Black Butte residents preserve ranch history

Jean Nave and Tony Oliver are dedicated to preserving the history of Black Butte Ranch.

The ranch homeowners are co-chairs of a new Black Butte Ranch Historical Society. Their mission is to collect, preserve and display the unique history of Black Butte Ranch, both before and after the formation of the current resort.

"We feel it is important to capture as many memories and old photographs as possible before too many have been lost," said Nave, who founded the group.

The documented history of the Black Butte Ranch area begins with a U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers Survey in 1855. Lt. Robert S. Williamson and Lt. Henry Larcom Abbot were army engineers on a federal government mission to locate a practical and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.

While in Central Oregon, Abbot used a prominent black cinder cone (Black Butte) as his engineering pivot. The team determined the area to be "totally impracticable for a railroad."

Abbot's log book includes the comment, "I hold little optimism that the area surrounding Black Butte will ever be good for anything."

In 1969, Michael Hollern, manager of Brooks Scanlon lumber mill in Bend, persuaded his board of directors to look into diversification. After purchasing several adjacent land holdings, Hollern had the necessary land to develop what has become the residential resort of Black Butte Ranch.

"There are people throughout Oregon who visited or worked in this area before it became a resort. We want to collect as many of those photos and memories as we can find," said Nave "We also want to gather photos and memories of early days at the resort."

For more information or to contribute to the group, write Jean Nave at P.O. Box 8257, Black Butte Ranch, OR 97759, or call 595-2547.