef Elias Eiguren had given us for the trip. Marcel suggested I talk with the town archivist and placed a call. Comments (0). Her son Glenn, owner of the Oxbow Trailer Park where I had my travel trailer, introduced me. These images are of the Owyhee Hotel stained glass dome. Through these formations, the Owyhee River runs—a highly coveted journey in the diaries of whitewater enthusiasts. After trying to explain who I was and what I wanted, she handed me the phone, and we agreed to meet that afternoon at a quayside bar. Some of this has been corrected by citizen inventories as well as the BLM’s own surveys. That letter contained much I had heard as a child but even more that was new to me. I had a great experience at Elias’ ranch, seeing what it was like to ride Western. But Jordan Valley residents didn’t come from Hill Billy country. The response was “I’m sick and tired of hearing Mike Hanley talk about preserving ranching culture and the history all the time.”  Then, just a few months ago I heard a former board member of another organization actively pushing protection disdainfully make virtually the same comment. Gaiser spent some time in the Jordan Valley area conducting interviews, but he identifies few of his informants and he is no longer alive. As we left Jordan Valley, D&B became the object of their repeated query “Are we there yet?”  When we did finally make it they got complete outfits. Way stations were located about ten to fifteen miles or a day’s travel apart. The Owyhee River is about an hour and a half away from our Boise Fly Shop – located in the town of Eagle, Idaho. Monday was Labor Day, though aside from a few scattered American flags, there was little to suggest that it wasn’t just another day in Jordan Valley. This was made necessary by our desire for fresh vegetables and limited space for carrying comestibles generally. About twenty feet away, Tim leaned against his Suburban laughing. Google Earth just doesn’t show much, and I had to remind myself that prior to the dam it was probably just a grassy knoll among many others now lying beneath the water. The full trip took about an hour and a half. Elias asked. I don’t think they were expecting the lesson they got; be careful what you ask a retired academic and public affairs officer! And it’s a long walk back.”  (Why does Toyota tout the 4 Runner for back-country exploration and equip it with tires and a jack for macadam?) Images common to both reminded me of those found elsewhere that have been identified as supernova. "They'd eat something else." What would they do then?" Elias replied. Not having brought water shoes, I left my boots on because of the rocky bottom. The first grave I came to was that of Josephene Shaver (11/17/1851-3/12/1916). I’m certain that this underlying difference in lifestyle and values contributes to the difficulty of finding common ground with others over what it means to “protect” the Owyhee Canyonlands. The blog was in Spanish, but I was becoming proficient with my dictionary, and my cerebral memory banks were beginning to recover some of what Mr. Trigueiro had input there decades ago. 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