What's New on the Ranch and on the Web

The ranch moved its teepee to a new location by the gazebo in July 2023 and installed a firepit surrounded by stone. The new location above the river has views of Paulina Peak and of the Homestead down the river. The location will make the teepee area drier, easier to mow, and a better place for parties.

In 2022 multiple owners began contruction of a large new shared storage facility near the existing storage building south of the barn and the kennel. The new building includes eight large units and four smaller units still large enough for a vehicle. All the units will have water and electricity when the building is completed in 2023. As part of the same project, the owners built a large underground storage tank which will provide readily available water in the event of a fire.

In June of 2022, ranch resident Ted Haynes, published the fourth book in his Northwest Murder Mystery series set in Central Oregon. Pole Pedal Murder takes place against the background of Bend's most popular sporting event, the Pole Pedal Paddle, a race that includes downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, bicycling, running five miles, kayaking on the Deschutes, and a final sprint near the Old Mill.

In building the stone platform around the well at the schoolhouse, the ranch uncovered a slab with writing on it (see photo). It seemed to be a grave marker except that it was buried very close to the well, a well that had probably been there since 1929. One theory was that it marked the grave of a two-year-old member of the Elliot wagon train that passed through the area in 1853 (and left wagon tracks still visible in Sunriver). Further investigation determined that it marked not a grave but a budding romance - or at least a friendship. The script says "LJ + DV" and the date "9-18-51". David Vandevert (DV) was nine years old at the time and attended the school with Linda James (LJ) who "lived about three-quarter miles west on the Big Deschutes"  (from the book, Vandevert, page 133). The date, 9-18-51, was a Tuesday near the start of the school year. The ranch left the stone buried in place.

On March 9, 2022, the ranch lost a dear friend who loved the ranch all her life. Grace Vandevert McNellis was born on the ranch on July 4, 1929, went to school in the one-room schoolhouse and graduated from Bend High School. She moved to Gig Harbor, Washington with her husband but brought him and their five sons home to the ranch every summer. She welcomed the new residents of the ranch, continued to visit every year, and wrote two books on the history of her family and the ranch. Lively, generous, and much beloved, Gracie will be sorely missed.

In 2021 the ranch renovated the schoolyard and playground of the one room Vandevert Schoolhouse. The ranch refurbished the foot-powered merry-go-round, built a stone platform around the hand-powered well, refurbished the picnic table, and installed a brand new swing set. Grandchildren welcome. Seventy years ago David Vandevert says he and his schoolmates had an enormous fallen ponderosa for a jungle gym and pirate ship. The well and pump have been here for almost a century.

The Mt. Bachelor Murders, a new mystery by ranch resident Ted Haynes, was published on February 2, 2021, and is available at independent bookstores throughout Central Oregon, including Sunriver Books and Music. See an enthusiastic review of the book in Cascade Arts & Entertainment. To view a Roundabout Books Zoom presentation of the book by Ted on February 11 click here.

On September 1, 2020, the elk herd paid a visit to an owner lot. The one in the photo at right is waiting for the cocktail hour to start.

In 2020 river otters ate many of the fish in Rainbow Lake and the ranch brought in some new ones (fish, not otters). For a YouTube video of the lake restocking click here.

On February 26, 2020 the ranch web site added a 14,000 word history of the family of Grace Clark, the mother of William P. Vandevert, founder of the ranch. Grace's brothers and their descendants were a well-traveled and adventurous lot, lucky to survive some of the scrapes they got into. For the Clark family history, click here. Also see a letter by Thomas Clark, Grace Clark's brother, that describes his early days in Oregon and the Clark Massacre that took place on the Oregon Trail.

In October 2019 a larger elk herd than ever before visited the ranch. Over sixty elk, more than could fit in the photograph, spread out across the horse pasture.

Ranch resident and author Ted Haynes published, on June 17, 2019, a new murder mystery titled The Mirror Pond Murders - set in Bend and at a fictional community based on Vandevert Ranch, Crosswater, and Sunriver. Mirror Pond, a sequel to Ted's earlier mystery, Suspects, was written up in Cascade A&E and is available through local bookstores and Amazon. Ted presented the book at Sunriver Books and Music on July 20.

In between massive snowplowing in the winter of 2018-2019, with ranch employees plowing in shifts for 24 hours straight, Bryan and Austin built new steel side racks for the ranch truck. The previous wooden racks threw splinters and had to be replaced every few years. The ranch bought the steel and ranch employees fabricated and installed the new racks, saving the ranch considerable dollars.

On Friday, September 21, 2018 the ranch acquired a brand new custom water tank and trailer, with all the fixings, to quickly suppress fires (and incidentally suppress dust when required).  The trailer was designed and built by a ranch owner's company and provided to the ranch at cost - a substantial discount.  The trailer carries a large tank, a gasoline powered pump, and multiple spigots and hoses. 

In 2018 Bryan and Austin repaired and refinished over forty trail, road, and other road signs on the ranch. They also installed new culverts and land bridges on the trails to improve them for riding and walking, in addition to leasing a bigger and better mower for the trails, which have never been better. They also refinished all the picnic tables and benches. This summer they replaced the buck and rail fence on both sides of the Homestead Road.

Grace Vandevert McNellis and Ted Haynes, co-authors of Vandevert - The Hundred Year History of a Central Oregon Ranch, were interviewed about the ranch by expert interviewer, Donna Seebo, on her weekly program, Warriors for Peace. You can listen to the lively hour-long interview by clicking here.

2017 - Bryan and Austin have nearly completed the new storage bunkers near the wood storage shed. The bunkers will be used for wood chips, gravel, and logs waiting to be cut for firewood. The ranch staff installed the rebar for the floors and an outside contractor will pour the floors, sloped so water drains out the front of the bunkers. It will be easier to take gravel and chips out of the bunker without picking up rocks and dirt than it has been to retrieve these materials from piles on the ground. The bunkers are part of a comprehensive effort to clean up and organize the working parts of the ranch.

The beaver population increased dramatically this year and the animals have launched an early fall attack on aspens along the Little Deschutes. They fell the trees and then take the smaller limbs so they can eat the leaves elsewhere at leisure. They destroyed five to seven trees before homeowners put up wire fencing around the remaining aspens.

This year (2017) the ranch installed no trespassing signs on the bridge over the Little Deschutes to discourage boaters from trying to take their boats out of the river on the ranch. Thousand Trails has agreed to advise people launching at their beach that they need to go all the way through the ranch before they take out.

Possibly due to the unusually wet winter and spring of 2016/2017, the ranch has seen exceptional numbers of California Tortoisesell Butterflies (yellow/orange) and Pandora Moths (brown/gray). We've also seen Cottontail Rabbits where they have never appeared before.

The new firewood storage shed was completed over the 2016/2017 winter and has firewood in it with room for plenty more. The building is framed in wood and sheathed in steel. It was built entirely by Bryan and the ranch staff.The board is exploring ways to provide more storage for individual owners but this building is not it.

Vandevert now has its own collection of poems inspired by the ranch.

The Vandevert Ranch Association annual meeting will be held at 9:00 AM on Saturday, August 5, 2017, upstairs in the barn.

In the fall of 2016 the ranch designed and contracted for reflective signs and tall stakes to mark the addresses of all the lots on the ranch in the winter - when snow often obscures the "summer" address signs. Being able to find the right house is particularly important for emergency vehicles. The owner who drove the project cooperated closely with the Crosswater Homeowners Association which adopted the same design. The signs demonstrated their value in January when all of Central Oregon experienced a very heavy snowfall.

On the last day of Cooper's summer job at the ranch, Bryan, Cooper, and Austin finished framing the walls of the new firewood shed and raised the lintel over the big front door. The building will keep firewood dry and make it easier to load when needed for homeowner fireplaces.

On August 17, 2016, the Sheridan forest fire broke out about four miles west of the ranch and burned about 300 acres of Descutes National Forest land. Prompt action by firefighters brought it under control. Though the fire never threatened the ranch, it made ranch owners watching it grateful for all the fuel reduction and fire break work the ranch has done over the years. The photo was taken from the barn. The fire didn't seem to bother the horses but a covey of quail sat on one owner's (unburnable) stone patio for hours during the fire's first hours.

In July 2016, Bryan Adams and his team (Cooper on the left, Austin on the right) completed the new half-mile rail fence along the ranch's northern border with Crosswater. The rails are pressure treated and attached with screwed-in log hogs. The fence will last for many years to come.

This web site has begun a catalog of dragonflies and damselflies that make their home on the ranch.

Jack, at right, is the newest member of the horse club. He doesn't quite trust his surroundings or his fellow members yet but we're sure he will come around.

Construction has begun on the first new house built on the ranch in ten years. The house on Rainbow Lake was designed by Locati Architects.

In January and February of 2016 we lost two beloved and important previous ranch residents, Mick Humphreys and Dick Gatley, both of whom built houses on the ranch and were instrumental in charting the early evolution of the ranch community.

In the summer of 2015 the ranch added two horse shelters to let horses get out of the sun in the summer and to protect them from wind, rain, and snow in the winter. The ranch also extensively reconfigured the corrals, paddocks, and gates and brought water to each enclosure. When completed the ranch will have nine corrals with gates between them plus one central round corral. Many of the corrals will have gates that open into the 30+ acre pasture. Also, the Horse Club brought several new horses to the ranch.

On July 4, 2015 the ranch celebrated the happy reunion of fifty Vandevert and Catlow famly members, organized by Tom McNellis and Roger Vandevert. At the time, Grace McNellis graciously made a gift of the Western Electric 1317 hand-crank telephone that served the Vandevert Homestead. The phone was refinished by a homeowner and will eventually find its place upstairs in the barn where the homeowners hold their annual meeting. The ring to signal a call to the ranch was one long and two shorts.

Over the winter of 2014-2015, Bryan Adams and the ranch staff made major improvements to the ramp leading to the river by the bridge, making it more secure and easier to climb up to the ramp from the river. The team also completely replaced and rebuilt the buck and rail fence along the Barn Road.

See an Archive of "What's New" postings from 2014 and earlier.