A Round Barn in Diamond, Oregon

We left Sunriver and drove 4.5 hours to a Harvest Host site in Diamond, Oregon.  This site is the location of the Pete French Round Barn State Heritage Site.   We got parked near the visitor center/gift shop and set up.  

   

 Then we went for the short walk to the Round Barn to check it out.

  

The Pete French Round Barn stands in the heart of Harney County and remains a monument to one man’s livestock empire. Peter French arrived in 1872 and began amassing land and cattle. By the mid-1880s, his enterprise had grown to 70,000 acres and 45,000 head of cattle.

Some claimed he didn’t legally acquire the land or water rights, which prompted land disputes and court cases and added to his controversial reputation. One of the disputes eventually led to his murder in 1897.

Although dubbed the ‘Cattle King,” French was the first rancher in the area to put up hay. He also raised thousands of sheep for their wool. The Round Barn was used to train wild horses to pull long wagon trains full of wool, hay and supplies to market in Oregon City.

In today’s landscape, this type of barn is unique. But during 1880–1920, round barns became popular in the Midwest where they were promoted as being efficient for progressive methods of farming. 

 

  

The barn was built to provide covered space for training and exercising horses during the winter. The French livestock operation in the 1880s and 1890s was so extensive that nearly three hundred horse and mule colts were born each year; and while some were sold, most were trained for use on the sprawling ranch. During the bitter winter season, young horses and mules could be trained inside the barn for riding and freight hauling, and mature horses could be exercised in the covered circular paddock.

 

 

Peter French's years of aggressive tactics caught up to him in 1897.

In the late 1880's, homesteader Edward Oliver made a 160-acre claim on a section of French-Glenn's "P" Ranch along the contested Malheur Lake shoreline.  The shoreline had been resurveyed and was open for settlement.  French claimed the land and tried to throw Oliver and his homesteading neighbors out.  This time, French lost in court.

In the next battle of their 10-year war, Oliver successfully asked the county court for a road easement so he didn't have to go six miles out of his way to avoid trespassing.  Furious, French sued the county for the road's removal.

On December 26, 1897, the frustrated Oliver decided to avoid the six-mile detour and rode onto French-Glenn land.  Peter French was moving some cattle that day, and the two men met.  Facing each other on horseback, they argued bitterly.  French hit Oliver with a willow whip and started to ride away.  "He got only a few feet when Oliver drew a pistol and shot him," reported the Sacramento Record.  "French fell to the ground dead with a bullet in his brain."

 Our route to get to the Round Barn:

Another interesting site to spend the night.   We're headed to Nevada next.