Worthy of Consideration
Most Oregon Trail emigrants who camped along the banks of the
Malheur River were unimpressed and were eager to trek on toward
greener pastures in the Willamette Valley. An anonymous emigrant
of 1843 exclaimed: "It is a desert, so rugged, so dreary, and so exceedingly
sterile that it cannot, until ages have melted its mountsin, until
the winds and floods and changes of thousands and thousands of years
shall have crumbled into dust its rocks and its sands, yield anyting
worthy of consideration to the support of human life..."
The discover of gold in 1863 changed this attitude. The influx of
miners created a market for agricultural products first satisfied by the
introduction of livestock and produce farming in 1854. Agricultural
ventures were flourishing by the 1870's and the westward flow of
livestock across the Oregon Trail that marked the previous three
decades reversed course, as massive herds of Oregon horses, cattle
and sheep were driven east to market. Miners and farmers comprised
the first residents, and they are still a mainstay in this region once
described as "so exceedingly sterile".
