City of La Pine

The first recorded exploration to the inland Oregon region known today as Central Oregon was in the winter of 1825 by Peter S. Ogden of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Ogden’s chosen path was the River of the Falls, the Deschutes of the Oregon country. On a second trip down the Deschutes Ogden discovered East and Paulina Lakes in Newberry Crater. The winter of 1834 brought another explorer named Nathaniel J. Wyeth, who explored the upper Deschutes River. In 1853 the La Pine basin became the site of the Elliott Cutoff Party’s attempt to find a new route through the Cascade Divide. More than 250 wagons and loose stock, led by Elijah Elliot, followed the Little Deschutes River upstream to the vicinity of Crescent, Oregon before heading west across the Cascade Mountains creating the Willamette Pass