The South Face landholding is offered at $1,035,000.
The above-listed preseason landholding sale price expires July 15, 2008.
South Face is named for the southern orientation and exposure of this landholding, and for its dramatic vistas of the pinnacles of Smith Rock, immediately across the Crooked River Canyon. The landholding is comprised of 8.85 acres in total, including a 2.14-acre building and landscape area, and shared ownership of the entire 1,700 acres of Ranch at the Canyons.
South Face is approached from Canyons Ranch Drive to the west, with the driveway arching around lush open meadows, and turning into the ancient junipers of the property. The landholding extends from Canyons Ranch Drive to the Crooked River, protecting views in all directions. The west portion of the landholding is comprised of open pasture that is irrigated and farmed in hay and managed by the Ranch.
The landscape and building envelope rest on a gentle rise of land, overlooking the Crooked River Canyon and the escarpments and pinnacles of Smith Rock just across the canyon. The building envelope also offers dramatic views of the Crooked River, and of Monkeyface in profile. Natural stands of juniper to the north and south of the building and landscape envelope naturally screen this property and protect privacy. Among the ancient junipers is a tree known as Grandparent, a discreet and weathered phenomenon of nature. Grandparent is symmetrically surrounded by saplings that are growing up to form a second generation.
The lower part of the landholding extends across the irrigated meadows of Monkeyface Canyon to the Crooked River. This portion of the property includes dramatic, multi-hued rockscapes and a pioneer apple orchard. The plantings for this orchard were originally brought to the Oregon Territory and the Willamette Valley by early settlers. A second wave of immigration carried these varieties east across the Cascade Mountains, where they were planted at the Ranch early in the 1900s. This landholding was initially homesteaded by a German family named Wallenberg, who planted and worked with orchards in the canyon meadow and lived and ranched on the rimrock meadows above – a pattern followed by Ranch at the Canyons today. These heirloom trees still produce apples, much favored by the deer, and provide stock for orchard plantings on the balance of the Ranch. To the west the landholding offers views of lush open meadows and Coyote Butte.
Across Canyons Ranch Drive from South Face a stone wall surrounds an historic site. This area was reportedly used as a stagecoach stop when early travelers passed through the Ranch, going from historic Trail Crossing to the north and to the Crooked River Basin and Prineville to the south and east. The site includes several stone foundations, as well as weathered beams, and other remnants and implements of historic settlement and agricultural use.