THE GOAT RANCH
December 19, 1953
A long time ago, probably around fifty years of so, people settled on Hutton Creek a little south of the Oregon-California boundary. There are the remains of two sets of buildings several hundred yards apart so I would guess the two homesteads were taken out or perhaps they acquired the land by some other means.
Around 25 years ago people lived on one of the places and had a little herd of goats. For many years it was called the Goat Ranch, and probably still goes by that name.
I like those little places, and either one of them would be a nice place to call home for anyone who doesn't care too much for this so-called civilization.
PILOT ROCK
December 20, 1953
Pilot Rock was first called Pilot Knob, and was the feeding ground for mountain sheep and the grizzly bear. It is a big, bluffy rock, and the area on its eastside is one of the roughest places in southern Jackson County, Oregon.
Pilot Rock can be seen for many miles, and for this reason it was one of the landmarks used by the early explorers. It was named long before northern California and southern Oregon were settled, and served as a guide-post before roads and trails were built through the country.
The Pilot Rock country must have been heaven for the wild things of the forest before the white man came with his firearms and his sheep and cattle. The timber and brush on the steep and rocky hillsides around Pilot Rock made it one of the last places the wildlife used to escape from the man and his rifle.
The notorious grizzly bear, Reelfoot, seemed to have been guided by his instinct and hatred for man to choose that rugged area as his headquarters and place for hibernation. He had for many years evaded the carefully laid plans of men to kill him for the twenty-seven hundred dollars reward offered by the cattlemen.
Many hunters had endured great hardships to hunt him down, but the hunters and dogs were no match for the wily old grizzly, who had lost three of his toes in a trap, and was carrying rifle bullets under his hide.
It was southeast of Pilot Rock, near Wildcat Gulch, where Reelfoot's career ended when he was killed, April 10, 1890, by William A. Wright and Purl Bean, after a fierce battle.
