James Cant Ranch Historic District
Encyclopedia
The James Cant Ranch is a pioneer ranch complex in Grant County
in eastern Oregon
, United States
. The ranch is located on both sides of the John Day River
in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument
. The ranch was originally homesteaded by Floyd Officer in 1890. Officer sold the property to James Cant in 1910. Cant increased the size of the property and built a modern ranch complex on the west bank of the river. The National Park Service
bought the ranch from the Cant family in 1975, and incorporated the property into the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The National Park Service used the main house as a visitor center until 2003. Today, the Cant Ranch complex is preserved as an interpretive site showing visitors an early 20th-century livestock ranch. The James Cant Ranch is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.
used the area around the John Day River for thousands of years before the arrival of European settlers. While boundaries were never clearly defined, the site that is now the Cant Ranch was used for seasonal hunting and fishing camps by Warm Springs
and Umatilla
bands, both Sahaptin
speaking Columbia Plateau peoples
. By the nineteenth century, Northern Paiutes had migrated north from the Great Basin
and were also using portions of the upper John Day watershed.
As a result of the arid climate, only a few trappers and prospector
s traveled through the area before 1862 when gold
was discovered in Canyon Creek, tributary of the John Day River. The discovery of gold drew a large number of miner
s to the area. This led to the founding of a number of mining towns in northeastern Oregon. The largest of these towns was Canyon City
. The Dalles Military Road between Fort Dalles
on the Columbia River
and Canyon City encouraged addition growth when it was completed in 1869.
Permanent homesteaders began arriving in the John Day Valley shortly after the miners. The Homestead Act of 1862 encouraged settlement by offering grants of 160 acre (0.6474976 km²) to American pioneers. Livestock
operations in the John Day area supplied isolated mining towns with fresh meat. Initially, most ranches produced beef cattle
. However, sheep were the primary ranch stock by the 1890s. This coincided with a wave of Scottish
, Irish
, and Basque
immigrants who were experienced sheep herders.
In 1890, Floyd Officer homesteaded land in the Butler Basin along the John Day River. He worked the property for seven years before securing a 160 acre (0.6474976 km²) land patent
in 1898. That same year, he married Sylvia Fitzgerald and together they began a hard pioneer life on their remote homestead. Because of his knowledge of the Butler Basin and Sheep Rock areas, Officer served as a guide for pioneer paleontologist Thomas Condon
during several of his fossil
hunting expeditions. The Officers sold the ranch in 1910, moving to Dayville
where their children could attend school. The property was purchased by James Cant and his partner John Mason for $4,000. It included 357 acres (1.4 km²) in Grant County and 320 acres (1.3 km²) in Wheeler County
. Cant bought out Mason’s share in the property in 1915.
in 1879. He left Scotland at the age of 20 for South America
, where he spent five years raising horse
s and mule
s. He immigrated to the United States in 1905. After arriving in New York City
, Cant traveled overland to the John Day country of Oregon, an area that already had many Scottish immigrants. Alexander Murray, who owned a large ranch west of Dayville, hired Cant as a sheep herder. By 1908, Cant had saved enough money to send for his childhood sweetheart, Elizabeth Grant, who was still in Scotland. They were married in Canyon City on 10 October 1908. Cant continued to work on the Murray ranch for two more years, until he had saved enough to join with Mason in purchasing the Officer ranch.
After Cant and his wife moved to the ranch, it became a popular overnight stop for people traveling between Dayville and the Columbia River. Their hospitality was well known, and it was not uncommon for the Cants to serve dinner to twenty or more people including family, ranch hands, and traveling guest. To accommodate their growing family, an expanding livestock business and their many guests, the Cants undertook a major expansion of the ranch between 1915 and 1918, replacing most of the original building constructed by the Officer family. As part of this expansion, Cant built a large main house that became the centerpiece of the ranch complex.
In the 1920s, Cant acquired more land to expand his successful sheep business. He also improved the landscape around the main house, adding a large lawn, fencing the yard, and planting numerous shrubs and trees. The most important change was made by the State of Oregon, when it began construction of Highway 19
from Arlington
on the Columbia River to Dayville. The highway follows the John Day River, passing just west of the Cant Ranch complex. It was completed in the mid-1920s, effectively ending the Cants isolation. However, the highway was not paved until the mid-1930s.
The Cant family kept their sheep operation going through the Great Depression
. It recovered some during World War II
; however, the shortage of labor made raising sheep increasingly difficult. As a result, Cant transitioned from sheep to cattle production in 1946. Over the next three decades the Cant’s cattle operation grew and prospered. By 1965, the Cant ranch covered 6500 acres (26.3 km²) plus an additional 4500 acres (18.2 km²) leased from the Bureau of Land Management
. At that time the ranch was sending 500 to 600 cattle to market each year. James Cant died 1972 and his wife passed away a year later. The Cant family sold the ranch to the National Park Service in 1975 to be incorporated into the new John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.
, and office until the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center was built in 2003. The ranch complex is now used as an interpretive site, giving visitors the experience of an early 20th-century livestock operation. The main house and several of the other buildings are open to the public.
Today, the Cant Ranch offers visitors the opportunity to experience eastern Oregon’s ranching heritage. Because the ranch played an important role in the commercial and social development of the John Day River Valley, the Cant Ranch was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 21 June 1984. This historic district covers approximately 200 acre (0.809372 km²) along both sides of the John Day River. There are eleven historic buildings on the property.
, a watchman’s cabin, the barn
and adjoining sheep pens, a workshop
, general purpose shed
, chicken coop
, feed storage shed, privy
, and an Officer era log cabin
. There is also a small cabin on the east bank of the river known as Christina’s Cabin; however, it is in very poor condition and is not open to the public. The Cant family built two hand-operated cable cars for cross the river, but only one is still operational. The ranch property displays original irrigation ditches, fences, gates, and feed racks plus vintage equipment purchased from the Cant family in 1978.
The main house is the most prominent building at the ranch. It was built sometime between 1915 and 1918. It is based on architectural designs from The Radford American Homes catalog, published 1903 by the Radford Architectural Company of Chicago
. Cant hired two carpenters, Andrew Cress and Clarence Bisbee, to oversee construction of the house. The builders combined design features from several Radford plans to create the Cant’s ranch house.
The front of the main house faces Highway 19 with the back porch overlooking the river. The house is a two and one-half-story, wood-frame structure with a hip roof
. It has wide porch
es that run the full length of the east and west sides of the structure. The eastern, river-view porch extends around the house, continuing about half the building’s length along the north and south sides. The first floor is built around a central hallway that runs from front to back (east to west). Located off the main hall are a living room
, dining room
, kitchen
, parlor, bedroom
, bathroom
, and a storage room. An open stairway in the central hall leads to the second floor. There are six bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor. The third floor is a single open room that the Cant family used as a school room and as a gathering place for large social event.
The other ranch buildings are all simple wood-frame structures. The barn was built about 1920. It is a -story timber-frame structure. Its footprint is approximately 60 feet (18.3 m) by 120 feet (36.6 m). The barn has vertical board siding and a gable roof with wood-shingles. Inside there are twelve bays divided into a number of stalls, holding pens, and storage areas. Attached to the north end of the barn is a single-story structure with stalls for sheep shearing. This structure is approximately 20 feet (6.1 m) by 60 feet (18.3 m). There is a workshop and a small shed west of the barn. The National Perk Service uses these building for their original purposes. The larger building is a maintenance shop and the small structure is used for general-purpose storage. East of the barn is a one-room wood-frame watchman’s cabin, used by shepherds during the lambing season.
Closer to the main house is a bunkhouse, chicken-coop, feed storage shed, and a privy. All are wood-frame structures with wood-shingle roofs. After the National Park Service purchased the Cant property, the bunkhouse was renovated and used to house exhibits. The chick-coop still houses live chickens and the shed is used to store feed and ranch equipment. The National Park Service also replaced the original roofs on all these building in the 1980s to help preserve the structures. There is also small log cabin behind the main house. It is the only remaining structure that dates back to the Officer homestead period. The Officer family used the log cabin for storage, as did the Cant family.
The Cant Ranch is located within the boundaries of the Sheep Rock Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Highway 19 runs through the ranch property on the west side of the John Day River. The ranch complex is located on the east side of the roadway. The Thomas Condon Paleontology Center is located across the highway from the ranch complex.
The ranch is 8 miles (12.9 km) northeast of Dayville, Oregon. From Dayville, travel west 2 miles (3.2 km) on Highway 26 and then turn north on Highway 19. The ranch is 20 miles (32.2 km) southeast of Spray, Oregon
, on Highway 19. This route passed through the small unincorporated community of Kimberly, Oregon
, 14 miles (22.5 km) north of the ranch.
Grant County, Oregon
Grant County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is included in the 8 county definition of Eastern Oregon. In 2010, its population was 7,445. It is named for President Ulysses S. Grant, who served as an army officer in the Oregon Territory, and at the time of the county's creation...
in eastern Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The ranch is located on both sides of the John Day River
John Day River
The John Day River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northeastern Oregon in the United States. Undammed along its entire length, the river is the third longest free-flowing river in the conterminous United States. There is extensive use of its waters for irrigation. Its...
in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument
John Day Fossil Beds National Monument
John Day Fossil Beds National Monument is a U.S. National Monument in Wheeler and Grant counties in east-central Oregon. Located within the John Day River basin and managed by the National Park Service, the park is known for its well-preserved layers of fossil plants and mammals that lived in the...
. The ranch was originally homesteaded by Floyd Officer in 1890. Officer sold the property to James Cant in 1910. Cant increased the size of the property and built a modern ranch complex on the west bank of the river. The National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
bought the ranch from the Cant family in 1975, and incorporated the property into the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The National Park Service used the main house as a visitor center until 2003. Today, the Cant Ranch complex is preserved as an interpretive site showing visitors an early 20th-century livestock ranch. The James Cant Ranch is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Early history
Native AmericansNative Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
used the area around the John Day River for thousands of years before the arrival of European settlers. While boundaries were never clearly defined, the site that is now the Cant Ranch was used for seasonal hunting and fishing camps by Warm Springs
Warm Springs (tribe)
The Warm Springs tribes are several Sahaptin Native American tribes of northern Oregon. They were also known as the Walla Walla . The Warm Springs tribes are the Upper Deschutes , the Lower Deschutes , the Tenino, and the John Day...
and Umatilla
Umatilla (tribe)
The Umatilla are a Sahaptin-speaking Native American group living on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, who traditionally inhabited the Columbia Plateau region of the northwestern United States....
bands, both Sahaptin
Sahaptin language
Sahaptin , Sħáptənəxw, is a Plateau Penutian language of the Sahaptian branch spoken in a section of the northwestern plateau along the Columbia River and its tributaries in southern Washington, northern Oregon, and southwestern Idaho....
speaking Columbia Plateau peoples
Sahaptin people
The Sahaptin people are a Native American people that inhabited territory along the Columbia River. The Nez Perce tribe is one of the major Sahaptin groups.-Territory:...
. By the nineteenth century, Northern Paiutes had migrated north from the Great Basin
Great Basin
The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America and is noted for its arid conditions and Basin and Range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than away at the...
and were also using portions of the upper John Day watershed.
As a result of the arid climate, only a few trappers and prospector
Prospecting
Prospecting is the physical search for minerals, fossils, precious metals or mineral specimens, and is also known as fossicking.Prospecting is a small-scale form of mineral exploration which is an organised, large scale effort undertaken by mineral resource companies to find commercially viable ore...
s traveled through the area before 1862 when gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
was discovered in Canyon Creek, tributary of the John Day River. The discovery of gold drew a large number of miner
Miner
A miner is a person whose work or business is to extract ore or minerals from the earth. Mining is one of the most dangerous trades in the world. In some countries miners lack social guarantees and in case of injury may be left to cope without assistance....
s to the area. This led to the founding of a number of mining towns in northeastern Oregon. The largest of these towns was Canyon City
Canyon City, Oregon
Canyon City is a city in Grant County, Oregon, United States. It is the county seat of Grant County, and is about a mile south of John Day on U.S. Highway 395. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 703.-History:...
. The Dalles Military Road between Fort Dalles
Fort Dalles
Fort Dalles was a United States Army outpost located on the Columbia River at the present site of The Dalles, Oregon, in the United States. Built when Oregon was a territory, the post was used mainly for dealing with wars with Native Americans...
on the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
and Canyon City encouraged addition growth when it was completed in 1869.
Permanent homesteaders began arriving in the John Day Valley shortly after the miners. The Homestead Act of 1862 encouraged settlement by offering grants of 160 acre (0.6474976 km²) to American pioneers. Livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
operations in the John Day area supplied isolated mining towns with fresh meat. Initially, most ranches produced beef cattle
Beef cattle
Beef cattle are cattle raised for meat production . The meat of cattle is known as beef. When raised in a feedlot cattle are known as feeder cattle. Many such feeder cattle are born in cow-calf operations specifically designed to produce beef calves...
. However, sheep were the primary ranch stock by the 1890s. This coincided with a wave of Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
, Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
, and Basque
Basque people
The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...
immigrants who were experienced sheep herders.
In 1890, Floyd Officer homesteaded land in the Butler Basin along the John Day River. He worked the property for seven years before securing a 160 acre (0.6474976 km²) land patent
Land patent
A land patent is a land grant made patent by the sovereign lord over the land in question. To make a such a grant “patent”, such a sovereign lord must document the land grant, securely sign and seal the document and openly publish the same to the public for all to see...
in 1898. That same year, he married Sylvia Fitzgerald and together they began a hard pioneer life on their remote homestead. Because of his knowledge of the Butler Basin and Sheep Rock areas, Officer served as a guide for pioneer paleontologist Thomas Condon
Thomas Condon
Thomas Condon was an Irish Congregational minister, geologist, and paleontologist who gained recognition for his work in the U.S. state of Oregon....
during several of his fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
hunting expeditions. The Officers sold the ranch in 1910, moving to Dayville
Dayville, Oregon
Dayville is a city in Grant County, Oregon, United States. It was incorporated in 1913. The population was 138 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land....
where their children could attend school. The property was purchased by James Cant and his partner John Mason for $4,000. It included 357 acres (1.4 km²) in Grant County and 320 acres (1.3 km²) in Wheeler County
Wheeler County, Oregon
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,547 people, 653 households, and 444 families residing in the county. The population density was 1 people per square mile . There were 842 housing units at an average density of 0 per square mile...
. Cant bought out Mason’s share in the property in 1915.
James Cant
James Cant was born in ScotlandScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
in 1879. He left Scotland at the age of 20 for South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, where he spent five years raising horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s and mule
Mule
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...
s. He immigrated to the United States in 1905. After arriving in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Cant traveled overland to the John Day country of Oregon, an area that already had many Scottish immigrants. Alexander Murray, who owned a large ranch west of Dayville, hired Cant as a sheep herder. By 1908, Cant had saved enough money to send for his childhood sweetheart, Elizabeth Grant, who was still in Scotland. They were married in Canyon City on 10 October 1908. Cant continued to work on the Murray ranch for two more years, until he had saved enough to join with Mason in purchasing the Officer ranch.
After Cant and his wife moved to the ranch, it became a popular overnight stop for people traveling between Dayville and the Columbia River. Their hospitality was well known, and it was not uncommon for the Cants to serve dinner to twenty or more people including family, ranch hands, and traveling guest. To accommodate their growing family, an expanding livestock business and their many guests, the Cants undertook a major expansion of the ranch between 1915 and 1918, replacing most of the original building constructed by the Officer family. As part of this expansion, Cant built a large main house that became the centerpiece of the ranch complex.
In the 1920s, Cant acquired more land to expand his successful sheep business. He also improved the landscape around the main house, adding a large lawn, fencing the yard, and planting numerous shrubs and trees. The most important change was made by the State of Oregon, when it began construction of Highway 19
Oregon Route 19
Oregon Route 19 is an Oregon state highway in the north-central part of the state. It runs from Interstate 84 at Arlington in the Columbia River Gorge to a junction with U.S. Route 26 in Grant County, near the Sheep Rock Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Oregon Route 19 is the...
from Arlington
Arlington, Oregon
Arlington is a city in Gilliam County, Oregon, United States. The account of how this city received its name varies: one tradition claims it was named after the lawyer Nathan Arlington Cornish; another tradition claims that the Southern inhabitants of this city had enough clout to rename the city...
on the Columbia River to Dayville. The highway follows the John Day River, passing just west of the Cant Ranch complex. It was completed in the mid-1920s, effectively ending the Cants isolation. However, the highway was not paved until the mid-1930s.
The Cant family kept their sheep operation going through the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. It recovered some during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
; however, the shortage of labor made raising sheep increasingly difficult. As a result, Cant transitioned from sheep to cattle production in 1946. Over the next three decades the Cant’s cattle operation grew and prospered. By 1965, the Cant ranch covered 6500 acres (26.3 km²) plus an additional 4500 acres (18.2 km²) leased from the Bureau of Land Management
Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior which administers America's public lands, totaling approximately , or one-eighth of the landmass of the country. The BLM also manages of subsurface mineral estate underlying federal, state and private...
. At that time the ranch was sending 500 to 600 cattle to market each year. James Cant died 1972 and his wife passed away a year later. The Cant family sold the ranch to the National Park Service in 1975 to be incorporated into the new John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.
National Park Service
When the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument was established in 1975, the initial development plan recommended purchasing the Cant Ranch complex for use as the monument’s headquarters and visitor center. The National Park Service purchased 878 acres (3.6 km²) from the Cant family in 1975. This included the main ranch complex and adjacent ranch property along the John Day River. The National Park Service used the main house as a visitor center, museumMuseum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
, and office until the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center was built in 2003. The ranch complex is now used as an interpretive site, giving visitors the experience of an early 20th-century livestock operation. The main house and several of the other buildings are open to the public.
Today, the Cant Ranch offers visitors the opportunity to experience eastern Oregon’s ranching heritage. Because the ranch played an important role in the commercial and social development of the John Day River Valley, the Cant Ranch was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 21 June 1984. This historic district covers approximately 200 acre (0.809372 km²) along both sides of the John Day River. There are eleven historic buildings on the property.
Structures
During the 1930s, there were at least seventeen building in the Cant Ranch complex. Today, there are eleven ranch buildings in the Cant Ranch Historic District. They are the main ranch house, a bunkhouseBunkhouse
A bunkhouse is a hostel or barracks-like building that historically was used to house working cowboys on ranches in North America. As most cowboys were young single men, the standard bunkhouse was a large open room with narrow beds or cots for each individual and little privacy...
, a watchman’s cabin, the barn
Barn
A barn is an agricultural building used for storage and as a covered workplace. It may sometimes be used to house livestock or to store farming vehicles and equipment...
and adjoining sheep pens, a workshop
Workshop
A workshop is a room or building which provides both the area and tools that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods...
, general purpose shed
Shed
A shed is typically a simple, single-storey structure in a back garden or on an allotment that is used for storage, hobbies, or as a workshop....
, chicken coop
Chicken coop
A chicken coop is a building where female chickens are kept. Inside there are often nest boxes for egg laying and perches on which the birds can sleep, although coops for meat birds seldom have either of these features....
, feed storage shed, privy
Outhouse
An outhouse is a small structure separate from a main building which often contained a simple toilet and may possibly also be used for housing animals and storage.- Terminology :...
, and an Officer era log cabin
Log cabin
A log cabin is a house built from logs. It is a fairly simple type of log house. A distinction should be drawn between the traditional meanings of "log cabin" and "log house." Historically most "Log cabins" were a simple one- or 1½-story structures, somewhat impermanent, and less finished or less...
. There is also a small cabin on the east bank of the river known as Christina’s Cabin; however, it is in very poor condition and is not open to the public. The Cant family built two hand-operated cable cars for cross the river, but only one is still operational. The ranch property displays original irrigation ditches, fences, gates, and feed racks plus vintage equipment purchased from the Cant family in 1978.
The main house is the most prominent building at the ranch. It was built sometime between 1915 and 1918. It is based on architectural designs from The Radford American Homes catalog, published 1903 by the Radford Architectural Company of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. Cant hired two carpenters, Andrew Cress and Clarence Bisbee, to oversee construction of the house. The builders combined design features from several Radford plans to create the Cant’s ranch house.
The front of the main house faces Highway 19 with the back porch overlooking the river. The house is a two and one-half-story, wood-frame structure with a hip roof
Hip roof
A hip roof, or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope. Thus it is a house with no gables or other vertical sides to the roof. A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid. Hip roofs on the houses could have two triangular side...
. It has wide porch
Porch
A porch is external to the walls of the main building proper, but may be enclosed by screen, latticework, broad windows, or other light frame walls extending from the main structure.There are various styles of porches, all of which depend on the architectural tradition of its location...
es that run the full length of the east and west sides of the structure. The eastern, river-view porch extends around the house, continuing about half the building’s length along the north and south sides. The first floor is built around a central hallway that runs from front to back (east to west). Located off the main hall are a living room
Living room
A living room, also known as sitting room, lounge room or lounge , is a room for entertaining adult guests, reading, or other activities...
, dining room
Dining room
A dining room is a room for consuming food. In modern times it is usually adjacent to the kitchen for convenience in serving, although in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level...
, kitchen
Kitchen
A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation.In the West, a modern residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and kitchen cabinets arranged according to a modular design. Many households have a...
, parlor, bedroom
Bedroom
A bedroom is a private room where people usually sleep for the night or relax during the day.About one third of our lives are spent sleeping and most of the time we are asleep, we are sleeping in a bedroom. To be considered a bedroom the room needs to have bed. Bedrooms can range from really simple...
, bathroom
Bathroom
A bathroom is a room for bathing in containing a bathtub and/or a shower and optionally a toilet, a sink/hand basin/wash basin and possibly also a bidet....
, and a storage room. An open stairway in the central hall leads to the second floor. There are six bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor. The third floor is a single open room that the Cant family used as a school room and as a gathering place for large social event.
The other ranch buildings are all simple wood-frame structures. The barn was built about 1920. It is a -story timber-frame structure. Its footprint is approximately 60 feet (18.3 m) by 120 feet (36.6 m). The barn has vertical board siding and a gable roof with wood-shingles. Inside there are twelve bays divided into a number of stalls, holding pens, and storage areas. Attached to the north end of the barn is a single-story structure with stalls for sheep shearing. This structure is approximately 20 feet (6.1 m) by 60 feet (18.3 m). There is a workshop and a small shed west of the barn. The National Perk Service uses these building for their original purposes. The larger building is a maintenance shop and the small structure is used for general-purpose storage. East of the barn is a one-room wood-frame watchman’s cabin, used by shepherds during the lambing season.
Closer to the main house is a bunkhouse, chicken-coop, feed storage shed, and a privy. All are wood-frame structures with wood-shingle roofs. After the National Park Service purchased the Cant property, the bunkhouse was renovated and used to house exhibits. The chick-coop still houses live chickens and the shed is used to store feed and ranch equipment. The National Park Service also replaced the original roofs on all these building in the 1980s to help preserve the structures. There is also small log cabin behind the main house. It is the only remaining structure that dates back to the Officer homestead period. The Officer family used the log cabin for storage, as did the Cant family.
Location
The Cant Ranch national historic district is located along the John Day River in northeastern Oregon. The elevation of the ranch is 2244 feet (684 m) above sea level. Sheep Rock is a prominent geographic feature located approximately 1 miles (1.6 km) southeast of the ranch complex and can easily be seen from the ranch. There is a 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) hiking trail, known as the Sheep Rock Overlook Trail, that begins at the Cant Ranch and leads to an overlook with a view of the valley.The Cant Ranch is located within the boundaries of the Sheep Rock Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Highway 19 runs through the ranch property on the west side of the John Day River. The ranch complex is located on the east side of the roadway. The Thomas Condon Paleontology Center is located across the highway from the ranch complex.
The ranch is 8 miles (12.9 km) northeast of Dayville, Oregon. From Dayville, travel west 2 miles (3.2 km) on Highway 26 and then turn north on Highway 19. The ranch is 20 miles (32.2 km) southeast of Spray, Oregon
Spray, Oregon
Spray is a city in Wheeler County, Oregon, United States. The population was 160 at the 2010 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land.-History:...
, on Highway 19. This route passed through the small unincorporated community of Kimberly, Oregon
Kimberly, Oregon
Kimberly is an unincorporated community in Grant County, Oregon, United States. It is located at the intersection of Oregon Route 19 and Oregon Route 402 and the confluence of the John Day and the North Fork John Day rivers....
, 14 miles (22.5 km) north of the ranch.