Whitehorse Ranch

Whitehorse Ranch
Cattle Ranch
Whitehorse Ranch front gate
Whitehorse Ranch Show map of Oregon Whitehorse Ranch Show map of the US
Coordinates: 42°20′15″N 118°14′23″W / 42.33750°N 118.23972°W / 42.33750; -118.23972Coordinates: 42°20′15″N 118°14′23″W / 42.33750°N 118.23972°W / 42.33750; -118.23972
Country	United States
State	Oregon
County	Harney and Malheur counties
Established	1869
Founded by	John S. Devine
Area
• Property	63,222 acres (25,585 ha)
	*The ranch also has BLM grazing allotments covering an additional 287,205 acres (116,228 ha)
Elevation	4,380 ft (1,340 m)
Time zone	Pacific (PST) (UTC-8)
Owner	BTAZ Nevada

The Whitehorse Ranch is a historic cattle ranch in Harney and Malheur counties in the southeastern corner of Oregon, United States. The ranch was started in 1869 by John S. Devine, a well-known 19th-century cattle baron. It was originally the headquarters for the Todhunter and Devine Cattle Company. The ranch has been in the cattle business continuously since it was founded. Today, the Whitehorse Ranch includes 63,222 acres (255.85 km²) of deeded property and grazing rights on an additional 287,205 acres (1,162.28 km²) of public range land administered by the Bureau of Land Management.

Native Americans used the area around Whitehorse Creek for thousands of years before the arrival of European settlers. The birds, animals, and plants found in the wetland around the high desert lake provided abundant food for early inhabitants. While there are no records of the earliest people to inhabit the area, by the time Europeans began to explore the area in the early 19th century, the Northern Paiute people were using the area that is now Whitehorse Ranch.

Hudson's Bay Company fur trappers were the first Europeans to visit southeastern Oregon. Peter Skene Ogden passed along the north shore of the Malheur Lakes in 1826. Other fur trapping expeditions followed in the 1830s. Several military expeditions passed through the area in the late 1850s and 1860s. Major Enoch Steen was the first non-native to explore the land that is now southern Harney County. Steens Mountain was named in his honor. In the 1860s, the United States Army established several military outposts east of Steens Mountain including Camp Alvord and Camp C.F. Smith.

John S. Devine was born in Virginia in 1849. He later immigrated to California. In 1868, Devine decided to establish a cattle ranch in southeastern Oregon. To manage the business, he joined W. B. Todhunter to found the Todhunter and Devine Cattle Company. The following summer, Devine and a dozen California vaqueros along with a chuck wagon and a Chinese cook trailed a herd of 2,500 cattle from California to southeastern Oregon while Todhunter stayed behind to look after the company's holding in the San Joaquin Valley. Devine selected a site on Whitehorse Creek southeast of Steens Mountain for his ranch headquarters. The location was near Camp C. F. Smith, which had been established by the United States Army in 1866 (the camp was abandoned in 1869). According to Oregon Geographic Names, a post office was established at this location in 1867 with W. A. Mix as the first postmaster. Mix was among a group of soldiers moving through the area in an effort to relocate Camp Alvord. The post office was called White Horse. The land then was part of Baker County from which Harney County was carved in 1889.