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Wednesday, February 1, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
DORROpSOKOL:pp
Sisters icon had
ranching in her blood
Continued from page 1
cattleranching on her 320
acres, but soon learned that
the former mint farm was
“not a good environment for
raising cattle.” There was no
protection from the chill and
winds. Winds leveled one of
her hay barns and 39 pine
trees in two different storms.
So, Sokol revamped the ranch
to grow hay. Near the turn of
this century, she converted 70
acres within the urban growth
boundary into Pine Meadow
Village.
Sokol began herding
horses on her Shetland pony
at the age of 4 on her fam-
ily’s ranch in San Paula,
California, east of Santa
Barbara. She graduated from
Stanford University with a
degree in physical therapy,
working in that career while
her husband, Don, matricu-
lated Stanford Law School.
The couple had ranching
in their blood, so they moved
a young family to the his-
toric Oxbow Ranch in Prairie
City, Oregon, where their
four children learned to herd
cattle on Shetland ponies,
descendents of their mother’s
ponies. They had 2,000 cat-
tle on 16,000 deeded acres,
and 140,000 total acres with
leases of public lands.
Every summer, they
herded cattle 20 miles
to summer range. In one
roundup, their driver, who
was assigned to haul the rid-
ers and horses home, “didn’t
show up. He got lost. We
spent 21 hours in the saddle
that day, riding all the way
home.”
Her physical therapy
degree came in handy on
the cattle ranch, where she
applied that knowledge in
inventing a splint for new-
born calves that had hip
dysplasia.
”I used Coke bottles as
splints,” she said, “traction-
ing the hind legs into a stretch
that helped them stand and
nurse. Otherwise, they’d have
died.”
She proudly stated that
this is a standard of veterinary
medicine today, with casting
replacing Coke bottles.
While she raised four chil-
dren (Eva, Doug, Cris and
Mary), Sokol also herded
and branded cattle, vacci-
nated, pulled calves and did
C-section deliveries along
with haying.
Her husband was a pilot,
having served in the Army
Air Corps. When the Sokols
decided to move to the
Oxbow, an airplane made the
civilized world accessible. If
they were going to be in an
airplane, she told him, she
wanted to know how to get
PHOTO PROVIDED
Dorro Sokol.
The decision to
buy some land and
relocate here with
20 cows was easy.
— Dorro Sokol
it down, so she earned her
pilot’s license, too.
The family flew to Bend
for medical and dental ser-
vices and to shop in Wetles
Clothing Store in downtown
Bend. When Mt. Bachelor Ski
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old, they began flying the
kids there to ski. They flew to
Baja, “where there wasn’t yet
a road,” to Canada, and even
the Bahamas. They traveled
all over the West.
She spoke fondly of the
airplanes she has owned:
a Comanche, a Travel Air,
and her prize, a Beechcraft
twin-engine Bonanza, which
is now in an air museum in
Nampa, Idaho. She flew her
plane for the last time when
she was 85 years old.
Sokol’s passion for avia-
tion never dimmed. Just
weeks ago, she made a
$10,000 donation to the
Sisters Schools Foundation
for the purpose of promoting
women in the Sisters High
School Outlaw Aviation
program.
Cris Converse said that
she met with Benny and
Julie Benson of Sisters Eagle
Airport in the last weeks of
her life to talk about the avia-
tion program and other flight-
related matters. Sokol knew
her time was short, and her
thoughts were in the skies
above Sisters.
“She said she’d be up
there flying soon,” Converse
recalled.
Dorro purchased the acre-
age in Sisters after her first
marriage ended.
“I had been friends with
Dorothy and Harold Barclay
for many years, a friendship
that developed because we
were all pilots,” she recalled.
“My daughter, Eva, stayed
with the Barclays during
Sisters Rodeo, when she
was the Grant County Rodeo
Queen. The decision to buy
some land and relocate here
with 20 cows was easy.”
It fit her ranching life.
“I’ve never wanted to
live in a town,” she said. “I
like ranching and everything
about that life.”
Sokol became a member
of Women’s Oregon Trail
Riders in the late 1960s, rid-
ing all over Oregon and in
Idaho, Montana, Nevada and
Northern California. She rode
PHOTO PROVIDED
Dorro Sokol and some of her family enjoying the Sisters Rodeo.
the last time with that group
in her late 70s.
“I quit riding and began
hiking,” she said. “I didn’t
want to haul long distances or
ride someone else’s horse.”
In Sisters, she served
on the Sisters Planning
Commission for 10 years
as the out-of-town commis-
sioner. She was also a mem-
ber of Bend Rotary Club,
until she became a charter
member of Sisters Rotary
Club in 1990. She served as
Sisters Rotary president in
2001-2002.
Sokol was a dedicated
sponsor of the High Desert
Museum, Sisters Folk
Festival, Sisters Rotary,
Deschutes River Conservancy
and the Oregon Community
Foundation. Her history with
Sisters Rodeo began at the
original site of the rodeo,
which was where Hoyt’s
Hardware is now located.
Most folks who have been
in Sisters for a while have at
least one Dorro Sokol story.
Her drive, frankness, and
fiery personality were an
example and inspiration to
many people.
“When she walked into
a room, she commanded it,”
said one longtime Sisters
resident.
The remembrances of her
mother from longtime Sisters
residents have been a bless-
ing for Cris.
“The things people are
saying are so special,” she
said.
Despite declining health,
Dorro remained as active as
she could.
“Just before the snow, she
was riding her Polaris (ATV)
with her dog,” Converse said.
Pine Meadow Ranch was
a special place to Sokol, and
she enjoyed sharing it. Many
Sisters kids were invited over
to swim in her pool.
Even as the sun set on her
long and eclectic life, she
looked out from her sunroom
over the ranch and told her
daughter Cris:
“All I ever wanted in life
was to have a ranch and to
live with mountains and a
ranch. And I got it. I’ve been
lucky my whole life. This is
the most beautiful place in
the world.”
Cris noted that to the very
end, Sisters and Pine Meadow
Ranch meant the world to her
mother.
“She never took it for
granted. She was grateful for
it every single day.”
A celebration of Dorro
Sokol’s life will be held
some time this summer.
Contributions in her name
may be made to Outlaw
Aviation through the
Sisters Schools Foundation:
http://www.sisters.k12.
or.us/pages/Sisters_SD/
Sisters_Schools_Foundation.
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