Standing in the Gap for Oregon

Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them . Psalm 126:6 NIV The geographical heart of Oregon includes Crook County, Deschutes, and Jefferson. We are taking a look at Jefferson County. You can see earlier posts here , here , and here . The photo, right, is of Ashwood Church, in Ashwood, a ghost town about thirty miles northeast of Madras. The elected officials of Jefferson County include the three County Commissioners, Mark Wunsch, Wayne Fording, and Kelly Simmelink . Katherine Zemke is the County Clerk, and Steven Leriche is the District Attorney. The Sheriff’s Office Patrol Division sometimes only has one deputy for the entire county on duty, but they are working to increase the division so that there can be at least two at any given time, both for the safety of the officers and to meet the community's needs. Currently, the jail in Jefferson County has a population of around 70 inmates daily. The Sheriff is Jas...

Ashwood Road Rock Formations, Jefferson County Open your mouth for the speechless, In the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, And plead the cause of the poor and needy. Proverbs 31: 8-9 Jefferson County puts us in the middle of the North Central Region of Oregon. This area is almost all ranching and farming with the town of Madras being the county seat. I had assumed the county was named for Thomas Jefferson, but it is named after Mt. Jefferson, the second-tallest mountain in Oregon – which was named after Thomas Jefferson. The population of Jefferson County is around 25,000. It was created from part of Crook County in 1914. It owes its agricultural and ranching prosperity to the building of the railroad in 1911 that connected Madras to the Columbia River and gave the ranchers and farmers a means of reaching markets. Additionally, the 1930s saw the development of irrigation in the county that expanded farming operations.  Jefferson County, O...

Church on Warm Springs Reservation Those who go out weeping, carry seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them . Psalm 126:6 NIV In my own subjective and personal division of Oregon into regions, I placed Jefferson, Wheeler, Deschutes, and Crook Counties in the Central Region of Oregon. There is some debate on what area constitutes Central Oregon, but most agree Jefferson, Deschutes and Crook make up the core. Some add neighboring counties as well, as I have with Wheeler. This is high, dry, pine tree country, a semi-arid area sitting in the rain shadow of the Cascade Mountains to the west; the smaller Ochoco Mountains bounding it on the east. Central Oregon has become a tourist destination for those wanting to camp, ride horseback, rockhound or just fish, hike, and picnic.  Lumber and ranching are other major economic sources. Central Oregon Region Peter Skene Ogden, of the Hudson’s Bay Company, is credited with being the first European to lead a grou...