The Cant Family, early sheep ranchers in the John Day valley.
Between 1862 and 1909, the Homestead Act allowed settlers to claim 160- to 640-acre tracts of free land. Frank Butler was the first to settle in the valley north of Picture Gorge. The Officer family was the first to ranch in this valley when in 1881 Eli Casey Officer took a homestead claim; he was said to have brought the first flock of sheep to the John Day area. His son, Floyd Officer, homesteaded the land where the Cant House is now located and sometimes accompanied geologist and minister Thomas Condon on his study expeditions.
American Indian pictographs Learn more about the American indian presence in the John Day Valley. more...
