The David L. Shirk Ranch is a historic farm located in the eastern Guano Valley of Lake County, Oregon, USA. The farm was originally planted in 1881. It was purchased by David L. Shirk in 1883. He operated the farm until 1914. The property was acquired by the United States Government in 1942. The farm is now administered by the Land Management Bureau. The remaining historic ranch buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Shirk Ranch is located in the Land Management Bureau property in the remote Guano Valley in southeastern Oregon. The ranch complex is in the Oregon desert, just south of Mount Hart's Antelope National Park in the northwest corner of the Great Basin region of North America. Indigenous people inhabited the area at least 10,000 years before the arrival of European explorers. North Paiutes occupy the area before the arrival of European settlers. They have adapted to the high desert environments by living in dispersed and often moving groups to take advantage of the seasons' lakes and the migration of game animals.
In the first half of the 19th century, the area around Shirk Ranch was explored by trappers and several military expeditions. In 1865, the United States Army built the Old Camp Warner on the southeast slope of Mount Hart along the Guano River. However, the post was abandoned within a year. A few years later, the Oregon Central Military Wagon Road was built through the Guano Valley on the way from Eugene, Oregon to Silver City, Idaho. However, the effort was really a fraud intended to gain government land rather than making a decent road. As a result, the "road" is never more than a desert path. There were no permanent settlements in the area until a decade later when breeders began exploiting an open range in southeastern Oregon for shepherding.
The Shirk Ranch property was initially occupied by R.A. Turner around 1881 and then sold to William Herron. Syirk bought a farm from Herron in 1883. When Syirk bought the land, there were three buildings on the property, a house and two warehouses. There is no record of the size of the property when Syirk bought it, but the local tax records show the farm was 480 hectares in 1887.
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David Shirk
David L. Shirk was born in Parke County, Indiana in 1844. He is the oldest of nine children. He left home at the age of 22 to travel west. He spent several years working as a cowboy on a cattle drive from Texas to southern Idaho. His younger brother William joined him in 1874, and together they moved to Oregon. They both made land claims in the Catlow Valley in what is now Harney County, Oregon.
Later, the brothers obtained land in the adjacent Guano Valley, about 50 miles west of their Catlow Valley farm. They use the Guano Valley ranch to raise horses, while their main Catlow Valley farm is a livestock operation. They are quite successful in their livestock business so that their farms become a social center for the local livestock community. Finally, a post office opened on their Catlow Valley farm. The Syirk post office was transferred to their Guano Lake plantation in 1903, where it continued until 1905.
The Catlow Valley was the scene of a number of Indian attacks during the Bannock War of 1878. Both Shirk brothers were involved in defending their farms. In one incident, William Shirk and two teams were ambushed. Both his friends were killed and the Indians chased Shirik for a few miles before surrendering.
The Shirk brothers eventually gained about 50,000 acres (200 km 2 ), controlling most of the water in the Catlow Valley. This is quite controversial because the extensive P Ranch owned by the Peter Francis baron extends south to Catlow Valley as well. As a result, the Shirks had to compete with the French for grazing and waterlands in the Catlow Valley. During a small battle over land claims in 1889, David Shirk shot and killed one of the French employees. Shirk was put on trial for murder and released.
After the trial, Syirk moves his home farm west from Catlow Valley to the Guano Valley property, perhaps to help avoid conflict with France and its employees. By 1899, Syirk had increased its Guano Valley package to 1,080 hectares (4.4 km 2 ). In 1914, Shirik sold his farm land to pursue other business opportunities. Eventually, he moved to Berkeley, California, where he died in 1928.
Field Management Bureau
Shirik sold his ranch to Lake County Land and Livestock Company owned by a neighboring farm 7T . This enabled the 7T Ranch to extend its grazing eastward from its home range in Warner Valley. In 1928, the farm was purchased by a partnership of Cedarville, California, Mitchell and McDaniel. However, the property was taken by Bank of Willows (California) in foreclosure action in the same year. For several years, the bank rented the property to Zetus Spaulding, who married David Shirk's daughter, Olive. The United States Government acquired the property in 1942, but Spaulding continued to live on the farm until his death in 1945. Today, the property is managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
The Shirk Ranch site in the Guano Valley is bordered by swamps and meadows watered by the Guano River, which dries Mount Hart's southeast slope. This area provides a habitat for waterfowl migration as well as local birds and wildlife. The Bureau of Land Management is actively managing the livestock grazing rents in the area to conserve wetland habitat and ensure the diversity of wildlife around the historic farm complex.
As this is an excellent example of a pioneer cattle ranch in southeastern Oregon, Shirk Ranch is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 4, 2009. This historic district covers 14.5 acres (0.059 km 2 ). There are nineteen structures in the historic district. Fourteen elements contribute and five do not contribute. Today, the historic Shirk Ranch suffers from benign neglect. Livestock is never fully inventoried to determine the significance of its assets and no buildings are stabilized or restored. As a result, some historic buildings are in poor condition.
Structure
The Shirk Ranch complex includes seven historic buildings and five other contributing buildings plus two separate donor sites, a farm dump and a cemetery. Most of the farm buildings were built for two periods. The first phase was in the early 1880s and then the second spike builds up around 1910. The ranch buildings built in the 1880s include the original farmhouse (today, only a stone fireplace left standing), the oldest part of the blacksmith shop, and a small stone shed that had collapsed. Around 1910, Syirk added a number of other buildings. These include the existing main house, two bunkhouses, a warehouse, a wooden shed, a cellar, a toilet, a chicken coop/cage, a water tower, two wells, a real fence, and a hand-dug irrigation system. All of these buildings are wooden frame structures that are covered either on a horizontal weather board or a vertical wooden board with a wood-shingle roof. All buildings are painted at one time. The main house is painted white. All other buildings are painted red.
The remaining historic structures are in such bad condition, the Land Management Bureau listed them as an element that did not contribute when Shirk Ranch website was nominated for National Historic Site List. They include cellars, collapsed warehouses, the remains of barnacles, and the ruins of old farmhouses.
- The cellar was built around 1910. It is located west of the main house, between the first bunkhouse and the wooden shed. It was dug into the ground with traces of about 11 feet (3.4 m) by 15 feet (4.6 m). It is accessed by wooden stairs. The board is nailed to ten posts below ground level to keep the earth out of the basement. The roof has a heavy 1g ridge pillar with a simple wooden board that is covered with soil. By 1985, the roof had collapsed.
- The warehouse was probably built around 1910. The ruins are located about 550 meters to the southwest of the main house. The warehouse is 47 feet (14 m) wide and 112 feet (34 m) in length. In 1985, the barn partially collapsed and there was no roof left. The remaining structures include a fixed vertical board wall to a large juniper post that is only left at the north end of the building. The structure initially had mortar joints and thorns to hold the attic. There is a large open door at the end that is still standing.
- This stone warehouse was built in the 1880s. It is located on the southwest corner of the site, some distance from other historic structures. It is a one-story structure, measuring 8 feet (2.4 m) to 15 feet (4.6 m). It was built with ordinary wood bolstered with dry stacked stones. The door on the east side is framed with wood and juniper posts roughly. The warehouse has no windows. In 1985, the warehouse was in very bad condition with exterior stone walls partially collapsed.
- The ruins of the original livestock home of 1881 are located about 200 meters (61 m) west of the main house. In 1985, the only remaining part of the original house was the ruins of a stone fireplace. All that remained was a bunch of boulders that formed a fireplace and a wall of fireplace wrapped in dry-stacked debris.
There is only one non-historic structure on this site, an animal feeding place located at the southern end of the farm complex. Built in 1980 for modern farm operations on site. Although it has no historical significance, the Land Management Bureau has decided not to remove the structure because it is isolated from all historic structures that contribute.
Location
The Shirk Ranch Historic District is located on the Bureau of Land management property in southeastern Oregon. The historic district covers 14.5 hectares (0.059 km 2 ). This farm is located in the high Oregon desert area at an altitude of about 5,200 feet (1,600 m) above sea level.
The Shirk Ranch is approximately 68 miles (109 km) east of Lakeview, Oregon. This is achieved by traveling east from Lakeview on Oregon Route 140 for 52 miles (84 km), then turn north at the 6106 Road Management Bureau and follow it 12 miles (19 km). The historic Shirk farm is on the right side of the road.
References
External links
- List of National Historic Site Registration for Shirk Ranch website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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