In the course of putting together a presentation for the local historical society I came across an old map at the State Archives of a ranch that was bought out by the state in 1913 in anticipation of a reservoir inundating about 1200 acres of land. The reservoir didn’t work out (more on that later) and the ranch was abandoned, scavenged and surrendered back to the sagebrush.
To get an idea of where to snoop around for remains of the ranch structures I used “Photoshop” to overlay the 1913 map on a current aerial photo and then change the transparency of the map to fade it into the photo. For giggles I then exported screen shots throughout the fade-in and the used and the program “Windows Live Movie Maker” to make a fluid presentation rather than a series of photos.
Below is a portion of the 1913 Wimer Ranch survey followed by the current aerial photo from Google Earth. The aerial photo has the ranch area circled:
Link below is a 30 second video of a larger portion of the map fading away to reveal the aerial photo, and then back to 1913 again:
Wimer Ranch today
Photo Key
Photo 1- Remains of the Tumalo Post Office
Photo 2 - the ranch house was to the right of the truck, in the pines
Photo 3- faint remnant of Bull Creek irrigation ditch
Wimer Ranch today
I had often wondered where the Dead Letter Office was and I think you found it.
Wimer Ranch today
Indeed. Bull Flat, where letters and dreams come to die (more on that later).
Edit - but at least letters and dreams had a killer view while they snatched their rattling last breaths:
view from Wimer ranch vicinity
Wimer Ranch today
> view from Wimer ranch vicinity
Mike, I'm not sure I see that spot on your sketch. Is it to the right of where some drafter has indicated the mangled shape of a thing and labeled it as a "Truck" (presumably indicating the possible existence of a parking space per the ALTA/ACSM standards)?
The dam story
In 1913, the State, at the request of hundreds of settlers who had bought land from an irrigation company that could not deliver water (the company sold 10,000 acres of land with water rights, only had enough water to irrigate 1,000 acres), appropriated almost a half a million dollars to build a dam at Bull Flat together with miles and miles of canals to help the bilked homesteaders.
Tumalo Dam, an earthen dam with a concrete core wall, was built to create a 1,200 acre reservoir...
The work force consisted of 280 men, 430 horses-
9 surveyors-
… and one steam shovel
In December of 1914 the gates were closed and the flats began to fill. When the water depth reached 25 feet at the dam (the planned depth was to be 70 feet at the dam) sink holes began to appear in the flats. Big ones. 10 to 30 foot wide holes began to drain the reservoir. They tried to plug the fissures by setting off 50 lb. boxes of dynamite to no avail. After the fact it was found that Bull Flat was comprised of fractured basalt, they had failed to drill test holes in the flats during the design phase. The engineer in charge moved to Portland where he was given the job of City Engineer, became a state legislator and was respected and admired by all.
Needless to say it’s an interesting sight to see, this big ol’ dam impounding a sea of sagebrush:
Road Across dam, looking west:
Gate House on west side of dam:
Outlet flume for irrigation water - face of dam in background:
Gate house and reservoir side of dam:
Where the reservoir was supposed to be as seen looking southerly from gate house:
About 2 miles distant in this photo is the Wimer ranch site:
Wimer Ranch today
Exactly Kent - where the left handed surveyor using a right handed mouse operating the custom pen on the snipping tool scribbled rudimentary glyphs unrecognizable to most westerners, the blind, and the dead. It's really some of my best freehand work to date.
The dam story
> In 1913, the State, at the request of hundreds of settlers who had bought land from an irrigation company that could not deliver water (the company sold 10,000 acres of land with water rights, only had enough water to irrigate 1,000 acres), appropriated almost a half a million dollars to build a dam at Bull Flat together with miles and miles of canals to help the bilked homesteaders.
This is a recurring theme in the American West, the rubes who had been conned into buying lands in the expectation of something then figuring out that it wasn't going to happen. Were the rubes in this case unusually trusting or were the villains simply abnormally skilled? I mean, it sounds as if the State of Oregon spent a ton of money on building a dam without actually hiring a competent engineer. Is this just pretty much standard?
The dam story
> were the villains simply abnormally skilled?
Yes. The honcho villain, W.A. Laidlaw, pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars (1906 hundreds of thousands of dollars at that) and moved back to Portland leaving his irrigation company in shambles, causing the state to set a precedent in taking over a privately owned Carey Act irrigation project. Sure, the citizens of the town of Laidlaw got the satisfaction of (1) hanging W.A. in effigy, twice, from a telephone pole that didn't have any telephone lines on it because W.A. never brought in the promised service of his phone company and (2) renaming the town "Tumalo". That really showed him.
The dam story
> > were the villains simply abnormally skilled?
>
> Yes. The honcho villain, W.A. Laidlaw, pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars (1906 hundreds of thousands of dollars at that) and moved back to Portland leaving his irrigation company in shambles, causing the state to set a precedent in taking over a privately owned Carey Act irrigation project.
Would you say that this combination of notably rapacious swindlers and unusually gullible marks is a recurring theme in Oregon? Surely word must have gotten out. Where did Laidlaw come from, for example?
The dam story
Naw. It’s a universal reoccurring theme wherever you have a population eagerly seeking new opportunities. A frontier is awash with sincere hardworking people trying to seize what once seemed out of reach – free gold, cheap land, EZ terms mortgages, dot-com stock, tulip bulbs – and the chiselers, swindlers and bunko steerers are always at the corral gate cutting what they can out of the herd. If they’re as slick as Laidlaw, they sky up in the nick of time and only get hanged in effigy.
Mike,
That is really cool and the pics too. Thank You for posting.
Scott
interesting photo story
thank you
Mike
You should do this presentation at the next PLSO conference. Contact Paul Landau at David Evans and Assoc.
The dam story
Is this research for a surveying project, or just a hobby..?
Wimer Ranch today
Do you know what happened to the Wimer's, I ask because in 64 I spent about 5 weeks on a 9U D6 pulling two 5 bottom plows for the Wimer's, about halfway between Condon and Arlington, also worked on the Irby Ranch on Rock Creek, same area, that was where we were working cows when the Big Earth Quake in Alaska happened, those cows were hard to handle that day, they usually were well behaved, found out that night what had happened thousands of miles away, knew then why those cows were jumpy. Went to Alaska on a troller the next year, was properly impressed with the leavings of tidal waves.
jud
> Mike
> You should do this presentation at the next PLSO conference. Contact Paul Landau at David Evans and Assoc.
Mike, I echo Johns sentiments. Sort of as we have discussed previously about getting you in to do some type of class next year. I will respond too our previous emails and cc Paul as he is doing most of the initial speaker coordination.
John, Paul can chime in here as well, but he is now retired DEA since last year.:-D
Wimer Ranch today
No north arrow? Not even a stick figure north arrow?
Wimer Ranch today
Jud,
This Wimer, George Washington Wimer, apparently moved to Central Point to live out his final years. His Obit said he was mainly engaged in "milling and mining". However, he was one of 11 siblings and he had 12 kids, most of whom survived to adulthood. A lot of them died in the Salem area and I can't really blame them for that, having just been over there last week.
I'd bet odds are your Wimers were related to this group.
Wimer Ranch today
No Dave, everyone knows north is always to the top of the page, right? And besides, I didn’t want to put a north arrow on it fearing that it could distract the viewer of the map to the point that he or she forgets their name. Then said amnesia stricken surveyors couldn’t log in ever again to beerleg and we’d get no more Lucinda Williams concert updates and that would be a shame.
