Indian Ford Meadow Ranches

Southwest of Black Butte, Indian Ford Creek slackens and braids to create a forest meadow where native trails once crossed. An 1855 photo shows a federal survey expedition camp in Indian Ford Meadow, looking north toward Mount Jefferson. In 1879, David Claypool homesteaded here in Section 28 on what was then called Big Slough or Swamp Creek. He likely pastured the horses he and his brother Joe used for their freight wagons, stages, and mail service on the Willamette Valley and Cascade (or Santiam) Wagon Road, which passed through this property.

In 1910, Martin Oliver homesteaded parcels to the north in Sections 28 and 21, where he built a house. Martin held the Indian Ford Creek water rights and named the property Willow Ranch after its riparian vegetation. He sold it in 1913 and in 1934, San Franciscan Stewart Lowry purchased it along with Black Butte Ranch. John Elliot ran cattle and farmed the Willow Ranch.

In 1915 and 1917, Ben Tone, an Irish American jockey from New York, bought property at the north end of Indian Ford Meadow in Section 7 and 8, plus section 12 in R9E. Tone had come to Oregon in 1910 and met Henry Ladd Corbett, whose Portland family had a summer home in Camp Sherman. This connection enabled Ben and his wife Helen to run a herd of 300 cattle, keep horses, build a lodge and cabins, and establish in 1922 the short-lived Sundown Ranch- the first dude ranch in Oregon. Ben hosted polo matches, hound hunts, and horse races. In 1925, the land and H. L. Corbett's water rights were sold to timberman Samuel Johnson.

In 1955, Donna Gill started her 600-acre Indian Ford Guest Ranch on the former Sundown property plus additional land in sections 8, 17, and 18. The Durdans vacationed at the ranch and then bought some of the property in 1958. Later, together with Donna, her brothers, and the Arpkes, they also purchased the former Willow Ranch, calling it the Ponderosa, as well as properties along Indian Ford Creek and Camp Polk Road in sections 27, 28, 33 and 34. In 1969, the Gills sold out and the others developed the Indian Ford Ranch Homes and Indian Ford land and Cattle Company community centered on riding and cattle. Covenants signed in 1980 limit use of the meadows to agriculture and recreation. In 1984, Jim and Judy Knapp purchased and renamed the remaining 250-acre Willows Ranch and raised Friesian horses, cattle, llamas, and alpacas, also using the adjacent national forest grazing allotment seasonally. They donated part of the ranch to the Deschutes Land Trust to become its first preserve in 1993.