This is Oregon’s largest body of water, about 90,000 acres. Indians inhabiting its shores (‘People of the Lake’) lived well on wild fowl, fish and wocus seeds. The first known white visitors (1825-26) were Hudson’s Bay trappers under Tom McKay and Finan McDonald. In 1846, while exploring here, John C. Fremont received news of the war with Mexico, which caused him to hasten around the northern end and back to California, there to play a part in the acquisition of that state. Now the lake serves as a natural reservoir for the Klamath reclamation project, for logging operations and for Klamath River power plants. It remains a resort for fishermen, and famous as a haven for wild life.

"Pathway to the "Garden of the World"
Excitement filled the air May 22, 1843 as nearly one thousand Americans left Missouri toward new lives in the Oregon Country. During the next two decades, more than 50,000 people emigrated to a land of abundance, a land that Abigail Scott, emigrant of 1852, called the "Garden of the World."

The Oregon Trail was more than two thousand miles through what Riley Root, emigrant of 1848, called "Landscape without soil! River bottoms with scarcely enough grass to support emigrant teams." The fragile landscape's ability to sustain life eroded as numbers of emigrants increased and privation, illness and death often plagued emigrants. Survivors endured an extremely wearisome road, and by the time they reached this portion of the Trail, with much of the journey behind them, the "Garden of the World" still seemed very distant.
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Remained in camp to graze our poor brave cattle. Will start about two and go as far as we can tonight, as the days are so excessively hot, and we have 28 miles to go without water! Felt very unwell today, Am almost worn down with the fatigue of constant travel. Our way seem endless!
--Esther Bell McMillan Hanna
August 13, 1852

Chivalry on the Trail 
The Oregon Trail was not a journey to be taken lightly: hardship was the common fare. Boys will be boys however; practical jokes and monkeyshines were not uncommon. 
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We were soon joined by a band of youngsters from another camp, all on horseback. They bantered me to join them, but I pleaded I was on foot and could not join them, a young fellow knowing my timidity and awkwardness told me to take his horse. I accepted and started with them. I soon found myself along side of a time jovial young lady, as we road slowly along, soon found ourselves far ahead of the wagons, but behind our own company, suddenly a hoodlum came galloping up behind us, and as he passed the young lady's horse struck him with a whip. Her horse jumped, broke the saddle girth, and the young lady saddle and all were lying in the dust and sand near knee deep, but as she was laughing I knew she was not seriously hurt.
I jumped down, picked her up, caught her horse, tied up the old girth and was ready to proceed, but how will she get aboard? The girl was quite large and heavy, and not a tree, rock or stump within miles of us. I finally got down on my hands and knees, she stepped on my back and as I arose, she lit on her horse, and we were off...
-- John Johnson
July 25, 1851

Malheur River and Hot Springs 
The emigrants made their way from the Snake River to the Malheur River across what Sarah Sutton, in 1854, described as “the most dusty dry and hot bare desert that any person ever travers’d...” Vale was the point at which they crossed the Malheur River, watered livestock, camped and washed their clothing; many emigrants took advantage of river water heated by nearby hot springs.
 
Left camp at 11 o'clock & traveled briskly over a sandy country suffered considerable for water as the day was exceedingly hot came to a creek about 6 o/clock & never was water to me more executable though of very indifferent quality, passed down the Creek a short distance at the foot of a mountain & found boiling water running out of the ground. It made its appearance just above the age of the water in the River in a Boiling state for over a hundred yards it runs more or less. One of our company cooked a fish which he caught from the creek in about two minutes perfectly through.
-- Medorem Crawford
September 3, 1842

Shortcut Ends in Disaster! 
Weary emigrants were only too receptive to any idea that might shorten their journey, especially if it meant avoiding the Blue Mountains. Stephen Meek, pilot of an 1845 emigration, persuaded 200 families camped near this site to follow him on an alternate route across the desert to the upper Willamette Valley. The expedition became stalled at Lost Hollow. Unable to find water to the west, the emigrants turned north and twenty-four died before they reached The Dalles.
 
At this place are two trails, the fork is in the bottom above the crossing of the creek, and there is a possibility of emigrants pursuing the wrong route ... Mr. Meek, who had been engaged as our pilot ... informed the emigrants that he could, by taking up this stream to hear its source, and then striking across the plains, so as to intersect the old road near the mouth of the Deschutes or Falls river, save about one hundred and fifty miles travel; also that he was perfectly familiar with the country through which the proposed route lay, as he had traveled it; that no difficulty or danger attended its travel.
-- Joel Palmer
September 3, 1845 

Worthy of Consideration 
Most Oregon Trail emigrants who camped along the banks of the Malheur River were unimpressed and were eager to trek on toward greener pastures in the Willamette Valley. An anonymous emigrant of 1843 exclaimed: “It is a desert, so rugged, so dreary, and so exceedingly sterile that it cannot, until ages have melted its mountains, until the winds and floods and changes of thousands and thousands of years shall have crumbled into dust its rocks and its sands, yield anything worthy of consideration to the support of human life...” 

The discovery of gold in 1863 changed this attitude. The influx of miners created a market for agricultural products first satisfied by the introduction of livestock and produce farming in 1864. Agricultural ventures were flourishing by the 1870's, and the west ward flow of livestock across the Oregon Trail that marked the previous three decades reversed course, as massive heard of Oregon horses, cattle and sheep were driven east to market. Miners and farmers comprised the first residents, and they are still the mainstay in this region once described as "so exceedingly sterile."

Legend of the Blue Bucket 
Stephen Meek, pilot of an ill-fated 1845 emigration, successfully persuaded 200 families to attempt a shortcut around the Blue Mountains. Although the endeavor proved disastrous, legend holds that in their desperate search for water the lost emigrants discovered a small amount of gold! The search for the Blue Bucket gold led to other discoveries, and prospectors soon descended upon the countryside with their gold pans and pack mules. Although many deposits of precious metals have been found in the region, and mining lured many settlers back to the banks of the Malheur River, the Blue Bucket gold has eluded all seekers. 
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The captain of the company told all of the young people who had saddle horses to take buckets and go hunt for water. My father, who was then 23 years old and his sister ... took their old blue wooden buckets and started out to find water. They finally found a dry creek bed which they followed until they found a place were a little water was seeping through the gravel, and while my father was digging for water his sister saw something bright and picked it up. 
-- W.H. Herron, son of W.J. Herren
emigrant of 1845

Born and Raised on the Oregon Trail 
The Malheur River provided much needed water for both Oregon Trail emigrants and their livestock. Nearby hot springs must have provided many an emigrant family with the first hot bath in months of dry and dusty travel. The City of Vale stands today on the same site at which the emigrants camped, and was literally born and raised on the Oregon Trail.
The hot springs were the site of Vale’s first structure, described by Sarah Sutton, emigrant of 1854, as “a hut and tent ocupi’d by A Mr. Turner of Oregon a Trader.” These springs were also the site of Vale’s first legitimate building: The Bulley Ranch, owned by Capt. Jonathon Keeney, a trapper, ferry-man and jack-of-all-trades, who sold whiskey to Oregon Trail emigrants.
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Lewis B. Rinehart bought the “Bulley Ranch” and built the historic Stone House, which was opened as a hotel with a grand ball on New Year’s Day 1873. The Stone House, which still stands on Main Street, served as a stagecoach stop, safehouse, post office and store. The name Vale was originally bestowed upon the local post office in 1893.

Eager to save time on the Oregon Trail, emigrants often attempted shortcuts. Between 1845 and 1854, three wagon trains left this campsite seeking a cutoff to the Willamette Valley.

The Meek Cutoff of 1845
Frontiersman Stephen Meek persuaded over 1,000 people with 200 wagons to avoid the notorious Blue Mountains, Cayuse Indians, and Columbia River by turning west up the Malheur River into Central Oregon. Unable to find water west of Wagontire Mountain, the train turned north and rejoined the Oregon Trail at The Dalles. Hunger and illness led to 23 deaths on the trek.

The Elliott Cutoff of 1853
Elijah Elliott convinced over 1,000 people with 215 wagons to attempt a shortcut over the partially completed Free Emigrant Road which had been explored in 1852. Elliott's party followed Meek's route as far as the Harney Valley before striking a different course around Malheur and Harney Lakes. Continuing westward, they became disoriented and desperate. Scouts eventually found the Free Emigrant Road in the Cascade Mountains and reached the Willamette Valley  settlements. The settlers soon organized a rescue party to help the stranded emigrants.

The Macy Cutoff of 1854
In 1852, the road districts of Benton, Lane, and Linn Counties had jointly hired William Macy to find a route between Skinner's (now Eugene) and the distant Malheur River. Macy crossed the Cascade Mountains and followed the Deschutes River north until he turned east on the Meek Cutoff. A skirmish with Snake Indians in the Harney Valley forced the party to abandon the search. The venture led to the eventual construction of the Free Emigrant Road. In 1854, Macy led 121 wagons over much the same route as Elliott's without recorded difficulty.