Wall Street, Bend Oregon - May 7, 1911:
(building behind car on far left is the NP Smith Bulding)
Wall Street, Bend Oregon - May 7, 2011:
(building behind truck on far left is the NP Smith Bulding)
(all the others from 1911 burnt down)
Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of the opening of the road between Bend, Oregon and Burns, Oregon which is 130 miles to the east in the high desert. This was a much ballyhooed event at the time. The railroad was just months away from getting to Bend from the north, and the Bend-Burns Road promised to open up the interior of this section of Oregon to the Portland markets.
The 1911 road (officially the "H.B. Ford Road) was used until the late 1920s when ODOT relocated and straigtened the higway. Not much has changed on the old road.
The trip in 1911 from Bend to Burns was comprised of 35 prominent Bend citizens driving in 7 cars. It took them 11 hours. This go round only 2 trucks and 4 local no-accounts covered a portion of the old road in Deschutes County. We were armed with the old 1911 survey notes, a 1915 driving atlas, old photos and journal accounts about travel twixt Bend and Burns, homestead records, cameras, hand held GPS units, Walkie talkies, smoked oysters, Tabasco sauce, pumpernickel bread, and beverages.
We didn’t find any of the old road mile stones, but we didn’t search too hard because we encountered a lot of real fun distractions (and dead ends). We did find a few bench marks from a 1920 level run, which helped confirm that the dirt track we were driving on was indeed the old road.
The Oregon high desert is a wild, lonesome place and photos do a better job of telling the story:
Looks like a fun trip, I would have cut back on the crowd who went with you down to about one or none. Good photos.
jud
Thanks Jud. I can well imagine there’s a bunch of country like this up in your area…
probably less visited and more pristine than what we toured through. Like you, I prefer to visit the big lonesome on solitary trips. So do the guys I went with. I feel fortunate taking this trip with John F., Ted H. and John K. It was like touring with a couple sets of encyclopedias. Ted, 70, moved to the area in the early 1960s and was friends with old loggers, foresters, buckaroos, and local characters who grew up in these areas in the early 1900s. Same with John F., 69. He became friends with old pioneers when he came here in the mid 1960s and would take tours with old guys who used to homestead, drive stages, tend shop. John K., 57, and I (at 54, the child of the group) are hopefully bridging the next generation and keeping alive the facts and stories of our crumbling local history.
The two Johns found this along the route:
Great Post Mike.
We have out-back Bashes which are fundraisers where groups go on organized "drive' for a week on old roads and tracks and remote towns and homesteads.
Nothing like visiting the desert.
RADU
BTW
Mike change subject ... your daughter must be nearly finished school?
Is the OZ shop still operating ?
Great Post Mike.
G'day Richard. Allie is in 8th grade, which would be, by my calculations, 2.4384th grade in metric countries like Australia. She has 4 more years (1.12192 metric years) until she is out of public school and off to college (metric "university"). She's doing great thanks. Sadly, the OZtrailia store is out of business. Along with a lot of others in this town.
Mike,
What a great trip! Thanks for sharing.
Dan
Mike, nice!
I need to go with you on once of these forays! Some folks hate the drive out to Burns, say it is boring, one of the more enjoyable rides for me, the high desert rocks!
SHG
Woe betide the poor soul who steps out the front door of the second-story quarters of the Patterson Drug Company building. The second-story occupant of the building to the right appears already to have learned that lesson and opted not to repeat it.
