Rich Bergeman, High Desert Dreams: The Lost Homesteads of the Fort Rock Basin

May 12 – Oct. 14, 2018
Panel Discussion: Thursday, May 17, 6-7pm

High Desert Museum
59800 S. Hwy 97
Bend, OR 97702
541-382-4754
Hours: 9am – 5pm daily
www.highdesertmuseum.org

“High Desert Dreams: The Lost Homesteads of the Fort Rock Basin” chronicles a nearly forgotten chapter in Oregon history, when hundreds of pioneers flooded the high desert in the early 1900s, only to abandon their homesteads within a decade, leaving the landscape littered with deserted cabins, idle windmills and hollowed-out towns.

Over the decades since then, nearly all evidence of that era has gradually disappeared. Enough remnants remain into the 21st century, however, to allow the photographer to bring the story back to life through more than 25 black-and-white images of decaying homesteads and vanished town sites.

Rich Bergeman of Corvallis is a retired journalism and photography instructor at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany, Ore., who has also been an exhibiting fine art photographer for the past 30 years. In recent years his focus has been on investigating and interpreting local histories in the Pacific Nortwest through photographs and stories of what’s been left behind.