Agriculture

The first orchards in the newly settled Tygh Valley were planted in 1858. Award winning hops were also grown in Tygh Valley during this time and the Dahl place hop yard employed many people. Early settlers knew that farming on the region now known as Juniper Flats could only be a viable enterprise if they had irrigation water. In 1876 Captain John Smith predicted upon observance of the thriving native bunchgrass, that the area would become a wheat producing region. Years later, land that included the outlet of Clear Lake was acquired by the famous County Sheriff Daniel Butler, who had settled in Tygh Valley in the 1850’s.

Butler’s property would become the site of the Juniper flat irrigation system headworks, a monumental project eventually completed in 1920. A hundred years of agriculture and ranching have followed with crops and technology evolving over time.