William G. Robbins, Ph. D., Emeritus Distinguished Professor of History at Oregon State University, will
give a talk titled, The Malheur Occupation and Public Lands in the West on Saturday, October 29, 2016 at 2 pm in the Moreland Gallery at the Benton County Historical Museum in Philomath, Or.
This presentation will complement the closing day of High Desert Dreams: the Lost Homesteads of the Fort Rock Basin photography exhibition by Rich Bergeman.
Dr. Robbins’ discussion will place the events of January and February 2016 in historical context and interrogate the militants’ constitutional and historical arguments in light of Harney County’s documented and legal history. The talk will describe the unique geography of the Harney Basin, the coming of the great cattle empires in the 1870s, President Theodore Roosevelt’s establishment of the Malheur Lake Bird Refuge in 1908, periodic droughts, over-stocked ranges, the failures of dry land farming (1910-1915), the sale of large cattle properties to the federal government during the Great Depression, and—beginning in the mid-1930s—the gradual restoration and rehabilitation of the expanded and renamed Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
Robbins served as a faculty member in the Oregon State University History Department from 1971 until his retirement in 1999 as Emeritus Distinguished Professor of History. Specializing in the history of the western United States from an economic and environmental perspective, Robbins has written extensively on the history of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. His books include: Landscapes of Promise: The Oregon Story, 1800-1940 (1997); Landscapes of Conflict: The Oregon Story, 1940-2000 (2004); Hard Times in Paradise: Coos Bay, Oregon, 1850-1896 (1988); Colony and Empire: The Capitalist Transformation of the American West (1994); and The Great Northwest: The Search for Regional Identity (2001). His 2005 book, Oregon: This Storied Land was a finalist for the 2006 Oregon Book Award in general non-fiction.
The lecture is free of charge and open to the public.
The Benton County Historical Society, a 501 c (3) non-profit corporation, owns and operates the Benton County Historical Museum. The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 4:30 pm featuring art and history exhibitions. Admission is always free. For more information please visit the museum website www.bentoncounty museum.org or telephone 541-929-6230.
