Written by Carla Burnside, Retired USFWS Archaeologist
Photo above of Buena Vista Barn (2008) by Steve Halpern
A July 24th lightning storm ignited the Jackass Butte Fire west of Highway 205 and the Refuge. Just after midnight on July 25th the fire moved east; jumped the highway and raced into Buena Vista Station. Two historic structures were lost – a 1937 shop/storage building and a 1959 horse barn. Fortunately, the 1936 constructed stone residence was not severely impacted by the fire.
Buena Vista Station was the site of the first permanent Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp on Malheur Refuge when it was established in October 1935 (Camp Sod House at Refuge Headquarters was not established until May 1936). Wood structures constructed at the site included four barracks, a mess hall, infirmary, officers’ quarters, wash house, recreation hall, office and library. Over two hundred men lived and worked at the camp until the United States entered World War II. When the camp was closed, the structures were dismantled and shipped to Alaska for use by the Army.
Camp Buena Vista served as the construction headquarters for major projects in the northern portion of the Blitzen Valley. Projects included construction of the Center Patrol Road, Buena Vista Ponds, Buena Vista Lane, Buena Vista Canal, dams, ditches and dikes. The CCC also surveyed and constructed the route of Highway 205, strung electric lines to the Diamond and Frenchglen Communities, constructed roads and bridges and built hundreds of miles of boundary fence.
When the CCC began construction in 1936 of the administrative site at Buena Vista Station they moved a two-story ranch house to make room for the stone residence. Stone for the structure was quarried from the Diamond Craters, because the quarry near Camp Buena Vista, where stone for the construction at headquarters was quarried, was exhausted before construction could begin at Buena Vista.
The CCC also constructed a large two-story Shop/Storage Building in 1937 and an Equipment Storage Building. The Equipment Storage building burned down in 1959. The Shop/Storage Building was used by Maintenance staff primarily for storage until it burned in July.
The Refuge constructed a Horse Barn at the Station in 1959, north of the Buena Vista access road at the base of the northern butte. The barn housed horses used in daily operations on the refuge until the 1970s.
In more recent times, this barn has served as storage space at a central location of the Refuge, primarily for the support of maintenance and water management responsibilities of the Buena Vista Substation Manager. Everything that resided within this barn was lost with the structure itself. The clean-up will be significant on an unknown timeline with a yet unknown availability of appropriate funds.
While we wait, and contemplate the future of this site we thought it best to begin with a reflection on what it was and how it came to be.
