The Marshall Family of the Broken Circle Company, Goes Back to the Future

Gary and Georgia Marshall raised their family, Colby, Tanner, and Marley, in the tradition of ranching that has always been their way of life. “Our family, on both sides, has been involved in production agriculture going on five generations—almost entirely in Eastern Oregon,” said Gary.

Although their other two children are still involved in one way or another, a year and a half ago Colby decided after many years away, to come back to the ranch, with family in tow, to be involved in the management and everyday workings of the ranch.

Broken Circle Company’s holdings consist of land in Double O Valley, Drewsey, and Princeton. They also run on public lands permitted by the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and Bureau of Land Management. Livestock operations are the main income-producing sources for the ranch. “It’s a mix of cow/calf, stocker operation, and feeders,” Colby said.

Life for the Marshalls and other ranchers in the area was good until the mid-nineties when a seven-year drought reaped havoc on the land.

“The meadows were just bone dry and produced almost nothing—that’s really when the fundamental change started happening in the business,” Gary explained.

This drought caused them to rethink their ranching practices. They knew they needed to rest the land, provide additional ground cover, and find a way to manage the water more efficiently. They also needed a more efficient system to graze their cattle throughout the year, so they would rely less on hay production, which would also reduce the need for so much machinery.

Georgia said, “We’d like to eliminate much fossil fuel and to do more grazing. We have nearly eliminated putting hay up in bales, even.”

Colby agreed, “We try to keep iron and metal out of the business as much as possible. If we can mimic Mother Nature in our business practice, we’re generally going to be a more profitable livestock business.”

To accomplish this would take many steps. One step came from a ranching seminar Gary took to see if he could get some ideas—and ideas he got.

Georgia said, “We started moving our calving dates back in 1993. We wanted to be more in tune with nature, like the cycle of the elk and the deer—it made sense to us.”

Instead of calving in February, they would calve in May. The benefit of this was enormous. Colby explained, “If you are trying to calve an animal out in February, this means you have to increase their body condition and get them up to where they can lactate and take care of that calf, which means you really have to pour the nutrition into them in November, December, and January especially. In this part of the country it’s bitterly, bitterly cold. In January this year we had nearly 30 days or more of below zero.

“By calving in May, all we’re carrying a single cow and maybe older calves through the winter. They coming off the fall feed in good condition going into the winter. Then, through the winter months, they graze on rake bunch and standing vegetation.

Then, come spring we’re putting them back out onto BLM permitted allotments and the green grass is coming and their bodies start catching back up. When May comes, they’re dropping calves and the grass is just about at its peek. The mothers are lactating off that green grass, they’re producing milk, and it’s not 25 degrees below zero when the babies are hitting the ground,” said Colby.

“Calving in May gets them off the feed grounds too, which means we’re not dealing with scours and some of the diseases that happen when you’re calving in a confined area. The animals are taking care of themselves.”

“Because of the shift in the calving date, we don’t feed hardly any baled hay which enables us to not have to put a lot of equipment, and fuel, and time in creating baled hay. Hay costs in a production livestock operation are some of your highest costs of any direct cost that you put into your animal. It takes up a lot of time, a lot of effort, it’s a rush during one part of the year. We have baled hay but it is an insurance policy which we try not to use.”

Changing the calving date led to another change—rake bunch feeding. Colby explained that rake bunch is cutting the grass and then raking it into a small hay stack. Then at the appropriate time the cattle are turned in to the area until the hay stacks are used up. They are then moved to the next place.

“Creating the rake bunch, we’re still putting some machinery out there on the field and it still takes time but much less than baling and ultimately you leave the nutrients in that biomass from the field, there in the field. It all feeds back into the soil which creates better soils, better grass, and humus seed bed. And the cows are fertilizing the field for you.”

This method of feeding not only benefits their own cows, but on their permitted right in Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, it also benefits the birds and wildlife.

Gary explained, “The grazing and haying program that takes place on the refuge is designed to create short-grass habitat for shorebirds that are migrating through and/or nesting on the refuge.” Even though changing the calving date and rake-bunching made huge strides toward their goal to be more efficient and nature-friendly, that wasn’t all they did.

They knew they needed to rest large portions of the land in order to always have grazing feed for the cows. In their mind, over-grazing is caused by time not numbers of animals and can devastate grasses and soils.

Colby grinned when he said, “We like to leave the solar panels on the plants—the leaves.” “Resting and using appropriate grazing and the number of animals for the right period of time does great things for the plants, for health of the soil, and the general biomass that’s out there. That is very, very important to us,” Georgia explained.

In order to be as effective as possible, they looked to the ways of the early ranchers, when the herd in its entirety was grazed together—cows, yearlings, and new calves. This was in conflict with the contemporary practice of separate yearlings from the cows, grazing them separately.

By implementing the old practice, they are able to more easily manage and move their cattle from paddock to paddock, freeing up larger sections of land to rest. Timing of resting is as important as timing of water. When it came to managing water, there only seemed one solution and it would be a huge undertaking—a reservoir.

Colby said, “In 1952 a couple of ranch families in the valley went in and built the Moon Reservoir which creates a holding of Silver Creek runoff. This happens to be one of the largest basin drainages anywhere in this part of the country. “The water system out here is kind of a back-to-the-future water system.”

He explained that for the benefit of refuge birds, wildlife, and habitat, agency officials along with conservation groups prefer to go back to a natural flood irrigation system; a system trying to be replicated in other areas.

Even though Moon Reservoir is now owned by Broken Circle Co. and Ketscher Cattle Co., they do not own all the water rights. Each year on March 1 its water pours out over the Malheur Refuge, the largest and oldest water-rights holder. The Marshalls have a great working relationship with the refuge and other agency partners.

The Marshalls have tackled many issues of ranching in Harney County. The Broken Circle Co. motto is, “Keep moving forward.” They found that sometimes to move forward, you must take a step back, or go back to nature, or sometimes even go back to school.

Gary said it best, “There’s all kinds of different ways, and large agriculture is starting to understand that we can take some of these things and do them on our own places and have a much better soil out there, have a much better animal out there, and have a more profitable business.

“You realize that just because that’s the way it’s always been it doesn’t mean that that’s the best thing for your own business going forward. There’s still a lot to learn out there in terms of agricultural production.”

The Singhose Ranch Follows Family Tradition

Travis and Kelly Singhose began farming and ranching as a couple when they married in 1998 in Central Oregon where they both grew up. Travis was raised in a long tradition of farming. Kelly’s family had a huge swine production. They met in college where they both obtained degrees in agriculture from Oregon State University (OSU).

According to Kelly, what they learned at OSU was just background for what they would learn through on-the-job, trial-and-error experience.

Travis said, “I grew up watching my dad farm and use a lot of his techniques that he used. “My dad learned a lot basically on his own, because when he was 16 his dad died and my dad was the youngest out of five kids. So he stayed home on the ranch with his mom and started farming. There wasn’t anybody there to teach my dad.”

For the Travis and Kelly starting out on their own wasn’t easy. Land prices were high in Deschutes County, so they resorted to renting approximately 600 acres of land and eight different landlords, they were spread out in Alfalfa and Powell Butte.

Travis said, “A lot of them were 40 acres here and 80 acres there. That was kind of challenging. We were primarily raising orchard grass for the horse market and dairy alfalfa hay, and we were running yearling calves.

Kelly added with a chuckle, “I can remember trying to take balers to Powell Butte and they stick way out, so you’re going through these back roads in Powell Butte and you’re trying not to take out every other mailbox because it’s so narrow and it’s so busy. It was wild because we drove a lot just to check everything.”

Travis said, “The last year we were over there we started buying cows. We were kind of running our cattle with my parents and my brother. They wanted to run yearling steers and we wanted to do the cow/calf deal.”

Kelly explained, “The steers [market] were always up and down, and we had large operating loans just for the steers. With cows you can decide when you’re going to sell them. You’ve got a lot more leniency. Like with heifers you can decide if you want to keep them for replacement or whether you want to sell them.”

They began looking in earnest for a way to make their dream of a cow/calf operation happen. Land prices in the Burns area really appealed to them, but they took their time to find just the right place. When they did, they sold their share of the family operation in order to buy land in Burns and over the years they purchased more and more.

The current mainstay of their ranch is commercial hay, but they also grow mint, irrigated spring wheat, and maintain a cow/calf operation. Their diverse operation helps them keep a more stable cash flow. Kelly also works as a nurse in Burns four days a week to help the family alleviate some of the financial ups and downs common in ranching and farming businesses.

When it comes to the challenges of their ranching experience, Kelly said, “The mint is somewhat iffy I think. It’s kind of trial and error because it’s never been grown here and because we didn’t know if the climate would even support it. It’s probably been our biggest learning process. Distilling the mint was a whole new process for us, too.”

Their venture into new crops was not the only risk they faced. Travis said, “The bank lending in the last few years has been tough because they have tightened up lending.”

So, the Singhose get creative. Kelly explained, “We’ve been financing ourselves. You save so much in interest and loan fees and all that. It’s been challenging doing it that way, but I think rewarding too. It makes you accountable for your expenses—your budget and everything has to be right on. There’s just no leeway.”

Climate fluctuations and water can also be unpredictable factors, but when times get tough, the Singhose family adapts. Travis said, “The first year we had water and quite a bit of feed, then we went through a little bit of a drought. We hardly had any water, so we sold a couple truckloads of cows. Now, we’re kind of regretting it because now they’re [selling for] higher prices. So now we have a lot of hay and not enough cows. We’d like to get back to 200, 250 heifers.”

When it comes to handling tough times, Travis said, “I don’t dwell on it. All you can do is go forward and keep planning for the next month or the next year.”

Travis said, “’08 was our good year when prices were really high. I told Kelly that what goes up must come down. So, we made a pledge to each other that we would just try to stop spending. We eliminated all projects.”

Travis was right. In 2009 hay prices went down from $240 a ton to $130 a ton. To compound the problem, when it was time to make the first cut, they had rain for two weeks and it all went to bloom—only good for dairy hay.”

This year, things are looking good for them. Their cows are almost paid for and cattle prices looking good. Hay and wheat prices are good and half their wheat is sold already, and their mint oil is under contract. Little by little the Singhoses are making headway in Harney County, but their extended family relationships also play a large role in their success. About four years ago Travis’s brother and family moved to nearby Riley to ranch and farm. His parents also purchased meadow near Travis’s land holdings.

As for Kelley’s family, she said, “My parents are retired, but now they’re working here with us. It’s nice because I have somebody to help with kids, so I can still go to work and go to school. It’s nice to have family.”

For the Singhose family, farming is their life and their livelihood. “Our foundation is farming. That is just number one,” said Kelly. “Now our kids are in 4H doing the same stuff we did.”

Otley Brothers Ranch Embraces the Winds of Change

The Otley Brothers Ranch is a family with a dream—a dream of bettering the land, so it can sustain ranching for generations to come. But they are not just dreamers—they are doers who are ready to put in all it takes to make that dream a reality. Otleys have been ranching in the Diamond area of Harney County for four generations back to 1887 when the first Fred Otley settled near the present ranch location. He set the bar high, improving land, riparian areas and wildlife habitat.

In to 1944, Henry and Mary, the second generation, began ranching in the area. From them came the Otley Brothers, Harold, Howard, and Charley who in 1984 divided the land into three family operations. Harold and his wife, Mary, kept the Otley Brothers Ranch name. Harold and Mary had three children, Harry, Fred, and Sherry. When Harold passed away in February of 2009, Mary and son, Fred, along with his wife, Debbi, took up the reins of the day-to-day operation of the ranch.

Mary Otley, the 89-year-old matriarch of the family, still feeds cattle during the winter, runs a swather, and buys all the bulls for the ranch. “We’ve all worked awful hard, but we’ve survived,” she said. “We did a lot of fencing to control the cattle movement. He [Fred] was the first here to start juniper control on a large scale—cutting and burning the juniper which was taking over our range. He’s turned this outfit over to darn near double the outfit. Fred has a lot of dreams,” Mary said.

It’s not only Fred who dreams. His wife Debbi is right there by his side. His brother, Harry, lives in Corvallis, but is still very involved on the ranch when they need extra help, or when they have decisions to make. His sister, Sherry, comes over to do the haying with her mother. The fifth generation also helps out on the ranch from time to time.

Mary said, “We’ve improved our cattle. We started with straight Herefords, but they weren’t working out like we wanted, so we did some cross breading and struggled at first, trying different ones breeds and systems.”

They finally tried Red Angus and felt they had found a breed that more closely fit their production and marketing goals, proven when the ranch won the award for “Commercial Producer of the year award” in 2007.

Fred said, “Our goal isn’t to maximize our economic return, our goal is to improve the ranch for the future and do it in a way that it’s sustainable. One of the goals is to make enough profit to pay for those investments that we’ve been making in a short period of time, and not have accumulated debt out there.”

Little by little the family improves the land, which in turn improves their cow/calf operation. “With all our improvements, with water availability being the focus, there are pastures that were only fully useful one out of three years, and even then it’d be for only a month and a half. Now, we can graze them, anytime during a seven-month period every year giving us a lot of flexibility to adapt to changing ecological and weather conditions.

“Our ranch is a little unique in that a wet year is more challenging than a drought year. At one time a drought year was the most challenging because we’re long and narrow, the ridges are dry, and we have miles of narrow, steep, rocky canyons. So on a drought year, the cows don’t want to step on the ridges. But we’ve done about 40 water catchments, seven miles of pipeline, and 25 miles of fence, so we have the ridges pretty well watered now. Plus we’ve done a lot of juniper control and prescribed burning, so our whole water regime is changed to the positive,” he further explained. Now extremely wet springs are a much bigger challenge than below average years.

When things go array, the Otley’s have developed an adaptive management program to adapt to weather conditions as well as other conditions that exist. They’ve implemented it and refined it in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for years.

“Like this year when it got too wet, we changed the rotation—changed where and how we’re going to graze the next pastures up. So, that’s one of the strengths of our ranch,” Otley explained.

Even with all their plans and all the improvements they have made to the land, the Otleys face more challenges than just working and managing their business in a sometimes harsh and changing environment.

Otley said, “It’s a very complicated, time-consuming business. The government has been throwing a lot of monkey wrenches at us. I think most ranchers do a pretty good job setting up business management and livestock management to reflect the natural environment.”

In spite of the road blocks from some government agencies, the Otley Brothers Ranch has a very amiable relationship with other agencies such as the BLM and the Agriculture Research Service.

Otley stated, “What’s unique about our ranch is two things. One is our partnership with the Agriculture Research Service on providing land for ecological and watershed research. We’ve been doing that for years, now. So, some of the most progressive, ecological and watershed research in the west is right up here.

“The second thing is the topography and 30 miles of streams and our ranch is very long and narrow. We have very long and narrow, rocky ridges and long and narrow stream-side areas—fairly unique in terms of our size of operation having those topographical attributes.”

Now, the Otleys are embarking on a new, somewhat controversial use of some of their land—wind turbines to generate power. High on the ridges of their ranch, the turbines will not be readily seen or heard by the public, yet a few people in their community are still opposed. The Otleys are pressing ahead, believing the pros out way the cons.

“My philosophy is that a little bit of industrial development in these rural economies, i.e. green energy, whether it is geothermal or wind, is going to make a much stronger community,” Otley said.

The Otleys believe that by having the reliable energy generated by the turbines the local economy will be more able to sustain businesses, have a more stable 12-month job base, and in the long term, benefit the community through a sustainable budget.

“We knew we had good wind on those long, narrow ridges and according to the data, up there is some of the best wind. With a small amount of disturbance in terms of access road and construction, something like a hundred and fifty acre footprint will initiate a two billion dollar project,” Otley explained.

The turbines will not only benefit the community—it will also help the Otleys keep a way of life that has survived four generations.

“In our own case, it’s going to create a little more security that we can transfer our four-generation ranch to the next generation in a more expedient manner. All of them do enjoy the ranch. They spend time up here. They like the cabin that my brother built; they like to fish and hunt. We’re going to sustain all those sorts of things while continuing a successful ranching business,” Otley explained.

“You’re working on a margin. Growth is a challenge in every business,” he said.

The wind farm is a challenge, but that’s nothing new for the Otleys—they have already overcome so many obstacles. It will allow them to take one step closer to achieving their dream of creating a sustainable ranch for the future.

After reading about these three Harney County ranching families, it is easy to see they offer some different methods in their operations. All three families do have some things in common – they all have a dream, plan for their dream and adapt to all changing parts to make their dream a success. Perhaps the greatest thing they have in common is their perseverance.

Story by Faye Taylor

It is the day of the Wild Horse Castration Clinic, a coordinated effort between Oregon State University Extension, OSU College of Veterinary Medicine, OSU Animal Sciences, and wild-horse owners, Jason Smith, Range and Agriculture Manager, and his father, Buck who is chairman of Tribal Council, of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

Fara Brummer, with the OSU Extension Service, works with the Tribes in the area of Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources outreach education. Brummer first organized and implemented the clinic on the reservation four years ago through the suggestion of a tribal member horse woman, and with the support of the tribal community on the north end of the reservation. Interest is growing as more and more horse owners come on board with the program.

The purpose of the clinic is two-fold. It offers the horse owners a safe, effective method of castration, and it provides a hands-on experience for OSU veterinary graduate students who otherwise would not have the opportunity to work with wild horses.

Brummer explained, “Castration is not really about population control—that’s mostly determined by the mares. It’s for quality control.”

Several members of the Warm Springs tribes lent a hand sedating, roping, and caring for the horses as they went through the procedure. A couple of young Native Americans, Daniel Gilbert and Atcitty Begay, displayed great compassion for the horses by taking the opportunity to brush out the horses’ tails while they were sedated.

When Gilbert was asked why he did it, he answered, “It makes them look better—I love them.”

The people in Warm Springs hold the horse in high esteem, while for the most part, still considering them livestock rather than pets. Throughout the centuries horses have had and still have many uses in the Warm Springs culture.

There are three basic reasons why the lives of the Warm Springs people are tightly intertwined with the horse—always have been and probably always will be. First, the horse is linked to status and pride as they symbolically represent their families through ceremonies and parades. Second, they are tools that provide financial gain through rodeo, racing, and ranching. Third, they provide pleasure. The people take great pleasure in the performance of their horses, whether it is in breeding the best colts or winning top awards, or a job well done.

The relationship between the tribes and the horse goes way back in history. Before the introduction of the horse, life was much more difficult. People were the beasts of burden, travelling on foot and carrying their own loads. With the introduction of the horse, people were freed up to make themselves a better, more rewarding way life.

According to Cultural Anthropologist, Brigette Whipple of Warm Springs, the horse was first introduced to the tribes through trade on the Columbia River, the Klamath trail, and many unnamed trails into the area some time before 1855 when the treaty was enacted.

“Before that,” she explained, “the two tribes—the Warm Springs and Wasco—were on the Columbia River. The horses may have come from the traders themselves or they may have come from other tribes like the Umatilla and Nez Perce. But then the Northern Paiute who lived where Warm Springs is now and south from there, received the horses from the Klamath trade route, Nevada, and the northern California area. When traders brought horses over, they were shipped over from the south and the east coast, so they were bringing horses that were originally brought over from Europe.”

The introduction of the horse changed the lives of the Indian. Even today, the horse is revered. The Indians express their love for the horse in many ways, but one of the most impressive displays takes place during celebrations and parades when the horses and riders are decked out in full regalia of magnificent beadwork.

Whipple said, “Beads were introduced to the river in the early 1800s. The first beads that were brought over were Italian. The Italians were the ones that learned how to process glass beads. I have a huge passion for beads and I’ve done a lot of research. I’ve been to Italy. The first glass beads came from Murano, Italy. After the process was learned, several other countries started learning it. Czechoslovakians are the ones that perfected the glass beads. China and Japan also make beads. In our museum we have outfits that date back to the mid-1800s. In my family specifically, every girl has had their own set of full beadwork and a full set for a horse outfit. But there is one outfit in our family that was my grandma’s when she was eight years old. It went through everybody—we all got to wear it. When it got to me, I was the youngest at the time, my grandma said, ‘It stays with you.’ My daughters have worn it. My grandma is 89. The horse outfit is a display of your daughter’s worthiness and worth and your family’s wealth. My youngest daughter, Annie, ran for our Celebration Queen this year and she won the contest.”

She won wearing her great grandmother’s beaded outfit. Whipple explained that the beadwork has special meanings to each family. For example, some of the designs might be drawn by different family members, adding to the sentimental value of the piece.

Prior to the time beads were first introduced, the natives hadn’t found a way to reproduce the color blue. So when they could get blue beads, they made good use of them in their designs. Much of their old beadwork is easily dated because of those first sky-blue beads.

Whipple has been beading since she was eight and made her first full outfit when she was only 11 years old.

The reason for such reverence for the horse is not because it is beautiful or makes a great pet. It is mainly because of its role in providing a less difficult, more profitable, and more enjoyable way of life for the people.

In the past, the horse was more or less a beast of burden and transportation—a tool, as many say. It wasn’t long into the last century that the Indian people found other ways to not only enjoy the horse, but to gain financially from it, thus deepening the bond.

The Indian horses became rodeo stars in great demand as bucking stock or as mounts during roping and racing competitions. Many Native Americans from Warm Springs not only raised the stock, but consistently won awards for their riding and roping skills.

Today, Jason and Buck Smith ranch together and have spent their lives managing their free-ranging wild horses. They use some of their horses to manage their 300 head of cattle, as well as for wild horse round-ups. But that’s not all the duo does with horses. They also raise their horses for speed and endurance, using them for their own needs as well as selling them for racing, as saddle horses, for hunting, packing, trail riding, and general ranch work horses.

They provide bucking stock for rodeos and Jason competes in wild horse races, winning World Champion 14 times. Jason’s horses often win endurance races such as the Elgin Stampede and the Dayville Cross Country Race.

It has been a way of life for the Smith family for five generations. The bottle brand, originated by Buck’s father, Wesley, is still being used by the Smiths.Buck said, “Even when I was a small kid, I worked horses with my dad. We had a hundred wild horses in the 40s and 50s.”

Many in Warm Springs do very well in rodeo. Young up-and-coming roper, Tyson Green, is the 17-year-old grandson of legendary roper, Sterling Green, and the son of Casey Green, a roping legend in his own right. Ty’s mother, Diane, said, “He went to [high school] state finals rodeo this year. He also competed in the Indian rodeos, and a couple NPRA [National Professional Rodeo Association] rodeos.”

Ty said that he’s been doing rodeo his whole life—ever since he could walk. “I picked up the rope when I was three years old and started learning how to ride a horse and then learned how to rope. When it comes to a rope, I can do everything.”

One gets the impression that his statements are “No brag—just fact.” He is a humble young man who doesn’t really like to talk about himself.

His mother, on the other hand, shows her obvious support of her son’s accomplishments. “He’s won more or less money. He hasn’t won any saddles or any buckles. He won a coat this past June at the Piumsha. Him and his dad won the team roping for the weekend.”

“You don’t make a lot of money like you used to,” Ty said.

Diane explained that rodeo has been hard hit by the economic downturn. Many who would like to compete, can’t afford the entry fees. Those who can afford them, compete for less money because the pot isn’t as big due to fewer entry fees being paid. Fuel costs are also having a negative impact on the sport.

Tyson competes in calf roping and team roping, but he also ropes with his dad in the wild horse roping. While rodeo is an important part of the life of the Green family, it’s not everything. There is a practical side of young Tyson as well. There is a lot of ranching going on in Warm Springs and he is quite a hand at ranch calf brandings. Ty, a multifaceted young man, also enjoys hunting from horseback. Many on the reservation hunt this way.

He explained one of his hunting tactics, “You walk beside your horse and the horse just keeps walkin’. Our young horses, that’s all we did with them is hunt horseback. I get down and take a step, so the percussion don’t spook em’, and they end up eighty miles from the house.”

Ty’s sister, Reatta, has been a barrel racer for quite awhile. Last year she was a member of the Western States Indian Rodeo Association, but this year she didn’t compete as a member and had to compete as a home-town competitor.

The Greens, like many others, are looking forward to the day that rodeo is again a viable way to make good money.Racing horses has also been a means of making money for quite a long-time, and there are many who race their horses. A long-time matriarch of horse racing on the reservation is the very soft-spoken and unassuming Margaret Suppah.

Margaret walked into the interview room with the aid of a cane and a large leather-bound album full of photos of hundreds of the race horses she and Franklin owned throughout the years. Franklin was a horse owner/trainer, training hundreds of horses over the years. Margaret was always by his side.

She spoke of days when sometimes the women jockeys in the women’s races wouldn’t show up for a race on time and Franklin would say, “You’re gonna have to ride.” Good sport that she was, she would jump on and ride.

There were also times when the trainer’s wives would race. “One time,” she said. “I rode a horse that was a runaway—you couldn’t hold him back. I was scared, but got on anyway and just held on tight. He beat everybody on the take off and I held on tight. When I got to the finish line and nobody else was there, I turned around and saw that the other two riders were on the ground. I had won the race.”

According to Margaret, they raced hundreds of horses throughout the years and made lots of money in racing. Judging from the number of photos of their winning horses, they won more races than they lost. They raced quarter horses, thoroughbreds, and sometimes just a good saddle horse.

As Margaret flipped through the album she would mention other Indians who raced horses. “Chief, Delvis Heath, used to race, and his son, Delvis Jr.”

Margaret and Franklin’s children, Joyce and Jay, are now walking in their parents’ foot steps and race nationally and internationally. “They are always gone. They come home from one race and take off for another. Sometimes they stay away for months,” Margaret said.

While racing has been around for a long time among the tribes, ranching goes back a long ways, too. Pinky Beymer, Jason Smith’s cousin, is also a descendant of Wesley Smith. Along with her husband, Kelly, their sons and their families, they keep horses for working their cattle and for pleasure.

Kelly’s pride and joy are his two draft horses, Jeb and Neb. He uses them as a working team and for show in local parades. Although Pinky is learning to use the horses to pull a hay wagon for feeding the cows, her real joy comes from her saddle horse, Beau. “My nephew broke him and you can do anything on him. You can ride for miles, go over any kind of terrain, can rope off of him—just an all around good horse,” she said.

Pinky said her grandparents used to talk about life before she was born. “In the old days, horses were tools,” Pinky said. “They used them to haul water from the agency in wooden barrels. The whole family raised horses and cattle, but the cattle crop was the one that brought them money. The horses were important, but they were tools and they were managed and their numbers weren’t so high. Back then, I think folks were more traditional and they relied on the land. They needed to have feed for their cattle and also for the deer and elk.”

They needed good, healthy soil and many of the people relied upon roots and berries for food.

Like Pinky’s grandparents, the Beymer’s also consider their cattle their cash crop and keep smaller numbers of horses corralled.

The reservation is a vast 640,000 acres, and there are many who ranch on it. Some take advantage of the shared-grazing opportunities, while others prefer to fence their horses in. Regardless what side of the fence people find themselves, they all agree there are too many horses on the land and it has become an enormous issue for many reservations.

As Range and Agriculture Manager for the tribes, Jason Smith, along with others in the department, works with local livestock owners. Smith said, “We are a resource, we look out for the land base—the range—developments like pasture fences, spring developments, ponds, corrals—anything to help the livestock people manage their stock. We are not managers of the horses, per say. We assist individual owners with their horses. The tribes don’t own any horses at all.”

He said that pretty much everyone on the reservation allows their horses and other livestock to free-range and take advantage of the reservation’s range.Today, the Warm Springs population of wild horses is approximately 5,000. Smith is exploring options to slow the growing numbers of these horses.

He has joined his voice with other regional tribes who are all feeling the impact of rising horse populations. Together, they have formed the National Tribal Horse Coalition (NTHC) for which Smith is President.

In an excerpt from a recent letter to Senator Reid, the NTHC wrote: Without the ability for the USDA to inspect horse meat, prohibited by Congressional action since the 109th Congress, the horse market has been flooded, the prices for all horses have dropped dramatically, and the lively-hood of horse ranchers—tribal and otherwise—has been severely jeopardized. A collateral effect of the glut of horses is the devastating impact their populations are making on the environment. By exceeding the “carrying capacity” of our Tribal lands, forage depredation is only part of the picture. Plants important in tribal spiritual practices and medicine are being destroyed. Vegetation needed for big and small game has disappeared. Streams important to sport and Indian subsistence fisheries are degraded by silty topsoil rolling off denuded slopes as a result of excess numbers of horses on tribal lands. The NTHC believes that it is necessary to reduce the population of today’s feral horses in order to rebalance our fragile ecosystems. Today, there are over 30,000 feral horses on tribal land in the Pacific Northwest region, and the numbers are increasing. These horse populations increase at an average of 20 percent every year. To compound the problem, many people outside of tribal lands, who have horses and can no longer afford them, are using our reservation as a place to abandon them.

Since the time of their introduction to the tribes of Warm Springs, horses have been a valued part of Indian culture. Now, the horse, because of sheer numbers, seems to be imploding upon itself, the land, and the people of Warm Springs. With all that said, the people recognize the problem and are working on solutions. Like their horses, Warm Springs people are a hardy people who know when to adapt and when to go their own way. Meanwhile, the horse remains a symbol of freedom, strength, and beauty to the tribal people of Warm Springs.

Story by Faye Taylor

Years have passed. I drive the same roads looking for birds, but my dog died years ago and, due to family and career, I haven’t brought myself to replace her yet. I drive a sedan instead of a pickup. The landscape is, for the most part, little changed over the decades—harvested wheat stubble still shimmers golden in the cool autumn morning. Mount Hood and Mount Adams still wear new coats of white. The difference comes with the horizon: in places, hundreds of windmills, or more properly wind turbines, dot the distance, rotating slowly in the amber fields, cleaving the autumn air. At night, blinking lights give stretches of road an unearthly feeling as you drive through. Although they take up a small portion of the region’s land, the wind turbines’ presence changes my experience with the land.

To some, the turbines, combined into vast wind farms, bring much-needed jobs and revenue into an economically-depressed region. Others tout green energy produced with no carbon emissions or the technological marvels of the space-age turbines. Those who cry foul see the white, rotating blades as blight upon the land. They see them as an ecological threat to wildlife, or as a noise pollute. Others claim the low-level frequency sound waves emitted cause health problems. Regardless of opinions, one thing is certain: wind power has taken hold in Oregon.

Technological Wonders

Take a back road tour of the wind farms in Sherman County and you see the apex of wind technology. Brand new turbines slowly rotate in a modest breeze with a soft whomp as each of the three blades completes its rotation. The turbines’ scale is the first thing that sets these behemoths apart from other wind machines. Blades, on these turbines, have a diameter are slightly longer than a football field. They connect to a driveshaft running through a transmission that increases shaft speed before it connects to a generator. All is housed in a travel trailer-sized box called the nacelle. A steel tower, sometimes as high as four hundred feet, suspends the whole apparatus off the ground. A computerized control system keeps the turbines pointed into the wind. An average turbine supplies one megawatt of electrical power, roughly enough for a thousand homes. Each tower and turbine costs an average of between $1.2 million to $2.6 million per megawatt of power output.

Why Wind? And Why Not?

With the push for ways to produce power without releasing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses, wind power looks highly attractive. Because it is considered green energy, both federal and state agencies find wind power to be a highly attractive. Another advantage comes with the fact that wind, as a resource, is free; modern systems efficiently capture this free resource to create a sought after commodity. When land is converted into wind farms, the land does not lose its ability to be used for its original purpose: farmers can still grow crops or graze animals under the turbines. The concrete pad takes only a small (by comparison) plot of land to house the turbine. Another benefit in some areas has been an increase of tourism when curious individuals go out of their way to see the sights of the massive turbines. Rural areas and developing nations also stand to benefit from electricity produced both by the wind and by solar panels, giving these areas a reliable source of power. In the future, electricity produced by the wind could possibly pump water into storage reservoirs that would later provide hydropower when the wind doesn’t blow.

While exceedingly attractive to many, wind power isn’t at all perfect. Wind power developers carefully site turbines in areas with consistent wind: however, the wind doesn’t always cooperate and doesn’t always blow. Although spectacular in their own right, wind turbines—especially those in large wind farms—aren’t always seen as being attractive. While a single turbine, or even half a dozen, might not be objectionable, several hundred are, changing the landscape. One county commissioner called the turbines “A blight upon the land.” Another issue some have with wind farms is noise pollution. While most turbines are located in rural areas and their offset from homes and communities, they still produce a low-level noise, a whooshing sound, which can be heard for miles. In high winds, the noise can be compared to a car travelling 70 miles per hour. The next problem some have with wind farms has to do with production costs. Wind turbines are very expensive. Although the energy produced by the wind doesn’t produce greenhouse gasses, the production of turbine components does. Steel and concrete all require a heat source, normally of a fossil fuel origin, to produce. Where wind farms are located can sometimes be problematical. In Oregon, parts of at least three wind farms were held up because of fears it would interfere with Department of Defense radar sites and cause problems with air traffic control systems. Other places record wind turbines showing as tornadoes on weather radar. One wind farm near the Boardman Bombing Range was delayed due to concerns over the height of the turbines interfering with planes using the facilities.

History of Wind Power

Wind has long been the favorite to power mankind’s machinery. For thousands of years, wind pushed ocean-going vessels on voyages of exploration and commerce. Crude sails first emerged in the Fertile Crescent at the dawn of civilization, and in the third millennia BCE the Egyptians are known to have used a sail. Over the next millennia, sail power allowed for trade and exploration, and by the end of the Nineteenth Century, improvements in sail technology and hull design allowed clipper ships to cross the Atlantic in days as opposed to months.

Over the same time period, wind was used to power other endeavors. The Chinese probably invented the windmill about two thousand years ago, the design being what is called a panemone mill featuring a sails rotating on a vertical central axle, and probably was used to grind grain or pump water. The first documented windmills were of the same type, although probably on a larger scale, emerged in Persia during the Second Century BCE. The Persian mill used a brick enclosure around the sails to increase efficiency. However, in doing so, the mill would only turn if the wind blew in a certain direction.

Later inventors would move away from the panemone mill. The Greek inventor Hero used a horizontal axis rotor to pump air into an organ at the beginning of the Common Era. By the late middle ages, the windmill most envision emerged in England and on the Continent. These horizontal axis mills, called post mills, used rotors with sails connected to a post into the ground. Besides being more efficient and powerful than earlier mills, the post mill had the advantage of being able to be pointed into the wind. During the latter part of the middle ages, the Dutch would improve on the design by creating a turret mill where the machinery was enclosed in brick walls (think Frankenstein) where only the top part of the mill rotated to position the rotors to catch the wind. This type of mill would be adapted not only to grind grain, but to pump water and power other machinery. The turret mill would not be totally phased out until well into the industrial revolution when it was rendered obsolete by the steam engine.

On a smaller scale, the Homestead Act of 1862 opened up vast tracks of land in the West, land that often had plentiful wind but not plentiful water for stock or irrigation. As a result, inventor s created the first of the windmill powered water pumps so often associated with the region. These iconic, multi-bladed rotors became, along with sagebrush and tumbleweeds, a symbol of the West. By the 1940’s, over 6 million units had been produced and installed: many still in use.

The end of the Nineteenth Century saw the introduction of electricity as a source of both power and light. As a result of increased demand, inventors experimented with new and cheap ways to generate needed electricity. Professor James Blyth of Glasgow, Scotland, created the first documented wind generator. . The first wind generator in the United States was created by iHh Professor Charles F. Brush of Dayton, Ohio. His super-sized generator supposedly powered his home for twenty years, and had a rotor diameter of about 150 feet. In the years to follow, other large-scale generators were developed in various places.

At the same time large generators emerged, separate, smaller scale wind power systems began to rise in popularity. In the United States, brothers Joe and Marcellus Jacobs experimented with converting existing windmills into dynamos. After several successful designs, they would later move from their remote Montana farm to Minneapolis and begin producing wind generating systems that included a generator and storage batteries.

The Jacobs brothers also diversified their company and sold freezers and other appliances that ran on the electricity produced by their wind generators. Marcellus also pioneered the use of small wind generators to apply a current to gas and oil pipelines to slow the progress of corrosion. Jacobs also produced arc welders, tornado alarms, and since they were located in Minneapolis, Marcellus designed one of the earlier successful snow throwers. The company was successful for several decades, until the Rural Electrification Administration brought electricity to almost all rural farms by 1952. In 1960, Jacobs Electrics closed its doors. The founders relocated to South Florida for the next decade and a half, speculating in other ventures.

However, by the mid 1970’s energy crisis, wind energy, along with solar, made a resurgence. Disused Jacobs’s generators were actively sought after and refurbished; Mother Earth News ran articles on how to set up the systems. In 1980, the Jacobs Wind company was reborn, acquiring several other companies in the process. The descendant of the Jacobs Company still produces wind generators for small-scale use, and has gained new-found popularity in recent years worldwide, namely during the Y2K preparedness. Tax incentives in several states, including Oregon, make small wind systems like the Jacobs attractive to those wishing to live “off the grid.”

Large-scale turbines first emerged in the United States, Soviet Union, and Denmark during the same time period as the small-scale units. Soviet scientists created a successful horizontal-axis machine near Yalta in 1932. In the United States, the first wind turbine to be connected to a power grid came online in 1941 at Grandpa’s Knob, near Castleton, Vermont, but proved unreliable. One of the first three rotor designs emerged in Gedser, Denmark in 1956. Designed by pioneer Johannes Juul, this machine operated for the next eleven years, and became a catalyst for turbine design that would follow during the 1970’s.

Beginning in 1974, the National Atmospheric and Space Administration became a patron of wind power. Research began on a turbine at Sandusky, Ohio that year, and for the next decade, thirteen turbines base on seven designs were put online and studied in various places around the United States, including Washington, Wyoming, and Hawaii. NASA also refurbished the Juul designed three-bladed turbine at Gedser, Denmark to study the efficiency of that design type. Although highly successful, the NASA program fell victim to cheap oil prices during the 1980’s, when oil prices effectively lost two-thirds of their value. However, the research knowledge gained helped large scale development in the next twenty years.

The first wind farm in the United States came online in New Hampshire in 1980. Design and sighting limitations kept it from being successful. Construction of other wind endeavors slowed during the 1980’s oil glut, but began to reemerge during the 1990’s with significant wind farms in California and Texas. Oregon’s first wind farm began full-scale operation in 1998 with the Vansycle Wind Farm in Umatilla County, not far from Milton-Freewater and Helix. During the next decade, larger projects emerged in Sherman, Gilliam, Morrow, and Umatilla counties.

The Great Gap:

The Columbia Gorge

For centuries, the Columbia River has provided a highway to and from the Pacific Ocean where it slices through the Cascade Mountains. It also provides an avenue for wind to travel through. At present, Oregon is the third or fourth largest producer of wind energy in the United States. But for the state to achieve this distinction, several factors had to come together. The first is the abundance of wind, and after the Columbia Gorge became a hub for windsurfers in the 1990’s, it became a hub for wind development during the early 2000’s with the birth of large wind farms near existing power transmission lines, the same lines that distribute hydroelectric power from the four dams on the lower Columbia. Other lines upriver pipe Washington State’s wind electricity to market. Additionally, two separate pieces of legislation give alternative energy systems a boost. A 1999 law gives tax credits for wind systems and other alternative energy technologies. A 2008 law also calls for one quarter of domestic power to be produced alternatively by 2025.

Oregon’s first wind farm began operating in 1998 in Umatilla County. Vansycle Ridge project started with thirty eight turbines and twenty five megawatt generating capacity. Later expansion in the vicinity would create the Stateline Wind Farm that began operating in 2001. Both projects were originally developed by a subsidiary to Florida Power and Light which is now known as NextEra Energy Recourses. NextEra is now in the process of expanding Stateline, when completed, the Stateline Wind Farm will be the largest in the world with 455 turbines.

The next large wind projects in the state started in Sherman County with the Klondike Wind Farm in 2001. Klondike, named for a historic brick schoolhouse located east of Wasco, began operating in 2001 with the second and third phases coming online in 2008. Klondike has 242 operational turbines producing 399 megawatts of power. Oregon’s largest wind farm at present is the Bigelow Canyon Wind Farm in Sherman County, producing 450 Megawatts of power. Bigelow Canyon, owned by Portland General Electric, began operations its first phase of operation in 2007, with the rest coming online in 2009 for a total of 217 turbines.

Gilliam and Morrow Counties also have their own wind farms. The Willow Creek Wind Farm, owned by Invenergy, went online in 2009. At 48 turbines, Willow Creek is one of the smaller wind farms in the state, and it is now sandwiched between portions of the newer developments in the region. One of the more controversial wind projects is the Shepherd’s Flat Wind Farm in Gilliam and Morrow Counties. Construction was approved for the project in 2008, and work started in 2009.

The approval process for Shepherd’s Flat met a few obstacles on its way. The Federal Aviation Administration and the Air Force both feared the turbines would interfere with an aging radar station near Fossil. The Department of Defense later dropped their opposition to the project, planning instead to upgrade another radar station in order to fix the problem. Other concerns over the project came from noise pollution. An existing Oregon law caps industrial noise levels at 36 decibels. However, the Department of Environmental Quality hasn’t enforced it since 1991, and has left enforcement up to local agencies. In a controversial decision, Morrow County Commissioners decided not to enforce any noise ordinances, and Shepherd’s Flat proceeded. An additional twist came when Google decided to invest $100 Million into the project. When it is completed in 2012, it will add 338 turbines to the grid and be the largest wind farm anywhere in the world.

Because so many turbines are installed in Oregon and Washington, at least two turbine manufacturers have headquarters in the state. The world’s largest wind energy company, Iberdrola Renewables, is headquartered in Portland. To train the skilled workers necessary to install and service wind turbines, Columbia Gorge Community College, Portland Community College, Lane Community College, and Oregon Institute of Technology, all offer degree and certificate programs in Renewable Energy Technology.

Impact of Wind Farms

At present, Sherman, Gilliam, Morrow, and Umatilla Counties all have wind farms online. Other projects are scheduled to go online in Union and Crook Counties, and another has been approved in Harney County near the Steens Mountains. Feasibility studies have been completed into installing offshore turbines along the coast. Although controversial in some aspects, the impact of wind upon the land has been immense and has reshaped the landscape of rural Oregon. The Columbia Gorge and Basin have benefitted the most. Although Wasco County does not have any active wind projects, the city of The Dalles has received windfalls from wind development because of its proximity to wind projects. The economic hub of the Eastern Gorge, The Dalles started to see its first impacts from wind farms in 2005-2006, according to City Manager Nolan Young. According to Young, crews installing the turbines for the first wind farms started to use local hotels and restaurants at that time. Although Wasco County has no wind farms of its own, it see “Direct impact of payroll for permanent operations and maintenance staff based in local communities,” says Young, and “indirect benefits as demand continues for hotels and restaurants.”

Because of the multitude of wind farms surrounding The Dalles on both sides of the Columbia River, there is a demand for skilled workers to service wind turbines. To fulfill this demand, Columbia Gorge Community College developed a Renewable Energy Technology program that offers both degree and certificate options. 135 students are enrolled in the program, and although the wind industry contracted slightly during the economic downturn, it is rebounding, according to RET Liason Suzanne Burd. Expect the program to grow in the future.

What is Possible: One

County’s Experience

For more than a century, Sherman County and its neighbors to the east were part of a grain belt that still runs through to the Columbia Basin. In the spring, wheat fields show the first green and promise a bountiful harvest. Summer sees the green turn to gold, and with the autumn, the stubble fields wait for winter’s rest. On good years when the weather cooperated and grain prices were high, farmers made profits: on bad years, they suffered. When a new industry establishes itself in a new area, things change. Perhaps no county in the Northwest has seen as striking a change so quickly as Sherman County has. Sherman County was not home to the first wind farm in Oregon, but it did see the quickest expansion. With the construction of the original Klondike Wind Farm in 2002, things transformed. Since 2002, over 2 billion dollars have been invested into the county leading to 7.9 million dollars in new property taxes, 3.8 million in community service fees, and 5.9 million in other specialized and additional payments. Over the next fifteen years, wind companies will make additional 123 million dollar Strategic Investment Program payments to the county.

With the new revenue, Sherman County has spread the new-found wealth. “We have been providing 20% of those dollars to our local school district as well as $100,000 to each city” in the county, says County Commissioner Michael Smith. Another program sought to benefit all residents in the county, not just those with active leases. Each household is paid $590 in a program modeled after the Alaska oil payment program. Other funding benefits fire districts, soil and water conservation districts, the library, historical society, workforce housing, and scholarship programs for graduating high school students.

During the last decade, the wind power industry has provided “real stability” for the county, says Smith. “Our goal is to save roughly 35% or more of our income for future use.” Smith also notes that wind farms go on to the normal tax rolls in 15 years, so income should be steady for years to come. Another push for Sherman County is to get more people who work in the wind industry to live in the county. “We are also working to build our local businesses, housing, and infrastructure to entice more wind workers to live permanently in our county,” says Smith.

Not only government benefits from wind turbines. Those who own the land the turbines are sited on also reap a new kind of benefit. The half-acre plot each turbine sits on normally would only make about one hundred dollars per year. Each lease pays on a percentage of the amount of revenue the turbine produces. For the average turbine, this ends up being between five and eight thousand dollars per turbine. The land underneath turbine blades isn’t fallow: it also produces, and the last few years have seen good yields and high prices for wheat. This makes the risky proposition of dry land wheat farming much more attractive. “The turbines make money in the winter when I can’t work my land,” says farmer Lee Kaseberg. The land is also protected for the future: most leases also have a bond guarantee that pays for removal in the event a turbine becomes obsolete or needs to be removed.

Yet not all are happy in Sherman County. There are those who mourn the lost vistas. “You just can’t get around the fact that they are very large and change the historical view scape of the county,” says Commissioner Smith. Others claim there may be health impacts, including a malady known as Wind Turbine Syndrome. Smith notes that scientific studies don’t corroborate any of these claims, and also says the Oregon Public Health Departments will soon conduct its own study. He expects their report to find no adverse health effects from wind turbines. Few, if any complaints have emerged of ecological impact on wildlife or habitat in Sherman County. “I can honestly say that in my county I’ve only had a few people who’ve voiced an opinion against wind farming,” says Smith. “Of the few who do not like wind farms, I don’t know of one that thinks they have hurt our county.”

Where Next?

One of the next wind farms to be built will be in the southwest corner of Crook County called West Butte. This wind farm will have 52 turbines located on private when it is completed, and will generate up to 104 megawatts of electricity: enough to power over 36,000 homes. The site was chosen for a few obvious reasons, the first being that the wind blows strongly and often in the high desert. Existing power transmission lines will make it easy to connect the farm to the grid. A new access road is to be built through BLM land.

A unique cooperation between the developer, West Butte Wind Power, the Bureau of Land Management, the Oregon Natural Desert Association, and state and county agencies generated a plan that protects the environment as much as possible. Plans include for preserving Bald and Golden Eagle habitat, as well as that for Sage Grouse. Under the plan, the developer will restore habitat in other areas to make up for that taken in constructing the road and the transmission lines. Additionally, other land will be turned into conservation easements to enhance habitat.

The West Butte project is expected to generate 70 jobs during the construction phase, and probably between five and ten to keep it running. The wind farm is expected to add one million dollars in property taxes for Crook County. In all, the project appears to be well conceptualized and planned.

Further east, the Echanis Wind Project is scheduled to go online this year on private land on the northern Steens Mountains near Burns. The developer, Columbia Energy Technology of Vancouver, Washington, named the project for a pioneer Basque family that settled the area, and is leasing the land from the Mann Lake Ranch. A relatively small development of between 40-60 turbines, it will be on the west face of the mountain. Columbia Energy also plans on three other developments in the area: the West and East Ridge, and the Riddle Mountain projects, each scheduled for 40-60 turbines each. Both the Oregon Natural Desert Association and the Audubon Society oppose the projects. Regardless of opposition, the wind projects will bring much needed revenue into an area sorely in need of money.

Not all wind projects gain acceptance or approval. Union County in far Northeastern Oregon appears to be the hotbed at present for those who are standing against wind development. A Texas based developer, Horizon Wind Energy owned by EDP Renewables, a Portuguese energy conglomerate, proposes to put 164 wind turbines on a 47,000 acres of what some consider environmentally sensitive habitat. Opponents, including the Friends of the Grande Ronde Valley and the city of Union, say the project impacts the scenery, wildlife habitat, and cuts across a historical portion of the Oregon Trail. Their efforts seem to have paid off, since the plan at present is in limbo.

To handle future production, both Idaho Power and the Bonneville Power Administration are building new transmission lines that will keep power produced in the Northwest in the Northwest. One power transmission line will stretch from Boardman, Oregon to just outside of Boise, Idaho; the other line will start at Boardman and cross the Cascade Range to connect with Salem, Oregon. Both will allow wind farms to operate at full capacity, allow for growth for the future, and allow more of the power produced in the region to be used in the region.

As much as I would like to return to the past, to get (and train) a new bird dog, throw shotguns behind the seat of beat up pickup truck and head north, I realize it isn’t going to happen. The wind farms don’t take up all the land in the areas I would like to hunt, and they don’t keep me from hunting. Their presence just makes the experience of hunting the area different: my feeling of loss is for the difference, not for the wind farms themselves.

Wind—and by extension other “green” energy systems—are here to stay, and the landscape won’t change any time soon. The wind farms provide power without polluting the environment; they provide money in tax revenue unseen since the demise of the timber industry. They also give high-paying, skilled employment to a region that for the last half century has been losing both jobs and population. They vitalize a way of life, farming, that needs the shot in the arm. On the downside, health and noise concerns, limitations to land use, and the ever-present vista pollution make people dislike the industry. Others mourn the loss of habitat, and still others have a hard time balancing their support of the industry with the fact that, aside from a few small projects here and there, is dominated not only by national corporations but with multinational behemoths who sell the power produced here to other regions. In the end, all are forced to balance the benefits and pitfalls of a complicated industry.

Story by E.C. Jones

Ken Patchett ran Google’s Asian data centers for more than a year and a half, and he says it’s “B.S.” that the company treats its computing facilities as trade secrets jealously guarded from the rest of the world.

He actually writes the letters in the air with his finger. The B. And then the S.

Web giants like Google and Amazon are notoriously secretive about what goes on inside the worldwide network of data centers that serve up their sweeping collection of web services. They call it a security measure, but clearly, they also see these facilities as some sort of competitive advantage their online rivals mustn’t lay eyes on. When he joined Google, Ken Patchett — like so many other Googlers — signed an agreement that barred him from discussing the company’s data centers for at least a year after his departure, and maybe two.

But after leaving Google to run Facebook’s new data center in the tiny Northwestern town of Prineville, Oregon, Patchett says the security argument “doesn’t make sense at all” — and that data center design is in no way a competitive advantage in the web game. “How servers work has nothing to do with the way your software works,” he says, “and the competitive advantage comes from manipulating your software.”

It’s hard to argue with him. He just spent the better part of the afternoon giving us a walking tour of Facebook’s newest data center — from the rows upon rows of extra-efficient machines that serve up the company’s social networking site to the “penthouse” that lets the company cool its facility with outside air rather than burn electricity on the mammoth water chillers traditionally used by the world’s data centers. When Facebook turned on its Prineville data center this past spring, it also “open sourced” the designs for the facility and its custom-built servers. Patchett is merely extending this willingness to share.

Ken Patchett, general manager of Facebook’s Prineville data center
For Patchett, Facebook is trying to, well, make the world a better place — showing others how to build more efficient data centers and, in turn, put less of a burden on the environment. “The reason I came to Facebook is that they wanted to be open,” says Patchett.

“With some companies I’ve worked for, your dog had more access to you than your family did during the course of the day. Here [at Facebook], my children have seen this data center. My wife has seen this data center…. We’ve had some people say, ‘Can we build this data center?’ And we say, ‘Of course, you can. Do you want the blueprints?’”

‘The Tibet of North America’

The Evaporator Room inside the Prineville ‘penthouse’
Facebook built its data center in Prineville because it’s on the high desert. Patchett calls it “the Tibet of North America.” The town sits on a plateau about 2,800 feet above sea level, in the “rain shadow” of the Cascade Mountains, so the air is both cool and dry. Rather than use power-hungry water chillers to cool its servers, Patchett and company can pull the outside air into the facility and condition it as needed. If the air is too cold for the servers, they can heat it up — using hot air that has already come off the servers themselves — and if the outside air is too hot, they can cool it down with evaporated water.

In the summer, Prineville temperatures may reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit, but then they drop back down to the 40s in the evenings. Eric Klann, Prineville’s city engineer, whose family goes back six generations in central Oregon, says Facebook treats its data center much like the locals treat their homes. “Us country hicks have been doing this a long time,” says Klann, with tongue in cheek. “You open up your windows at night and shut them during the day.”

The added twist is that Facebook can also cool the air during those hot summer days.

Filters inside the penthouse clean the outside air before it’s pushed into the server room.
All this is done in the data center’s penthouse — a space the size of an aircraft carrier, split into seven separate rooms. One room filters the air. Another mixes in hot air pumped up from the server room below. A third cools the air with atomized water. And so on. With the spinning fans and the neverending rush of air, the penthouse is vaguely reminiscent of the room with the “fizzy lifting drinks” in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, where Charlie Bucket and Grandpa Joe float to the ceiling of Wonka’s funhouse. It’s an analogy Patchett is only too happy to encourage.

You might say that Facebook has applied the Willy Wonka ethos to data center design, rethinking even the smallest aspects of traditional facilities and building new gear from scratch where necessary. “It’s the small things that really matter,” Patchett says. The facility uses found water to run its toilets. An Ethernet-based lighting system automatically turns lights on and off as employees enter and leave areas of the data center. And the company has gone so far as to design its own servers.

‘Freedom’ Reigns

Facebook flies the flags of state, country, and social network.
Codenamed Freedom while still under development, Facebook’s custom-built servers are meant to release the company from the traditional server designs that don’t quite suit the massive scale of its worldwide social network. Rather than rely on pre-built machines from the likes of Dell and HP, Facebook created “vanity-free” machines that do away with the usual bells and whistles, while fitting neatly into its sweeping effort to improve the efficiency of its data center.

Freedom machines run roughly half the loads in Prineville. They do the web serving and the memcaching (where data is stored in machine memory, rather on disk, for quick access), while traditional machines still handle the database duties. “We wanted to roll out [the new servers] in baby steps,” says Patchett. “We wanted to try it and prove it, and then expand.”

Taller than the average rack server, the custom machines can accomodate both larger fans and larger heat sinks. The fans spin slower but still move the same volume of air, so Facebook can spend less energy pushing heat off the machines. And with the larger heat sinks, it needn’t force as much cool air onto the servers from the penthouse.

‘Freedom’ racks in the Facebook server room
The machines also use a power supply specifically designed to work with the facility’s electrical system, which is a significant departure from the typical data center setup. In order to reduce power loss, the Prineville data center eliminates traditional power distribution units (which transform power feeds for use by servers and other equipment) and a central uninterruptible power supply (which provides backup power when AC power is lost). And the power supplies are designed to accomodate these changes.

The custom power supplies accept 277-volt AC power — so Facebook needn’t transform power down to the traditional 208 volts — and when AC power is lost, the systems default to a 48-volt DC power supply sitting right next to the server rack, reducing the power loss that comes when servers default to a massive UPS sitting on the other side of a data center.

According to Facebook, the machines are 94.5 percent efficient, but they’re part of a larger whole. The result of all this electrical and air work is a data center that consumes far less power than traditional computing facilities. In addition to building and operating its own facility in Prineville, Facebook leases data center space in North California and Virginia, and it says the Prineville data center requires 38 percent less energy than these other facilities — while costing 24 percent less.

The average data center runs at 1.6 to 1.8 power usage effectiveness (PUE) — the ratio of the power used by a data center to the power delivered to it — while Facebook’s facility runs between 1.05 and 1.10 PUE over the course of the year, close to the ideal 1-to-1 ratio.

“We want to be the most effective stewards of the electrons we consume. If we pay for 100 megawatts of power we want to use 100 megawatts of power,” Patchett says. “The average house is between 2 and 3 PUE. That’s twice the amount of energy you actually have to assume. What if every home was the same efficient steward that we are?”

What Google Is Not

Power generators in the yard outside the Prineville facility
Google is also running a data center without chillers. And it’s building its own servers. But it won’t talk about them. Although the company has released some information on the data centers and servers it was running as far back as 2004, its latest technology is off limits. When we contacted Google to participate in this story, the company did not respond with any meaningful information.

According to Dhanji Prasanna, a former Google engineer who worked on a programming library at the heart of “nearly every Java server” at the company, the search giant’s latest data center technology goes well beyond anything anyone else is doing. But he wouldn’t say more. Like Ken Patchett — and presumably, all other Google employees — he signed a non-disclosure agreement that bars him from discussing the technology.

Jim Smith — the chief technology officer of Digital Realty Trust, a company that owns, operates, and helps build data centers across the globe — says that Google must have a good reason for keeping its designs under wraps. “I’m not an insider, but it must make sense [that Google is so secretive],” Smith tells Wired. “At every level [of Google employee] you meet, they only share certain bits of information, so I presume there’s good reason.” But Facebook believes the opposite is true — and it’s not alone.

When Facebook open sourced its Prineville designs under the aegis of the Open Compute Project, it was certainly thumbing its nose at Google. “It’s time to stop treating data center design like Fight Club and demystify the way these things are built,” said Jonathan Heiliger, then the vice president of technical operations at Facebook. But the company was also trying to enlist the help of the outside world and, in the long run, improve on these initial designs.

“We think the bigger value comes back to us over time,” Heiliger said, “just as it did with open source software. Many people will now be looking at our designs. This is a 1.0. We hope this will accelerate what everyone is doing.”

Microsoft sees Heiliger’s logic. Redmond hasn’t open sourced its data center designs, but it has shared a fair amount of information about its latest facilities, including the chillerless data center it opened in Dublin, Ireland two years go. “By sharing our best practices and educating the industry and getting people to think about how to approach these problems, we think that they can start contributing to the solutions we need,” Microsoft distinguished engineer Dileep Bhandarkar tells Wired. “This will move the industry forward, and suppliers — people that build transformers, that build air handlers — will build technologies that we can benefit from.”

Thinking Outside the Module

Facebook’s ‘found water’ tank. And its gnomes.
With its designs, Facebook isn’t mimicking Google. The company is forging a new way. When Patchett left Google for Facebook, Facebook had him sign an agreement that he wouldn’t share his past experiences with the company. “I guess that’s because I worked for the G,” he says. This is likely a way for Facebook to legally protect itself, but it seems to show that the company has rethought the problems of data center design from the ground up.

Unlike at least some of Google’s facilities, Faceboook’s data center does not use a modular design. Google constructs its data centers by piecing together shipping containers pre-packed with servers and cooling-equipment. Patchett acknowledges that Google’s method provides some added efficiency. “You’ve got bolt-on compute power,” he says. “You can expand in a clustered kind of way. It’s really quite easy. It’s repetitious. You do the same thing each time, and you end up with known problems and known results.” But he believes the setup doesn’t quite suit the un-Googles of the world.

Google runs a unified software infrastructure across all its data centers, and all its applications must be coded to this infrastructure. This means Google can use essentially the same hardware in each data center module, but Patchett says that most companies will find it difficult to do the same. “I don’t buy it,” Patchett says of the modular idea. “You have to built your applications so that they’re spread across all those modules…. Google has done a pretty good job building a distributed computing system, but most people don’t build that way.”

Microsoft distinguished engineer Bhandarkar agrees — at least in part. Redmond uses modules in some data centers where the company is using software suited to the setup, but in others, it sidesteps the modular setup. “If you have a single [software platform], you can have one [hardware] stamp, one way of doing things,” Bhandarkar says. “But if you have a wide range of applications with different needs, you need to build different flavors.”

Codenames in the High Desert

Solar panels feed power to the data center’s office space.
Facebook designed the Prineville data center for its own needs, but it does believe these same ideas can work across the web industry — and beyond. This fall, the company built a not-for-profit foundation around the Open Compute Project, hoping to bring more companies into an effort that already has the backing of giants such as Intel, ASUS, Rackspace, NTT Data, Netflix, and even Dell.

In building its own servers, Facebook has essentially cut Dell out of its data center equation. But the Texas-based IT giant says Facebook’s designs can help it build servers for other outfits with similar data center needs.

In some ways, Dell is just protecting its reputation. And on a larger level, many see Facebook’s effort as a mere publicity stunt, a way to shame its greatest rival. But for all of Ken Patchett’s showmanship — and make no mistake, he is a showman — his message is a real one. According to Eric Klann, Prineville’s city engineer, two other large companies have approached the town about building their own data centers in area. He won’t say who they are — their codenames are “Cloud” and “Maverick” — but both are looking to build data centers based on Facebook’s designs.

“Having Facebook here and having their open campus concept — where they’re talking about this new cooling technology and utilizing the atmosphere — has done so much to bring other players into Prineville. They would never have come here if it wasn’t for Facebook,” he tells Wired.com.

“By them opening up and showing everyone how efficiently they’re operating that data center, you can’t help but have some of the other big players be interested.”

– Funding is available to innovative Crook County-based projects and organizations that support technology and community –

Applications are currently being accepted for the 2012 Facebook-Prineville Community Action Grants Program. Crook County organizations and programs can apply online at www.facebook.com/prinevilledatacenter?sk=app_310735082275471 and are due by December 15, 2011. The 2011 winners will be announced in January 2012.

Facebook, which opened their first company-owned data center in Prineville in 2010, is committed to investing in the long-term health and vitality of Crook County and its residents by supporting nonprofits that meet critical community needs. In that spirit, Facebook’s Prineville Data Center is funding competitive grants for projects and/or organizations based in Crook County only.

The Facebook-Prineville Community Action Grants Program are available for projects that put the power of technology to use for community benefit and help improve education at all levels.

As a company that uses technology to provide a medium to increase and enhance human interaction, Facebook will also be interested in proposals that help bring people together either physically or virtually.

Finally, Facebook is a company built on an ethos of constant innovation, so they will look to reward the most innovative proposals.

MEDIA CONTACT
Lee Weinstein, (503) 708-0402, lee@leeweinstein.biz

About Facebook

Founded in February 2004, Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people’s real-world social connections. Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment. Facebook is a part of millions of people’s lives all around the world. Facebook is a privately held company and is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA.

About Brooks Resources Corporation
Brooks Resources Corporation, based in Bend, Oregon, is a real estate development company that delivers quality real estate products and services in Central Oregon. With roots in the original 1916 Brooks-Scanlon lumber company that sparked a boom in Bend’s growth for the next half century, Brooks Resources is one of the oldest and most respected developers in the area. Offering a diverse choice of premier neighborhoods in Central Oregon, Brooks Resources Corporation is committed to the preservation of natural environment around home sites, positive growth of communities and an active relationship with the communities of Central Oregon.

Its current developments include North Rim on Awbrey Butte, IronHorse in Prineville, Yarrow in Madras and NorthWest Crossing (a joint venture with Tennant Family Limited Partnership). In addition it operates Mount Bachelor Village Resort, Botanical Developments and Brooks Resources Realty. For more information, visit www.brooksresources.com.

Full Map of Trail

Prineville Oregon Welcomes New Public Trail in IronHorse Neighborhood

Trail offers public access to local landmarks through Central Oregon mixed-use community

27 October 2011 – Prineville, Oregon – IronHorse, a neighborhood located in the heart of Central Oregon, opened a public trail earlier this month. The trail, which is 3.6 miles round trip, provides unprecedented access to Barnes Butte and surrounding Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land.

“We are so excited to provide access to the IronHorse property, along with a link to the surrounding BLM land,” said Romy Mortensen, vice president for sales and marketing at Brooks Resources Corporation, which is developing IronHorse. “Building a trail that provides formal access to the areas that make this region so special made good sense to everyone. We look forward moving ahead with more projects like this as the neighborhood grows.”

The new trailhead is located at the end of Wayfinder Drive, near the portion of IronHorse that has already been developed. It winds through IronHorse land for 1.8 miles before connecting with BLM and reaching the base of Barnes Butte. Several viewpoints are identified along the trail, giving users unique stops that overlook Prineville, IronHorse and the Ochocos.

For a map of the trail, interested parties can download a PDF from the IronHorse website at ironhorseprineville.com. The trail has been designed to accommodate hikers of all skill levels and is restricted to foot-traffic only.

About IronHorse

IronHorse, a mixed-use community located in Prineville, Oregon, has been designed as a natural extension of the existing historic area. This unique neighborhood brings together the very best of traditional neighborhood developments across the West, while recognizing the need for quality, environmental sensitive and self-supportive growth in Prineville. IronHorse includes a variety of residential housing options, plans for a public school site, a neighborhood commercial center, and more than 250 acres of parks and open spaces. IronHorse is being developed by Brooks Resources Corporation, a company known for its thoughtful, quality real estate developments in Central Oregon and its true dedication to the area’s heritage. http://www.ironhorseprineville.com

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Amorita Anstett (541) 604 0994
September 12, 2011

CROOKED RIVER ROUNDUP RODEO AND RACE MEET ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES THEIR 3rd ANNUAL QUEEN SCHOLARSHIP CLINIC

WHAT: The Crooked River Roundup Rodeo Association announces their 3rd Annual Queen Scholarship Clinic, Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 10am held at the Crook County Fairgrounds indoor arena in Prineville. This clinic is open to young ladies of all ages who are interested in becoming a rodeo queen.
Cost is $50 per applicant and $10 per visitor.
Interested applicants can contact Amorita Anstett at 541 604 0994, or email at pamorita_@hotmail.com for more information. Applications are also available on the roundup website at www.crookedriverroundup.com under the Queen section.

WHEN Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 10 am

WHERE Crook County Indoor Arena, Prineville, OR

Birth, graduation, marriage, job; everyone has a list of important dates, but it is really the events between those memorable dates that make the man. Dean Tuftin is no exception.

“By” a team roper and “out of” a barrel racer, Tuftin was genetically predisposed to be part of the rodeo world. In addition, his brother was a Canadian bullfighter. Born in Drayton Valley, Alberta, Canada on November 28, 1970, there was just not much chance that horses and horsemanship were not going to be part of this young man’s life.

Growing up, Tuftin spent a lot of time roping and his focus was on heeling. The opportunity to spend a lot of time in Arizona during the winter months and Canada in the summers meant year-round riding, working and training. In Canada he won several amateur events and a title in 1992. The Canadian Cowboys Association Team Roping Championship titles belonged to him in 1993 and 1994. Horsemanship and the fundamentals were keys to his success.

In 1995, Tuftin joined the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). Winning continued on the US rodeo circuit as he became one of the top heelers in the sport of team roping. The Fort Worth Stock Show, San Antonio Rodeo and the US Team Roping Championships US Open Tour are included on the list of his winning events. Eventually, Tuftin decided to try heading after associating with ropers in rodeos around the Northwest. In 1998, he bought a head horse and began ranking quite well for never having worked as a header before. Winnings here and there and meeting different people was fun, but it became clear that Tuftin needed to go back to heeling. His life had been spent heeling and that is where his fundamentals were.

During these rodeo years, music began to play a more important tune for Tuftin. This interest led to success on a different kind of stage. Always passionate about music, he spent several years writing songs and travelling between Canada and Nashville. In the early 2000s, music was a strong focus. The first CD, released in Canada, won awards and he achieved the notoriety to play at the Canadian Country Music Awards. Another album was released in Nashville and a single from it, “Wide Open Highways,” went to number one on the Canadian country music charts. While it was a fun part of his life, Tuftin has been quoted as saying “My passion has always been music, but my addiction has always been rodeo and roping.” The country music life is not really Tuftin’s idea of a family environment either, with the late nights, bars, parties and so forth. As a family man, there is just too much to give up. He loves being part of his family’s lives; being available for school events, dance recitals, soccer games and such and enjoying the fruit of his wife’s passion…cooking.

This brings us to the man Dean Tuftin is today. A beautiful ranch in Central Oregon, tucked away between Prineville and Bend, is home to his family. The women in his life, wife, Leslie, and daughters, Maysa and Maggie, are happy to have Dean around more as his rodeo and music days have ended…at least as a performer. That genetic predisposition to horses and horsemanship mentioned earlier has not failed him, however, as his business and focus today is breeding genetically better, top roping horses. Breeding is second nature to top-performing race, quarter, thoroughbred and other performance horses, but it was never a strong influence to ropers. Canyon Horse Sales, with Tuftin at the head, is making a big change in this.

During his rodeo performance days, Tuftin knew rodeo roping was not going to last forever. Having grown up riding and showing horses; working in Arizona, the hotbed of team roping; training and giving lessons for ten years; he’d had the privilege of meeting and working with great folks and great horses. These experiences gave Tuftin the well-rounded background he has and were a natural step to breeding. He discovered that horses that have better genetics and are better broke make working and winning so much easier. During this time he was quietly planning for the future and was secretly in search of a stud.

A two-year old in Texas caught Tuftin’s eye, Shining Spark, a 1989 palomino stallion and a leading sire. He also had his eye on Lil Miss Smarty Chex, a 1987 chestnut mare and a leading producer of winning foals. Tuftin’s mother-in-law, Margie Denton, shared his passion for horses and actually started him out breeding with her barrel-race-horse stallion. Over time, he found mares to breed to him, particularly cow-horse-bred mares. Working locally with Don Avila, the breeding led to cow-horse studs. These horses are more intent on cows, being more stockey, more cowey, nicer and more trainable. This process led to the current studs used in Canyon Horse Sales breeding program:

1. “Tahoe” (Shiner’s Lena Chex), an 8-year-old and the cornerstone stud of the ranch; by Shining Spark, out of Lil Miss Smarty Chex, a sorrel
2. “Chester” (Lena Docs Diamond) a six-year-old; by Shiner’s Lena Doc, out of Zans Diamond Jackie, a chestnut
3. “Hollywood” (Hesa Dun Lena) a 7-year-old; by Hollywood Dun It, out of Rosita Lena, a buckskin

Currently, the number one roper in the world is riding one of Tuftin’s horses. In March of this year, Jade Corkill from Fallen, Nevada, won the Grand Championship at the 29th Annual George Strait Team Roping Classic in San Antonio, as part of fifty teams in the finals from nearly five hundred teams entered in the competition. So what makes these roping horses so good? Is it more about genetics or training? Tuftin says is it a combination. Breeding gives a quiet, soft, cowey, stockey horse. He likes his horses to be more trainable and not high strung. Match this quality horse to a trainer of the right personality and you are going to succeed. Genetics first, a great trainer and a unique training process have proven to produce winners at Canyon Horse Sales.

What makes the training process different for Tuftin’s horses? Horses don’t learn when they are running. They run out of fear. We don’t just “throw them to the wolves.” Instead we implement a slow, controlled, methodical process which isn’t very common. Fundamentals of horsemanship come into play. “We want to master each step before pushing horses forward.” These horses are bred to have run in them, but need to be properly trained. So, Tuftin and his trainers start with a walk, then to trot, on to lope. The horse may regress and go back to the trot again, work forward and back until those fundamentals are solid. When cows are introduced, it will be the slow cows first and they are just sprinkled into the training process initially. The mechanical cow is used a lot in the training arena, as well. Tuftin equates this training schedule, if you will, to a child. One wouldn’t introduce fifth-grade work to a kindergartener. Similarly, his bird dogs wouldn’t know what to do if put out in the field with the cows, but his Border Collie understands naturally. Again, it is genetics!

As a two-year-old, the horse will start working the real ranch. Using Tuftin’s ranch and his father-in-law, Denny Denton’s, ranch in Prineville, the horse has to go to work. He has a job to do. Being around cows and wildlife, the horse is able to learn in the environment of their work. The horse becomes zoned in on the cows and the job and then later, when taken to big events, is not put off by the excitement of the rest of the show. The arena is used for specialized training and for working in cold weather, but because the horse is allowed to be in the natural environment regularly, he doesn’t become sour from working in the arena too much.

While Tuftin’s music days may be over, his breeding business, Canyon Horse Sales, sings like a well-tuned band, each instrument playing its part, and each member singing in harmony. Beyond his family roots, his in-laws, Margie and Denny Denton, have been instrumental and supportive. When opening the arena in 2009, Tuftin hired Dave McMichael, manager of Denton’s ranch in Prineville, as his lead man, to be head trainer, take care of the cow herd and horses and to start colts. One hundred head of Corriente cattle are maintained for roping training. Tuftin mentioned that McMichael was not originally a horse trainer, but has a great knack for starting colts. He has soft hands, which bodes well for their style of training and he loves his job. Tuftin said, “I’ve seen lots of guys…he is as good as anybody.”

Starting the colts involves the veterinarian, Tim Phillips, from Redmond. Twenty mares are now kept for breeding via embryo transfers. The goal here is to keep a manageable number and cross the best mares with the best studs. Using embryo transfers, with surrogate mommas, the mares can continue training. Phillips stays very involved and is a roper, as well, visiting the ranch often.

Tom Stewart is the smiling guy who keeps the property in tip-top shape. As head maintenance man, welder and whatever else, he “takes care of everything around the ranch.”
Smiling must be required to work for Tuftin, as the two other members of the team never seem to stop. Both of these guys, Shane Barden and Jameson Grimes, started out cleaning stalls and doing other ranch duties while in high school and succeeding in Crook County sporting venues. Today they will be found roping, training and working the horses and cows…and apparently loving every minute of it.

Passions evolve. Life evolves. Business evolves. Is it genetics? Tuftin would say so. “Everyone does a great job for me. I’m fortunate to do what I love. Great people make it great and I want them to be happy.” These were Tuftin’s parting interview words. Oh yes, and “I love to see folks do well on my horses!”

Canyon Horse Sales
Dean Tuftin | 541.389.2150
www.canyonhorsesales.com (live in June, 2011)

• Learn, watch and participate including video
• Breeding and selling top team-roping horses
• Educating and showing how a horse was created and trained
• Grow with the horse
• Watch training process
• Have a great experience in the purchase of a horse
• Training tips

There are over 250,000 team ropers in North America. Dean Tuftin and Canyon Horse Sales are committed to offering the genetically better, top-end rope horse.

The Geology
The spectacular view of the Oregon Cascades from the volcanic rim had me so mesmerized that a sudden movement startled me. A golden eagle flew up from below and hovered at eye level about 25 feet away from me.

He continued slowly along the rim when, seemingly from out of nowhere, two kestrels began to attack the eagle. The battle resembled two fighter jets attacking a bomber. The kestrels easily chased the eagle out of their territory and flew back below the rim. It’s a rare chance to look down on these magnificent raptors, especially a golden eagle with a wingspan of up to seven feet.

I stood at the northern point of The Peninsula overlooking both the Crooked River and Deschutes River arms of Lake Billy Chinook. If I had to choose one trail which best represents Central Oregon, it would have to be the Tam-a-lau Trail at Cove Palisades State Park – and one of the newest trails in Central Oregon. From the trail are views of the Cascades, the river canyons and the volcanic buttes rising from the sagelands of the high desert. The trail climbs steadily from the trailhead near the campground for a little over a mile to the top of The Peninsula, gaining 600 feet in elevation. At the top, a 5-mile loop trail circles the Peninsula.

Just below the rim at the north point of The Peninsula is Ship Rock, also called Battleship Rock and The Ship. Out ahead and 200 feet lower sits The Island, a 1 3/4-mile long by 1/4-mile wide hunk of lava. Though not actually surrounded by water on all sides, the lava plateau juts up high enough to give it an island-like appearance between the Deschutes and Crooked river arms of the reservoir.

The Island was formed about a million years ago when lava from the Newberry area flowed 60 miles overland and entered the Crooked River near Smith Rock. The lava followed the canyon until it reached the area of the present-day Round Butte Dam where it backed up and filled the Metolius, Deschutes and Crooked river canyons to within 200 feet from their rims. Subsequent erosion has washed away most of the lava. The Intracanyon Basalts, as it is known, can still be seen on the edges of the canyons. The Island is the largest remnant of the flow. Before the Intracanyon flows, the Crooked and Deschutes Rivers joined at the low saddle between The Peninsula and The Island. The Secretary of the Interior recently announced six new sites in the country as national natural landmarks, one of them being The Island.

Two million years ago, huge floods carried sand, pebbles, and boulders up to 40 feet in diameter down the Deschutes River. Mixed in with these deposits were ash, pumice, and lava flows. This is known as the Deschutes Formation and can be seen on the hike up to the rim. The Rimrock Basalt caps off the canyon walls and was formed between two and three million years ago from eruptions of Round Butte and the east flanks of the Cascades.

Due to its inaccessibility, The Island contains one of the largest and most pristine examples of western juniper/big sagebrush/bluebunch wheatgrass communities in the entire Columbia Plateau region. The plant life there closely resembles what it used to be like thousands of years ago. The only grazing known to have occurred on The Island was 20 sheep in 1929. Under the guise of sheepherder, a man ran an illegal moonshine operation in a 30-foot deep crack. Old copper tubing and jars have been found at the bottom of the crack.

As The Island became a more popular hiking destination, the increased recreational use began to compromise its ecology by damaging the delicate cryptogamic soils, introducing non-native plants and causing some eagle nest sites to fail. The Island was closed to hikers on October 1, 1997, in order to protect its pristine values. Limited numbers of researchers and educators can obtain permits to visit the area. In response to this trail closure, the Tam-a-lau Trail was created. Trail construction began in September 1997 and was completed the following summer.

The best way to view The Island is from the four viewpoints located along Mountain View Drive on the east side of the Crooked River Canyon or from The Peninsula via the Tam-a-lau Trail.

The History
Tam-a-lau is a Native American term meaning “place of big rocks on the ground.” Through the millennia, huge boulders have rolled from the surrounding rimrock and have come to rest on the valley floor. According to the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Tam-a-lau was also the name of an ancient trail that passed through the area as part of a trade route to the Columbia River. Tribal elders remembered the name and passed it on through many generations. There is evidence that Native Americans camped in the present-day campground. Before the flooding of the reservoir, a boulder with many petroglyphs, including a water monster, was brought up from the Crooked River and placed along the road just before the campground.
Peter Skene Ogdan passed through the area in the early 1800s while trapping beaver. In 1834, Nathaniel Wyeth of the Columbia River Fishing Company made a visit to what is now Cove Palisades State Park. Captain John C. Fremont and Kit Carson also made journeys into this part of Central Oregon. The present-day reservoir was named after a Native American chief who guided Fremont through the area in 1843.
Homesteaders tried their hand at making a living here in the late 1800s. Hikers will find rock piles and rock walls along the Tam-a-lau Trail. These were probably used as livestock pens and later filled in with more rocks as fields were cleared for planting. It would take the homesteaders an entire day every few weeks to go down to the rivers and fill barrels and buckets with water and then bring them sloshing back up in their wagons. Several original “water roads” can still be seen switch-backing down off the rims of all three arms of the reservoir.
There is evidence of at least 22 homesteads that once stood either within the canyons or on the high plateaus. It is believed that a homesteader named Clark Green Rogers named the area “The Cove.” The Rogers family and subsequent owners planted peach and apple orchards along the Crooked River, providing surrounding communities with fresh fruit. Homesteading the high desert was anything but prosperous and by the 1930s most homesteads were abandoned.
The Recreation
From the point of The Peninsula, I looked down at the calm, 400-foot deep waters of the reservoir and tried to imagine the once raging whitewater of the Crooked and Deschutes Rivers in their deep volcanic canyons. I watched a variety of boats make wakes across the surface — some towing waterskiers, some toting anglers. An occasional houseboat made its way up the arm of the reservoir.
Lake Billy Chinook offers a unique experience for anglers — the opportunity to catch (and keep) bull trout. Although these large fish can be caught anywhere in the reservoir, most anglers target the Metolius arm in March and April, then again in September. The Metolius arm is open to fishing March 1 through October 31 while the rest of the reservoir is open year round. A tribal permit is required in the Metolius arm.
Anglers are allowed to keep one bull trout per day at least 24 inches long. I’ve caught only one fish over 24 inches but have caught and released many between 20 and 23 inches. Fishing in the scenic canyons is definitely a fun experience. Besides the much sought after bull trout, the reservoir is also home to rainbow and brown trout, smallmouth bass and kokanee.
I’ve been out many times with John Garrison, owner of Garrison’s Guide Service (541-593-8394). On one memorable outing up the Metolius arm for bull trout, I probably made several hundred casts and only turned two fish when Garrison grabbed a rod and did something I haven’t heard about for many years. He pointed toward shore and said, “One cast, one fish.” I simply laughed.
Of course this reminded me of Babe Ruth’s called shot in the fifth inning of Game 3 of the 1932 World Series when he pointed to center field and hit his second homer of the game on the next pitch –over the center field fence.
I paid little attention to “Babe” Garrison’s remark and continued my fruitless casting campaign until he cried out, “Fish on!” As he has remarked in this fashion so many times in the past, I again thought of him as the guide who cried bull. However, this time it wasn’t bull, but an actual bull trout.
Oh great, I thought; I’ll never hear the end of this. From the bend in the rod, it appeared the fish was the usual size that I catch – 16 to 18 inches. However, as the bull trout got closer and we both saw its white flash, I slowly and made my way to the net. Now I knew I would never hear the end of this. I even missed the fish on the first pass with the net and assured Garrison that the fish was just too quick and the miss was not intentional. When the net and fish finally made it in the boat, the Rapala instantly detached from the trout. Just think, one more miss with the net and the fish may have gotten off…
The plump fish measured 25 inches, an inch over the legal keeper size. Garrison decided to keep the fish and his day of fishing was over. The limit on bull trout is one per day at least 24 inches long.
There are a few reasons that Lake Billy Chinook and the Metolius River drainage have some of the most robust bull trout populations in the west. Streams flowing into the Metolius River have survived a lot of the habitat degradation that occurred in Oregon and weren’t entirely fished out when Round Butte Dam was built.
Two major changes occurred to allow bull trout to increase. The kokanee population increased and established itself in the basin, providing a prey source. Restrictive angling regulations were imposed in 1982 limiting the catch from 10 bull trout per day to one and no harvest of wild trout is allowed in the Metolius River and most of its tributaries.
Bull trout historically used most of the Deschutes River from its headwaters to the confluence with the Columbia River. Today they are found only in the Metolius River and its tributaries, Lake Billy Chinook, the Deschutes River above Lake Billy Chinook to Steelhead Falls and the lower mile of the Crooked River below Opal Springs Dam.
When compared to other basins in the west, the Metolius River tributaries have some of the highest densities documented for juvenile bull trout with up to 21 juveniles per 100 square meters of habitat. The smaller streams have
undercut banks, overhanging vegetation and large woody debris, all important habitat components for the trout.
The Park
The Cove Palisades State Park is a year-round recreational destination for the entire family. The marina specializes in the rentals of houseboats, ski boats, fishing boats, pontoon boats, wave runners, kayaks, pedal boats and all the water toys. There is also a store, full-service campground, restaurant and three deluxe lakeshore log cabins.
Other interesting activities in the park for the whole family include Eagle Watch in mid-February and Lake Billy Chinook Day in September. Interpretive programs are offered from Memorial Day through Labor Day. The park is the most visited state park east of the Cascades with up to 750,000 people a year. In comparison, that’s more than Mount Bachelor or The High Desert Museum receives yearly.
The state leased the first land for a park in the Crooked River Canyon in 1940. The land included the site of a homestead named the “The Cove” after a popular swimming hole on the Crooked River. The name stuck as more park land was purchased during the next 20 years. The “Palisades” part of the name refers to the tall column-like formations seen in the basalt rimrocks. The park now consists of 4,403 acres, not including its original parcel lying 200 feet below the reservoir’s surface.
The Dam
Lake Billy Chinook has existed since 1964 when Portland General Electric constructed the Round Butte Dam. Officials predicted it would take a year to fill the reservoir, but with warm weather and rain on top of melting snow that winter, it filled in only one week. PGE operated the Round Butte Hydroelectric Project until 1999 when it entered into an agreement with The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs to co-manage the hydroelectric facilities. The project generates approximately 800,000 megawatts electricity per year for residents in the Portland metropolitan area.
Surrounded by mostly public lands, Lake Billy Chinook includes 72 miles of shoreline and a surface area of 4,000 acres. Its deepest point is 400 feet at Round Butte Dam. The reservoir stays full, or within one foot of full, from June 15-September 15.
Lake Billy Chinook and its surrounding canyons and rimrock offer outstanding scenery, varied geology, diverse and unique vegetation and wildlife, recreational opportunities and a chance to visit the historic and prehistoric past.
More Information
A $5 daily day-use fee is required in the park or you can buy a 1-year permit for $30 or a 2-year permit for $50, which are good at all state park day-use areas.
Crooked River Campground (year round): 91 electrical sites with water.
Deschutes Campground (May – mid Sept.): 82 full hookup sites; 92 tent sites with water nearby (max. site 60 feet); three group tent areas.
For park information call 541-546-3412 or
800-551-6949.
Call the Cove Palisades Resort & Marina to rent a boat or other water toys at 877-546-7171. There are 24 boat slips available, 20 of which can be reserved. To make boat slip reservations call 800-452-5687.