The Sandy Knoll Murder, Legacy of the Sheepshooters

The Sandy Knoll Murder, Legacy of the Sheepshooters
Author: Melany Tupper
Publisher: Central Oregon Books LLC
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2010-12-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 0983169128

The Sandy Knoll Murder, Legacy of the Sheepshooters is the true story of the high-profile 1904 murder of John Creed Conn, who disappeared in the midst of central Oregon's bloody range war period. That circumstance has always been believed to have precipitated his death. Sensational and intriguing, the details of the murder held the reading public in rapt attention with articles appearing on the front page of the Oregonian for nine months after Conn's mysterious disappearance. It is not very often that a prominent man, a celebrity, vanishes from the main street of an Oregon town in broad daylight. And even less often does a missing man's body reappear on a small, sandy knoll outside of that same town seven weeks later. This work is the result of six years of painstaking research that encompassed eighty other homicides and suspicious deaths of the period, Conn's life and relationships, the circumstances of his death, and all that was ever written by and about the sheepshooters. All of the planning that the killer put into making Conn vanish showed a high level of control and organization on his part. But, he did unwittingly leave some clues to his identity, and they could be traced like fingerprints through the ink of the newspapers of the day. Other clues were left like footprints in the soil surrounding the Sandy Knoll and in the behaviors that he exhibited there. Conn was the brother of a district attorney and a member of a politically prominent and well-connected family. He was a local celebrity and a respected figure, and there could be no doubt that a massive man hunt and investigation would ensue. Every effort has been made to adhere to the facts of the case, long-held as the legacy of the sheepshooters. The Creed Conn murder was then, and remains today, one of the most sensational in the history of the state of Oregon.

The Trapper Murders

The Trapper Murders
Author: Melany Tupper
Publisher:
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2013-08-30
Genre: Murder
ISBN: 9780983169154

From the author of The Sandy Knoll Murder, a sequel: In the spring of 1924, the bodies of three men were found just off shore of the main boat launch at Lava Lake. Then, as now, the site is a recreational hot spot of the Cascade Lakes region and nearby Bend, Oregon. The trappers had disappeared from a cabin at Little Lava Lake, isolated by several feet of wintertime snow. This is the true story of the Lava Lakes triple murder, long believed to have been the work of two men, and the search for the previously unidentifed partner of the only known suspect in the case. A chain of similar, unsolved killings points to one man as that parnter, for the case contained several inescapable facts: there was indeed a relationship between the two criminals; the bodies had been shoved through a hole in the ice of Lava Lake; one of the men had been bludgeoned, and there was a peculiar half dollar-size hole in the right side of his head. Each of these facts are suggestive, but when taken together, they are almost conclusive.

Vandevert

Vandevert
Author: Ted Haynes
Publisher: Robleda Company, Publishers
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780964650626

Central Oregon was almost uninhabited when William Plutarch Vandevert homesteaded a cattle ranch on the Little Deschutes River in 1892. The ranch has been a stage stop, a frontier post office, a one room school, and a dance pavilion. It has hosted horses, dogs, and sheep. Today the ranch is home to some of the finest log homes in the west.

Tales of Canyonland Cowboys

Tales of Canyonland Cowboys
Author: Richard Negri
Publisher: Applewood Books
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2009-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1429090596

With his tape recorder, Richard Negri captured the life stories of seven men and three women who lived by herding cattle and sheep in the area around what is now Canyonlands National Park. Encompassing Wayne, Emery, and Garfield counties in southeastern Utah, this was a scenic land of isolated ranches, precipitous paths, and little water or food in the San Rafael Desert and the canyonlands west of the Green and Colorado Rivers. The stories he captured are rich with descriptive details of landscape and the challenges it presented to both humans and animals eeking out a living in this parched territory. The interviews with these early cowboys and cowgirls, sheepmen and sheepwomen, are full of colloquialisms, western flavor, and strong opinions. Fleshed out with maps and photographs, the stories capture the precarious existence of these people, celebrating their triumphs and their challenges, often begging the question of how or why one would choice to live in this hard-scrabble place. What shines clear in these stories is the committment these men and women have to their way of life and to the land they called home.

Zelda Wisdom

Zelda Wisdom
Author: Carol Gardner
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Total Pages: 124
Release: 2001-10-02
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 9780740718977

Zelda, a seven-year-old bulldog, is the most unlikely of supermodels, who happens to star in the Zelda Wisdom greeting card line and other licensed products. This kit includes a 32-page booklet from her book, Zelda Wisdom, and a canine cut-out that stands up and can be dressed in three ravishing cling-made outfits. The combination is a howl!

New Era

New Era
Author: Jarold Ramsey
Publisher:
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2003
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

New Era is a graceful and literate collection of personal essays on the human and natural history of the Central Oregon high desert, focusing on what happened to the people and the land of this region during and after the homesteading era of 1900 to 1920. It is a book full of stories--about early Indian/Anglo connections, about the ghost town of Opal City, about homestead ranches and the families who struggled to make their lives there. Each chapter offers a new perspective on the interplay of human and natural history in a challenging time and place. Although Ramsey's focus is intensely local, he explores how these local details have larger Western and American meanings, too. In his introduction, Ramsey writes that the title of his book comes from the name of our little country school, and if it catches a sense of the indomitable optimism of the homesteaders who established it for their children, I also want it so suggest my concern ... with changes in the land, and with what can get thrown aside and lost in the name of newness and progress. The stories gathered in New Era capture these changing and changed lives and landscapes. Jarold Ramsey was born in Central Oregon and grew up on his family's ranch there. He left the ranch to attend college, and became an award-winning essayist and poet, as well as a published playwright and a respected authority on traditional American Indian literature. New Era will appeal to a wide range of readers beyond those interested in the Oregon high desert country, especially those who value story-telling and the literature of place.

The Oregon Companion

The Oregon Companion
Author: Richard H. Engeman
Publisher: Timber Press (OR)
Total Pages: 429
Release: 2009
Genre: History
ISBN: 0881928992

What's the connection between Ken Kesey and Nancy's Yogurt? How about the difference between a hoedad and a webfoot? What became of the Pixie Kitchen and the vanished Lambert Gardens? This handbook of over 1000 people, places, and things features entries including towns and cities, counties, rivers, lakes, and mountains.