Southeastern Oregon contains a northern section of the Great Basin.
It is an endorheic basin or closed drainage system, just over 200 thousand square miles of mostly arid and desertlike landscapes.
Ancient lakes did fill these spaces, thousands of years ago, helping to shape what we see to day.
Ice age lakes have receded to saline marshes or small land locked bodies of water fed from mountain snow melt but never draining to an ocean.
Native people, the Ute, Mono and Goshute tribes, adapted to a harsh environment living a mostly nomadic life. Their ancestors likely came here via the Bering land bridge.
There is ample archeologic data to support human habitation in Oregon as far back as 20 thousand years.
Excavations around Fort Rock, a tuff ring located on an ice age lake bed, uncovered a cache of sagebrush sandals among other human artifacts. Archeologist discovered the site in 1938 and returned in the late sixties.
Looting and outdated archelogoical practices hampered precise dating but the presence of Mazama Ash over the top of artifacts suggests they are at least seven thousand years old.
Some of the people weaving and wearing those sandals likely walked over Picture Rock Pass a divide between Fort Rock and Summer Lake. This is the site of a set of petroglyphs dating from the same era.
Recently an archeological site in the south east corner of the state unearthed tools “…unmistakable as having been crafted by humans.” Artifacts from this site have been radiocarbon dated at 18,250 years old. One of the oldest human-occupied locations in North America.
Current events hold a different importance when measured against the whole of human history and are truly insignificant when placed on a geological timeline. We find comfort in that thought