Camp Polk Meadow history reviewed

Martin Winch, local writer and historian, took his Lunch and Learn audience on a virtual exploration of Camp Polk Meadow last week.

Winch described early Native American groups in the area who found the meadow area inviting for hunting and gathering activities. These included the Paiutes, who migrated here from the Great Basin desert region, and the Columbia-based Warm Springs River people who found the area hospitable.

In the early 19th century, white explorers and hunters came to the region particularly in search of beavers. At that time, according to Winch, there were active known area coastal communities such as Astoria and, inland, a community at Fort Boise. Central Oregon, however, was largely unknown at that time.

Settlers sought a thoroughfare from the coast to Fort Boise and, to that end, a route over the Santiam Pass was explored. Grassland for Willamette Valley grazing was diminishing as wheat farming took hold and it was thought that Central Oregon might offer new opportunities for cattle and sheep ranching.

There was a railroad survey to explore possible routes in the 1850s. In the same period there were attempts at finding road passage across the Cascades for moving cattle, goods and people to the east. Andrew Wiley and others sought a freight wagon road over the Santiam Pass. As this developed, the road eventually connected Albany, Sweet Home, Camp Polk, a side-route to Prineville and ended at Fort Boise.

At the same time, real or imagined, there was concern about Native Americans in Central Oregon causing trouble to these movements. To that end, a military detachment was sent to help open the passage and provide protection under command of Captain Charles La Follette. The group of 40 soldiers reached what is now Camp Polk in September 1865, and set up camp for a winter stay that lasted until May of 1866.

The first non-military settlers to Camp Polk came a few years later when the Samuel Hindman family homesteaded at Camp Polk starting in 1869-70. Hindman was an ax-man, according to Winch, and constructed housing, a barn and the split-rail fencing that remains to this day at Camp Polk.

The area supported subsistence farming for these early settlers.

The barn, completed in 1870, remained until 1990 when a windstorm tore off the roof and the structure showed serious structural defects. A (1992) painting of the barn by Joy Stidham Timmens greets visitors at the entry to the Sisters Library.

Hindman also operated the first Post Office in the area and a general store for settlers and Native Americans. Later, because Camp Polk meadow was not suitable for expansion, the Post Office was moved to Sisters in 1903.

Later (1920-1940), a lumber mill was started on the Camp Polk meadow property, largely operated by Scandinavian families.

Deschutes Basin Land Trust (DBLT) purchased the Camp Polk property as a preserve in 2000. Winch has completed a book recounting these historical events at Camp Polk.