During the middle decades of the 20th century, the Fort Rock Basin was dotted with abandoned cabins left behind during the homesteaders’ exodus. Traveling through the area in 1930, geographer Isaiah Bowman wrote: “There are about 25 houses between Silver Lake and Fort Rock. Not a single one is inhabited. If the house is not boarded up, the windows have all been broken or the place is in ruins. The sheds have not been in use for a long time. The yards are unkempt. Sagebrush is all about. ” (from Raymond Hatton's “High Desert of Central Oregon.”) This scene is rare today, as nearly all of the original homestead buildings were gradually demolished over the decades.