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Sisters, Oregon
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BBR history revisited
By Conrad Weiler

Carole Campbell Crail took Black Butte Ranch residents on a trip back in time.

Carole Campbell Crail walked some of the same paths at Black Butte Ranch that she had traveled over 60 years ago during Jean Nave's BBR Historical Society meeting Tuesday, June 18.

Under sunny skies and with an appreciative audience, Crail traced a path in and around the present day Lodge at BBR. She had called this spot home between 1940 and 1957 when her parents, Carl and Virginia Campbell, managed the ranch for the Lowery family of San Francisco.

"We had between seven and 15 people living on the ranch at any one time, depending on the time of year," said Crail. "The Lowerys would visit in the summer and we had Chinese cooks and ranch hands helping part of the year."

Carole remembered Mrs. Lowery as liking to swim and her pool was adjacent to the present day tennis courts near the sport shop. The Lowery home was basically where the tennis courts are today and the old pool has been buried and remains as a long mound to the east of the tennis courts. There was also a guesthouse adjacent to the present day tennis courts.

"Snooks, a brown and white Welsh pony, is also buried under the grassy area just west of the tennis courts," said Carole.

The Campbell home was located where the present day lodge is at BBR. Crail used tree placement to remember some of these locations. "We had a chicken house and five milk cows on the property. I remember lots of sheep on the ranch and particularly the large blue sheep ticks they had. There was also a Chinese workhouse where the cooks worked," said Crail.

"Rural electrification came about 1945," stated Carole. "We had phone service before that and very nice indoor toilets."

Crail had pictures of some of the old ranch structures that she shared with the group, including views of the property before the man-made lake (Phalarope) was prepared. An old hay barn, her home, the Lowerys' home and the guesthouse were pictured.

"The present recreation center building was the old barn," she said

"The Forest Service kept their mules in a corral on the property. They would load up fish containers and use the mules to carry these for stocking nearby lakes," she remembered.

Looking out towards Mt. Washington on this clear day Carole remembered a day in 1945 when she was nine-years old: "Our teacher took us outside to see the smoke coming from Mt. Washington. It was coming right out of the top like a chimney."

Crail is very happy about the trophy she was awarded at this year's Sisters Rodeo parade commemorating her reign as Sisters rodeo queen 50 years before (1952) when she was 16 years old.

Crail left the ranch in 1957 when the property was sold by the Lowery family to Howard and Rosalind (Corbett) Morgan. She moved to Portland to pursue her nursing career.

Crail now lives in Sisters.

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