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The Whitehorse Ranch is a historic cattle ranch in Harney and Malheur counties in the southeastern corner of Oregon, United States. The ranch was started in 1869 by John S. Devine, a well-known 19th-century cattle baron. It was originally the headquarters for the ''Todhunter and Devine Cattle Company''. The ranch has been in the cattle business continuously since it was founded. Today, the Whitehorse Ranch includes of deeded property and grazing rights on an additional of public range land administered by the Bureau of Land Management. == History == Native Americans used the area around Whitehorse Creek for thousands of years before the arrival of European settlers. The birds, animals, and plants found in the wetland around the high desert lake provided abundant food for early inhabitants. While there are no records of the earliest people to inhabit the area, by the time Europeans began to explore the area in the early 19th century, the Northern Paiute people were using the area that is now Whitehorse Ranch.〔("The Prehistory of the Malheur Marshes" ), Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, United States Department of Interior, Princeton, Oregon, 10 November 2008.〕〔Jackman, E. R. and John Scharff, ("The Indians" ), ''Steens Mountain in Oregon's High Desert Country'', Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho, 1967, pp. 33–35.〕 Hudson's Bay Company fur trappers were the first Europeans to visit southeastern Oregon. Peter Skene Ogden passed along the north shore of the Malheur Lakes in 1826. Other fur trapping expeditions followed in the 1830s. Several military expeditions passed through the area in the late 1850s and 1860s. Major Enoch Steen was the first non-native to explore the land that is now southern Harney County. Steens Mountain was named in his honor. In the 1860s, the United States Army established several military outposts east of Steens Mountain including ''Camp Alvord'' and ''Camp C.F. Smith''.〔("A Little Bit of Malheur History" ), Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, United States Department of Interior, Princeton, Oregon, 10 November 2008.〕〔McArthur, Lewis A. and McArthur, Lewis L., "Camp C. F. Smith," ''Oregon Geographic Names'' (Seventh Edition), Oregon Historical Society Press; Portland, Oregon, December 2003, p. 143.〕 John S. Devine was born in Virginia in 1849. He later immigrated to California. In 1868, Devine decided to establish a cattle ranch in southeastern Oregon. To manage the business, he joined W. B. Todhunter to found the Todhunter and Devine Cattle Company. The following summer, Devine and a dozen California vaqueros along with a chuck wagon and a Chinese cook trailed a herd of 2,500 cattle from California to southeastern Oregon while Todhunter stayed behind to look after the company's holding in the San Joaquin Valley. Devine selected a site on Whitehorse Creek southeast of Steens Mountain for his ranch headquarters.〔McArthur, Lewis A. and McArthur, Lewis L., "Whitehorse Ranch", ''Oregon Geographic Names'' (Seventh Edition), Oregon Historical Society Press; Portland, Oregon, December 2003, pp. 1032–1033.〕〔Wheat, Dan, ("Ranch Founded on Site of Cavalry Post" ), ''Capital Press Agriculture Weekly'', Salem, Oregon, 7 June 2012.〕〔LaLande, Jeff, ("Settling Up the Country: Founding a Cattle Kingdom, 1870s-1880s" ), ''The Oregon History Project'', Oregon Historical Society, Portland, Oregon, 2005.〕〔Boyd, Bob, ("Buckaroos" ), ''The Oregon Encyclopedia'', Portland State University, 2013.〕 The location was near Camp C. F. Smith, which had been established by the United States Army in 1866 (the camp was abandoned in 1869).〔〔 When Devine took up residence at the ranch, he became the first permanent settler in what is now Harney County, Oregon. Devine became a powerful cattle baron, known for his aristocratic manner. He often dressed in the flamboyant Spanish grandee style including silver-studded leather riding gear. He usually rode a white horse as a symbol of the Whitehorse Ranch. Devine enjoyed horse and greyhound racing, breeding some of his race horses at the ranch. He also supplied horses to the Chico–Silver City stage line. Devine built a large stone and timber barn for his horses. The barn was capped by cupola with a white horse weather vane.〔〔〔Jackman, E. R. and John Scharff, ("Harney County" ), ''Steens Mountain in Oregon's High Desert Country'', Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho, 1967, p. 2.〕 Todhunter and Devine cattle grazed widely across the Alvord Basin and into upper Owyhee country until the harsh winter of 1887 killed most of the herd. In 1889, the Whitehorse Ranch was sold to Henry Miller and Charles Lux. At the time, ''Miller and Lux'' was the largest cattle operation in the United States.〔〔 The Whitehorse Ranch was purchased by Paul Stewart in 1945. He drilled new wells on the property to supplement unreliable surface irrigation. He also expanded wild hay fields and planted alfalfa and corn on ranch property. Los Angeles coin dealer, Roy E. "Ted" Naftzger acquired the ranch in 1961. Naftzger purchased addition land and built the private Whitehorse Ranch Airport at the ranch.〔 In 1988, the Whitehorse Ranch joined the Bureau of Land Management, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Environmental Council, ''Oregon Cattlemen's Association'', ''Oregon Trout'', and the Izaak Walton League to found the Trout Creek Mountain Working Group. The group's goal was to review, discuss and resolve land use conflicts in the Trout Creek Mountains area of southeast Oregon. In 1989, the Whitehorse Ranch voluntarily removed its livestock from of its Whitehorse Butte grazing allotment and two other mountain pastures for a period of three years to prevent over grazing and allow watershed and riparian areas to recover from past grazing.〔 The Trout Creek Mountain Working Group finally agreed on a long-term environmental sustainment plan in 1992. As part of that agreement, the Whitehorse Ranch agreed to reduce the number of its cattle that grazed on public lands from 3,500 to 800.〔("About the Trout Creek Mountain Working Group" ), ''The Aurora Project'', Bureau of Land Management, United States Department of Interior, Prineville, Oregon, 15 April 2000.〕〔Wheat, Dan, ("Healing Rangeland Leaves Grazing Scars" ), ''Capital Press Agriculture Weekly'', Salem, Oregon, 28 June 2012.〕 In 2006, Naftzger sold the ranch to David Herman, a Portland farm equipment dealer and attorney. During the period he owned the ranch, Herman welcomed paying guests who stayed in the ranch's bunkhouse and guest cottages. In 2012, Herman sold the ranch to the ''BTAZ Nevada'' cattle company for $10.8 million. Shortly after BTAZ Nevada bought the ranch, the Long Draw Fire burned some of the ranch's grazing allotment in the Trout Creek Mountains.〔〔Wheat, Dan, ("'Rawhide Country' thrives on cattle, history" ), ''Capital Press Agriculture Weekly'', Salem, Oregon, 8 June 2012.〕〔Wheat, Dan, ("Wildfires threaten ranches' future" ), ''Capital Press Agriculture Weekly'', Salem, Oregon, 11 October 2012.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Whitehorse Ranch」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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