Owyhee Visit to Sheep Ranch Fort
Back in August when Tim Davis and I visited “Robbers Roost” (see earlier posting), our route along the old I.O.N. highway took us past the Sheep Ranch Fort, a lovely and nearly intact ruin that is said to be the oldest standing structure in Malheur county. Earlier in May while in Salem for testimony concerning protection for the Owyhee Canyonlands, Tim had met Elias Eiguren, on whose ranch the Sheep Ranch Fort stands. An eager aficionado of the history of the Owyhee, Tim seized the opportunity to arrange a visit to the ruin and invited me along.
Sheep Ranch, 1920
The building is known locally as “Sheep Ranch” or “Sheep Ranch Fort” and comprises two parts. The single story section was constructed around 1857 as a way station on the route from Humboldt, Nevada to Ruby City in Idaho and onward to Boise. A two-story section was added in 1865 with the help of cavalry troops that had been moved into the area to provide security. The two adjoining parts combine to make a “T”–the single-story section being the stem and the two-story structure forming the arms of the “T”. Besides being a way station, the building was also intended as protection from hostile Indians. The thick walls are of grey sandstone quarried nearby and are pierced with gun ports designed to present a minimal opening while allowing two men to fire across one another in different directions. When Silas Skinner, builder of the Skinner Toll Road between Silver City and the Owyhee River at Rome, and David Shirk were inspecting the road and stayed at the vacant house, and the two of them were able to fend off a party of Indians who attacked them in the night.
Gun Port
Way stations were located about ten to fifteen miles or a day’s travel apart. Most were spare one-room shelters. As the only “home station” or overnight stop, between Ft. McDermitt and Silver City, Sheep Station was the exception. Meals were served and grocery staples and tobacco could be bought. There are different descriptions of the layout of the front section: Writer Stacy Peterson says that on the ground floor there were three small sleeping rooms for women, while on the upper floor, accessible by an outside stairway, were the men’s quarters. But according to local historian Hazel Fretwell-Johnson, an internal stairwell in the center of the house led to the upstairs which had room for men and women on opposite sides. Her description fits the building’s present configuration, which perhaps reflects an alteration from the original layout. Wells Fargo had an office at Sheep Ranch and the only telegraph station in Jordan Valley, which proved of critical importance during the Bannock-Paiute uprising of 1878.
Sheep Ranch, Front View
The Sheep Ranch name is misleading and derives not from its original purpose but from an 1864 incident when two men were trailing a band of 500 sheep from Humboldt, Nevada northward to Silver City. Near the fort, Indians killed one of the men and took the sheep. The survivor made his way to the fort and reported the incident to the cavalry stationed there. They followed the trail, found the sheep near the river, and brought them back but did not encounter raiding party.
Sheep Ranch, Rear View
A staircase once led to the 2nd floor door
By the end of the century, the property had become an eleven hundred acre ranch owned by J.P. Merrill and John Milky. In 1914, with money borrowed from their uncle José Navarro, Pascual Eiguren and Manuel Navarro bought the Sheep Ranch. A few years later, Pascual bought his cousin out, and his family occupied the old building until 1959, when they moved into new houses across the road. It was included on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The Sheep Ranch Fort still stands on the Eiguren ranch, and though it has deteriorated, the family plans to preserve it, though not necessarily render it habitable again.
NB: Because the Sheep Ranch Fort is on private property, permission is required to visit it.
References (For full citations see “Resources: History, Culture, Geography and Geology”)
An Illustrated History of Baker, Malheur and Grant Counties.
Hazel R. Fretwell-Johnson, In Times Past.
Mike Hanley, with Ellis Lucia, Owyhee Trails: The West's Forgotten Corner.
Stacy Peterson, “Silas Skinner’s Owyhee Toll road,” Idaho Yesterdays, Spring 1966.