Birch Creek, Griffith Ranch, Island Ranch
With just one free day before Glenn’s atlatl event, I set out to make the foray that was the purpose of my return to Jordan Valley–the trek down the river from Birch Creek to the Griffith Place where my godparents Conley and Stacia Davis had ranched before buying the place at Hole in the Ground, and then on to the Island Ranch where there remains the remnants of a large water wheel built by Carlton Fretwell, Glenn’s grandfather. I drove to the Birch Creek ranch and parked at the north end of the alfalfa field. There I forded the river, which was a bit over a foot deep and flowing moderately fast but still fordable with the help of trekking poles. Not having brought water shoes, I left my boots on because of the rocky bottom. The boots gave a firm grip, but once I reached the other side the foam in the tongue and around the tops required a good wringing that still left enough moisture to keep my feet cool for the rest of the hike. The sky was beautifully clear and the sun bright, portending a warm trek. The hike down to the Island Ranch was comfortable enough, but the return trip would prove pretty hot. I didn’t begrudge having to carry three liters of water.
The first leg of the hike brought me to the Griffith Ranch, which is also accessible by road from the Crowley Road. I was particularly interested in the Griffith because when they were first married, Conley and Stacia leased it from Jesse Griffith, who had moved to Hermiston. They lived there for three years. Jesse’s father, William, who had emigrated from England in 1883, had homesteaded 152 plus acres in 1917. Jesse himself homesteaded 320 acres nearby in 1924. The Griffiths may have acquired additional land, since Stacia reported they had a “640 acre homestead” and an informational sign at the site says the Bureau of Reclamation bought 255 acres from the Griffiths for $5500 in 1925. In 1929, William moved to Hermiston leaving the ranch with his son. But Jesse wasn’t interested in ranching and leased the place to the Davises. While they had the place, the Griffiths had built a stone house, bunkhouse, shed, cellars, stables and a stone corral, some of which still remain. They raised horses and cattle, some hay, vegetables and “lots of fruit.” While living and ranching upriver at the Hole in the Ground, the Davises continued to lease the place. Whether they leased it directly from the Bureau of Reclamation or subleased it from the Griffiths is not known. According to Stacia, such land could continue to be leased until the reservoir covered it. The Davises took lumber from the house of another ranch–the McNulty place–to build stables on the Griffith; they also moved a cabin in its entirety to use as a shop. The rock house the Griffiths had built had floors that weren’t plumb and an unfinished interior the Davises covered with lumber so it could be papered over.
Stone House
Shed
While at the Griffith ranch, Conley made moonshine. It was here that, when Sheriff Charlie Leavitt came looking for Conley's still and contraband whiskey, Stacia “borrowed” his car to go warn Conley. Stacia also told the story of a plane she’d seen flying over the ranch at Hole in the Ground without “a care in the world.” A couple of days later when she went downriver to the Griffith, where her father, “Dad” Hall and Conley had been haying, they told her the plane had landed there: “they were out of gas. It looked like a tricky place to land in the canyon where the Hole in the Ground ranch was. But, they saw this open meadow and they landed in the meadow. And, they took a felt hat and strained the gasoline that we had to put in that airplane to get them into Boise. And, they were making [the movie] “Northwest Passage” at McCall, and this was a pilot and Spencer Tracy that landed. …. well I was just saying they didn’t have a care in the world, and they had a lot of cares.”
Rock Corral
From the ranch buildings, the road passes the rock corral that now holds nothing but a travel trailer fabricated from the rear portion of a ca. 1975 Dodge van and the remnants of an old shed. The rock wall that encloses three sides is quite substantial and looks more like a breastwork than a corral.
Island Ranch Site. River Crossing is to the Right
The distance from the Griffith Ranch to the Island Ranch is a bit under two miles. The ranch site was visible from a distance, though without a decent map, GPS or binoculars I found it difficult to be certain. (How unprepared can one be?) The grove of locust trees was a sure indication of a homestead, but I could see no buildings. However, I thought I could make out the waterwheel that I had heard so much about and that I had come to see. But as I drew closer it proved to be a mirage comprised of brush and tree limbs that resembled spokes and a wheel. So, to be certain I was at the right place before I attempted a crossing, I continued on around a couple of bends to where I could see further down the river. Nothing. I turned back to where the grove was and scrambled down the river bank. Recrossing the river involved two stages, first to a gravel bar where I fought my way through willows and across another channel to the “island.” The water was shallower here than it'd been at the initial crossing, but I almost wished it were deep enough to swim. The sun was high and the temperature quickly mounting. The ranch clearly once had been an island and perhaps becomes one again when the water runs high. But the east channel was now barely visible.
Island Ranch Waterwheel
As I made my way through the brush along the downstream end of the island, I spied the top of a wooden waterwheel. As I drew closer, it did not strike me as imposing as I had expected. I had seen those at Birch Creek (on the Morrison Ranch actually) and downstream from the Owyhee Dam as well as photographs of some truly gigantic wheels. Before the dam was built, there were something like thirty-six waterwheels on the river from Birch Creek to where the dam is now. Diameters of thirty feet or more do not seem to have been unusual. George Palmer estimated the average wheel was 28-32 ft. in diameter, and he knew of one that was 50 ft. James Page guessed that a few folks had 60 ft. wheels. I didn’t measure the Island River wheel, which was half buried in the sand from river floods. I’d estimate, however, that it fell within in the range given by George Palmer.
Unidentified Waterwheel
Mattingly Waterwheel Downstream from Island Ranch
The Island Ranch was homesteaded by Barney Harrell, who filed a patent on 19 November 1919. He settled there around 1914 and sent back to Arkansas, where he hailed from, for a wife. That was the widow Hattie Perry, née Fry, whose husband, Theodore Perry, died in 1911 leaving her with two children, Walter and Kate. According to Walter, they moved to Caldwell, Idaho in 1914 where she married Barney on November 11, 1914. It’s not clear how long they remained in Caldwell. They probably married within a day after Hattie got off the train. The marriage was performed the same day the license was obtained and in the same building. From there they went to the Island Ranch where they lived until 1918, when they sold the ranch and returned to Arkansas. They returned to the river in 1920, and Walter and his mother resumed raising stock and farming there. After the government bought the ranch from them in 1927, they continued working the place for another couple of years, when Walter acquired a place on Mahogany Mountain. It is not clear when Barney passed away. Hattie would later move to Ontario, where according to the 1940 US Census, she lived with her widowed mother and cleaned houses for as much as seventy hours a week.
The Island Ranch House
It was only as I made it around to the front of the house that I found attached to the building the Bureau of Reclamation information sign that identifies the place as "Hattie Harrell's Island Ranch" with no mention of Barney.
When Walter was interviewed in 1980 about his life on the Island Ranch, he said that it still looked pretty much the same as it had in 1914. There was the water wheel, a house with two rooms and a lean-to on the north side for the kitchen. His mother and stepfather had the bedroom, while he and his brother slept on the porch summer and winter, keeping warm with “lots of covers.” Most of their time was spent working on the ranch with a couple of trips out each year for supplies. When they returned to the ranch in 1920, the old water wheel was in such bad shape that they had to build a new one. The hardest part of that was getting the material. They had to go into Vale to purchase 4x4’s for the spokes and boards for the paddles. The buckets were made by hand from sheet metal.
Island Ranch House Interior
Walking about the property offered a real sense of the hardships of life and an appreciation of the strength of the Owyhee residents’ attachment to the place. I find it interesting and sometimes puzzling that people who led such a hard life were not anxious to give it up and look for something “better.” To the contrary, they and their descendants have found it a source of pride and are rightly offended by those who view them with disdain. Of course, it is not just the stockmen of the Owyhee who feel this way. One finds the same with miners, lumbermen, commercial fishermen and whoever supports themselves with hard labor in an extractive endeavor. It is striking that many families continue following this sort of lifestyle after many generations. I’m certain that this underlying difference in lifestyle and values contributes to the difficulty of finding common ground with others over what it means to “protect” the Owyhee Canyonlands.
With that thought, I set out back up the river for the nearly four-mile trek back to my 4Runner and the spot where I had first forded the river. It was after 1:00PM and the air had grown considerably hotter. While the route would be relatively level, I wouldn’t be crossing the river again. I checked my watch thermometer: 111º! I took off the watch and attached it to a belt loop where it would be shaded by the tail of my white Columbia Omni-Shade shirt and unaffected by my body heat. Twenty minutes later and a half mile up the trail I checked again: 114º!!! I decided to check no more and took a long pull on my Camelback, which I opened to check the water bladder–about a liter and a half remained. I was relieved, and my step became a bit more sprightly–though that ended before too long. Still I was able to make the trek in about an hour and a half and little shade. Back at the 4Runner, I filled a water bottle with cool water from a seven gallon container and poured it over my head. An eight mile hike in 100 degree heat with little shade–just a week after my 75th birthday, and I felt great. Can’t wait to do it again–this time with binoculars and a hat!
[Sources: Bureau of Reclamation Site Information Signage; 1980 BLM Interviews; Arkansas County Marriage Index, 1837-1957; Idaho, County Marriages, 1864-1950; US Census, 1910, Arkansas, Roll: T624–44, p. 18; US Census 1940, Oregon, Roll: m-t0627-03372, p. 5A; Find a Grave 13870233; Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records, Accession nos. 610329 (12/03/1917) & 718219 (11/10/1919)]