Pioneering Life in Ironside and the Malheur Basin – The Annotated Diaries of Cyrus T. Locey from 1858-1884

In 1846, an 11 yr. old boy walked along the Oregon Trail, following his father to a new life in the Oregon Territory. Growing up in Oregon City, then in the gold fields of California, then back East again, until 1852 when once again he found himself following the oxen pulled wagons along the Oregon Trail. Cyrus Thompson Locey (1835-1922) returned to the Willamette Valley, worked the steamboats from Canemah, married the love of his life, and by 1872 found himself along the banks of Willow Creek, a few miles east of Ironside, in SE Oregon. His journals document these travels, and beginning in 1872, the journals reveal the stark and brutal life of establishing a ranch in those far off lands. Though the daily entries are brief, they reveal the hardships of working the land and animals, but more poignantly, reveal the establishment of community. Ironside, Malheur City, Eldorado, and further, Baker City, Vale, Ontario, Parma, Canyon City… all places touched by this remarkable family that not only created a life for themselves, but created schools, were involved in politics, and influenced the creation of Malheur County and its history of farming and ranching.