The James Cant Ranch is a pioneer ranch complex in Grant County in eastern Oregon, United States. The ranch is located on both sides of the John Day River in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The ranch was originally homesteaded by Floyd Officer in 1890. Officer sold the property to James Cant in 1910. Cant increased the size of the property and built a modern ranch complex on the west bank of the river. The National Park Service bought the ranch from the Cant family in 1975, and incorporated the property into the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The National Park Service used the main house as a visitor center until 2003. Today, the Cant Ranch complex is preserved as an interpretive site showing visitors an early 20th-century livestock ranch. The James Cant Ranch is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Early history

Native Americans used the area around the John Day River for thousands of years before the arrival of European settlers. While boundaries were never clearly defined, the site that is now the Cant Ranch was used for seasonal hunting and fishing camps by Warm Springs and Umatilla bands, both Sahaptin speaking Columbia Plateau peoples. By the nineteenth century, Northern Paiutes had migrated north from the Great Basin and were also using portions of the upper John Day watershed.Beckham, Stephen Dow and Florence K. Lentz, Indigenous Peoples and Cultures”, Rocks and Hard Places, Historic Resource Study, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, National Park Service, United States Department of Interior, Seattle, Washington, 2000, p. 1.Taylor, Terri and Cathy Gilbert, "Pre-Contact to Euro-American Settlement", Cultural Landscape Report; Cant Historical District], Cultural Resources Division, National Park Service, United States Department of Interior, Seattle, Washington, September 1996, pp. 19–20.

As a result of the arid climate, only a few trappers and prospectors traveled through the area before 1862 when gold was discovered in Canyon Creek, tributary of the John Day River. The discovery of gold drew a large number of miners to the area. This led to the founding of a number of mining towns in northeastern Oregon. The largest of these towns was Canyon City. A wagon road, formalized in 1869 as The Dalles Military Road between Fort Dalles on the Columbia River and Canyon City, encouraged additional growth."History of Forest Transportation System Development", Malheur national Forest Roads Analysis Report, Malheur National Forest, John Day, Oregon, United States Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture, John Day, Oregon, December 2004, p. 14.

Permanent homesteaders began arriving in the John Day Valley shortly after the miners. The Homestead Act of 1862 encouraged settlement by offering grants of to American pioneers. Livestock operations in the John Day area supplied isolated mining towns with fresh meat. Initially, most ranches produced beef cattle. However, sheep were the primary ranch stock by the 1890s. This coincided with a wave of Scottish, Irish, and Basque immigrants who were experienced sheep herders.

In 1890, Floyd Officer homesteaded land in the Butler Basin along the John Day River. He worked the property for seven years before securing a land patent in 1898. That same year, he married Sylvia Fitzgerald and together they began a hard pioneer life on their remote homestead. Because of his knowledge of the Butler Basin and Sheep Rock areas, Officer served as a guide for pioneer paleontologist Thomas Condon during several of his fossil hunting expeditions. The Officers sold the ranch in 1910, moving to Dayville where their children could attend school.Beckham, Stephen Dow and Florence K. Lentz, "Early Settlement in the Vicinity of the National Monument”, Rocks and Hard Places, Historic Resource Study, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, National Park Service, United States Department of Interior, Seattle, Washington, 2000.Taylor, Terri and Cathy Gilbert, "Officer Homestead Era: 1890–1909" , Cultural Landscape Report; Cant Historical District, Cultural Resources Division, National Park Service, United States Department of Interior, Seattle, Washington, September 1996, pp. 21–24. The property was purchased by James Cant and his partner John Mason for $4,000. It included in Grant County and in Wheeler County. Cant bought out Mason's share in the property in 1915.Taylor, Terri and Cathy Gilbert, "Cant Sheep Ranch: 1910–1946" , Cultural Landscape Report; Cant Historical District], Cultural Resources Division, National Park Service, United States Department of Interior, Seattle, Washington, September 1996, pp. 27–29..

James Cant James Cant was born in Scotland in 1879. He left Scotland at the age of 20 for South America, where he spent five years raising horses and mules. He immigrated to the United States in 1905. After arriving in New York City, Cant traveled overland to the John Day country of Oregon, an area that already had many Scottish immigrants. Alexander Murray, who owned a large ranch west of Dayville, hired Cant as a sheep herder. By 1908, Cant had saved enough money to send for his childhood sweetheart, Elizabeth Grant, who was still in Scotland. They were married in Canyon City on October 10, 1908. Cant continued to work on the Murray ranch for two more years, until he had saved enough to join with Mason in purchasing the Officer ranch.

After Cant and his wife moved to the ranch, it became a popular overnight stop for people traveling between Dayville and the Columbia River. Their hospitality was well known, and it was not uncommon for the Cants to serve dinner to twenty or more people including family, ranch hands, and traveling guest. To accommodate their growing family, an expanding livestock business and their many guests, the Cants undertook a major expansion of the ranch between 1915 and 1918, replacing most of the original building constructed by the Officer family. As part of this expansion, Cant built a large main house that became the centerpiece of the ranch complex."Life at the Cant Ranch", John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, National Park Service, United States Department of Interior, Kimberly, Oregon, August 15, 2006.

In the 1920s, Cant acquired more land to expand his successful sheep business. He also improved the landscape around the main house, adding a large lawn, fencing the yard, and planting numerous shrubs and trees. The most important change was made by the State of Oregon, when it began construction of Highway 19 from Arlington on the Columbia River to Dayville. The highway follows the John Day River, passing just west of the Cant Ranch complex. It was completed in the mid-1920s, effectively ending the Cant's isolation. However, the highway was not paved until the mid-1930s.Taylor, Terri and Cathy Gilbert, "Cant Sheep Ranch: 1910–1946", Cultural Landscape Report; Cant Historical District, Cultural Resources Division, National Park Service, United States Department of Interior, Seattle, Washington, September 1996, pp. 30–40.

The Cant family kept their sheep operation going through the Great Depression. It recovered some during World War II; however, the shortage of labor made raising sheep increasingly difficult. As a result, Cant transitioned from sheep to cattle production in 1946. Over the next three decades the Cant's cattle operation grew and prospered. By 1965, the Cant ranch covered plus an additional leased from the Bureau of Land Management. At that time the ranch was sending 500 to 600 cattle to market each year. James Cant died in 1972, and his wife died in 1973. The Cant family sold the ranch to the National Park Service in 1975 to be incorporated into the new John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.Taylor, Terri and Cathy Gilbert, "Cant Cattle Ranch: 1946–1975" , Cultural Landscape Report; Cant Historical District], Cultural Resources Division, National Park Service, United States Department of Interior, Seattle, Washington, September 1996, pp. 43–47.

National Park Service

When the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument was established in 1975, the initial development plan recommended purchasing the Cant Ranch complex for use as the monument's headquarters and visitor center. The National Park Service purchased from the Cant family in 1975. This included the main ranch complex and adjacent ranch property along the John Day River. The National Park Service used the main house as a visitor center, museum, and office until the Thomas Condon Visitor Center was built in 2003. The ranch complex is now used as an interpretive site, giving visitors the experience of an early 20th-century livestock operation. The main house and several of the other buildings are open to the public.Taylor, Terri and Cathy Gilbert, "National Park Service: 1975–Present", Cultural Landscape Report; Cant Historical District, Cultural Resources Division, National Park Service, United States Department of Interior, Seattle, Washington, September 1996, pp. 51–52."Cant Ranch House Museum opens to the Public", John Day Fossil Beds, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, National Park Service, United States Department of Interior, Kimberly, Oregon, Fall/Summer 2004.

Today, the Cant Ranch offers visitors the opportunity to experience eastern Oregon's ranching heritage. Because the ranch played an important role in the commercial and social development of the John Day River Valley, the Cant Ranch was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. This historic district covers approximately along both sides of the John Day River. There are eleven historic buildings on the property.Taylor, Terri and Cathy Gilbert, "Structures", Cultural Landscape Report; Cant Historical District, Cultural Resources Division, National Park Service, United States Department of Interior, Seattle, Washington, September 1996, pp. 69–77..

Structures

During the 1930s, there were at least seventeen buildings in the Cant Ranch complex. Today, there are eleven ranch buildings in the Cant Ranch Historic District. They are the main ranch house, a bunkhouse, a watchman's cabin, the barn and adjoining sheep pens, a workshop, general purpose shed, chicken coop, feed storage shed, privy, and an Officer era log cabin. There is also a small cabin on the east bank of the river known as Christina’s Cabin; however, it is in very poor condition and is not open to the public. The Cant family built two hand-operated cable cars for crossing the river, but only one is still operational. The ranch property displays original irrigation ditches, fences, gates, and feed racks plus vintage equipment purchased from the Cant family in 1978.

The main house is the most prominent building at the ranch. It was built sometime between 1915 and 1918. It is based on architectural designs from The Radford American Homes catalog, published 1903 by the Radford Architectural Company of Chicago. Cant hired two carpenters, Andrew Cress and Clarence Bisbee, to oversee construction of the house. The builders combined design features from several Radford plans to create the Cant's ranch house.