PLSO The Oregon Surveyor May/June 2024

Typical Homestead Entry Survey. Map provided by Chuck Whitten. The “blank line” surveyed by Warner over rough country. 11 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org Featured Article and western Oregon for many years. In 1900, he borrowed a solar compass from a fellow deputy surveyor William Barr, who had defeated Warner in the election for Albany city surveyor in 1889. After finishing the survey, Warner broke Barr’s solar transit and failed to return it. Barr promptly filed suit against Warner for damages and the case ended up in the Oregon Supreme Court where Barr won his case for a new trial. (Outcome not known.) Mansfield’s claim was in un-surveyed forest land so Warner’s 1900 work had to start from an existing section corner which, in this case, happened to be two miles south from Mansfield’s “claim area.” The closest corner was on the north line of Township 10 South, Range 7 East, which was surveyed in 1893 by William Bushey, said corner being the northeast corner of Section 6. Warner then ran a “blank line” (meaning that he did not blaze it or note creeks and ridges, etc.) north for two miles and set a stone for the Southwest Corner of Section 20, Township 9 South, Range 7 East, W.M. He then ran and marked the boundaries of that one mile “square.” In his “General Description,” Warner notes, “One settler located on the NE quarter of Section 20, Claude H. Mansfield,” who also happened to be one of the axmen on his crew. Fortunately, the area Mansfield was claiming fell just within that square mile. Today, Section 20 is still the only government surveyed parcel in the whole township. On September 6, 1880, Judge John Breckenridge Waldo, (namesake of Waldo Lake; According to “Oregon Geographic Names. 7th edition,” Salem's Waldo Hills were named for Daniel Waldo, father of Judge Waldo) had stopped at “Breitenbucher Hot Springs” for a warm bath. He, with some friends and a pack string, were on their way back to Salem after being in eastern Oregon since July. Waldo and his friends would travel into the central portion of the Cascade Range to explore the relatively unknown places in the vast wilderness of the mountains. This he did almost every summer between 1880 and 1907. His usual packer was Don Smith of Gates, whose turn of the century home still stands intact, just east of where the Gates Motel used to stand, until the September 2020 Lionshead forest fire consumed it and many other homes and businesses between Stayton and Detroit. Waldo again visited the springs in July 1887 and described it as “this boughy and aromatic forest of the Cascade Mountains where the foot of the lumberer he detested so much has never trod.” Six years later, in 1893, Waldo returned to Breitenbush and lamented, “Then (in 1887) the spot was in its primeval wilderness —a lovely opening in the forest above the river and fragrant with incense cedar. Now it shows the hand of progress and development; handsome cedars cut down and logs lying about. The effect was disfigurement which was only not greater because the improvement had not extended very far. The landscape artist who directed the improvement should receive little employment. The cabin was put somewhat back and in this better taste was shown. A log bath house, very plain, had been built over one of the hot springs.” The above improvements were undoubtedly made by Claude Mansfield, as he and Hattie were then starting to develop their “claim.” Finally, on August 16, 1904, Claude received a patent for Homestead Entry 6682, being the NE Quarter of Section 20. Mansfield Creek flows southwesterly across Claude’s claim and into the Breitenbush River near the middle of his west boundary. In the early 1900s, Claude and Hattie’s son Lorenzo contracted polio, leaving him paralyzed. Since there were no successful treatments for polio at that time, Hattie thought that maybe the hot springs at Breitenbush might relieve his stiff legs. They built a pool fed by the hot springs for him and he spent much of each day in it. By the end of summer, he was able to walk again with only a slight limp! Many years later it was discovered that heat is a treatment for polio. Lorenzo went on to become an interior designer, married, continues 

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Nzc3ODM=