The James Cant Ranch is a pioneer ranch complex in

Grant County Grant County may refer to: Places ;Australia * County of Grant, Victoria ;United States *Grant County, Arkansas *Grant County, Indiana * Grant County, Kansas *Grant County, Kentucky *Grant County, Minnesota *Grant County, Nebraska *Grant C ...

in eastern

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

, United States. The ranch is located on both sides of the

John Day River The John Day River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northeastern Oregon in the United States. It is known as the Mah-Hah River by the Cayuse people, the original inhabitants of the region. Undammed along its entire ...

in the

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 l ...

. 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 The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

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 The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

Early history

Native Americans 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 The Sahaptin are a number of Native American tribes who speak dialects of the Sahaptin language. The Sahaptin tribes inhabited territory along the Columbia River and its tributaries in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Sahaptin-s ...

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.Taylor, Terri and Cathy Gilbert
"Pre-Contact to Euro-American Settlement"
''Cultural Landscape Report''; Cant Historical District], Cultural Resources Division, National Park Service, United States Department of Interior, Seattle, Washington, September 1996, pp. 19–20. As a result of the arid climate, only a few Animal trapping, trappers and

prospector Prospector may refer to: Space exploration * Prospector (spacecraft), a planned lunar probe, canceled in 1962 * '' Lunar Prospector'', a NASA spacecraft Trains * Prospector (train), a passenger train operated by the Denver & Rio Grande Western ...

s traveled through the area before 1862 when

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

was discovered in Canyon Creek, tributary of the John Day River. The discovery of gold drew a large number of miners 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. A wagon road, formalized in 1869 as The Dalles Military Road between

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. Th ...

on the Columbia River and Canyon City, encouraged additional growth. Permanent homesteaders began arriving in the John Day Valley shortly after the miners. The

Homestead Act of 1862 The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than of public land, or nearly 10 percent of th ...

encouraged settlement by offering grants of to American pioneers.

Livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animal ...

operations in the John Day area supplied isolated mining towns with fresh meat. Initially, most ranches produced

beef cattle Beef cattle are cattle raised for meat production (as distinguished from dairy cattle, used for milk production). The meat of mature or almost mature cattle is mostly known as beef. In beef production there are three main stages: cow-calf opera ...

. However,

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated ...

were the primary ranch stock by the 1890s. This coincided with a wave of Scottish, Irish, and

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

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

land patent A land patent is a form of letters patent assigning official ownership of a particular tract of land that has gone through various legally-prescribed processes like surveying and documentation, followed by the letter's signing, sealing, and publi ...

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 Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

Thomas Condon Thomas Condon (1822–1907) was an Irish Congregational minister, geologist, and paleontologist who gained recognition for his work in the U.S. state of Oregon. Life and career Condon arrived in New York City from Ireland in 1833 and graduated ...

during several of his

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

hunting expeditions. The Officers sold the ranch in 1910, moving to Dayville where their children could attend school.Beckham, Stephen Dow and Florence K. Lentz
"Early Settlement in the Vicinity of the National Monument”
''Rocks and Hard Places'', Historic Resource Study, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, National Park Service, United States Department of Interior, Seattle, Washington, 2000. The property was purchased by James Cant and his partner John Mason for $4,000. It included in Grant County and in Wheeler County. Cant bought out Mason's share in the property in 1915.Taylor, Terri and Cathy Gilbert
"Cant Sheep Ranch: 1910–1946"
''Cultural Landscape Report; Cant Historical District''], Cultural Resources Division, National Park Service, United States Department of Interior, Seattle, Washington, September 1996, pp. 27–29..

James Cant

James Cant was born in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

in 1879. He left Scotland at the age of 20 for

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

, where he spent five years raising

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

s and mules. He immigrated to the United States in 1905. After arriving in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, 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 October 10, 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. Joda cantranch

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 Cant's isolation. However, the highway was not paved until the mid-1930s.Taylor, Terri and Cathy Gilbert
"Cant Sheep Ranch: 1910–1946"
''Cultural Landscape Report; Cant Historical District'', Cultural Resources Division, National Park Service, United States Department of Interior, Seattle, Washington, September 1996, pp. 30–40. The Cant family kept their sheep operation going through the Great Depression. It recovered some during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

; 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 plus an additional 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 in 1972, and his wife died in 1973. 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 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,

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

, and office until the ''Thomas Condon Visitor 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."Cant Ranch House Museum opens to the Public"
''John Day Fossil Beds'', John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, National Park Service, United States Department of Interior, Kimberly, Oregon, Fall/Summer 2004. 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 in 1984. This historic district covers approximately along both sides of the John Day River. There are eleven historic buildings on the property.Taylor, Terri and Cathy Gilbert
"Structures"
''Cultural Landscape Report; Cant Historical District'', Cultural Resources Division, National Park Service, United States Department of Interior, Seattle, Washington, September 1996, pp. 69–77..

Structures

During the 1930s, there were at least seventeen buildings in the Cant Ranch complex. Today, there are eleven ranch buildings in the Cant Ranch Historic District. They are the main ranch house, a

bunkhouse A bunkhouse is a barracks-like building that historically was used to house working cowboys on ranches, or loggers in a logging camp in North America. As most cowboys were young single men, the standard bunkhouse was a large open room with narr ...

, a watchman's cabin, the

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Alle ...

and adjoining sheep pens, a

workshop Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the on ...

, general purpose shed, chicken coop, feed storage shed,

privy Privy is an old-fashioned term for an outdoor toilet, often known as an outhouse and by many other names. Privy may also refer to: * Privy council, a body that advises the head of state * Privy mark, a small mark in the design of a coin * Privy Pur ...

, 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 crossing 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

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. 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. Joda sheeprockrainbow

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 A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

. It has wide

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

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 In Western architecture, a living room, also called a lounge room (Australian English), lounge (British English), sitting room (British English), or drawing room, is a room for relaxing and socializing in a residential house or apartment. Su ...

, dining room,

kitchen A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running wate ...

parlor A parlour (or parlor) is a reception room or public space. In medieval Christian Europe, the "outer parlour" was the room where the monks or nuns conducted business with those outside the monastery and the "inner parlour" was used for necess ...

, bedroom,

bathroom A bathroom or washroom is a room, typically in a home or other residential building, that contains either a bathtub or a shower (or both). The inclusion of a wash basin is common. In some parts of the world e.g. India, a toilet is typically ...

, 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 by . 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 by . There is a workshop and a small shed west of the barn. The National Park 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 Domestic sheep reproduce sexually much like other mammals, and their reproductive strategy is furthermore very similar to other domestic herd animals. A flock of sheep is generally mated by a single ram, which has either been chosen by a farmer ...

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 buildings 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 above sea level. Sheep Rock is a prominent geographic feature located approximately southeast of the ranch complex and can easily be seen from the ranch. There is a 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 Visitor Center is located across the highway from the ranch complex. The ranch is northeast of Dayville, Oregon. From Dayville, travel west on Highway 26 and then turn north on Highway 19. The ranch is southeast of Spray, Oregon, on Highway 19. This route passed through the small unincorporated community of Kimberly, Oregon, north of the ranch.Cant Ranch topographic map
United States Geological Survey, United States Department of Interior, Reston, Virginia; displayed via ACME mapper, ''www.acme.com'', July 10, 2010.

References

External links

John Day Fossil Beds National MonumentAmended National Register nomination form (2012)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cant, James, Ranch Historic District Houses completed in 1918 Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon Museums in Grant County, Oregon History museums in Oregon Ranches on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon National Register of Historic Places in Grant County, Oregon John Day Fossil Beds National Monument