URBAN ESCAPE Thanks to early, enthusiastic citizens, a 13-acre public park resides in the heart of Bend. words MEGHAN ROBINS images RICHARD BACON
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he value of public lands cannot be overstated. In the 1920s, select citizens of Bend understood this, and they petitioned to preserve what is now Drake Park, a 13-acre riverfront public park at the heart of Bend’s city center. In 1855, lands occupied primarily by Wasco, Warm Springs and Northern Paiute Nations members were ceded to the U.S. government through the Treaty of 1855 and later purchased by private U.S. citizens (or Euro-American men intending to become citizens). The first recorded homesteaders to occupy “Farewell Bend” (Bend’s original name) were Stephen Staats and Court Allen, whose disputed lot lines resulted in turning a log cabin into a school in 1883 for children of the half dozen or so families living along the Deschutes River. In 1900, when, according to census records, 21 people lived in Farewell Bend, Alexander Drake and his wife arrived and purchased the land known today as Drake Park. In 1904, they began supplying water through their newly established irrigation company, which eventually evolved into the Central Oregon Irrigation District. Drake founded the Pilot Butte Development Company and was responsible for subdividing, platting and laying out many of the roads of downtown Bend and the surrounding neighborhoods. He built a sawmill, hydroelectric power station and a dam across the Deschutes River, which still exists (in an upgraded form) to hold Mirror Pond. By 1910, Bend’s population had grown to 536, and the Drakes sold their holdings in Central Oregon to the Bend Company, which reserved the riverfront property for further industrial use.
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