Carol Pedersen viewing lightening struck Arborglyph on Steens-Photo by Richard Cockle
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Figure 1: Here a scarred over wide split in the tree has forced the "O" in Bermeo (which might be either a man's name or a city in the Basque country) to break apart. The "5" in 1935 has also been pushed to the right. |
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Figure 2: Here a portion of the name Juan Equrrola and the year date have been obscured by gray decaying bark that spread around the tree trunk into the carving. |
This page will take you on a trip back in time to when the high desert of Steens Mountain was sheep country. From the late 1800s until 1934 the Steens was open summer range land to over 100,000 sheep each year, about 2000 per herd, cared for by the mainly Basque and Irish herders and their camp tenders. In 1934 the Taylor Grazing Act changed all that as it required sheep owners to also own land. Until that time the independent or itinerant "outfits", which were usually partnerships, used public land for summer range and kept their herds on the desert in the winter buying supplemental winter feed from local ranchers.
Most men would arrive from Europe with no previous knowledge of herding. They came for an opportunity to earn enough money to return home with a savings. The Basques in particular came to the Steens to work from their small land which includes the Pyrenees Mountains along the border of Spain and France. They have a language related to no other in the world and the sheep business was one they could do without speaking English. The Basque and Irish worked well together. The Basque traits of physical endurance, job integrity and strength of character helped them become proficient in the western sheep business.
After 1934, most of the Basques who did not own land continued as employees under contract or moved into other occupations. Basques continued to be desired as the most sought after herders in the west through the 1960s and many became United States citizens. Today, in the year 2001, the Norman Ranches run the only herd of sheep on the Steens by leasing private land and they hire largely Peruvian herders.
South eastern Oregon is now cattle country. But once upon a time the dust clouds could be seen for miles as the sheep were trailed up to their cool meadow ranges that this unusual fault block mountain provided the animals. The cycle of open range herding began in the spring when lambing occurred on the desert. The ewes were then sheared and both ewes and lambs branded on the wool with a wood block and solution. The tails were cut off the lambs and the male lambs were castrated and their ears notched. If necessary the sheep were then dipped for tick disease. Then the ewes and lambs were put into herds of about 2000 and trailed up the mountain.
During the summer the herders followed the sheep on foot for miles daily and lived in tipi tents. The camp tender, who had a pack string and larger tent at the main camp, brought the herder new supplies every few days. The late spring, summer and early fall days were the time the sheep men carved the Aspen trees with names, dates, messages, and drawings thereby letting each other know who had passed by each place and leaving their memories in the bark. The tree carvings were made with pocket knives. An adept carver made only a slight incision in the outer bark which would cure within a year into a gray colored scar. This gray outline made the carving visible.
In the fall before the snows came the herders would trail the sheep back down the mountain onto the desert. The lambs would be shipped to market and the bucks put in with the ewes for breeding. Then the sheep would be put into herds of about 4000 and kept out on the desert over the winter and the cycle would start again in the spring. In the winter the herders without sheep to care for on the desert would stay in one of the many Basque boarding houses run by Basque women in Burns, Crane, Ontario and Jordan Valley.
The Aspen tree lives only about 80-100 years. Those trees not lost to storm damage, decay, beavers, forest fire, or a camper's axe will soon be gone because their natural life cycle is short. With them will go these carvings which, like a bark library, tell the story of the people of this place who were an important and overlooked part of a specific period in Oregon history.
When I became aware in 1998 that the Steens carvings were not being recorded, I began my project to do this. Many private landowners permitted me to access their property and helped to identify the carvings. I was awarded a portion of the Loring & Loring Grant for independent research through the Oregon Archaeological Society to help fund the project.
The field work consisted of walking among the Aspen groves to locate the carvings, drawing and photographing each carving and listing the necessary facts on a recording sheet. The problems in recording included deciphering letters and words especially when excessive scarred-over splits in the bark obscured portions of the carving and either pushed letters apart (Fig. 1) or when gray decay, which is the same color as the carving scar covered the trunk and portions of the carving (Fig. 2). Sometimes a rubbing was also made. Once the name on the tree was identified I researched library books, oral history and newspaper collections, county clerk records, and cemeteries for information on the herders as well as open range sheep herding methods. Many local people were interviewed and without their help the project would not have been successful.
I plan on continuing my recording mission and historical research in the future. There is much more to do. I hope this short introduction will help you become personally acquainted with some of the herders, their carvings and the sheep from this period of Oregon history on the beautiful Steens Mountain.
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