The A.M. Drake Homesite was located near the north end of Drake Park over looking the river.
Marker Name: A2 & B2 - A.M. Drake Homesite
Marker Text: A.M. Drake and his wife Florence set camp at the bank of the Deschutes River in June 1900 enticed by the 1884 Federal Carey Act, which encouraged private enterprise to reclaim and develop desert land by building irrigation systems and infrastructure in desolate areas.
Drake ordered the construction of a hunting style log lodge and decorated it with exotic Oriental rugs and Chinese lanterns. The lodge was torn down in 1956. A 1966 editorial in The Bend Bulletin lamented the loss: “If the Drake lodge had been preserved, what a landmark it would be in the Bend of the present.”
Built: 1901
This Heritage Walk plaque was donated by Bend Chamber & Deschutes County Historical Society.
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