CROOK COUNTY JOURNAL'S ANNUAL NUMBER.
3
the county in the spring of 1883. The
amount of taxable property at that time
on the assessment roll was $1,2(13,000. The
first term of Circuit Court was held in
May, 1883, with A. S. Bennett as presiding
judge and T. A. McBride district attorney.
Beginning with the creation of the new
county began a more permanent settlement.
New settlers came into the county, and
took up valuable claims along the many
streams running into the Deschutes and
Crooked rivers. Substantial buildings and
houses were erected, and the agricultural
and stock industries were rapidly in
creased. An unusual degree of prosperity
prevailed, and as taxes were low and the
farming and stock business profitable.
Crook County soon became one of the
wealthiest according to population in the
state. Cattle, which had been at a low
figure for years, rose to a fancy price, and
many a cattleman who had been strug
gling in the business for so long awoke to
find himself wealthy.
In the general election of 1884 the fol
lowing county officers were chosen: County
judge, F. A. McDonald; county clerk, A.
C. Palmer; sheriff, J. M. Blakely; county
commissioners, J. H. Garrett and G. L.
Frizzell; assessor, M. D. Powell; treasurer,
J. T. Bushnell; surveyor, W. R. McFar
land; school superintendent, D. W. Al
dridge; coroner, J. R. Sites. McDonald
was appointed register of the U. S. land
office at The Dalles in 1885, and Charles
A. Van Houten was appointed as his suc
cessor in the office of county judge.
In the fall of 1885 the County Court let
the contract for building a courthouse to
II. A. Belknap, for $5474, under which con
tract the building was completed in Feb
ruary, 1 886.
The legislature of 1885 detached the
Beaver Creek country from Grant County
and made it a part of Crook County.
Beaver proved to be a very valuable ad
dition, as it is one of the wealthiest por
tions of the county, and added a large
amount of taxable property.
A very heavy blow to Crook County was
fxfeft h&j&$ t KMmmurii " cttsl
j
MINING RESERVOIR AT HEAD OF OCHOCO CREEK.
the severe winter of 1SS4-5. Cattle, horses
and sheep perished by the thousands, from
lack of food and shelter, in the drifting
snows, and the financial losses of the
stockmen were enormous.
This short sketch is but a brief review
of the early settlement and development
of Crook County, embracing the period
from 18115 to the formation of the county.
The thought that naturally comes to the
reader is one of admiration for the energy
and courage of the men who peopled Crook
County from 1 865 to 1880. The men who
came here in the late '60s and early '70s
were .men of deliberate, serious purpose to
do their level best by hard work, and grow
up with the country. It was not a passion
for a wild life in a new country, but an
honest, intelligent purpose to build up the
country by their industry and devotion to
business.
What the future has in store for Crook
County only the future can disclose, but
that it is something far beyond anything
heretofore witnessed in its history, no one
can doubt, and there are none who do not
welcome the bright prospect with hearty
gratification.
Topography and Climate.
Crook County, lying in the geographical
center of the state of Oregon, contains, in
round numbers, seven thousand square
miles, exclusive of the Warm Springs In
dian reservation in the extreme north
western part of the county, and the Cas
cade mountains timber reservation, lopping
off a slice of its western border. It oc
cupies a place in the western part of the ele
vated plateau, between the Blue mountains
on the east and the Cascade mountains on
the west. I hope those who have never had
the pleasure and pains of traveling "ye
wild West" will not construe 'plaetau" as
a level, far-reaching plain, for it is super
latively the reverse from level, although
there are level stretches, as we shall see
later on, but high rolling hills, big moun
tains, grandly immense, most of which are
clad in evergreen conifers, and precipitous,
perpendicar, and sometimes over-hanging
rim-rocks "over most of the country are,"
as Joaquin Miller would express it.
Prineville, the capital of the county, is
near the center of the county, and holds
down a portion of the Crooked river and
Ochoco Creek bottoms, which are nearly
level and about two thousand and six hun
dred feet above the sea. Rich, narrow,
alluvial valleys extend four directions from
the town. These valleys carry more or less
of alkali, but produce immense crops of
rye, wheat, oats, barley, alfalfa and the
hardier vegetables, when properly irri
gated. To the northwest from Prineville, for
ten miles there is a stretch of semi-desert,
about five miles wide on an average, com
paratively level, soil classed second-rate;
it is raised from 30 to 150 feet above the
creel' and river bottoms. The soil is large
ly mineral and very productive when irri
gated, and the longer it is cultivated the
better it becomes. There are but few
claims taken in this stretch, sage brush
and the omnipresent road section hold the
most of it.
To the north of this Grizzly butte, a spur
of timbered mountains pushing westward,
rises near two thousand feet above the
country around it. To the west of this
butte is the Haystack country, near three
hundred square miles of good farming land,
soil No. 1, but the want of water bars set
tlement, except near the hills, where
springs are plentiful. To the north of
Grizzly butte, Willow Creek, valley, about
forty square miles, is a rolling, excellent
farming country. Although some three
thousand feet above the sea, cereals of
all kinds grow and ripen to perfection. This
region has been the best grain section of
the county, but the Haystack country now
claims the honor. All through the north
ern portion of the county there are deep
gorges, with sometimes small rich spots
of bottom land. When clear, or cleared of
stones for stones here are like sin, found
everywhere produce the finest apples,
peaches, pears, plums, prunes, melons, to
matoes, etc.
Passing on northward over rolling
bunch grass hills, Hay Creek next attracts
the view. There in the widening bottom
lands of Hay Creek and its tributaries the
B. S. & L. Co. have a vast expanse of
alfalfa fields, the hay piled in numerous
ricks and barns to insure the wintering of
their stock that graze on a thousand hills.
Hay Creek is a lower country than Prine
ville, six to eight hundred feet.
Northward from Hay Creek, over a series
of hills eight miles, Lower Hay Creek and
part of Lower Trout Creek comes in view.
This being lower, rolls in its wealth of
alfalfa, vegetables and fruit. Here we are
near the north boundary line of our
county. Thence eastward up Trout Creek
seven miles the creek emerges from a huge
gorge, or crack in mother earth, perpen
dicular at times, rock bound, rock tumbled,
impassable to man or beast, for eight or
nine miles Trout Creek boils and bubbles;
then Upper Trout opens out, the valley ex
tending southeasterly ten miles will not
average over one-quarter of a mile wide,
produces grain, alfalfa, fruits, berries and