The Heart of Oregon's Outback: Reflections on Lake County, Oregon

This is an affectionate history and description of life in Lake County, Oregon. The book offers an affectionate glimpse of the land forms, history and people of Lake County. Located at the extreme north of the Great Basin, the county’s high desert environment was home to a nomadic First People who lived here peacefully but perilously for many thousands of years before the coming of the white man. The coming of white pioneers brought the classic old west “Indian Wars,” range wars, “sheep wars,” homesteading; and, for a time, a thriving timber industry. The high desert country is a land of contrasts – stark, steep-faced escarpments, buttes and plateaus surrounding vast lakes and valleys – whose lowest elevation is more than 4,000 feet above sea level and highest is more than 8,400 feet. Its average annual precipitation rate is less than 15 inches, but because of its many lakes it is -- by far -- the wettest county in the state in terms of water surface area. Except for a brief time in the spring when wildflowers flourish among the sagebrush and bunch grass, the landscape is painted from a palette of pastels: the light greens and greys of sagebrush, pale green and yellow of bunchgrass, umbers and greys of the rimrocks and outcroppings, punctuated by the darker green of the ubiquitous juniper trees. The changing shadows of the land forms and spectacular colors of the sunrises and sunsets more than compensate for the muted colors. The author, a retired architectural consultant, now lives in Hood River, Oregon.