LEARNING
Redmond history
Spokesman file photo
Downtown parade for Redmond High School “kickoff day’ to celebrate the first game of the season, in mid 1960s.
I
rrigation and iron rails brought settlers to the
Redmond area in the early years of the 20th century —
first as speculators that water and the railroad would
arrive, and later as farmers and entrepreneurs drawn by
their existence.
One family enticed by the prospects was Frank and
Josephine Redmond, two North Dakota schoolteachers
who, with their daughter Lucile, moved to Central Oregon
in 1904.
At the suggestion of then Deschutes Irrigation and Power
Co. officials, the family pitched their tent next to the right
of way for the company’s under-construction irrigation
canal and near a projected rail line, on land just northeast
of today’s downtown.
A couple of years later, water began flowing through the
canal, a town site was platted and Col. W.A. Belcher began
selling real estate from what is now the heart of downtown
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— SW Sixth Street and Evergreen Avenue.
By July 6, 1910, the little community boasted 216
residents and became an incorporated city. The much-
anticipated railroad came through town in 1911, assuring
the town’s commercial viability.
Equipped with the basics for development — irrigation
water, the railroad and the dirt roads that later would
become U.S. Highways 97 and 126 — the High Desert
community grew in fits and starts over the decades.
In its history, Redmond has been a potato production
and shipping center, a hub for turkey raising and home
to several wood product mills. Today, resorts in the area
draw tourists and an abundance of industrial land has
lured a variety of businesses, big and small. Foresight by
early residents made Redmond home to Central Oregon’s
regional airport and the Deschutes County Fair, as well as
a modern fair and exposition center.