Whorehouse Meadow is a

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artifi ...

located on the western slope of

Steens Mountain Steens Mountain is in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Oregon, and is a large fault-block mountain. Located in Harney County, it stretches some north to south, and rises from the west side the Alvord Desert at elevation of about to a ...

southeast of

Frenchglen, Oregon Frenchglen is an unincorporated small village in Harney County, Oregon, United States. It is south of Burns on Oregon Route 205 and its population is approximately 12. Frenchglen is near Steens Mountain and Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, an ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It lies within the

Steens Mountain Wilderness The Steens Mountain Wilderness is a wilderness area surrounding a portion of Steens Mountain of southeastern Oregon in the United States. The reserve falls within the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area (CMPA). Both the ...

. Lewis McArthur, writing about the landmark in ''

Oregon Geographic Names ''Oregon Geographic Names'' is a compilation of the origin and meaning of place names in the U.S. state of Oregon, published by the Oregon Historical Society. The book was originally published in 1928. It was compiled and edited by Lewis A. McArth ...

'', describes it as an "accessible but secluded meadow a mile east of Fish Lake." The meadow acquired its name in the days of the

Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

. Entrepreneuring women from

Vale, Oregon Vale is a city in and the county seat of Malheur County, Oregon, United States, about west of the Idaho border. It is at the intersection of U.S. Routes 20 and 26, on the Malheur River at its confluence with Bully Creek. Vale was selected as ...

, would set up wood and canvas tents in the meadow to provide services to the sheepherders and cattlemen of the area. Many of the sheepherders were

Basque American Basque Americans ( eu, euskal estatubatuarrak, es, vasco estadounidenses, french: Basco-Américains) are Americans of Basque descent. According to the 2000 US census, there are 57,793 Americans of full or partial Basque descent. Ties to early ...

immigrants, and their sometimes explicit carvings can still be found in the bark of aspen trees surrounding the meadow. The name was changed in the 1960s to "Naughty Girl Meadow" on

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...

maps, but in 1981 the old name was restored after public outcry. Whorehouse Meadow has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names.

References

Grasslands of Oregon Landmarks in Oregon Geography of Harney County, Oregon Basque-American culture in Oregon Meadows in the United States {{HarneyCountyOR-geo-stub

Further reading

References