A Path to the Past

A Path to the Past (HM257Q)

Location: Fort Rock, OR 97735 Lake County
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Country: United States of America
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N 43° 21.351', W 121° 3.476'

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10,000 Years of Homesteading

The history of the west is linked with the idea of finding a new home in a challenging land. We call it homesteading.

During the Pleistocene epoch, homesteaders in the Fort Rock Basin were mammoths, camels, horses, flamingos, and ocean-going fish. They settled in a land of lush forest with a huge lake that covered hundreds of square miles.

Approximately 10,000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene, the lake began drying up and the forests receded.
Animal homesteaders dependent upon that disappearing environment moved on or died, leaving behind their fossil remains.


Around this time, a new species appeared on the landscape, Homo sapiens, the first "native" Americans.


These earliest people left behind petroglyphs, weapon points, sagebrush sandals, and the mystery of where they came from and why they left.

During a long climatic transition period, many other peoples came and departed.
It was only around 500 years ago that the Northern Paiute came to the Fort Rock Basin.

Modern European homesteaders came to the high desert in 1905. People arrived in substantial numbers to cultivate and dry farm the desert. But there was a harsh lesson to be learned about depending on the vagary of nature. Drought and failed crops drove most of these "new" homesteaders



away by 1920.


They left behind the bleached remains of shattered homes and shattered dreams.
These homesteaders all learned the lesson of millennia... to challenge nature is an ever-changing and never-ending struggle.
Details
HM NumberHM257Q
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Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Saturday, February 3rd, 2018 at 10:01am PST -08:00
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Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)10T E 657379 N 4802164
Decimal Degrees43.35585000, -121.05793333
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 43° 21.351', W 121° 3.476'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds43° 21' 21.06" N, 121° 3' 28.56" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Area Code(s)541
Which side of the road?Marker is on the right when traveling East
Closest Postal AddressAt or near County Rd 5-10, Fort Rock OR 97735, US
Alternative Maps Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap

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