Agriculture has always been an important, although gradually declining, part of the Sisters Country economy and culture. Native Americans probably practiced agroforestry on local forests and grasslands, encouraging the expansion of plants desired for food and basket materials through clearing, planting, and burning. We define the area around Sisters as a square extending from Black Butte Ranch in the northwest to the intersection of U.S. Highway 20 and Fryrear Road in the southeast, a total of 140 square miles.

The first Euro-American settlers were attracted by fertile farmlands that could be made highly productive with irrigation. The scale of irrigation expanded around 1900 when Squaw Creek Irrigation Company began delivering water diverted from Whychus Creek to lands along its main canal to the southeast, east, and northeast of Sisters. Typical homesteads comprised 160 acres of irrigated cropland, which was sufficient to support and feed a family. This land development pattern differed from that of the unirrigated portions of central Oregon, where failed homesteads were often consolidated into large ranches. The area's main products varied over time, but included cattle, sheep, hay, wheat, potatoes, corn, and peppermint.

Were local agricultural enterprises mainly ranches or farms? Most appear to have been managed at the higher intensity characteristic of farms. High productivity, due in large part to irrigation, and small average property size, an artifact of homesteading rules, went hand-in-hand. The 1910 national Census and the 1921 Polk County Directory list dozens of farmers in the Sisters area, but no ranchers. Another way that Sisters Country was unlike typical western ranchland was the low demand for, and use of, federal grazing allotments, for which only two local ranches are known to have held permits. Still, many of the iconic properties around Sisters have long been named ranches.

This exhibit features 12 representative historic agricultural operations. All were established by pioneer settlers between 1868 and 1910. Most of them were, and still are, served by irrigation districts; a few others devised their own stream diversions and ditches. Although commercial production has ceased or declined on nearly all of them, a large majority of the land has remained open space, providing scenic excellence, healthy watershed function, productive wildlife habitat, and, in some cases, beneficially located wildfire fuel breaks for Sisters Country. Portions of a few ranch properties have been developed into recreational or residential communities.

Our selected properties nearly encircle the Town of Sisters and have been placed into three groups for this exhibit based on their direction from town (north, southwest, or southeast).