Friends found a spot in the high desert that stayed close to their hearts and inspired their art. They donated this special place to the Oregon Desert Land Trust so others can revel in its beauty and experience its magic.
David Rumsey and Michael Moore met on the east coast, but were drawn west, both literally and figuratively. They knew each other during their art careers and their friendship deepened as they explored Oregon’s vast desert together.
“I always based my paintings on that kind of country and my introduction to it had been just this strange random trip I went on back in the ‘60s, with some friends where we drove up into the Sheldon Range and out again,” said Michael. “It really intrigued me, so I started going up there when I moved back to the west coast in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. By the time David moved out, I was taking a couple trips a year up into that country.”
David had transitioned in his career, but the desert filled a void with its own expansiveness. “For me, at that point in my life, I had had to leave art, but I’d stayed close with Mike because I loved what Mike’s art was, which is sort of real and imaginary large-scale landscapes inspired by the West,” David shared. “Taking the trips with Mike was like straddling into one of his paintings. It was just, it was so alien to me.…I was used to trees and some things to hold onto and you get out there and there’s nothing to hold onto. I just got totally taken within.”
For decades, the two tried to get out together every year. Even when David worked in New York, he’d fly to Boise and join Michael from there. “It was, for both of us, I think, very much an experience of art, in that it was this vast landscape, which is just so beautiful,” David said.
In the late 1980s, David turned this abstract art into a reality by purchasing 120 acres within Drummond Basin immediately upstream of the confluence of the West Little and mainstream Owyhee Rivers.
“What drew us to the property, particularly was, it feels like a magical place. It’s where the main fork of the Owyhee, or the big main river, is joined by the West Little Owyhee, and the canyon that forms at the junction has this amazing butte in it,” David explained.
A tributary of the Owyhee River, the West Little Owyhee River is recognized for its remarkable scenery, wildlife, and opportunities for seclusion and primitive recreation. It starts near the Nevada-Oregon border and flows nearly 60 miles toward the Owyhee River.
The Bureau of Land Management notes that the river offers many cool, clear secluded pools that are confined by sheer rock walls whose colorful, abstract beauty is the product of eons of erosion and weathering. Views from the canyon rim command a feeling of awe and wonder, as the river and its past are revealed in the rock strata that have been laid there by ancient volcanic activity.
Access to the river was a key element of the property, and also a condition of the purchase. The Andersons were the prior owners, and one of the oldest ranching families in the area. This property has important heritage and David happily agreed that cattle could continue moving across the land and the river to the adjacent Five Bar Ranch along the Owyhee River.
David bought the property, but always considered Michael as half-owner since he brought him out there. The two shared many adventures with their families in this special place. In the canyon, they watched rattlesnakes swim across the river and climb atop bushes to beat the heat. The waters were home to trout, bass, and other fish that would stare back from below. Every night, the expansive skies would reveal a tapestry of constellations and a quiet that settled into their souls. This all seemed worth the time and risk it took to be there.
“You can see it on maps, but this area is so remote that it’s just so hard to get to,” explained Michael. “It’s maybe 50 miles of very rugged volcanic dirt road that you can barely go five-miles-an-hour on, so it takes most of a day from the pavement just to get into.” Because it was so isolated, the pair carefully hauled in an Airstream trailer. Decades later, it burned in a grass fire when the two were away, and we’ll work to remove the remaining debris. The trailer still lives on in Mike’s drawings, as do recollections of their desert days so far from other people.
“When we first got involved with it, there weren’t many rafting trips like there are today, so it wasn’t widely known at all as just a land feature,” David felt. “People didn’t know about the Owyhee River in those days . . . . It was really one of the most least populated parts of North America, that whole area.”
While stereotypes of the desert may have kept some away, Michael and David ventured further into its variations, especially in spring. “It’s just the greenest place. It’s amazing,” described Michael. “Even up on the plateau, you’ll come up on a rock that will be covered with lichen, gnawing away at it.” He enjoys how colorful it all is and figures that’s not usually what comes to mind when people think of desert. “But then, it’s not usually what people think about when they think about Oregon either, that there’s a desert out there,” he said.
When the two learned that the Oregon Desert Land Trust purchased Trout Creek Ranch in Fields, it brought back memories of heading up into the Trout Creek Mountains and recalling how incredibly beautiful they were. David and Michael were finding it harder to return to the Owyhee property, but wanted to ensure that it was conserved for others to enjoy. After talking with us over several months, they decided to donate their 120 acres in 2022 and the Moore-Rumsey Place became our first project area within the Owyhee Canyonlands.
“We wanted to be sure it would be always open,” reinforced David. “That’s not new thinking for us.” Efforts to conserve the broader area are not new either. The 120 acres of the property fall within the Owyhee River Canyon Wilderness Study Area (WSA), which includes 190,700 acres of public land in Oregon.
The property is also on the Oregon Desert Trail and in the the vicinity of a rock shelter that was occupied by humans more than 11,000 years ago. Now an archaeological site, it’s called the Dirty Shame Rockshelter because it was unfortunately pillaged repeatedly. This rock shelter is further evidence of the long-standing presence of the Northern Paiute people who have lived in the region for millennia.
Both the Owyhee and the West Little Owyhee rivers are in the National Wild and Scenic River System, and there are ongoing efforts to increase protections of Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands. The surrounding grounds have been identified by US Fish and Wildlife as a Priority Area for Concern for greater sage-grouse, and several leks are in the area. The canyonlands as a whole support hundreds of wildlife species, from iconic bighorn sheep to kangaroo mice.
All of these reasons, and more, make the Moore-Rumsey Place a special location and a great addition to Land Trust properties throughout Oregon’s high desert. These lands offer opportunities to experience the art and magic of the desert. David and Michael’s memories make up a handful of sand within the lifespan of this landscape, and they hope you can create and share your own in this amazing landscape in the years ahead.
Feature image by Devin Dahlgren: The West Owyhee can be seen in the foreground as its tributary, the West Little Owyhee, spills from another canyon.
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